Page 6 of Taming the Wild Cowboy

Maclyn wasn’t going to let it go that easily. “You want to know about me?”

“I do.” He leaned back in his chair, the way that teachers always told him not to. He’d only proven them right once during his long career of chair tipping.

She made a where-do-I-start gesture. “I worked at the Sweet Grass Ranch until a couple days ago. You know it?”

Ritzy place. He’d never been there, but he’d seen the television ads. Dudes on horseback, happy barbecues. Decorative cattle.

“I do. What happened?”

“I got fired.” She cupped her hands as if the conversation was now over.

“What happened?”

“The new ranch owners, the Benningtons, were wintering at their home in Arizona. A horse got injured and I contacted them, told them about the injury. They told me to put the horse down.”

“What was the injury?”

“She broke the small bone next to the canon. Not sure how.”

“Okay.”

“When I told the vet she was to be put down, he said that he thought the horse could be saved, possibly even ridden again. She was such a sweet-tempered, trustworthy mare that I called the Benningtons back. They said no, it wasn’t worth the bills. For being rich, they were remarkably stingy.” Maclyn shook her head as if wondering how people could be that way. “I told the vet to save her anyway, that I’d pay the bill. He did and he gave me a healthy discount.” She pushed out her jaw. “I couldn’t just let her die, could I?”

“No,” Trev answered honestly. He would have done the same. “Did you think the owners would come around?”

“Foolishly, yes. They did not. Instead, they were pissed that I hadn’t followed orders.” She met his gaze. “They didn’t care about the horse at all. They cared about me being, I quote, insubordinate. I had a strong suspicion that they were going to put her down anyway because there was no guarantee that she’d ever be sound. When I asked them about it, they said it was none of my business.” A half-smile wavered on her lips. “So, I said that social media was a wonderful thing.”

Admiration stirred. “Threatened them, eh?”

“I did. Kind of a stupid move, but I’d do it again. Anyway, they agreed not to put the horse down. Instead, they sold her. Never offered to pay me back for the vet bills from the proceeds, either. A month passed, and I thought they’d gotten over it.” She clucked her tongue. “They fired me two days ago. Said it was for other reasons, but it wasn’t. I was a damned conscientious employee, and I honestly think they were waiting for a time when it would be hard for me to get another job and that I couldn’t bring any kind of wrongful dismissal suit because of the horse.”

The coffee pot beeped, and Trev pushed back his chair. Maclyn’s story rang true—the horse part anyway. He remembered her taking a strip off a fellow roper for riding a horse with saddle sores. Brooke had backed her up and the guy had retired the horse until she healed. They’d been a pair, Brooke and Maclyn, yet one of them was a liar.

“They’re supposedly mailing a check to me,” Maclyn continued. “I signed something, so they have a couple weeks.”

“Where’s the check going to?”

“I have a post office box in Marietta. We weren’t allowed to get private mail at the Sweet Grass Ranch.”

“Sounds like a great place to work.”

“It wasn’t bad with the original owners. I mean, they could be a pain at times, but generally they showed common sense and the foreman was fantastic. He knew when and how to bend the rules and, trust me, there were a lot of rules after the Benningtons took over.”

“The foreman wasn’t there when this happened?”

“I wish he had been. He takes a month-long vacation in late winter to gear up for calving.”

Trev poured the coffee and set a cup in front of Maclyn. She gripped it with both hands, her fingers covering the Lil Rose’s Casino logo.

“That is why I’m looking for a few days’ work. Or a few weeks.”

“You said you have horses to feed. Are they still on the Sweet Grass Ranch?”

“They’re at the Marietta Fairgrounds in one of the nightly rental corrals. My belongings are locked in the tack compartment of my trailer there.”

Trev drummed his fingers on the table as he thought. Two horses. A dog. His conscience gave him an elbow. “I’m sure you can find work in the area. People are always looking.”

“Just not here.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Where you need someone now.”