Chapter 11
CASSIE
Rent’s in the rocker when I open the cabin door. He looks at me like I'm late, jumps down, and walks to the bowl without looking at me. I fill it. He eats without looking up, which is exactly the kind of relationship I understand.
I crouch down at the open front of the porch and look in. Mae's tucked into the back corner, the two side walls giving her a sheltered pocket out of the morning air. Her kittens are moving in the early light. A week ago, they were blind and mostly still.
One of them has worked himself to the side wall and is pawing at a crack in the board with complete conviction. I watch him for a second. "Tornado," I say out loud to nobody.
The one next to him is just sitting up, not doing anything. Sitting there, round and bewildered, like that alone took everything he had. "Biscuit."
The gray one in the back has her eyes wide open. Her ears pointed in two completely different directions, watching me like she's already watching everything and is waiting to see what I do next. "Lightning."
The fourth one is asleep in the middle of all of it. Completely unbothered by any of this. I look at him for a second. "Steve."
Mae watches me from the back corner, her tail moving slowly. I don't know if she approves. She doesn't move them, so I take that as a yes.
I sit back on my heels and watch them for longer than I need to.
I slept last night. That was the first thing I noticed when I woke up, before I opened my eyes, before I heard the birds. I slept like a person who made a decision and meant it, and I lay there in the quiet and thought about that for a minute before I got up.
I walked to him. That's the part I keep coming back to. I stood in that barn aisle, and I looked at him standing in the tack room doorway. Then I crossed the space between us on purpose, and I knew exactly what I was doing when I did it.
I'm not sorry about any of it.
What I am is a little surprised at myself. Not at wanting him. I've known that for a while. What surprises me is that I did something like that. That I was the one who walked in there and made it happen and didn't second-guess a single step of it.
I straighten up. Rent has finished eating and is washing his face.
Mae picks her way out from under the porch and sits at the edge of the boards, blinking in the morning light.
I pour some food on the step in front of her.
"Good morning, Mae," I say. She drops her head to it.
I take the bag inside, then head toward the dining hall.
***
The dining hall smells like biscuits, coffee, and something with bacon in it before I even get to the open door. I take a stool at the counter.
Darla looks up from the griddle. "Morning, hon."
"Morning."
She fills a plate with hashbrowns and eggs, bacon mixed through, and cheese melted over the top, then sets it in front of me.
Mandy comes by with the coffee pot and a basket of biscuits. "Morning."
"Morning," I tell her. She fills the cup before I reach for it and sets the basket within reach.
Nobody asks me anything.
I sit with that for a minute. The low hum of the kitchen running and the smell of breakfast settling into the room.
Nobody in this room needs anything from me except to eat the food they put in front of me.
After the noise that's been running in my own head since I left the barn last night, the ordinary weight of this room is exactly what I need.
Sutton comes through the door like he was launched from somewhere.
"New clinic today," he announces to the room in general.
"Good morning," Mandy says.
"Trail and Obstacle starts today." He pulls out the chair across from me and climbs into it. "I'm going to explain the corrals."
"You always explain the corrals," I tell him.
"Because people need to know." He looks at me seriously. "The horses don't go in the barn. That's the client rule."
"That's the rule," I agree.
He takes a biscuit and nods as if that settles it. "I'm going to tell everyone."
Darla comes around and looks at him, then sets a second biscuit on his plate without a word. Sutton accepts this as his due. I drink my coffee and let the room run around me and don't think about the barn for at least four consecutive minutes.
Sawyer handed me the intake forms yesterday. Eight clients, eight horses, goals, problem areas, and what to watch for. I read them twice before I tucked the folder away. The intake form gives you the outline. The trailer ramp gives you the rest.
***
The T&O group starts pulling in just before eleven, and the property shifts. Everyone moves a little more deliberately, matching what's coming off the trailers to what they already knew on paper.
Sawyer and Logan are in the lot. Rhea's beside them with the cabin keys. Kade has the side-by-side running with Levi in the passenger seat, and Bingo wedged between them, ears flopping in the wind, tongue out, completely certain he earned this position.
I'm near the barn when Sutton materializes at my elbow.
"I'm going to tell them about the corrals," he says.
"I know, you said that already."
Petra Wade is first. She pulls in and steps down from her truck.
Sawyer meets her at the hood, hand out, and they shake.
Logan comes around from the other side. The three of them talk for a moment before Sawyer walks with her toward the trailer and hands her the cabin key.
Petra opens the ramp and leads Gypsy down without being prompted.
She takes the property in piece by piece.
The arena, the barn, the tree line at the back.
She doesn't offer a conclusion. She looks and then gets to work.
I come around the back of the trailer. "Hi, I'm Cassie. I'm the assistant trainer."
Petra looks at me. Not assessing, exactly. More like she's deciding how much she needs to say. "I'm Petra," she says. "This is Gypsy."
"She's beautiful."
Petra smiles. "She knows it, too. I’m going to get her settled."
I nod, and she heads toward the corrals.
Vera Hunt is right behind her. Logan meets her rig and walks her through the basics while she unloads Opal. I come around from the near side of the trailer. "Hi, I'm Cassie, one of the training assistants."
"Hi, I'm Vera." She shakes my hand, quick and firm. "This is Opal."
I check her off on the clipboard. "You're in cabin two."
She nods. "Great, thanks."
She takes the key from me, shakes Logan's hand, and heads for the corrals.
Macy’s talking before her truck door’s fully closed.
"Okay, I need to look at this." She turns a slow circle, arena, the mountains behind the barn, the full spread of the property in the late morning light. "The pictures didn't do this justice. Not even close."
Sawyer is there to meet her, smiling. "Welcome to Whispering Creek Ranch."
"This is gorgeous." Macy shakes her hand. "I told my friend the whole drive up. She didn't believe me."
"Wait until you see the cabins," I tell her from where I'm standing.
She turns toward me. "Please tell me they have porches."
"They have porches."
"Jo." She points back at the truck even though Jo Birch is still inside it. "I told her. I said porch cabins, and she said that probably just means a step."
Jo climbs down from the passenger side quietly and crosses to us. She looks at the property. She shakes Sawyer's hand, then Logan's.
Rhea comes over and hands each of them a key, grinning. "Cabin three and four. And yes, they have real porches."
"It's nice," she says.
"See," Macy says.
Jo looks at her. "That's not the same as agreeing with you about the porches."
"It's close enough."
Sutton steps in front of both of them with the gravity of someone delivering information of consequence. "Your horses go in the corrals by the cabins," he says. "Not the barn."
Macy looks down at him. "And who are you?"
"I'm Sutton."
"Do you work here?"
He considers this for a beat. "I own Whispering Creek."
Macy looks at him for a second. "Well, okay then."
Sutton nods. "The horses still don't go in the barn, though."
"Your ranch, your rules," Macy says, grinning.
Sutton accepts this completely.
Grant Hollis pulls in while Sutton is still processing his victory. He parks, unloads Bear, and finds Sawyer on his own before anyone has to point him at her. They shake hands, exchange maybe four sentences. I catch him on his way toward the corrals.
"Hi, I'm Cassie. I'm one of the training assistants."
He shakes my hand. "Grant. This is Bear."
I hand him his key. "You’re in cabin six. His corral is next to your cabin."
He nods. "Thank you." He moves off, Bear walking quietly at his shoulder. I watch them go.
Sable Warren pulls in next. Logan meets her rig and walks her through the welcome while she gets her trailer open. The exchange is easy and warm. She shakes his hand, takes her key from him, and is back at her trailer before Macy has finished taking in the mountains.
Cal Moore gets out of the truck before it's fully stopped, already saying something over his shoulder to Finn Porter about the drive.
He takes in the property the same way Macy did, out loud and with commentary, except where Macy was warm, Cal is just loud, and nobody seems to mind.
Finn climbs down behind him and stands at the trailer door with his hands in his pockets and waits for Cal to finish his assessment of the mountains.
I walk over. "Hi, I'm Cassie, one of the training assistants."
Cal turns and shakes my hand with enthusiasm. "Cal Moore. This is Finn Porter. He's quieter than me but don't hold it against him."
Finn shakes my hand. "Don't listen to him."
I smile. "Good to know."
Cal grins. Finn almost does.
Sawyer meets them both. Cal shakes her hand and keeps talking. Logan gets a word in with Finn while Cal's occupied. Rhea hands each of them a key when there's a gap.
"You done?" Finn says to Cal.
"Not even close," Cal says.
Sutton appears. "The horses don't go in the barn."
Cal looks down at him. "Who are you, little man?"
"I own Whispering Creek," Sutton says.
Cal looks at Finn. Finn looks at Sutton. "You started young," Finn says.