Homecoming by Carolyne Aarsen

Author:Carolyne Aarsen [Carolyne Aarsen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459264526
Publisher: Harlequin

“Catch Roany and F5 and get them ready to be rigged up.” Mark handed two halters to Conrad. “Tie them to the south hitching rail. I don’t want F5 to get too close to Tia. She’s ornery today.”

Conrad took the halters and headed off. Mark watched to make sure he shut the gate properly behind him and then shouldered himself between Two Bits and Tia. He began buckling up the rigging on Tia who pranced around. A warning thwack on her haunches made her settle down.

“Where should I put these?” Elaine stood beside him holding a pannier. Mark glanced up from the latigo he was tightening and almost ground his teeth in frustration.

“Just set them against the tack shed for now,” he answered shortly, “and make sure you put them where they won’t get kicked over.”

He turned back to Tia, giving her a shove, wondering for the thousandth time how he’d managed to let Allen and Elise talk him into moving the trip up a couple of days.

“Hey, Mark,” Brad called from the other side of Two Bits. “The buckles on this rigging are wrecked.”

“I thought you were farther along than that.” Mark called over his shoulder, snugging up the latigo. Tia jerked back, and her rope flew loose. Mark grabbed for it, but she trod on the end, grinding it into the mud from the rain last night.

“Move over you ornery critter.” Mark shouldered the horse aside, but she wouldn’t budge. Two Bits sidestepped and almost crushed him between the two horses. Mark elbowed Two Bits in the ribs and, with one final heave, managed to move Tia and tied her snug to the rail.

“Just stay put you miserable creature,” he warned, hoping he had used up his catastrophe quota.

He ducked under Two Bits’ head, trying without success to quell his rising frustration.

“The breeching is too tight,” he said shortly, running a practiced eye over the rigging. “You shouldn’t snug it up till you’re ready to pack the horse.”

“Now you’re going to be ticked,” sighed Brad, resting a hand on Two Bits’ haunches. “Which one is the breeching?”

“Breast collar goes across the chest of the horse, breeching across the rear end…like britches?” Mark loosened the buckles, wishing, almost praying for one person who knew what they were doing, instead of these weekend cowboys who made up his family.

“Well I’m glad enough I got it on the right way,” Brad huffed, picking up on Mark’s mood. “Anyhow, the buckles on the breast collar—” he put emphasis on the word “—are the ones that are broken.”

Mark ignored him, praying as he felt the all-too-familiar tightening of his chest as he struggled with a mixture of impatience and frustration. He wished again he’d had four days instead of two to get everything ready.

“You have to ream out the hole on the strap,” he told his brother. As he ducked under Two Bits’ head, he knew that his underlying problem wasn’t horses and inept wranglers, it was Sheryl.

She had dropped the news of her leaving on him without any preparation.

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