Montana Creeds Volume 2 by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2015-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“DON’T ASK ABOUT the trail ride,” Tricia told Natty early the next morning, when she and Valentino got back from their walk. “It was an absolute disaster.”

Still in her robe and slippers, though she had pinned her silver-white hair up into its customary Gibson-girl style, Natty sat at her kitchen table, Winston perched on the chair next to hers while she fed him little morsels of sardine.

“Did I ask about the trail ride?” Natty inquired sweetly.

Sasha was out of bed, Tricia thought, with a glance up at the ceiling. She could hear the shower running upstairs.

“You were about to ask,” she said, unfastening Valentino’s leash so he could walk over and rub noses with Winston.

Natty waited a beat. “Why was the trail ride a disaster, dear?”

Tricia sighed, shoved the leash into the pocket of her jacket, and helped herself to a cup from Natty’s cupboard and coffee from her old-fashioned plug-in percolator. “Let me count the ways,” she said, after a few sips.

Valentino lost interest in Winston and focused on the little plate of sardines instead. Natty fed him the last smidgen, much to her cat’s consternation, and rose to set the dish in the sink and wash her hands.

“Sasha had a marvelous time,” Natty observed, drying her fingers on a small embroidered towel with a fussy crocheted edge and returning to her seat at the table.

Winston, disgruntled, leaped down from his chair and pranced into the hallway. Valentino was right behind him.

“Sasha,” Tricia said patiently, “knows how to ride a horse. She didn’t need babysitting the whole time, the way I did.”

Natty arched one snowy eyebrow. “‘Babysitting’?” she repeated. Her tone was innocent, but her eyes danced with amused interest.

“Conner gave me a horse reserved for greenhorns, and rode beside me the entire time,” Tricia said.

“Why, that awful man,” Natty teased.

Tricia frowned. When it came to the list of things she wanted to talk about, Conner Creed ranked dead last. “It was embarrassing,” she said, somewhat lamely.

Natty sighed deeply. “How I miss that particular brand of embarrassment,” she said. “In my day, we women liked being protected by a handsome cowboy.”

Tricia huffed out a breath.

And Natty chuckled. “From what you’ve told me so far,” she said cheerfully, “I’d hesitate to describe the experience as a ‘disaster.’ But that’s just me.”

Tricia thought of Carolyn then, and the way she’d vanished after Brody and Joleen showed up out there on the range, racing their horses and laughing into the wind. She’d looked for her friend after she and Conner got back to the barn area, but Carolyn had already put her horse away, gotten into her car and left.

“All right,” she conceded, “maybe disaster is too strong a word.”

Just then, there was an exuberant clatter of small feet on the inside stairway and, moments later, Sasha burst into Natty’s kitchen, fully dressed, her hair still damp from the shower. “Mom and Dad sent me an email!” she announced. “They’re coming back early!”

While this was obviously good news to Sasha, who had missed her parents a lot, it further dampened Tricia’s already low spirits.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.