The Maverick and Miss Miller by Patrick Marie

Author:Patrick, Marie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oliver Heber Books
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Who would have thought he’d love this?

Or ever be given the opportunity to train a horse, especially coming from Teodoro Silva. Honestly, he thought Teddy just didn’t like him. Obviously, he’d been wrong. He’d thought, after catching him kissing his aunt, the man wouldn’t have been so…gracious, but here they were, for the fifth day in a row—he in the corral, and Teddy giving orders and encouragement from the fence where he sat.

“You’re a natural, Jake. I’ve seen you with the other horses and how they respond to you.” He laughed, as Jake led the filly past him. “Are you sure you’ve never done this before?”

“Never.” He was pleased with the compliment, even more so that it came from Teddy.

For the first few days, he’d gotten the sorrel filly used to being touched, bathed, and groomed. Today, he was walking Cinnamon, as she’d been named, around the corral with a lead rope. According to Teddy, all this was required to earn the horse’s trust, and while he was enjoying this, he found his thoughts wandering.

Because of Evie. She’d come outside with a basket, and now hung clean sheets on the clothesline to dry, while Savannah and Miguel played around her feet, their school lessons, taught by Jenny, finished for the day. He couldn’t help watching her or smiling when he heard her laughter in response to something one of the children had said.

“Jake?”

Startled, he brought his attention back to Teddy. “What?”

“Something on your mind?”

There was humor in Teddy’s voice, which he didn’t quite expect, and his face warmed. Did he know he’d been watching Evie instead of paying attention to what he was doing? He shook his head as he led the horse once more around the corral.

“You need to keep your mind on what you’re doing. Building trust is important to training…much more so than other things.”

“Yes, sir.”

Despite his best intentions, Jake couldn’t help himself. He glanced in Evie’s direction on the next circuit he and Cinnamon took around the ring. She pulled a pillowcase out of the basket and shook it then pinned it to the clothesline. On his next trip around, his interest was piqued as he saw Antonio step into view and stop to talk to her. The big man had his hands on his hips and kept nodding toward the corral. Evie turned in his direction then returned her attention back to Antonio. She nodded to whatever it was he said, then glanced in his direction again.

After a moment, Antonio walked over to the corral and rested his forearms on the fence. “How’s he doing?” he asked, loud enough to be heard, probably all the way to San Francisco. The man did have a booming voice.

“Excellent,” Teddy said, and gave Jake a confident nod as he passed by, leading Cinnamon by the lead rope. “Did you know he was this good?”

“It’s a complete surprise to me. Thought he didn’t know anything about horses. He admitted that when he first arrived.”

Jake continued around the corral, no longer able to hear what was said; however, what he’d heard was enough.

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