Free Saddled With Trouble by A. K. Alexander Page A

what makes us human.” She glanced up at the clock. Almost ten. “I’ve got to go to bed. I’m beat.”
    “I’m going to crash in the tack room. I’d like to be able to keep an eye on Leo.”
    “You said that he’s fine and I think he is. Why don’t you head back to Summer’s? You said that you were staying there again, right? I mean . . . when you left earlier, you inferred that anyway.”
    “I’ve got some stuff there and yes, I’ve been there off and on since I came home. I stayed at my office last night. But tonight, if it’s all right with you, I’ll stay here. I think Summer and I both need some space to try and figure things out.”
    “Of course, but take the couch at least.”
    “I’ll be fine.”
    “So, at least you haven’t set up house yet with her?”
    “She wants me to.”
    I bet she does. Summer knows she had a good thing. “Yeah, well, you can stay here as long as you need to, as long as you promise me you’ll think about this thing with her. I’m begging you.”
    “I told you that I would. I promised. I’ll pinky swear if you want.”
    She laughed, remembering how when they were kids they would always pinky swear on secrets of the utmost importance, like the time they were playing with Ethan’s G.I. Joes in Ethan’s backyard, and they’d taken a gas can from his mom’s garage and dug a trench, placing the figures down in it, pouring the gas into the trench and lighting it on fire. What they hadn’t realized was that their fun and games would “backfire,” as they just about caused Ethan’s house to burn as a poof of flame shot out from the fumes and caught one of the trees in the backyard on fire. It had been horrible at the time, and they were questioned by Ethan’s mom and her parents but they’d pinky sworn never to tell, and to this day their parents figured they’d done it, but because there was room for doubt on their innocent-looking faces, they hadn’t been punished.
    “No need to pinky swear. I believe you.”
    “Thanks for the couch, but I think I’ll camp in the tack room. That way I’ll be close to Leo and you won’t have to worry. Did that cop find out anything?”
    “We found the pitchfork out by the bales of hay . . . and a chewing tobacco wrapper.”
    “That’s odd. Have you hired any help lately? Someone who might chew?”
    “Nope. I am an island unto myself. In other words, with the lawyers tying things up between Brad and me, I’m too broke to hire help.”
    “Well, you know that I’ll be here if you need me.”
    She kissed him on the cheek. Tears stung her eyes as she walked down the hall. She didn’t know if the tears were for Lou, the thought that Ethan was about to make the biggest mistake of his life, or for the fact that a manipulative woman like Summer was pregnant, and she was still paying bills to doctors who, no matter what they’d put her through, hadn’t been able to make her fertile.

 
     
     
     
     
    TEN
    MICHAELA SLIPPED OUT OF HER JEANS AND donned a long T-shirt. She brushed her teeth and splashed her face. No time for nightly rituals. She could hear Camden’s muffled voice on the phone in the next room.
    She picked up her own phone and dialed Lou and Cynthia’s number. A man answered. “Oh hi, Michaela. It’s Dwayne. Sam and I pulled back onto the ranch not too long ago. I cannot believe this. I plan to stay here with Cynthia until she feels it is okay for me to leave and go back to the rodeo. Bean is here, too.”
    Dwayne Yamaguchi was one of the best working cow horse trainers around and he’d worked for Lou for almost eight years. He was also quite the calf roper. Not Michaela’s favorite rodeo event— maybe it was something about running down the calf and flipping him over and tying his hooves. Although her dad and uncle always told her that it wasn’t cruel. Ranchers did it all the time. And, Dwayne was one of the best at his sport.
    His cousin Sam, a paniolo — a Hawaiian cowboy— had come over