Page 37 of The Rancher

When Snow’d had enough of that, she moved so Lyris could pet her and scratch her back.

She was an itchy little thing and loved to be scratched all over.

Lyris reached her tail and ran her hand over the top.

The baby automatically lifted her tail.

Lyris laughed.

The sound startled the filly and she moved back behind her mother.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” She held out her hand so Snow could smell her again and see that Lyris wasn’t a threat. “Come on, Snow. You know me. I won’t hurt you.”

But there was no getting the baby to come back out. Lyris gave Majesty a horse cookie and left her stall to check on Junebug. She did the same things for this mare and her colts.

These babies were not as leery of Lyris and came over as soon as she’d closed the gate to the stall.

They pushed each other to be the first to put his head into her hand.

“Well, hello there to you, too.” She chuckled and proceeded to scratch both of them behind the ears and then down their backs, just as she’d done with Snow. “Okay, I need to go to bed. Let me give your mama some lovin’ and a treat.”

The colts went to their mother and began to nurse, Lyris seemingly forgotten.

She loved on Junebug, gave her a horse cookie, and then left the stall, closing the gate firmly behind her.

Will Asher came into the barn. “Oh, it’s you, Lyris.” He lowered the shotgun he carried. “I was afraid we had an unwanted visitor.”

Lyris jumped at Will’s appearance and placed her hand at her throat.

Will was about twenty-seven or eight, with sandy blond hair that reached his shoulders and a well-worn black cowboy hat.

She wasn’t unexpecting the shotgun. “Oh, Will, you startled me.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Speaking of unwanted visitors. Ray is firing Ted. He’s not to be allowed around any of the animals, especially these horses. He’s a bad man.”

He huffed out a breath. “Ha! I could have told you that the day I started here five years ago.”

“Did you? Did you tell Ray?”

He only shrugged. “It wasn’t my place to say anything against my boss. I’d only just started, and it wouldn’t have looked good. But if I thought he was hurting the horses, I would have stepped up. No, he was just a butthole to the people who reported to him.”

She let out a sigh. “Yeah, I can see how that would be looked at. What about later, after you’d been here a while?”

Will shook his head. “I didn’t have any proof. Ted was really good about never leaving anything that could be connected to him. I’m sure he’s the one who doped Stormchaser but I can’t prove it.”

She shoved her hands into her jeans front pockets. “I can see where that would have been difficult. I believe you though and so does Ray.”

“Is that why he’s firing him?”

“I can’t say for sure that is the only thing. I believe other incidents have come to light recently.”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “You mean Marissa Holloway. We’ve all seen him with her for the last couple of months. She’s not the kind of woman he usually has.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, his women are usually…” His cheeks turned a rosy pink and so did the tips of his ears. “Um…looser, than the Holloway woman.”