Gentling the Cowboy by Ruth Cardello Read Free Book Online

with blood. He desperately tried to clean them on his shirt, but the blood remained. He wanted to reassure her but even at a scream, he had no voice.
    Sarah faded away and Tony sank to his knees in the tall grass. Despite the blood, he covered his face in his hands and did in his dream what he had never done awake. He cried.
     
     
    Long after he’d awoken, the dream lingered far too vividly. Tony cursed each bale of hay he threw down from the barn loft. Sweat plastered his shirt to his back, but the punishing heat of the day was a welcome discomfort.
    He groaned when David changed direction upon spotting him. Only a year or two older than Tony, David successfully organized sales and handled the business side of things. He had quickly built up a reputation of integrity that trumped any amount of advertising another breeder might buy. He was also the best damn ranch manager in the area, possibly all of Texas, but he had a flaw: He was too fucking happy.
    Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt, Tony headed down the ladder in resignation. David was as unavoidable as weeds in a pasture. He was the one person on the ranch Tony couldn’t avoid talking to. But I don’t have to like it.
    “I’m surprised you’re here so early this morning,” David said too cheerfully. “I thought you’d be . . .”
    “I’d be what?” Tony bit out, stacking the leftover hay against the wall.
    David paused a moment, pushed his Stetson back thoughtfully and chose his next words carefully. “I heard you had company. I figured you might take today off.”
    “Do I pay you to think about who I do or don’t have in my house?” Tony’s body filled with fury. More, he knew, than the conversation called for.
    “No,” David said slowly.
    “Then why the hell are we having this conversation?” Tony snarled, his fists curling at his sides.
    Another man would have turned tail and run at his tone, but David simply shook his head in a patient way that only irritated Tony more. “Snow Prince won another Reining Futurity,” he said as Tony piled the last bale on top. “I heard there was a huge purse. Word has it, he’s worth almost a million now and climbing. His owner would like to come meet you. He can’t say enough good about you. The papers are begging for interviews, too.”
    “I don’t care about Prince’s new owner and you know I don’t give interviews,” Tony said with disgust.
    David opened the nearby door to his small barn office and stood just outside it. “If you don’t want to be in the magazines, stop training horses. You’ve made enough money.”
    I would, but it’s all I have left. That and one unwelcome houseguest. “What do you know about that idiot reporter you found snooping around here last week? Was he working with anyone?” He’d almost forgotten about that man, but Sarah had brought him back, just as she had his nightmares.
    “As far as I know, no one.” It wasn’t often that David looked embarrassed, but his face reddened at the mention of the hired hand who had turned out to be an undercover reporter.
    “What about the rest of the hands? You might want to let them go and start fresh. One of them is always trying to talk to me.”
    “You know we can’t run this place alone.” David crossed his arms. “I’m not firing everyone mid-season because they admire you.”
    “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”
    David scratched his jaw thoughtfully. “What put a burr under your saddle this morning?”
    “You know my rule.”
    With a sad shake of his head, David said, “Some of these young men have worked here for years. They’re loyal to you. It’s your ranch, Tony. Fire the whole lot of them if you want, but I’m not cleaning the stalls. You let ’em go; you find the next ones. That’ll mean going to town, screening them, sorting through the ones with real skills versus the ones who think they can acquire some simply by watching you. By all means, go ahead.” David shrugged.