Holiday in Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

the peg next to the back door, he put them on and went outside. He was used to being alone, even liked it, but keeping company with Doc O'Ballivan, bristly though she sometimes was, would provide a welcome diversion.
    He gave her time to reach Butterpie's stall, then walked into the barn.
    The golden came to greet him, all wagging tail and melting brown eyes, and he bent to stroke her soft, sturdy back. "Hey, there, dog," he said.
    Sure enough, Olivia was in the stall, brushing Butterpie down and talking to her in a soft, soothing voice that touched something private inside Tanner and made him want to turn on one heel and beat it back to the house.
    He'd be damned if he'd do it, though.
    This was his ranch, his barn. Well-intentioned as she was, Olivia was the trespasser here, not him.
    "She's still very upset," Olivia told him without turning to look at him or slowing down with the brush.
    For a second Tanner thought she was referring to Sophie, not the pony, and that got his hackles up.
    Shiloh, always an easy horse to get along with, stood contentedly in his own stall, munching away on the feed Tanner had given him earlier. Butterpie, he noted, hadn't touched her supper as far as he could tell.
    "Do you know anything at all about horses, Mr. Quinn?" Olivia asked.
    He leaned against the stall door, the way he had the day before, and grinned. He'd practically been raised on horseback; he and Tessa had grown up on their grandmother's farm in the Texas hill country, after their folks divorced and went their separate ways, both of them too busy to bother with a couple of kids. "A few things," he said. "And I mean to call you Olivia, so you might as well return the favor and address me by my first name."
    He watched as she took that in, dealt with it, decided on an approach. He'd have to wait and see what that turned out to be, but he didn't mind. It was a pleasure just watching Olivia O'Ballivan grooming a horse.
    "All right, Tanner, " she said. "This barn is a disgrace. When are you going to have the roof fixed? If it snows again, the hay will get wet and probably mold...."
    He chuckled, shifted a little. He'd have a crew out there the following Monday morning to replace the roof and shore up the walls--he'd made the arrangements over a week before--but he felt no particular compunction to explain that. He was enjoying her ire too much; it made her color rise and her hair fly when she turned her head, and the faster breathing made her perfect breasts go up and down in an enticing rhythm. "What makes you so sure I'm a greenhorn?" he asked mildly, still leaning on the gate.
    At last she looked straight at him, but she didn't move from Butterpie's side. "Your hat, your boots--that fancy red truck you drive. I'll bet it's customized."
    Tanner grinned. Adjusted his hat. "Are you telling me real cowboys don't drive red trucks?"
    "There are lots of trucks around here," she said. "Some of them are red, and some of them are new.And all of them are splattered with mud or manure or both."
    "Maybe I ought to put in a car wash, then," he teased. "Sounds like there's a market for one. Might be a good investment."
    She softened, though not significantly, and spared him a cautious half smile, full of questions she probably wouldn't ask. "There's a good car wash in Indian Rock," she informed him. "People go there. It's only forty miles."
    "Oh," he said with just a hint of mockery. " Only forty miles. Well, then. Guess I'd better dirty up my truck if I want to be taken seriously in these here parts. Scuff up my boots a bit, too, and maybe stomp on my hat a couple of times."
    Her cheeks went a fetching shade of pink. "You are twisting what I said," she told him, brushing Butterpie again, her touch gentle but sure. "I meant..."
    Tanner envied that little horse. Wished he had furry hide, so he'd need brushing, too.
    "You meant that I'm not a real cowboy," he said. "And you could be right. I've spent a lot of time on construction sites over the last