Lone Tree by Bobbie O'Keefe Read Free Book Online

wish to be—but it’d seemed like a casual endearment so she let it
go.

Chapter Five
    It was 3:00 p.m. when Lainie stepped outside the
air-conditioned house. And instantly she realized she’d done this backwards. In
the future, she’d spend the cooler mornings outside and the suffocatingly hot
afternoons inside. She debated about putting this off, but she was curious
about the elderly man she’d occasionally seen at the stable. She doubted it
could be Nelly, the stable keeper her mother had loved so much, but she had to
check it out.
    No person was in sight when she entered the shade of
the outbuilding. Three of the six stalls were occupied and the nearest animal
whinnied, its head lifted toward Lainie as if acknowledging her.
    Lainie and her parents had sometimes rented mounts
and spent the afternoons riding the beach, but not often; at the end of those
days, Elizabeth had been at her most melancholy, as if the experience had held
both joy and punishment. Now, without her mother there to guide her, Lainie
wondered if she dared approach the horse that seemed to be beckoning her.
    “Glory take a liking to you,” said a voice behind
her, and Lainie spun.
    The man was weathered and wrinkled, no taller than
she, and possibly only ten pounds or so heavier. He wore faded cotton work
pants that might’ve been navy blue at one time, and a striped blue and white
shirt tucked in without a belt. He looked amused that she was so startled.
    “Nelly?” she breathed.
    He hesitated for an instant, and then said, “Missy.”
Both his tone and eyes were full of welcome.
    Her gaze faltered. Her mother had told her that had
been his pet name for her, and Lainie wondered if she’d tipped her hand by
calling him by name. Then she realized she’d been here long enough someone
could’ve told her his name. Missy most likely was his title for females whose
hair hadn’t yet turned gray.
    She extended her hand. “Hi, I’m Lainie Johnson.”
    “I know who you be.” He’d taken her hand in both of
his and held it in a loose, warm clasp, and his gaze was just as warm. She felt
strangely unable to break away, and his words had given her the uncanny feeling
that he knew exactly who she was.
    “They already tell me your name,” he explained.
    Well, of course they had. Pulling her hand free, she
looked at the horse in the nearest stall. “What did you say that horse’s name
is?”
    “Glory. She be the youngest and the fastest and the
most gentle. And next to her be Irish. Mr. Reed like him. They a good match,
both steady and sure. And that last one there be Oatmeal. He plod along and get
the job done, but he gettin’ old and cranky.”
    He pointed at the empty stalls in turn. “That one
there belong to Vindication, and he belong to Mr. Randy. Got too much spirit
for some, but not for Mr. Randy. And Andy and Mack bring Coco and Misty Morning
with ’em when they hired on for spring. They be over at the Lazy L right now.
We help them out, they help us.”
    Lainie was touched by the way Nelly related his
horses’ histories and personalities as if they were family members. She asked,
“If Glory’s the most gentle, could I ride her?”
    Glory neighed, shaking her mane, as if hearing
Lainie and endorsing her choice. Lainie laughed, and so did Nelly.
    “She done told me she likes you. I reckon you be a
good pair. I put you up on her once you in your boots and ready to ride.”
    Lainie hadn’t meant she wanted to ride now, but at
his words she swung back to face him. “In my boots?” She heard the snap in her
voice.
    He didn’t appear fazed by her tone. “Mr. Reed say
not to give you a horse till you have your boots on and he be with you.”
    “He be,” she echoed, then stopped. Nelly’s grammar
was contagious. “He has to be with me?”
    “That’s what he said.”
    Maybe she wouldn’t buy those boots after all. Giving
up on riding might be easier than bowing to that particular man’s orders.
    “Maybe you have to do what he