Once Upon a Cowboy by Maggie McGinnis Read Free Book Online Page A

made her feel strangely warm inside.
    Kyla’s eyebrows went up. “Day one, and we already have a
really good
.” She made a mark in her notebook. “Score!”
    “Kyla.”
    Kyla laughed. “Sorry. I’ll be good.”
    Jess breathed deeply again, feeling a smile take over her face as she looked around the room. “I’d be elated to help with this spa. Once you get this set up and running, and get pictures of it up on the Whisper Creek website, you won’t be able to handle all of the reservations. I swear, it’s the most gorgeous space I’ve ever seen.”
    Kyla grabbed her into a fierce hug. “Thank you! I knew it wasa good idea. Decker wasn’t sold on it for the longest time, but I
knew
it. ‘It’s a
dude
ranch,’ he says, ‘not a
spa
ranch.’ ”
    “That’s because he’s a guy. And because he loves horses. Also, has he ever actually
been
to a spa?”
    “Can you imagine Decker in a mud bath?” Kyla laughed affectionately. “Or doing yoga poses?” She picked up her notebook and checked her watch. “I need to head out to doa couple of errands. Do you want to come?”
    “That would mean leaving this room, right?”
    “Yes, but you can spend as much time as you want in here afterward. The key’s up in Ma’s kitchen whenever you need it.” Kyla squeezed her shoulder. “I’m going to go check in with Hayley, but I’ll be back in half an hour and we can head out. Until then, just—figure out my spa, okay?”
    After Kyla had headedback up to the main lodge, Jess walked the perimeter of the huge room, breathing deeply and taking in the view from all angles. It would be criminal to put up walls, but she could visualize exactly where they should go so they didn’t interrupt the sight lines of the rest of the space.
    When she got back to where she’d started, she sank down slowly, folding her body into her favorite pose, closingher eyes and just breathing in, out. Hardly having to think, she moved through a series of poses she’d been doing for years, a routine she’d learned long ago, in a different world.
    —
    “Anyone want to try a little yoga this morning?” Christyne, one of the full-timers, leaned into the Safe Haven common room where Jess was sitting, well into her third week of official homelessness. “It’s good stuff.Makes you feel better, no matter where you start.”
    A couple of the younger girls got up from the beat-up couch where they’d been playing cards, but Jess didn’t move. Yoga-schmoga. What
she
needed was her GED, a job, and a ticket out of town, not some meditation nonsense. Yoga wasn’t going to fix her, and honestly, feeling better wasn’t really on the agenda today.
    Feeling better wasn’t goingto happen—not by doctors, not by the counselors who passed through Safe Haven once a week, and certainly not by yoga. She pulled her battered copy of Little Women back up over her face, not answering.
    “Jess? Join us?” Christyne tapped the book.
    “No, thanks. Not today.”
    “I promise it’s not hokey. No chanting or Buddha-posing or anything.” Christyne raised her eyebrows. “Just come try it. I havea feeling you might like it.”
    Jess sighed, crossing her arms in the gesture that had become so automatic she barely noticed it. She’d only been at Safe Haven for a few weeks, but already she could tell which adults actually gave a damn. There was a whole herd of people who came through once a month, did something they thought would benefit the Troubled Youth staying there, and then went home,washed their hands thoroughly, and felt better about themselves for donating their two hours to charity.
    Christyne was not one of those. She was a full-timer who worked her butt off sixty hours a week for a paycheck that probably didn’t even cover rent. And that’s the only reason Jess was even thinking about joining her.
    Christyne got a quiet look on her face that Jess recognized. It was theone that made her look like she could poke right into your brain and tell what