you really think anyone would have let you do that?” he asked. “You were a kid, Sarah. From what I heard, they wouldn’t even let anyone open the trailer.”
“They,” she said bitterly. “There was no they. It was my mother that locked him in there.”
“Look, Sarah, I’m sorry. I didn’t know anything about all this when I bought the horse.”
“Just like you didn’t know Two Shot didn’t have a doctor,” she mumbled.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Everything,” she said. “It’s how you operate. You say you like the dust and dirt, but you don’t know what it’s really like. So you just ignore the reality and tell yourself you’re one of us just because you can ride a horse and get some dirt under your nails once in a while.”
“No,” he said. “That’s not how it is.”
“Then how is it? You didn’t think about the fact that someone was depending on the sale, just like it never occurred to you that people in Two Shot had to drive an hour for medical care.”
“Forty-two minutes,” he said. “I’m sorry, Sarah.”
“Sorry won’t bring back Roy,” she said. “He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. They didn’t know what to do for him. Sorry won’t bring back the ranch, either. The bank took it when we couldn’t pay the mortgage. And it won’t bring back my mother, who drank herself to death and left me and my sister alone, in that damn gossip-ridden town, with everyone pointing their fingers and judging us.” She sniffed. “And it won’t get me back my horse. Dammit, I loved him, Lane. I was the only one who could ride him, you know that? And he raced for me. He went all out, just for me.”
To her horror, she realized she was crying, tears streaming down her face.
“What happened to Flash?” she asked.
“I had him about five years,” he said. “He got colic. He’s gone.”
She knew it. She’d known the horse she’d worked with yesterday couldn’t be Flash. He’d been too pure, too clean. When she’d worked Flash, she’d felt his secrets like a tangle of wires in his head, complex and impenetrable. The horse she’d worked yesterday was a blank slate. It was as if someone had taken Flash and wiped his mind clear of whatever was wrong with him.
She glanced out the window, the long span of sage and rock blurring as the tears tried to come back. She’d known it couldn’t be Flash. But some little light had burned on in the depths of her heart, hoping it was her horse.
***
Lane watched Sarah struggle to control her emotions. Why couldn’t she just cry? Why did she have to be so strong all the time? She’d had a hard life. But why did she have to hold herself so firmly in check when she was with a man who…
Who loved her. He didn’t want to finish that thought, but the truth wasn’t something he could deny anymore. He loved her, and she thought he’d destroyed her life.
Great. This might be the one fight he couldn’t win.
“I’m sorry, Sarah. I wish—I didn’t know. Nobody bid on the horse. For all I knew, he had nowhere to go. You know where those horses end up when nobody wants them.”
She looked away and he knew he’d struck a nerve. But he didn’t want to hurt her. He wasn’t here to make her face facts; he was here to help her any way he could.
“The horse you worked yesterday is named Cinnamon Chrome.”
“Cinnamon Chrome,” she muttered. “Son of Coppertone Flash.”
He nodded. “We call him Cinn, and believe me, it fits. He’s got the devil in him, but you were great with him.” He paused. “He’s yours if you stay.”
“Stay?” She looked at him like he’d suggested she go get a knife and stab herself. “Stay?”
“Sure.” He pretended he didn’t notice the pallor that had washed over her face, followed by a flood of color that made him wonder if she was going to explode like a human volcano. “Trevor can do ground work, but he can’t ride.”
She turned to him suddenly as if she’d just woken from a deep sleep.
“Why does he work for you?”
“He doesn’t just work for me. He owns half the operation. That’s why it’s called the LT. Lane, Trevor.”
“You gave him half your land?”
“Not the land. The operation. The cattle, and the horse revenues.”
“Why?”
“Because I owe him.” Now it was his turn to stare moodily out the window. “The night