each other like football players on the field.
Imogene loved dogs. She had pictures of her fluffy red Pomeranian, Fancy, on her phone. And in fact, planned to bring Fancy back with her from winter break because she and two other girls were moving into a group house off campus.
She rode, too, English style. Fancy like her dog, but she rode and pretty damn well.
He couldn’t stick with a girl who didn’t love dogs and horses, no matter how she looked naked.
He figured he’d see a lot more of naked Imogene when she had her own room in the group house.
He tossed the ball a couple more times, then headed into the stables.
He led horses out to pasture or paddock, then took extra time with Comet.
“How you doing, girl? How’s my best girl?”
When she nuzzled his shoulder, he rested his cheek against hers. Two and a half more years, he thought, and he’d be home for good.
He took an apple out of his back pocket, cut it in quarters with his knife. “Don’t tell the others,” he warned as he fed Comet half. He ate a quarter himself, gave her the last before leading her out.
He got a pitchfork and went to work.
His muscles remembered.
He’d grown another inch since he’d left for college, and figured he’d topped out now at six-one. Since he worked part-time at a riding stable, he kept those muscles in tune, earned some money, and got to hang with horses.
When he wheeled the first barrow out, he’d fallen into the rhythm, a nineteen-year-old boy who’d finally grown into his feet, leanly muscled in jeans and a work jacket, his boots mucked and muddy.
One of the cows let out a long, lazy moo. His dogs wrestled over the tooth-pocked red ball. A pregnant mare swished her tail in the paddock. Smoke pumped out of the ranch house chimneys, and the sound of the sea came to him as clearly as if he’d sailed a boat over its waves.
In that moment, he was completely and utterly happy.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After breakfast, with the smell of bacon, coffee, pancakes on the griddle still in the air, Dillon had a vague plan to text his two local pals, see if they wanted to meet up later.
It would give him time to saddle Comet, take her out for a ride, maybe check some fencing.
The women in his life had other ideas.
“We’ve got something we need to talk to you about.”
He glanced over at his mother. She wiped down the counters and stove while he loaded the dishwasher. Gram—with the privilege of the breakfast cook—sat with another cup of coffee.
“Sure. Is something wrong?”
“Not a thing.”
She left it at that.
She had a way, Dillon knew, of saying exactly as much as she wanted to say, and leaving you wondering about the rest. Poking, prying, pleading, wouldn’t get another word out of her until she was damn good and ready.
So he finished loading the dishes.
Since he’d had enough coffee, he got a Coke. And since it seemed they were going to have a discussion, sat in Discussion Central.
The kitchen table.
“What’s up?”
Before she sat, Julia gave him a hug from behind. “I try not to miss this too much when you’re not here. The three of us sitting here after the morning work’s done, and before we tackle the rest.”
“I was going to take Comet out. She could use the exercise. I can check the fences. And I want to talk to you about maybe switching over to a floating diagonal system. Some of the posts we’ve got went in before I was born, and sure, it costs to put in a new system, but it costs to keep patching what’s just worn out. And isn’t as smart as it could be—environmentally or practically.”
“College boy.” Maggie sipped her coffee. She’d dyed a couple sections of her hair for the holidays, and sported a pair of braids—one red, one green—down the side.
“Yeah, I am, because my mother and grandmother made me.”
“I’ve got a fondness for college boys. Especially pretty ones like you.”
“We can talk about fencing,” Julia put in. “After you’ve run the numbers on it, come up with a cost for labor and material.”
“I’m working on it.”
And he hadn’t intended to bring it up until he had those numbers. He just hadn’t perfected his mother’s ability to hold back until complete.
But he was working on that, too.
“Good. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with. Meanwhile, Gram and I have some thoughts about the future. You’ve