Calder Promise (Calder Saga 8)

“ ’Fraid not,” Quint replied.

Trey chuckled. “Why that damned little thief.”

“With a father like that, who can blame him?” Laura retorted.

Trey made no reply to that and took a swig of his beer, made a face, and set the mug on the table. “It’s warm,” he said in distaste. “What d’you say we get outta here and head back to the ranch before Aunt Cat sends out a search party for Quint?”

“That’s a good idea.” Quint leaned to the side and scooped his crutches off the floor. “Besides,” he said, throwing a teasing look at Laura, “Crockett might call tonight, and we wouldn’t want Laura to miss that, now would we?”

Laura just shook her head in mild disgust. “Aren’t you two ever going to grow up?”

“Not where you’re concerned,” Trey replied with a grin.

Chapter Ten

With the horse sale only two days away, there was a steady bustle of activity at the Triple C headquarters. Adding to the seemingly constant flow of horses coming and going from the barns to the work pens, a half dozen buyer’s reps had already shown up to get an advance look at the horses being offered for sale. A couple were inspecting the horses in the stalls, but the rest were scattered around the pens, observing the horses bein

g exercised and put through their paces.

As Laredo left the big-timbered barn, he spotted one of the reps standing at the rails of the large cattle pen, watching a cutting horse at work. The minute he got a good look at the claybank stallion through the gaps in the fence rails, Laredo guessed there would be questions and veered toward the rep. He was right.

“Would you happen to know the catalog number for that stud?” the man asked as soon as Laredo reached the fence.

“That’s Cougar’s Pride,” Laredo told him. “You won’t find him in the catalog. He’s not for sale, but it’s his get you’ll be bidding on.”

Disappointment flickered in the man’s expression. He gave the middle rail a slap and made a pushing turn away from the fence. “Tell Calder if he should change his mind about selling that stallion, I’ve got a buyer. And with that stud, he can name his price.”

“I’ll pass it on, but I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Laredo replied.

The man walked away, and Laredo climbed onto the top rail to watch the champion stallion at work. He had barely settled on his perch when he caught the flash of blond hair and bare skin. And he privately marveled that the rep had noticed the stallion at all with Laura in the saddle.

The flashy dun stallion crouched low, pouncing first one way then the other to frustrate the cow’s attempts to rejoin the herd, exhibiting all the agility and cat-quickness of a mountain lion. Laura sat deep and balanced in the saddle, giving the horse no cues, aware that he needed none.

A beauty Laura had always been, easily worth two or three looks. But today it was her attire that was drawing male stares. Brown leather chaps covered a pair of skin-tight jeans, and a matching leather vest stopped just below her breasts, about the same place as the crop top she wore, baring her midriff.

Leave it to Laura to come up with an eye-catching getup like that, Laredo thought and shook his head in amusement.

After working the cow almost to a stop, Laura reined the claybank stallion away from it, letting it rejoin the penned herd. She waved at one of the riders, loosely holding the cattle, and called, “That should do it.”

A horse and rider moved into Laredo’s side vision. He glanced to the right as Trey halted a three-year-old colt parallel with the fence. Laura spotted him at almost the same moment and rode over.

“You’re every bit the horsewoman that your mother is,” Laredo told her when she halted the stallion near the fence.

“All I did is sit in the saddle. This guy did all the work by himself.” She tunneled a hand under the stallion’s black mane and gave him a congratulatory pat. “I swear, no one works cattle with the ease of The King,” she said, using the nickname the ranch hands had given to the claybank stud when he was a yearling.

The stallion was the last thing on Trey’s mind. “What the hell are you doing in that outfit, Laura?” he demanded, disapproval vibrating in his low voice. “You look like something out of Playboy magazine.”

Laura never blinked an eye. “Don’t be naive, Trey,” she chided. “If I were posing for Playboy, I’d have to ditch the jeans and the top, and you know it.”

As she uttered the last, a Land Rover pulled up to the pens. Her attention immediately swung to it. When a tall dark-haired man climbed out of the driver’s side, Laura stood up in the stirrups and waved to draw the man’s attention.

“Hey, Boone,” she called. “Meet me at the gate.”

The minute she said the name, understanding dawned in Trey’s expression. “I forgot Crockett was supposed to show up this afternoon. That’s why you’re dressed so sexy, isn’t it?”

Laura didn’t deny it as she swung the stallion away from the railing and fired a warning look at her brother. “So help me, Trey, if you call him Crockett while he’s here, I’ll steal all your shorts and leave you with only the silk ones to wear.”

Without giving him a chance to reply, she cantered the stallion the last few yards to the gate. While Trey watched, Boone Rutledge swung the gate open and Laura rode through, then pulled up to wait for him to shut it. She made no attempt to dismount until Boone had moved to the stallion’s head. Trey couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other, but he could see the way the man’s eyes raked over Laura.