“Right here,” Michael said when we reached the last stall. He turned to look at me as I approached with tears stinging my eyes. “I hope you don’t mind. I got a blanket on him.”
I rested a hand on the barn stall to gaze at the brown stallion as he looked up from the bucket of oats he had been munching. His ears perked forward instantly but resumed his oat munching happily. I caught sight of bandages around the front of his legs.
“Thank you,” I whispered, looking up at Michael who nodded. “He looks happy here. Are those bandages on his legs from cuts?”
“I found him tangled up in the fence,” Michael explained as he unlatched the barn door.
The brown stallion didn’t bolt or startle. It took months of trust building before I could even enter his stall to place a bucket of oats in for him. He looked up when I reached forward to nuzzle his nose with the palm of my hand. I felt that warmth of connection when he rubbed his head against me before snorting.
Michael ran a hand along the front of the stallion’s legs. “Just some light cuts. Nothing that required me to call Jacob out here in the middle of this rainstorm.” He straightened to look at me with a frown. “Colt mentioned a firework was lit in the barn?”
My throat clenched up as an icy wave went over me. “Yes. We found the firework on the barn floor.”
“I’ve had problems with teenagers around here,” Michael said, rubbing at the stubble on his jaw. “I’ve called the sheriff many times over those damn hooligans shooting their guns at my chickens. My hens won’t lay any eggs if someone is shooting bullets at their hen house.”
“That’s awful,” Tiffany said, shaking her head. “Why would they do that?”
“Boredom. Rebellion,” Michael suggested. “You name it, Tiffany. That’s why they are terrorizing the ranchers.”
“Anybody else having issues?”
I jumped at the sound of Colt’s voice. Rain dripped off the rim of his cowboy hat as he rested his strong arms on top of the barn stall. Gloves covered his hands.
“Everyone is from what I gathered,” Michael said. “A few neighbors of ours have been having issues. Bill mentioned the other day that he heard firecrackers around his barn the other night to scare his horses.”
My stomach churned at the mention of Bill’s name. Michael swiveled his eyes over to where I stood.
“I’m just warning you that Bill has been accusing you of trying to startle his horses at night with firecrackers.”
“What?”
A gloved hand reached out to grasp me on the shoulder. I turned to look at Colt as he gave me a stern and pointed look.
“It doesn’t matter what he says at this point,” Colt said evenly. “We all know that you aren’t capable of being that devious. You care too damn much about horses to scare them as revenge.”
“Of course! Why would he say such things about me?” I twisted my hands in front of me to get the chill out of them. “Something is off about this entire situation. You all have to believe me when I say that.”
Irritation filled me when Colt sighed heavily. He pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Let’s just pick the horse up and get back to the ranch. I don’t want to be far with troublemakers running around in the middle of the day.”
“Rick is there,” Tiffany said. “He won’t let anything happen to the ranch when we are gone.”
“I don’t know if we could even move him tonight,” I said, glancing at the cuts on the stallion’s legs. “He’s already been spooked enough. Putting him a trailer in the middle of a rain and thunderstorm would be overkill.”
“Why not keep him here permanently then?” Michael suggested. He smiled when I looked at him in surprise. “There’s something beautiful about this horse. I know your barn was burnt down, but is it possible to facilitate an adoption?”
I took one look around the barn with a small smile. Even if I was unsure of Michael personally, he seemed trustworthy. The horses gravitated to him, a sure sign of love and compassion. I firmly believed that horses could judge a man’s character, and from the way the stallion leaned up against Michael happily, he was a good man.
“I have back up adoption applications at home on my personal computer,” I said, beaming. “I can drop the papers off to you to make everything official. For now, though, it’s best if he stays here. I just wanted to make sure that he was okay.”
“Just a big teddy bear,” Michael said and reached underneath to scratch the stallion’s belly. “He’ll be happy here. I have plenty of room, and he has plenty of roommates obviously.”
I pecked a goodbye kiss on the stallion’s nose before stepping out of the stall with Colt holding the door open. We walked back out to the truck with Tiffany and Michael behind us at a slower pace. I glanced over my shoulder briefly to see the two of them in a deep conversation, but I didn’t miss that spark of interest in Michael’s eyes. He looked at Tiffany with avid interest, but the fair-haired woman was too busy looking at the horses they passed to even notice it.
Colt opened the passenger door for me. “I want you to know that I don’t doubt you, that I do believe you.”
The sentiment caught me off guard. I looked up at Colt as the rain drizzled around us. The overcast skies brought out that stormy blue color in his eyes, and it was hypnotizing. My lips tingled at the memory of what nearly happened back in the living room in the Smith house. The center of my cheeks flared as his lips curved up into a smile. An overwhelming desire to kiss him filled me again.
“Thank you,” I whispered as Colt leaned in to hear me over the roar of the rain. “I didn’t mean to bite your head off in there or seem obsessed with this. I really do appreciate everything that you are doing for me.”