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to her. The landing on her rump in the dust wasn’t the prize. It was getting a horse to submit to her authority so that she could teach it to be useful on the ranch. In the end, that was what she was after.
    She worked all day, taking quick breaks when she needed and then getting right back in the arena. Several times the horse reared and pawed and on the first incident, she saw Ty come toward her from the pen next to hers where he was working a colt.
    “No,” she snapped sharply. “I’ve got this. Let me do my job.” Maybe she should have been more diplomatic with the man who paid her salary but it was now or never. He let her have her way.
    By the evening, she’d moved in close to the horse and was using the saddle blanket instead of her pole. “You’re doing good, Dimples,” she said, calling the horse by the playful name. As she spoke, she rubbed the blanket on the horse’s flank and then gently laid it on its back. The horse flinched, but didn’t start sidestepping away in panic. Or worse, rear up again.
    And by this she knew she’d made progress. It had been a good day.
    It was nearing dark when she finally called it a night. Weary, she headed to her bunk to shower and hopefully find something to eat considering she’d skipped dinner.
    “Hey, you’re doing great,” Rafe called from where he and Ty had been watching her.
    She walked over. “Thanks. Tomorrow I’ll ride him.”
    Rafe grinned. “Tomorrow?”
    “Sure. I could have pushed for it today but I like to give them a little time to adjust.”
    Ty looked pleased but just nodded.
    “You train them similar to the way I do, from what I could see as we were doing circles.”
    “I do,” he said. “Makes them calmer than just green breaking them.”
    Jolene agreed. “Taking a wild horse straight off the pastures and hopping on their back for a buck out is more showboating than anything. It doesn’t teach it to trust me or any other rider. I do like to bring it to a point of mutual understanding and then give it the opportunity to toss me. But I look at that as a salute to its wildness. It should have the opportunity to fight to remain wild.”
    “Should be interesting,” Rafe said. “Hey,” he called just as a beautiful woman walked into his arms and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
    “Hey yourself, cowboy.” She wrapped an arm around him and held out her other hand to Jolene.
    Rafe smiled. “Jolene, meet my wife Sadie. Sadie, meet Jolene, our newest equine specialist.”
    Jolene almost chuckled at Rafe’s teasing. “Equine specialist, good one. It’s nice to meet you, Sadie.”
    “So, you’re breaking horses. You are as tough as Maddie.”
    “Thanks, I take that as a compliment.” Jolene smiled at Sadie and decided she liked her.
    “Oh, it is. I’m okay on a horse but there is no way I could do what you girls do. But I admire you. And you love it. It’s written all over your face.”
    “Behind my grit and grime makeup?”
    Everyone laughed and Jolene wiped her cheek with her dusty fingertips. After being in the round pen with the horse stirring up dust as it made circle after circle, she was a walking dust bunny. “I think it’s time for me to take a shower and scrounge up something to eat before lights out.”
    “There’s food in the bunkhouse kitchen. Cook always keeps stuff in there for y’all to warm up if you’re hungry,” Ty offered.
    “Shoot,” Sadie cut in. “I wish I’d cooked something at the big house. If I had, I would have brought you something while you get a shower.”
    Jolene didn’t miss Rafe’s grimace and that Ty’s gaze dropped to his boots.
    “Hey.” Sadie elbowed her husband. “It’s not that bad. Y’all ate my cooking for a while.”
    “When we didn’t have a cook,” Rafe pointed out.
    Sadie directed her humorously indignant glare on the overly quiet Ty. “Ty, tell my husband it wasn’t that bad.”
    Ty inched his chin up and his gaze beneath the brim of his hat was apologetic. “It