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said. “I just can’t even imagine getting in to bed with a guy who smells of hay and horse crap and who-knows-what-else.”
    Tammy looked at her seriously. “You know, they do have showers in Colorado. Soap, too, I think.”
    “Look, Tammy. I just – I just want to go out there and get rid of this place. I don’t want to keep anything from the man who was supposedly my father, and I don’t want anything to do with guys. I just want my money in my account. That’s it.” She shrugged. “I’ll take the cash and come back here and start again.”
    “OK, OK,” Tammy said swinging back her long, shiny black hair. “But I do want to hear about the guys working for you.”
    Julie grinned and then picked up a file from the bedside table. “I went through the staff information that Hawkins gave me.” She opened the folder and flipped through a few pages. “Guess what, Tammy? The staff that work with the horses are as follows: a woman named Mathilda Velasquez. She’s sixty-two. There’s a guy named Phillip Dobson, who’s forty-six. A woman named Rose-Anne Yates, twenty-seven. A few kids from the local high school who hang around getting work experience because they actually like the filthy beasts, if you can believe that . And that’s it.” She closed the file. “Those are my cowboys, Tammy: two women, a guy who’s nearing fifty, and a bunch of pimply teenagers. Sexy, huh?”
    Tammy slumped, bitterly disappointed. “Crap.” Then she brightened. “Maybe the restaurant or hotel staff? Maybe there’s a hot chef, who specializes in spicy food and who will pour syrup all over your body and lick it off. Chefs have nice hands, you know….” She thought for a second. “Or – ooooh! – a front desk kind of guy who knows all the hidden rooms in the hotel. You can have secret trysts all over the place, on every piece of furniture and in every position.”
    Julie laughed out loud. “Oh, my God. You just don’t stop, do you?”
    “Nope.”
    “OK, OK.” Julie threw a few cardigans in to the suitcase. “I promise to have a torrid affair with a totally unsuitable guy. Happy now?”
    “Deliriously.”
    Julie laughed and glanced down at the list in her hand. Forty-one items listed on it, and she’d only crossed out twelve. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be helping me pack?” Julie said. “Instead of sitting on your butt and fantasizing about my love life?”
    “Alright, alright. You and your lists, girl.” Tammy got to her feet and opened the second suitcase. “I’m helping.” She looked at the pile of clothes dubiously and pulled out several silk scarves. “I guess these would be OK with your jeans and a shirt?”
    “And my new cowboy boots.”
    Tammy’s face lit up. “I totally forgot! I got you a present!”
    “You what?” Julie asked her retreating back as Tammy rushed out of the bedroom. “Why’d you do that? I’ll be back in a few months… it’s not like I’m moving there.”
    “I know!” Tammy shouted from the living room. “But I saw it and couldn’t pass it up. OK, ready?”
    Julie sat down. Knowing Tammy’s taste in surprises, God only knows what might be coming through the door at her. “Ready.”
    Tammy pranced back in to the bedroom. A bright pink cowboy hat was perched on her head. She struck a pose in the doorway and blew on her fingers, pretending that they were six-shooters. “Want me to blow on your sex-shooter, baby?” she purred.
    “Oh, God.” Julie stared in horror. “That will clash horribly with my hair!”
    “I know!” Tammy was delighted. “That’s why I bought it!”
    Julie burst in to laughter. “You’re crazy.” She shook her head at her friend as affection rose in her chest. She reached out. “OK, hand it over. Let me try it on.”
    Tammy tossed the hat over and Julie jammed it down over her curls. “How’s it look?”
    “Stunning,” Tammy said. “Totally fab.”
    Julie looked at herself in the mirror and laughed. “It’s as dreadful as I