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bringing it out to us.”
    â€œWe’re going to eat in the barn?”
    Harlan hid a grin at her horrified tone. “No, I expect we’ll be out checking fences by then.”
    She scowled at him. “I thought you were rich. Don’t you have anybody else working this place? I can’t do everything, you know. I’m just a kid.”
    â€œTrust me, you won’t even be scratching the surface. And yes, there are other people working the ranch. Quite a few people, in fact. They report to my son. They’re off with the cattle or working the fields where we have grain growing.” He shot her a sly look. “You had any experience driving a tractor?”
    â€œThe sum total of my entire driving experience was in your truck yesterday,” she admitted, then shrugged. “You want to trust me with a tractor after that, it’s your problem.”
    He grinned. “You have a point. We’ll stick to horses for the time being.”
    He led her into the barn, which stabled half a dozen horses he kept purely for pleasure riding. Jenny eyed them all warily from the doorway.
    â€œCome on, gal, get in here,” he ordered. “Let me introduce you.”
    â€œIsn’t it kind of sick to be introducing me to a bunch of horses, when you didn’t even let me say hello to the housekeeper?”
    â€œYou’ll get to know Maritza soon enough. As for these horses, from now on they’re going to be your responsibility. I want you getting off on the right foot with them.” He pulled cubes of sugar from his pocket. “You can start off by offering them these. That’ll get you in their good graces quick enough. Let’s start over here with Misty. She’s a sweetie.”
    Jenny accepted the sugar cubes but she stopped well shy of Misty’s stall. “Why is she bobbing her head up and down like that?”
    â€œShe wants some of that sugar.”
    Jenny held out all of it. “Here. She can have it.”
    â€œNot like that,” he corrected, “unless you want her to nip off a few fingers at the same time.”
    He showed her how to hold out her hand, palm flat, the sugar cube in the middle. Misty took the sugar eagerly. He grinned as Jenny’s wary expression eased. “Was that so bad?”
    â€œI guess not,” she said, though she still didn’t sound entirely convinced.
    For the next two hours he taught her to groom the horses, watching with satisfaction as she began first to mutter at them when they didn’t stand still for her, then started coaxing and finally praising them as she worked. He’d never known a kid yet who could spend much time around horses and not learn to love them. Jenny’s resistance was weakening even faster than he’d hoped.
    When he was satisfied that her fear had waned, he walked over to her with bit and saddle. “How about that ride now? Seems to me like Misty’s getting mighty restless and you two seem to have struck up a rapport.”
    Jenny regarded the black horse with the white blaze warily. The gentle mare wasn’t huge, but Harlan supposed she was big enough to intimidate anyone saddling up for the first time.
    â€œI don’t know,” Jenny said.
    â€œLet’s saddle her up in the paddock and you can climb aboard for a test run. How about that?”
    â€œYou’re not going to be happy until I fall off one of these creatures and break my neck, are you?” she accused.
    â€œI’m not going to be happy until you try riding one,” he countered. “I’d just as soon you didn’t falloff and break anything, though I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll get thrown sooner or later.”
    â€œOh, jeez,” she moaned. “My mom really will sue you if that happens. We’ll ask millions and millions for pain and suffering. We’ll take this whole big ranch away from you and you’ll end up homeless and destitute.” The