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hidden meaning that Rocky was supposed to get. 
    When the meaning hit her, Rocky dropped the hose and squealed, "Oh. My. God!" Then danced over to Terri and yanked her into her arms.  Both women danced around in a circle, then Rocky shoved her back.  "I'm happy for you, Terri.  I know Joel must be driving you nuts," she told her, knowing how overprotective Terri's husband could be.
    "He's not the one driving me nuts," Terri said with a huff.
    "Oh, yeah?  Curly?" Rocky guessed knowing Joel's mama had about driven Jenny, Joel's brother's wife crazy when she was pregnant with Caleb their son.
    "Not even Curly...we haven't told her yet."
    "Who then?" Rocky asked and shut off the water, so they could talk.
    "Ethan is driving me bat shit crazy."
    Terri's brother was the last person that Rocky wanted to talk about, ever. 
    When Terri had brought him out to the ranch for rehab from his accident over a month ago, Rocky had tried to go up there and see him, but he had told Terri firmly that he didn't want to see anyone, especially Rocky.
    Rocky got the message loud and clear. 
    Their night in the hayloft was a one-night-stand, a wedding hookup, and he didn't want to see her again.  It had stung, badly, and she hadn't been up to the house again.  Not even for meals when the other cowhands were out on cattle drives with guests. 
    She ate by herself at the bunkhouse , she was safer that way.
    You can't trust a smooth talking man.   The way Ethan had treated her gave credence to her daddy's warning, and she was listening now.  Twice now she had been burned by ignoring it, and it wasn't happening again. 
    She had just fooled herself into thinking Ethan was different, because he was a hero and so damned good looking.  He was no better than the rest though, and certainly not better than Ashton Pence.  They were just alike, smooth talking city boys who had talked her out of her pants.
    "Kick him out," Rocky suggested hardening her heart.
    "I can't, but I've got to get some help," she said.
    "Hire somebody," Rocky suggested.
    "I found a trainer to work with him in the gym, because I can't spot him on the weights anymore, and I don't think the workout routine the therapist gave us is challenging enough, but I don't know enough to change it."
    "That's a start," Rocky replied, not really giving a shit about Ethan's progress or his workout.  But she did care about Terri.  "Hire a nurse to wipe his ass," Rocky threw in with a snide laugh that had Terri smiling too.
    "He's not that bad, but just about.   His effort in the gym is piss poor at best, and he's never going to get better if he doesn't try."
    "You can't make someone want to get better, honey," Rocky told her with sympathy.
    "I know...I had an idea, but I need your help."
    "Oh, hell no," Rocky replied holding up her hands.  "That man doesn't want to see me, and I certainly have no use for him."
    "Please?" Terri begged.  "I read about equine therapy, and how it helps the handicapped build up their core muscles, if you could just teach him to ride, I think it would help."
    "No way," Rocky told her firmly.  "They have camps and places that do that.  I don't know crap about equine therapy.  I'm a horse trainer, not a people trainer."
    "C'mon, Rocky, help me here.  I'm desperate," Terri told her with a frustrated sigh.  "I don't trust anyone else to do it."
    The problem was Rocky didn't trust Ethan Cassidy as far as she could throw him, and she sure didn't trust herself around him.  So why she said, " Okay, you'll have to tell me what to do," Rocky had no idea. 
    But subconsciously she knew.  A masochistic desire to see him again, see what the accident had done to him, and figure out where the charming man who had made love to her so tenderly in the hayloft had gone.  That was the driving force behind her decision.
     
    ***
     
    "Push it, Ethan!" Terri shouted, glaring at him when his sweaty hands slipped on the parallel bars, and he almost went to his knees.  His