Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Dev came out of the bedroom dressed in jeans and a wash-worn T-shirt. The faded logo indicated it was from his days playing polo at Yale. I pointed to it and snickered. “Are we representing our troubled youth today? Our checkered past? I didn’t get the memo. Let me change shirts. Pretty sure I have one from Jimbo’s Feed and Seed somewhere around here.” I pretended to rifle through my suitcase.
He glanced down at his shirt and then grinned up at me. “You mean my chukkered past.”
I stared at him, forcing myself not to snort. “You did not just make a polo pun, you snotty diva.”
He sniffed and adopted a highbrow accent. “I’ll have you know the Yale Polo program began in 1903. For almost a hundred years, it was played in the Armory, which was used as a cavalry training center during World War I. In fact, the first polo at Yale was recorded in 1886.”
“You tell a story almost as good as my grandpa, and he’s been dead for thirty years.” I made a fake snoring noise.
Dev’s grin was adorable. I could tell he was passionate about the game. “Polo started two thousand years ago. It actually has a fascinating history. It’s one of the oldest recorded sports and has even been used for military training.”
“Know what the actual oldest sport is?” I asked. “Besides running, which was more of a survival thing than an actual sport.”
“Don’t say it,” he said, rolling his eyes as he headed to the kitchen.
“Two men wrestling. And thank god for that. Cave paintings showing this glorious invention date back fifteen thousand years in France, and I, for one, am an avid fan.”
We continued teasing each other while Dev moved to the kitchen and pulled out ingredients for smoothies. He dumped a mountain of frozen fruit, fresh spinach leaves, protein powder, and greek yogurt into a massive blender before turning it on.
He quickly poured the concoction into two travel mugs before handing one to me. “Coffee’s downstairs. Let’s go.”
We made our way downstairs, where Indigo was already pouring coffee from the large carafe in the tack room into a travel mug with rainbow and cartoon stickers plastered all over it. Dev moved over to a desk against the wall and swiped the laptop’s trackpad to wake it up. “Tully, while we’re riding out to feed the stock in the pastures, you can go through this tutorial video on the stock management software we use. Basically, today, we’re going to do a final check on who’s going where and whether everything’s up-to-date in their record. If they need vaccines, shoes, et cetera. Everything should be in order, but we want to make sure. Then tomorrow, you can help us manage the orders and double-check everyone’s going where they’re supposed to before updating locations and status for the stock being moved.”
I was relieved he was allowing me an important role without any further encouragement. For a moment, I was disappointed he hadn’t wanted me to mount up and join them on horseback, but then I realized he trusted me more than Indigo on a stock management software program. “No problem.”
He met my eyes. “And if you get done before we return, you can go up to the big house and check on Lellie.”
My heart went soft. “Want me to do that first?” I asked in a low enough voice Indigo wouldn’t hear.
He shook his head. “Hopefully, they’re already up, and I don’t want to look desperate.” He winked at me, which made my heart speed way back up.
After grabbing coffee and swallowing down half the smoothie, I followed the two of them out to the main aisle of the barn and watched as they fed and checked on the high-needs stock housed inside. Once they were done, Dev scribbled some notes on a scratch piece of paper and handed it to me. “Once you learn how to update stock records, you can add these notes from this morning, okay?”
I agreed and headed back to the tack room while they left to feed the horses in the farther pastures.
The computer work went by quickly. The system was easy enough to learn, and I finished everything Dev needed before taking off to the ranch house to find Lellie.
“Tuh-wee!” she said when Way led me into the kitchen from the front door. She was sitting in Jo’s lap at the kitchen table, waving her milk cup at me. I wanted to run to her and pull her into my arms, inhale the baby scent of her, and… take her back into my keeping.
It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. But for some reason, she felt a little bit mine, and it was going to be nearly impossible to say goodbye when the time came.
“Hi, babygirl,” I said, shoving the strange swell of emotion down. “How’d you do on your sleepover?”