Читать книгу Night Hawk онлайн | страница 21

She wandered down the breezeway, checking the horses in the box stalls. They were friendly, big quarter horse types, coming to the front and thrusting their soft, velvety noses between the iron bars or the door to try to smell or touch her outstretched fingers. She called to each one, seeing their name carved on the front of their stall. The big gray horse, she thought, was probably half Thoroughbred and half quarter horse. All of them were geldings. There was a horse for each of the wranglers, including Talon Holt.

Worrying her lower lip, Kai walked out the other end of the breezeway. Down below the gravel slope were five pipe corrals of varying sizes. They were in terrible shape. The other barn, painted green, was about one-third smaller than the red one where she stood. The second barn sat at the opposite end of all the corrals, facing her. The Triple H was a big ranch. The doors to the green barn were slid shut. Probably all the equipment needed to run the ranch was parked in there. It would be her new home.

“Hey,” Cass called, striding down the passageway toward her. “Gil asked me to show you around. You up for the five-cent tour, Kai?”

Kai smiled, liking easygoing Cass. His blond hair was thick and slightly wavy, hanging around his ears and nape, making him look like a scruffy dog. But he was clean shaven, and even though he was damned tall, muscular and powerful to her, his perennial smile made her feel better. “Sure. Can you spare the time?”

Cass pulled his black baseball cap out of his back pocket and pulled it on. “Yeah, no problem. I’ve got dinner in the oven, got the apple pies out to cool and presently have six huge Idaho spuds baking in the oven. I’m all caught up.”

“You really do like to cook?” she asked, falling into step as he cut his stride for her, leading her down the slope toward the pipe corrals.

“Yeah, love it.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Hmm,” he murmured, rubbing his shaven jaw, “about as long as Gil. I’d say three months.”

“How did you get a job here, Cass?”