the name of the woman you met?”
“Celia Banyon. The boy’s name is Mark.”
“Oh, sure. Celia’s a teacher.” Logan smiled. “Pretty little thing.”
“Pretty enough.” Logan’s smile was slightly irritating, but Cougar caught himself half smiling, too.
“Careful,” Logan said. “You crack your face, you’re gonna feel it.”
Cougar laughed. “Ouch. Damn, that smarts.”
“It looks good on you. Like you said, no harm done. Shake it off, cowboy.” Logan warmed up Cougar’s coffee with a refill. “What kind of horse are you looking for?”
“A war pony. One that can go all day without complaining.”
“You do know it’s a contest.”
“Mary said you can train the horse for anything you want.”
“You have to turn out a useful horse. Not much call for war ponies these days.”
“That’s what I’m calling for. A war pony prospect.” Cougar leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs under the table. “I did some endurance racing before I enlisted. Mustangs and Arabs are the best mounts for endurance, far as I’m concerned.”
“That’s how you’d prove your horse?”
“If they’re pretty open on what you can train the horse for, I don’t see why not. Endurance is a good sport. Good for the horse, great for the rider. From what I’ve read, it’s even more popular than it was back when I tried it out. You think I can get approved to train a war pony?”
“I think you’d round out Sally’s contestant collection pretty nicely.” Logan grinned. “Especially now that I’m out of it.”
“She needs an Indian replacement?”
“Indian cowboy.” Logan chuckled. “Talk about your dying breeds, huh? Cowboys are scarce enough, but us Indian cowboys…”
“Why’d you take yourself out?”
“The horses will be auctioned off after the thing is over, and my wife and I…” He smiled, clearly pleased with the words. “We decided Adobe was worth more to us than winning the competition, so we adopted him and took him out of the running.”
“Sweet. The horse is out of the running. The owner’s off the market.”
“Both owners.”
“Sergeant Tutan deserves the best.” Cougar glanced out the patio door again, taking in Logan’s setup. “You’ve got a round pen out there. How do you like it?”
“When you get your horse, you come try it out. I wouldn’t be without one.”
“They weren’t expecting me at the Double D,” Cougar admitted. “I told them I was coming, but I didn’t exactly say when. Sunrise this morning, I didn’t think about it too much. Felt like a good time to take a drive.”
“And now you’re here,” Logan said. “So take your time. Stay here tonight, and I’ll head over there with you tomorrow. I never miss a chance to go looking at horses.”
“I just need a place to park.”
“Plenty of parking space, but there’s also a spare room.” Logan indicated the hallway with a jerk of his chin. “It’s yours if you want it.”
Cougar wanted peace and privacy. He needed to build a new life, and he would start with what he loved most.
Horses.
Chapter Two
Cougar spent the night in his trailer. The bed was comfortable—great memory foam mattress one of his fellow patients at the VA had raved about until Cougar had promised to get himself one if the guy would shut up about it—and all the basic necessities were covered. The best part was the solitude. Privacy had been hard enough to come by in the army, but hospitals were worse yet. Not only did you have people around every minute of every endless day and night, but you had them poking at your body and digging into your mind.
The trailer had been another of Eddie’s homecoming surprises. Got a great deal on it for you. Eddie had used the money he’d gotten for their horses to buy his brother a horse trailer. It sounded like a story Cougar had read in English class back in the good ol’ days, only in the story it wasn’t the same person selling the two things that went together. Cougar would have taken his kid brother’s head off if he hadn’t actually been a little touched by the whole thing. They’d been partners, but the trailer was in Cougar’s name. And in the end it was a relief to know that he could still be touched in the heart, what with it being general knowledge that he was touched in the head. So who was he to accuse “Eddie Machete” of being a madman?
Logan had offered Cougar the use of his man-size shower, and he planned to take him up on it, but not without knocking on the door with a few groceries in hand for breakfast. After honoring sunrise with a song, he unhitched the trailer, drove into the little town of Sinte, parked in front of the Jack and Jill and waited for the doors to open.
The cashier gave him the once-over when he unloaded bacon, eggs and orange juice next to her register. He read the whole two-second small-town ritual in her eyes. Nope, she didn’t know him.
“Anything else?” she asked tonelessly. Half a dozen smartass answers came to mind, but he opted for a simple negative.
With one arm he swept the grocery bag off the counter, thrusting his free hand into his key-carrying pocket as he turned to the door. Two big brown eyes stared up at him—one friendly, the other fake.
Cougar smiled. “Hey, Mark, how’s it going this morning? Better than yesterday?”
“Yesterday?” A man about Cougar’s size stepped in close behind the boy. His dark red goatee and mustache somehow humanized his pale, nearly colorless eyes. He laid a hand on Mark’s shoulder, but his question was for Cougar. “What happened yesterday?”
So this is the ex-husband.
“We had a little run-in.” Cougar winked at the boy as he scratched his own smooth jaw. “Near run-in. Mark was lookin’ out for his cat, and I was looking at horses.”
“Yeah?” With one hand the man adjusted his white baseball cap by the brim—the Bread and Butter Bakery emblem identified him apart from the woman and her boy—while he tightened the other around Mark’s small shoulder and moved him two more steps into the store. “Where did all this happen?”
“The wild horse sanctuary. Are you…?”
“Mark’s father.”
Cougar drew a deep breath and offered a handshake. “The name’s Cougar.”
“What do you mean by run-in?” Handshake accepted, nothing offered in return. “Were you walking? Riding?”
“I
