poured coffee into a mug, took a sip. Then another. “Some people stay mad a long time, sweetie.”
“I don’t.”
“You’re lucky. Come on,” he said, jerking his head toward the stove. “I’ll make breakfast. You set the table.”
“Pancakes?”
“You bet.”
Maddie set the tiny fold-out table while Kade whipped up pancakes from a mix and started cooking dollar-size cakes in a cast-iron frying pan. Maddie loved the trailer because everything was small. She thought it was like living in a dollhouse, whereas Kade was getting a bona fide case of cabin fever after only a week. But he wouldn’t sleep in the house. He hated the feel of the place, could still feel his father’s malevolent presence.
“I want to see the blue horse before I go.”
“He’s not really blue, Maddie,” Kade replied as he flipped pancakes. His nerves were still humming from his encounter with Libby. She hadn’t changed much. She was still full of fire. Still beautiful with all that long curly hair and those flashing blue eyes. And she had obviously been unnerved by meeting Maddie.
Not that there was a chance in hell that her feelings toward his child would matter one way or the other. Libby was not, by nature, the trusting kind, and he’d done more than break her trust. He’d decimated it. But she’d also done a number on him, too, when she’d told him she wasn’t sure she wanted to get married.
“I know he’s not really blue,” Maddie replied airily, bringing his attention back to her. “He’s a blue roan. He has black and white and gray hairs mixed, and it looks like he’s blue.”
Maddie had had blue roans on the brain ever since Kade had told her about Blue, the stud his grandfather had given him when he was fifteen. He hadn’t told her about setting the horse free, since that was both illegal and frowned upon, instead letting her think that Blue had escaped on his own and joined a band of mustangs.
“And he’s far away. It’s a long ride.” Kade slapped half a dozen small pancakes onto a red plastic plate, handed it to his daughter, then started pouring more batter into the frying pan.
“I can make it,” Maddie said as she covered her pancakes with syrup.
“Maybe you can, but can Sugar Foot? You’re getting pretty big and riding double might be kind of hard on the old girl.”
“Da-ad.”
Kade smiled in response to her disgusted tone. He hated what his long-ago mistake had done to Libby, but never for one instant had he regretted his child. And he was doing the best he could to be a decent father, even though he didn’t have a lot of experience in that area. At least he’d hung around with his friend Menace’s huge family and Jason Ross’s smaller one enough to have some experiences of what a real family was supposed to be like.
“Maybe when I get my other horse we can ride out and see if we can find Blue.”
“Cool. When are you getting your other horse?” Maddie asked, practically bouncing in her seat. They’d been over this before, but Kade patiently repeated himself.
“As soon as I sell this place.”
“And then you’re moving back up by us, right?”
“Yeah.” I hope. It was also possible he’d have to go wherever he could find a decent job or—and he’d just started playing with this idea—where he could go to school. Get some training.
“And then I can ride the new horse all the time. Whenever I ask Mike for a horse, he says we don’t have room.”
“He has a point there, kiddo. Not many horses like living in a small backyard.”
“We can board him.”
“That’s expensive.”
“Mike’s rich.”
Not really, though compared to Kade he was. Kade refrained from commenting.
“Maybe when you move back, I can keep my horse with you?” Maddie held out her plate for seconds, having inhaled the first batch of pancakes.
“It may be a while before I get my own place.”
“I thought you’d be rich when you sell the house. You know, like you used to be.”
Or had thought he was.
“I wish,” Kade said. But if all went well, he should have enough to invest in a smaller property and pay for some kind of training. It just might not be in the immediate Elko area. “But no matter what, I’ll be close enough that we’ll get our time together, right?”
Kade’s cell phone rang just as he sent Maddie off to shower. She lingered at the door, shamelessly eavesdropping.
“This is Joe Barton of the Zephyr Valley ranch,” the man on the phone said without bothering to include a hello. “We met at the feed store.”
“I remember.”
“I apologize for being brusque then, but …”
“I understand,” Kade said. “Zero tends to be enthusiastic.”
“Yes. Exactly. And I didn’t know you from Adam. Didn’t connect the name until later. Anyway, would you be interested in riding some colts for me? I have three that need some miles.”
“I’m waiting to hear on a job.” Or three. “I’m not sure how much time I’ll have if it pans out.”
“I’m flexible. I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Zephyr Valley—” it almost hurt Kade to call the old Boggy Flat by that name “—is quite a drive from here. I’d want to have the colts here at my ranch while I’m riding them.”
“What are your facilities like? I don’t keep my horses in barbed wire.”
“Then I guess you won’t be keeping them here, unless they all stay in the one corral and you provide hay. My pastures have wire fences.”
“Do you mind if I stop by and see where you’d keep ‘em? Maybe iron out some details?”
“Sure. I’ll be home all day.”
“What do you charge a month?”
“A grand per animal,” Kade said without hesitation. He had a feeling Joe Barton wanted to tell people that world champion cowboy Kade Danning had finished his colts. And he’d discovered over the years that some people didn’t feel as if they were getting quality anything unless they paid through the nose.
“Nine hundred, if I provide the hay.”
“Agreed.”
“Who was that, Dad?” Maddie asked from the bathroom doorway.
“A guy who wants me to ride some colts for him.” And
