Sit. Stay. Love.

by Karis Walsh

  Alana gestured toward Lace and her puppies and grinned with the smug confidence of a player who had just drawn a royal flush. “Because if I leave Yakima, who’s going to save these poor dogs?”

  Chapter Six

  Tegan sat alone at the reception desk, creating a file for Alana and her dogs. Last night, she had intentionally set Alana’s appointment for the hour before the clinic officially opened partly to fit her into an already packed day, but mostly so the two of them could discuss what had happened at Chip’s in private. Now, she was wondering if she would have been better off with Dez present. Her sarcastic, phone-obsessed presence would have ensured that the conversation stayed focused on vet business and not on the personal details about Alana’s past. Then Tegan wouldn’t have gotten herself into this mess.

  She had agreed to go along with Alana’s crazy plan because her logic had been impeccable, even though she had been wrong about the reasons why Tegan wanted Chip to succeed. Mainly, she cared about the horses. Second, Chip seemed like a nice guy who cared about his animals and his community. The income generated by him as a client was far down Tegan’s list of reasons to help him.

  And third—which happened to be first and foremost on Tegan’s mind even though she tried to pretend it wasn’t—she felt the thrill of anticipation at the thought of spending time in close quarters with Alana. Even though she had been irritated by Alana’s incompetence the day before, she had looked for any excuse to touch her. To stand close and inhale the scent of her. If she could give in to those desires while helping Alana, the horses, and Chip, then why shouldn’t she?

  She wasn’t going to resist her desire to help Alana, and not just because she had agreed to keep the puppies if she stayed in the area. She seemed to have gotten a raw deal at her old job, especially since she had been willing to share the blame, and she needed Tegan’s assistance if she wanted to make this second chance work out. Alana was going about this career renewal plan in a convoluted way, though, and Tegan was certain she would eventually regret being pulled into the scheme. If Alana couldn’t learn enough by the time the pups were weaned and Chip opened his ranch, Tegan herself would probably be running back and forth, taking care of her clients here and leading trail rides at Chip’s until he found yet another replacement.

  She was going to insist on being part of his hiring committee next time.

  Alana had been determined to start as soon as possible, so Tegan had sent her out with a list of everything she would need for the puppies and for riding, including dog food, water bowls, and a safety helmet, promising to give her a riding lesson during her lunch hour. She figured the chances of Alana returning and not flying away while Tegan was in possession of the dogs were about fifty-fifty.

  At ten to nine, Dez arrived, somehow managing to unlock the front door, wave at Tegan, take off her coat, and log into her computer without looking up from her phone a single time. For once, Tegan didn’t feel her usual annoyance with Dez’s preoccupation. She was exactly the person she claimed to be, without any falsehood or pretense. No fudging, as Alana euphemistically phrased it.

  Tegan couldn’t accept Alana’s claim that everyone lied on applications. Her own case was admittedly unusual since she had never technically applied for a job. She had known she had a position waiting for her here with Dr. Peterson since she had been in middle school and had declared her intention to become a vet. And when he survived a minor episode with his heart five years ago, he said he was selling the practice to her and retiring before “the goddamned business” killed him. It hadn’t been the most convincing sales pitch she had ever heard, but the price he offered was too good to pass up. Now she was the boss, not the one filling out applications.

  “I have a question for you, Dez, just out of curiosity,” she said. She paused until Dez looked in her direction. “Do you think most people lie on job applications?”

  “Of course.”

  Tegan blinked in surprise. She had expected Dez to answer with some sort of sarcastic comment about being too wonderful to need to lie about it. She certainly hadn’t thought she would agree with Alana.

  “Did you lie on yours?” she asked, feeling much less confident with this question after Dez’s breezy affirmation of the first one.

  Dez sighed, as if Tegan’s insistence on talking to her was exhausting. “Remember during my interview when you asked if I liked the nonglamorous side of animal care, and I said yes, I loved doing anything with them, no matter how menial?”

  Tegan nodded, feeling a little sick to her stomach. “Yes. That’s the main reason I hired you. Wait, you weren’t lying, were you?”

  “Yesterday I cleaned dog shit out of the kennels, held at least ten thousand horses in the glaring sun, wrestled with a muddy pig so you could clean its ears, and trimmed the nails of three irate cats. It was the worst day of my life.”

  The last sentence was delivered in a droll tone as Dez returned to her swiping.

  Tegan huffed and turned back to her computer screen before swinging around again. “I can’t believe you lied.”

  Dez shrugged. “You could fire me and hire one of the people lining up outside the door, trying to get my job.” She leaned over and peered out the front window. “Oh, never mind.”

  Tegan laughed. They both knew she wasn’t going to call Dez’s bluff. If, in fact, she was actually bluffing and not hoping to be fired. Well, if so, she was going to be disappointed today. Tegan went back to typing, filling in the puppies’ weights and genders.

  “You know,” Dez said, initiating an exchange for once, “I haven’t seen the glamorous side of vet care yet. When is that going to happen?”

  “Today,” Tegan said, grinning over her shoulder at Dez. “There’s a flea-ridden dog in kennel five who needs a bath and a nail trim. That’s about as glamorous as it gets.”

  Dez got up with a long-suffering groan and went through the exam room and into the back of the clinic. Tegan smiled even wider when she heard Dez exclaim, “Ooh, puppies!” without even a hint of her usual world-weary sarcasm.

  * * *

  Alana returned before noon, walking stiffly in her new boots and riding jeans and clutching a helmet under her arm.

  “This shit’s expensive,” she said by way of greeting when she came through the clinic’s back door. “I’m just leading trail rides, not training for the Olympics, so did I really need to buy all these things?”

  Tegan looked up from the recently delivered box of vials she had been sorting. “Are you cranky, or nervous about riding?”

  “Shut up,” Alana said, but with a tight smile.

  “Both, it seems.” Tegan set the box on the counter and pointed at the boots. “You could wear the sneakers you had on earlier, but if you fall off, your foot might slip through the stirrup and get caught, meaning you’d be dragged along until the horse decides to stop.”

  She didn’t mention that Charm’s favorite activity was stop, so there wasn’t likely to be any dragging, but instead gestured at the jeans. She paused for a moment, admiring how well they accentuated Alana’s slender frame and long legs. What had she been saying? Oh, right. Jeans. “These jeans don’t have seams in the crotch, so they’ll be more comfortable for you.”

  She turned back to the table, fidgeting with the medications and hiding the flush she could feel spreading across her neck and cheeks. She really should steer clear of words like crotch around Alana. They made her thoughts spiral off topic and onto very unproductive tangents. She continued talking without looking at Alana.

  “The helmet protects your brain in case you fall. Wear it every time you ride, no matter what, and make sure everyone on your trail rides does, too.”

  “You weren’t wearing one this morning,” Alana pointed out.

  “I was hoping you hadn’t noticed,” Tegan said, turning back to face her with a guilty smile. “I promise I’ll wear it from now on. Are you going to be this argumentative during the entire lesson?”

  Alana paused, apparently giving Tegan’
s question some thought. “Yes. I need to know all the whys if I’m going to be explaining everything again to a group of beginners.”

  Tegan sighed. It was going to be a long month. “Fair enough. Let’s get started.”

  They walked across to the barn and stopped outside Charm’s stall. Tegan took her leather halter off a hook and handed it to Alana. “Remember how to put this on?”

  “Since yesterday?” Alana asked with a snort of derision. “I think I can remember that far back in time.”

  Tegan rested her folded arms on top of the stall door, ducking slightly to hide her smile as Alana stood next to the patient palomino and flipped the halter upside down and then right side up a few times. It took her a couple tries to get it buckled on correctly, but Tegan was impressed that Alana worked it out on her own without asking for help at the first stumbling block.

  “Good,” Tegan said, coming into the stall with Alana. “Buckle it one hole tighter, though. See, now it’s two fingers below her cheekbone. Too loose and it could get caught on something, and if it’s too tight it will rub against the bone. Okay, come on.”

  Tegan led the way to the arena, with Alana following behind. Technically, she supposed it was Charm who was following her. Alana just happened to be holding on to her lead rope.

  “Don’t I need a saddle?” Alana called out to her. This time, her question sounded less like an interrogation and more like a plea. “I don’t think I’m ready to ride bareback yet.”

  Tegan closed the arena gate behind them. “You’re not ready to ride with a saddle yet, either. You need to learn how to lead your horse properly, then how to groom and tack her. Then you can start learning to ride.”

  “I only have a month, you know,” Alana said, standing in front of Charm and stroking her forehead.

  “I know, but you’ll need to do all those things for your guests. That’s why this whole idea is ridiculous,” Tegan said, running her hands through her hair in frustration. Until she had started listing what Alana needed to learn, she had been focused solely on the riding aspect of their foolish quest. “We need to just tell Chip and forget about trying to—”

  “Whoa,” Alana said, putting her hand on Tegan’s shoulder and switching gears until she was the calm and reassuring one and not the nervous student. “See? I’m already picking up the lingo. I’m a quick study, so just teach me the first step, and we’ll go from there.” She pulled a tiny notebook and a pen out of her back pocket. “I’ll even take notes, and then I’ll be able to remember what you’ve told me to do when I practice at the ranch.”

  Tegan nodded. “Okay, step one. Never ride with a pen in your pocket. It’s a good way to stab yourself if you fall.”

  “No pens in pockets,” Alana murmured as she wrote it down and set the pen and notebook on a fence post. “A lot of your tips so far have included the phrase if you fall. It’s disconcerting.”

  “Noted,” Tegan said, tapping her temple. She smiled, enjoying the way Alana—who was the one learning a difficult new skill in a stressful situation—had made an attempt to put Tegan at ease when she had started to freak out. “I’ll be sure to find more soothing ways to phrase it, like when I teach you how to protect yourself if you and your horse mutually decide to part company during a ride.”

  “Yes, that’s much better,” Alana said, looking at Charm and shaking her head, as if they were commiserating together about Tegan’s sense of humor.

  “We only have forty-five minutes left before my next appointment, so let’s try to do a little of everything today. Why don’t you start by leading her around me in a big circle. Stay to one side, not directly in front of her. If a horse bolts or shies while you’re leading it, you’ll have a better chance of stopping it and not getting run over.”

  Alana changed positions quickly, with only a brief glare to let Tegan know her hypotheticals still needed some work. Tegan watched Alana’s stiff walk in silence for a moment.

  “You look like you’re about to be judged in a halter class at a show,” she said.

  “Is that a bad thing?” Alana asked, keeping her gaze forward. “I watched some videos online while I was waiting for you yesterday, and this is how the people were walking.”

  “Well, it’s not necessarily bad. Not if you really are about to be judged in a halter class in a show. But it’s too stylized for a hot summer day on a casual ranch. Here, watch me.”

  She took Charm’s rope from Alana and marched her around the ring. Alana laughed.

  “I wasn’t prancing,” she said. “You’re exaggerating.”

  Tegan smiled. “I was, a little. Now this is how I would lead her around. Of course, I’m still careful about how I hold the lead rope. You don’t want to let it get looped around your hand in case she takes off and the loop tightens. That’s a good way to lose a finger.”

  She asked Charm to halt next to Alana and handed her the rope again. Alana hesitated before taking it.

  “This seems to be a dangerous activity, what with all the bolting and falling off and losing of fingers. Although, in Charm’s case, it seems like you should be giving me instructions about what to do if she falls asleep or topples over.”

  Tegan patted the mare’s shoulder fondly. She had been a gift from her grandparents, given to her for companionship and solace after Tegan’s mother had made yet another unexpected and brief appearance in Tegan’s life. Nothing could replace her parents or make Tegan less affected by their sporadic visits, but the horse really had made the loneliness a little easier to bear.

  “She’s earned the right to rest,” Tegan said. “Someday, I’ll show you the boxes full of championship trophies and ribbons she won.”

  Alana smiled at her with a kind of understanding in her expression, as if sensing the depth of Tegan’s relationship with her animals. “I’d like that. And please don’t interpret what I said as a complaint. If I had to list my ideal qualities in a horse, sleepy would be near the top.”

  Alana walked away from Tegan, doing a fair impression of her more casual posture. Tegan taught her how to stop and turn the horse before calling her over to the fence.

  “We’ll groom her out here, using the fence as your hitching post,” Tegan said. She took the rope and tied Charm to the rail. “This is a quick-release knot. When I pull the loose end, like this, the whole thing comes undone. If one of your horses starts panicking while it’s tied, you can release them and…This isn’t funny. Why are you laughing?”

  Alana was bent over, with her hands on her knees. She stood upright again and brushed the back of her hand over her eyes. “You’re the gloomiest teacher I’ve ever had,” she said. “I feel like I’m getting riding lessons from Eeyore.”

  Tegan laughed, too, swinging the end of the rope and swatting Alana on the leg. “I’m trying to save your sorry ass by preparing you for anything that might go wrong.”

  “And I appreciate it,” Alana said, getting her notebook off the post. “Now, tie the knot again, but more slowly, and I’ll make a diagram.”

  Tegan tied the knot again, then showed Alana how to groom and saddle the mare. She tried to keep her doom-and-gloom comments to a minimum, but she couldn’t keep herself from giving advice about what to do if a horse tried to kick or bite or stomp on her. Even though Alana teased her relentlessly, she also paid attention to everything Tegan said, filling her notebook pages with diagrams, arrows, and sequential lists.

  Once Tegan was satisfied with the way Alana had saddled Charm, she led them into the center of the arena.

  “The last thing you do before mounting is check your cinch to make sure it’s tight enough. Now, don’t laugh.” Tegan poked Alana in the arm even though Alana didn’t seem to be amused anymore. The closer she got to riding, the quieter she seemed to get. “If your cinch isn’t tight, your saddle will slip when you try to get on, and you’ll end up underneath the horse. That’s a bad place to be.”

  Alana simply nodded and scribbled.

  “Okay, watch me,” Tegan said, stepping next
to Charm and swinging easily into the saddle. She sat for a moment, and then dismounted, handing the reins back to Alana. “Your turn.”

  “Are you sure?” Alana asked. “I’ll be good and listen quietly if you have some more ifs to share.”

  Tegan shook her head and patted the seat of the saddle. “Up.”

  Alana put her left foot in the stirrup and tried to hop into the saddle, but she lost her balance and swung back a step instead. Tegan was there immediately, catching Alana’s waist and moving her back into position. Her hands slipped under the hem of Alana’s T-shirt and rested on her warm, soft skin. She hesitated a heartbeat longer than she probably should have, but her hands seemed to melt into the contact, fusing her to Alana until she didn’t want to let go.

  Charm shifted slightly, and Tegan moved her hands lower. “Jump up, Alana,” she said, bracing against Alana’s rear and boosting her into the saddle.

  Tegan stood in silence, fighting to catch her breath and regain her composure. Touching Alana’s ass was right up there with talking about crotches on Tegan’s new list of ill-advised activities. Alana was flushed and panting slightly, too, but Tegan didn’t know if the cause was the nervous exertion of getting on Charm, or Tegan’s touch. The mare was the only one who seemed calm.

  “Well, you’re on a horse,” Tegan said, injecting a congratulatory tone into her voice and avoiding any mention of Alana falling off again. She pulled her phone out and checked the time. “We have…well, three minutes left.”

  “Three minutes?” Alana repeated, looking more relaxed now that she was on the horse. Or maybe she was merely relieved because the lesson was nearly over even though it had barely begun. “That ought to be enough time to teach me everything I need to know.”

  Chapter Seven

  Alana unplugged the heating pad and removed the cord before she tucked it under the towel on the bottom of the dog crate. The added warmth would keep the puppies snuggly during her drive to the ranch. The route was short enough that the pad wouldn’t have cooled completely by the time they arrived. Tegan had been cautious about having her transport the litter too much, but she had agreed they would be better off in Alana’s office where she could check on them frequently when she worked full days.