Jeannie Watt - Winning the Cowboy's Heart

Will had made some major headway with the mare by the end of the session. Sometimes with mustangs, especially older ones, it took almost twice as long to teach a concept, but once they got it, the knowledge was deeply engrained. He had yet to saddle her, but he had been able to rub her all over, desensitize her body, pick up her feet. He’d start again tomorrow and see what she remembered.

It had been a good day, made better by a phone call from the head brand inspector late that evening. Trev’s laid-back voice actually held a note of excitement. “We located Martinez’s horses.”

“You’re kidding. Where?” Kylie, who was settled at the kitchen table with her homework, glanced up, a hopeful expression in her dark eyes.

“Idaho. A total fluke, but, hey, we have them.”

“How about the thieves?” Will gave Kylie a thumbs-up and she grinned.

“We don’t have them.”

“Does Martinez know?”

“He’s already on his way north. I thought you’d want to know that we’re no longer batting zero.” No, but they were close to it. Six incidents of horse stealing in the past six months and this was the first recovery. Trev filled in the details and then said, “Heard about Kylie today. Pretty funny.”

“Yeah.” Funny if it wasn’t your kid who’d popped the school bully in the eye. Fortunately, she’d lived to tell the tale. Kylie’d always been a pretty good sprinter. “Hey, I need a favor. I’m looking for a pleasure mount. Would you let me know if you hear of anything?” Will scuffed his boot along the floor as he spoke. Kylie’d forgotten to sweep again.

“For Kylie?”

“No. I have a friend who’s looking.” Or, more accurately, he wanted to make peace with his daughter’s teacher and this seemed like a good way to do it.

“I’ll let you know. I think McKirk might have some horses for sale. He was talking about reducing his herd, now that his kids are in college. What price range?”

“Not a clue. Just let me know if you find anything.” Will hung up a few seconds later and turned to face an incredulous daughter.

“Is it Miss Flynn? Is she the friend who’s looking for a horse?”

“It’s an expression.”

“Good. I don’t want you to be friends with my teachers.” Kylie gave a shudder.

“I’ll try and be careful about that.”

ALL OF THE SQUID WERE MISSING.

Instead of creating a hot-weather biohazard in the school Dumpster, Regan had stored them in the staff freezer on Tuesday, planning to throw them out on trash day. And now they were gone.

Regan shut the freezer and tried to ignore the sinking sensation in her midsection. Perhaps the custodian had seen the gross creatures and disposed of them. Or Pete had found them and tossed them before another one hit him in the face. There could be no other explanation.

Regan caught sight of Tanya’s distinctive blond hair through a crowd of students moving down the hall to their class. With some careful maneuvering, she managed to catch up with her friend.

“Do you think eight missing squid are a problem?”

Tanya stopped dead, forcing the current of students to flow around them. “Here at school?” Her blue eyes widened. “No, Regan. No problem at all.”

But the morning passed without any strange incidents and Regan was able to convince herself that the custodian had indeed cleaned out the freezer. Kylie had initially aroused her suspicions by being uncharacteristically subdued, but as the class wore on, Regan decided that the girl was merely distracted.

“Are you all right?” Regan asked after the bell.

“I’m fine.” Kylie’s expression was not friendly. “Did you know that my dad is trying to find you a horse?”

“He is?” If Kylie had thrown out the statement to sidetrack Regan from thinking about squid, the strategy had worked beautifully.

“Yeah. But I don’t think you should read anything into it.”

Regan cocked her head at the kid. “What could I possibly read into it?”

“Maybe that he was doing it because he likes you. That isn’t why he’s doing it.”

Regan managed not to laugh and say, I’ll try not to get my hopes up .

“I expect he’s doing it because he knows the horses around here,” she suggested instead.

“Yeah. And he doesn’t like it when people get horses they can’t handle. That’s how horses get hurt and ruined, you know.”

Regan gritted her teeth. Thank you for the vote of confidence, Mr. Bishop .

She drew in a sharp breath. “You can tell your father that I’m buying a horse from Madison White and that I’ll do my very best not to ruin him.”

Kylie nodded gravely, missing Regan’s irony. She picked up her books and left the room.

Regan gathered her materials for the next class. She wasn’t going to think about Will right now. No sense taking her frustrations out on an innocent social studies class.

At the end of that class Regan discovered her overhead projector was no longer working. A quick investigation revealed that the bulb was missing.

A strange day was getting stranger. Someone had stolen it, and quite recently, too, since she’d used the machine just before lunch.

Who would want to steal an overhead projection bulb?

Regan rushed to the office between classes to get the key to the supply room. The student aid looked at her with surprise. “Mr. Domingo doesn’t give out the key. He opens the supply room himself.”

Regan let out an exasperated breath and set off to find Mr. Domingo, the supply Nazi. He was in the gym, counting uniforms.

“There’s only one more period,” he said when she explained that she needed a projector bulb. “Can’t you make it?”

“No. I need my overhead to teach the lesson.” She stared at the uniforms. “Are you putting those in numerical order?”

“It’s easier to keep track of them that way,” he muttered. “Come on.” Pete marched out of the gym and down the long, dark hall that led to the supply closet. He turned the final corner ahead of her and then let out a sharp cry and swatted wildly at something that appeared to be attacking his head.

Regan gasped as Pete reeled backward, cursing and thrashing, until he finally tripped over his own feet and ended up flat on his butt in front of her.

Several of the…things…seemed to fly off him as he landed, and then a familiar smell hit Regan’s nostrils. Squid. Quite possibly freshly thawed.

Domingo glared up at her. A limp tentacle was stuck to his shoulder. Another was attached to his back. Several other squid parts were suspended from the doorframe above him.

He flicked the tentacle off his shoulder, radiating fury. Regan tried to think of serious things—SATs, mortgage payments, the nightly news. It wasn’t working.

“Who had access to these squid?” he demanded, wiping a smear of slime from his face.

“I don’t know. I was keeping them in the staff freezer and planned to throw them out on trash day, but…they were missing this morning.”

“Why didn’t you report this?” His face was dangerously red.

“You want me to report missing squid?”

“This wouldn’t have happened if you had. You are responsible for this.”

The bell rang. Regan pulled in a deep breath. “No, Pete. I’d say you’re responsible. Maybe if you weren’t so over-the-top with your discipline policy, you wouldn’t be covered with squid parts right now.”

“You can’t talk to me like that.”

Regan flicked a piece of slippery cephalopod off the wall. “I need to get to class. Are you all right?”

She was rewarded with a furious look, which she took as a yes.

“There will be no more seafood in this school!” Domingo shouted as she rounded the corner without her lightbulb. She decided then and there she’d bring shrimp salad for lunch every day for the rest of the month.