The Reluctant Wrangler Read Online Free PDF

thank her.” She turnedto Darla. “It was nice meeting you. Both of you,” she added, turning to the man.
    “You, too, Nikki,” Darla said, “and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of each other. Jules could get the rolls and desserts cheaper if she’d go directly through Kate, but she likes to help keep us in business.”
    “You do fine,” the man said. “Not another town around has a café as popular as this place.” Turning to Nikki, he touched the brim of his gimme cap, emblazoned with the name of a hybrid wheat brand. “Gerald Barnes. If you need anything, you just let me know. I’ve lived here all my life and will probably die here. Suits me just fine.”
    Nikki smiled and thanked him, then followed Mac outside. “They’re nice people,” she said, climbing into the truck and closing the door.
    Mac set the boxes between them and then settled behind the steering wheel, his mouth pulled down in a deep frown. “Desperation has a lot of nice people, in spite of a few who have their own opinions about the boys at the ranch.”
    As he pulled away from the curb and headed the pickup down the street, Nikki wondered if she might be able to get some idea of how people in Desperation felt about her mother. If most, like Gerald Barnes, had lived there all their lives, someone had to remember her. Nikki hoped what they remembered wasn’t as bad as she suspected it might be. Sally Rains O’Brien had been a wild child, something Nikki knew her mother still regretted.
     
    L EANING AGAINST the top rail of the fence surrounding the corral, Mac watched and listened. He hoped Nikki wasn’t as nervous as he was about this first riding lesson.These weren’t simple schoolboys. Some of them had been in trouble with the law, and some of them came from troubled homes. Inexperienced with boys, he hadn’t spent a lot of time with them, although he’d been at the ranch a week before they’d arrived two weeks ago. Jules and Bridey had watched over them before Nikki had been hired. There hadn’t been a lot of time for Nikki to spend with the horses, either, but from what he could tell, she knew what she was doing.
    Nikki stood in the middle of the enclosure with the gentlest of the horses. The chestnut mare stayed steady as Nikki walked around her, pointing out the different areas of the horse.
    “When are we going to ride?” Billy asked.
    She gave him a smile that would have melted any boy’s heart. “It may be slow going for you for a while, Billy. I know you’ve spent time with horses, but I’d like to start with the basics for the others. The more we know about horses, the better we can ride them. Don’t you agree?”
    It was clear that Billy was disappointed, but after a quick duck of his head he looked up to smile at her. “Yeah.”
    Mac was impressed by the way she stuck to the basics, while somehow making it interesting, even for him. The boys seemed to hang on her every word, watching how she touched the animal, handling the mare with respect. He knew from his own experience that treating a horse well—whether it was a Thoroughbred, a quarter horse or even a mule—would bring out the best, not only in the horse, but in the rider.
    He watched as she demonstrated how to approach a horse, how and where to stroke it and even how to give a carrot treat without the risk of a finger getting in theway. Even Leon and Benito, who found everything either dull and boring or beneath them, seemed fascinated.
    “Do you know any tricks?” Kirby asked.
    Nikki turned to him, her smile softer with him than with any of the others. “A few.”
    “Will you teach us some?” Leon asked.
    “When you and your horse are ready.”
    “When we have enough horses, you mean,” Benito added, the disgust in his voice clear even to Mac.
    She glanced at Mac before answering Benito. “They may arrive this weekend, so it won’t be long.”
    His frown deepened. “We been here for two weeks.”
    Not meaning to, Mac tensed. Benito’s