Christmas With the Mustang Man by Stella Bagwell Page B

Boone started striding away, Mick called out, “I will.”
    â€œFine,” Boone grumbled and continued walking.
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    Later that evening, after Dallas had spent most of the afternoon watching Boone work with the mustangs he was currently training, they returned to the house to findthat Marti had left a message for Dallas on the answering machine. Her truck needed a new injector pump and the part would have to be ordered, he’d said. And barring no major problems, the truck would probably be ready to drive in three days.
    Three days! By then it would be the twenty-third of December. To get home for Christmas Eve she’d have to drive straight through, and she wasn’t sure she was up to sitting behind the wheel of a truck for seventeen or more hours.
    Trying not to display her disappointment, Dallas sank onto the end of the couch. “Well, I guess I’d better let my family know what’s going on. They were expecting me to start back home today.”
    Boone gestured to the phone that was sitting on a table to the right of her. “Go ahead and make the call. I’ve got to drive to the school bus stop to pick up Hayley. I’ll be gone for a half hour, at least.”
    â€œThanks,” she said, then asked, “Is there anything I can do to help out while you’re gone?”
    His brows lifted. “Do you know how to cook?”
    She chuckled. “Not really. But I can try.” For lunch she’d dumped a can of tuna on a plate, added a few saltine crackers and a pickle and called it a meal. As for Boone, it was his food and his kitchen and he’d obviously been doing for himself for years, so she’d let him deal with fixing his own lunch.
    His mouth slanted to a wry smile. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix something later.”
    Dallas watched him leave the room, while thinking later meant after he got back with Hayley and after he fed and watered several corrals full of horses. Even if she wasn’t the best of cooks, she had to find some wayto help, she thought. It was the least she could do to compensate for her room and board.
    Sighing, she reached for the phone and dialed her brother’s cell number. Her first attempt to reach him failed, so she tried again, hoping the strange number wouldn’t put him off.
    Thankfully he answered the second time she rang and she sighed with relief when she heard her brother’s voice come over the phone.
    â€œLiam, it’s me, Dallas.”
    â€œDallas! Where in the world are you? That wasn’t your number on my caller ID.”
    â€œMy cell won’t work where I am right now,” she explained.
    â€œAnd where is that?”
    â€œI’m still on the White River Ranch.”
    â€œStill? I thought you were going to be loaded and leaving early this morning. Is anything wrong?”
    Dallas rubbed the heel of her palm nervously against the denim fabric covering her thigh. “Well…actually, there is. But don’t worry. I’ve got it all under control.”
    There was a long pause and then Liam’s skeptical voice sounded in her ear. “You’ve wrecked my truck, or the trailer—or both! Are you all right, Dallas? If you’re hurt—”
    Just the thought of anyone in the family being in a highway collision was enough to send Liam into a panic. He’d lost his wife, unborn child and mother-in-law all in one fatal moment when their car had crashed on a foggy mountain roadway. “I’m sorry, Liam, I should have told you right off that I’m perfectly okay.”
    He let out a long breath of relief. “Good. I can deal with any other problem. Even if you have crunched upmy new truck,” he added with a dose of affectionate teasing.
    â€œWell, the problem is the truck,” Dallas admitted. “But no—I didn’t wreck it. Something went haywire with it and a wrecker had to haul it from the ranch back into the closest town.