Summer Nights (Fool's Gold #8)(23)

He practically sagged with relief. “None taken. Not that you’re not appealing,” he added weakly.

“Of course. Practically keeping you up at night.”

One corner of his mouth twitched. “Just like I do you.”

“Right.”

She returned her attention back to her horse and continued to brush him. “She’s trying to help. Annabelle has a burr up her ass about me dating. God knows who else she’s talking to.”

“It’s not just me?” Shane raised his eyebrows. “I’m devastated.”

“I can tell.” She glanced over Mason at him again. “Although I would say Annabelle was more to your liking.”

Shane had been about to put his hat back on his head. He paused, almost comically, his arms extended in the air, the hat frozen in time.

“I, ah, I’m not sure what…”

“Is that so?” Charlie relaxed, knowing they weren’t talking about her anymore. Now she could afford to have a little fun. “Good to know. By the way, Annabelle is well-liked in town. Don’t hurt her or you’ll be sorry.”

He managed to set his hat on his head. “We’re not even dating and already you’re imagining we’ve broken up and it’s my fault?”

“She’s my friend.”

“I look after your horse.”

“It’s not the same.” She looked past him to the fenced-in area across the property. Priscilla stood where she always did, watching what was going on, looking as solitary as it was possible for an elephant to look.

“Your girl there needs a friend. Don’t elephants like companionship?”

He turned, following her gaze. “From what I’ve been reading, they do. I’ve tried the llamas, the donkey and a couple of the goats. She likes Athena, but they didn’t really bond.”

“What about one of your mares? Maybe the pregnant one. Priscilla might like to be a grandmother.”

Shane hadn’t been able to get an accurate read on how old the elephant was. Priscilla had come from a small circus that was disbanding. Her caretaker had guessed she was in her late twenties. Although elephants in the wild could live well past fifty, they didn’t live as long in captivity.

His research had given him information on the best way to care for Priscilla. In the past month, a pond had been dug for her and he’d brought in trees and plants for her. But he hadn’t been able to find her a friend.

“A pregnant mare is a good idea,” he told Charlie. “I’m going to try that.”

He walked toward Priscilla, wanting to check out the area next to her pen. As he approached, she shook her head and stomped her foot. Almost as if she were threatening him.

Shane paused. He had to admit he didn’t have a lot of experience with elephants, but he and Priscilla had always gotten along.

“What’s the matter, girl?” he asked, moving toward her more slowly. “You feeling okay?”

She raised her trunk and angled toward him. He stopped again. There was something familiar about what she was doing. A memory tickled in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite…

She was protecting something, he realized, looking around for whatever had gotten into her area. A small dog, maybe? A raccoon?

He eased forward, holding his arms at his sides so she didn’t think he was trying to make himself look bigger and more threatening. Not that she wasn’t the bigger mammal.

At first he didn’t see anything. Then he caught a flicker of movement. He eased forward, then crouched down.

“Damn,” he murmured softly. “You’re kidding, right?”

There, at the base of a tree, in a hollowed-out area in the trunk, was a cat and four kittens.

The mother was a calico, with tabby markings instead of black. Two of her kittens were tabby, one was a marmalade and the last was all black. They were tiny, maybe a week or so old.

Priscilla walked over to the tree, then bent down. Her trunk lightly stroked the cat. The cat closed her eyes and seemed to go to sleep.

He knew about the cats that came to visit when the goats were milked and this wasn’t one of them. She looked more feral than the goats’ daily visitors. He was also aware that while Priscilla would provide impressive protection and that there was plenty of water in the pen, the elephant was an herbivore. Whatever the mama cat was eating, she would have to catch it herself.

He stared at the elephant. “Because I needed one more thing?”

Her wise eyes seemed to crinkle with amusement.

He went back to the house, got some chicken out of the refrigerator, cut it up, then added cat food to the shopping list his mother kept. After taking the plate to the edge of the fencing, he slid it as close as he dared. Priscilla watched him warily, still standing guard over her new family.

He shook his head and walked away.

He’d gotten all of twenty feet when two SUVs drove onto the property and parked by the barn. What seemed like twenty, but was probably only five or six, girls spilled out and swarmed all around him.

“Are you really a cowboy?”

“Do horses bite?”

“Can I really learn to ride?”

“Can we braid the horses’ tails?”

“Do any of the horses have blue eyes?”

“What’s that smell?”