Page 45 of Texas Made
“The fire marshal will be out later. We were lucky that we had retrofitted the barn for fire prevention,” Marshall said when she tracked him down to tell him. “Otherwise the whole barn could have burned and the animals with it.”
“I don’t think luck had anything to do with it. I’ve heard Damaris say that the fire prevention was your idea and you had to talk everyone else into it.”
He shrugged. “They weren’t that hard to convince.”
“How bad is the damage to the barn?” It looked pretty grim but that could be more cosmetic than structural.
“Not sure yet.” He dragged a hand through his hair. His jaw was stubbled and his face was grimy and spotted with dirt and ash. He looked unutterably weary. She wanted to take him in her arms and soothe him, but she knew he wouldn’t accept it. Not right now when he was sick with worry.
“Harlan’s going to come back this afternoon and see what he thinks needs to be done immediately. The new one still has a lot of electrical work to be done, so that’s a ways off from being useable.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Again, he shrugged. “It is what it is. At least there were no deaths. And not a lot of injuries.”
“Will Cappuchino be all right? Do you know?”
“Jason thinks he will be.”
“But you’re still worried.”
“Sometimes they don’t heal as planned. And it’s likely to take a long time before he’s back to normal.” He looked at her, seeming to see her for the first time. “Are you leaving?”
She’d taken a shower and changed while Marshall was still at the barn. “Yes. I’m sorry but I have a meeting I can’t miss or reschedule.”
“That’s all right. It’s going to be crazy here for a while. I won’t have any time to spend with you anyway.” He paused and added, “I’m sorry about the weekend. About the ending, anyway.”
“It was wonderful, Marshall. At least it was until three thirty a.m.”
“Still. I’m sorry it ended like this.”
“I feel badly for leaving you when you need help.”
“We’ve got plenty of people around. Go. Text me when you get there. I might not answer straight away, though.”
“I will. Be careful.”
He kissed her, but briefly. She could tell his mind was elsewhere.
Chapter Eighteen
Marshall talked toJaclyn almost nightly over the next couple of weeks but they didn’t see each other. In fact, he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to go to Dallas. If she couldn’t come see him he didn’t know when they’d see each other next. But he couldn’t worry about that now. He had plenty to worry about right here at the ranch.
Harlan and his crew had just gotten the original barn back up and running. Marshall knew they’d done it in record time, but it still seemed like it had taken forever. He’d just checked on Cappuchino, who was healing nicely, but it was a slow process. Six to twelve months of rehab the vet had said. Luckily, he wasn’t competing in anything or it would probably take even longer. They had at least graduated from having to cool the leg in ice water twice a day. That had almost driven him crazy, with Cappuchino not liking it at all and, further, not allowing anyone but Marshall to take care of it. It was worth it, though. Whatever he had to do to get his stud back to his best.
“Marshall, are you going to see Jaclyn this weekend?” Damaris asked him.
“No. How can I? There’s no one else to take care of him,” he said, jerking a thumb at Cap’s stall.
“I can do it.”
“Thanks, but we tried that.”
“Yes, but we’re finished icing his leg, aren’t we?”
Damaris had offered early on to help with the icing of Cap’s leg but the contrary sucker wouldn’t go for it. “Yes, but he’s still pretty flighty. I’d better stick around.”
“Okay. Then why don’t you ask Jaclyn here?”
