“Who might want to get even with you or cause trouble?” I knew Scarborough didn’t have disgruntled employees, because it was just him here on the ranch. He did whatever he needed himself because help would require him to pay them.

He stood still, and I took a few seconds just to watch him and wait for some sort of response. Scarborough had spent his entire life outside, working hard, and it showed in every muscle in his body. I had been to the city and seen guys whose bodies came from gyms, with their perfect bubble butts and chests that seemed to sprout plates. But Scarborough wasn’t like that. His was a body of a life of hard work, with corded muscle and a compact strength from lifting bales of hay and splitting enough wood to heat the house for the winter.

His jeans were old and maybe a little threadbare in places, hugging his legs and backside like a second skin. I knew it was a bad idea to be looking at my neighbor that way, but what the hell? He seemed lost in his own thoughts for a few minutes, and I sure as hell could let my own mind wander. It didn’t hurt anything, and I didn’t have any illusions that Scarborough was going to suddenly wake up and realize that I was his dream guy. He wasn’t going to open his arms and change his ways at the drop of a hat—or because of a single longing look across a paddock. That sort of thing was not Scarborough Croughton in the least.

“I don’t know,” he finally answered, then turned away, going about cleaning up the rubber snakes and checking the last of the paddock.

Not that it was likely that he was going to be able to put Black Beauty in this paddock. He was going to remember, and it would only make him nervous again. At least he seemed to be eating now and drinking some, which meant that the panic in him was over. But this afternoon’s incident had made my job a little harder, and I was going to need all the patience I could muster to try to help that horse—and Scarborough, for that matter.

“Keep an eye on him, and I’ll get the paperwork sent over right away. I should have some time in a few days.”

He nodded. “I’ll do my best to try to keep him calm and see if maybe he’ll forget some of this incident.”

That was our only hope to get him past whatever trauma had left the horse so full of fear that he’d spook like that. I also wondered what could have happened to Scarborough to make him withdraw from everyone the way he had too. I wondered which of the two would be easier to understand in the end.