For a while, it had been easy.Īfter her accident, the doctors had said Sam might suffer “complications.” When a girl fell from a galloping horse and her head was struck by a hoof, that was bad. When he’d first sent her to the city, Sam had been so angry, she’d tried to forget Dad. Plus, he walked with the stiff grace of a man who’d ridden all his life. And his first name was Wyatt, a cowboy name if she’d ever heard one. Translated, that meant he had no respect for men who didn’t understand the wild horses they were capturing and taking off the range.ĭad really talked like a cowboy.
“Shouldn’t use helicopters and trucks,” Dad muttered. Since he’d picked Sam up-literally off her feet in the middle of the airport-their conversation had bumped along just like this old truck. Relaxed and quiet, he was completely unlike the awkward man who’d come to visit in Aunt Sue’s polished San Francisco apartment. But the nearer they got to the ranch, the more he acted like the dad she remembered. She wanted to hear about the ranch and the horses and Gram. Every day of the past two years, an ache had grown under her breastbone. Sam cleared her throat and looked out the window at dull, brown Nevada. They go places even a chopper can’t.” Dad took one hand off the steering wheel to pull his Stetson down to shade his eyes. “Mustangs have their secret getaway trails. She sat inside her dad’s truck, but her knees shook as if she’d been running with the wild horses. “Wow! Where did they go?” Sam’s thigh muscles tensed. It banked into a turn and followed, but it was too late. He nipped and screamed, turning the mares in a wide U back under the helicopter’s belly, running to the hills and safety. Sam never imagined a horse could be so beautiful, but there he was. Then, from the back of the herd, a silver stallion raced forward. With a whirring sound, the helicopter followed. The helicopter swooped, ten feet off the sand, to block them. Sam knew the horses would find little shade and less water ahead, but they seemed to think of nothing except outrunning the men and their machine.
Sam wondered if the men hovering above could see each running horse, or only a flowing mass of animals.
Here and there ran foals, nostrils wide with effort. She saw a black horse shining like glass and two roans running side by side. As their hooves touched level ground, a helicopter bobbed up behind them.Īs she watched the herd, Sam saw one creamy mane flickering amid the dark necks of the other horses. Maybe she’d been away from the ranch so long, the desert sun was playing tricks on her eyes. The windshield of Dad’s truck was pitted by years of windblown dust. AT FIRST, SAM THOUGHT SHE was seeing things.
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