Reading correctly there was more on Carli’s mind, and refusing to be in the hot seat for a game of twenty questions, Shaun said, “I should get to the barn. I won’t be back for dinner. In fact, Fiona and Ian will be at my place.”
Taking the temporarily speechless Carli as his ticket to bypass an interrogation, he closed the lodge door behind him and lengthened his stride around the log structure to the barn behind it. The sun had cleared the Ridge, and the temperature was above forty. It would be a nice day for a ride.
Ian had one arm wrapped around one of the rails of the round pen. “Mom said I should stay here, out of the barn aisle while J.J. saddled Lady,” Ian informed Shaun when he approached.
“Sounds like a good idea. I’ll check how things are going. Be back in a minute.”
Shaun co
