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Jodie released the head gate and swung the exit open, then led Ripple out while Arden checked the chute’s rotating frame and locking pins. Ripple took a few steps, favoring the foot just enough that Jodie could see it now that she knew what to look for.

And there it was—that little click in her brain when observation became information.

She’d forgotten how much she liked it. Not just helping an animal feel better. Figuring out why it hurt in the first place.

Arden carried a shallow rubber soaking boot from the tack room and set it beside Ripple’s stall. “You miss it.”

Jodie looked up from measuring warm water into a bucket. “Miss what? Working with horses?”

“Vet work.”

Jodie poured the water into the boot. “What do you mean? I still work with animals all the time.”

“You spoil Watchdog dogs all the time. That’s not the same thing.”

Jodie side-eyed her. “Excuse you. My duties are highly technical.”

“I’ve seen you administer cheese.”

“It’s a highly effective medication delivery system.”

Arden snorted. “I won’t argue that.” She handed her the bag of Epsom salts. Jodie measured some into the water and stirred until most of it dissolved. Ripple watched the preparations with deep suspicion.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she told him. “This is not even in the top ten worst things a human could do to you.”

Ripple shifted, and Jodie rested a hand against his shoulder before reaching for his left front foot. Jodie guided Ripple’s hoof to the soaking boot, then lowered it carefully until he put his weight down on it, deciding the warm water was not, in fact, an assassination attempt.

Arden leaned against the stall door, one hand braced at the small of her back. “You know, I was supposed to be a vet.”

Jodie glanced at her. She knew Arden had veterinary training. She’d known Arden’s father had been a veterinarian, too. But there was a difference between knowing the facts of somebody’s life and hearing them tell it.

“My dad wanted me to take over his practice,” Arden continued. “That was the plan. I was in college, working toward veterinary medicine. Finish school, come home, work with him. Eventually take over the practice and the ranch when my parents were ready to slow down.”

She took a deep breath. “And then they were gone. A car accident.” Arden said it simply. “I had a choice. Sell the ranch and stay in school, or come home and run the ranch. I came home.”

“You never went back.”

“Not for veterinary medicine.” Arden reached down and adjusted the top of the boot around Ripple’s pastern. “I kept taking classes remotely. One or two at a time. Eventually got my social-work degree, which turned out to be pretty damn useful for what I wanted the ranch to become.”

Jodie smiled. “Understatement.”

Arden’s therapeutic program had grown far beyond what anyone could have predicted when she’d started it. Kids, veterans, people who’d been through any number of traumas and needed somewhere quiet and safe to remember that the world wasn’t always coming at them.

“And you don’t regret it?” Jodie asked.

Arden shook her head. “No. I might still finish vet school someday. Who knows? The twins will eventually go to school and I can consider going back. But I’m not sitting around thinking I ruined my life. I like my life.” Arden scratched Ripple’s neck. “I use what I learned every week. And when I need an actual veterinarian, I call one.”

Ripple tried to pull his foot out of the soaking boot.

“Nope,” Jodie told him. “You’re staying.”

He sighed dramatically.

“I know. I’m so mean.”

Arden smiled, but it faded as she watched Jodie work.

“Sean never understood it.”