Heartbreak Bronco by Terri Farley Page A

harmonica. Often the door stood open so that the evening breeze cooled them as they played cards or watched television.
    Tonight the door was closed. Light came through the windows, but Pepper and Tank were shy and Dallas was in the round pen, testing Jinx. Sam had a feeling the cowboys were as unsettled as Blaze by the arrival of Crystal and Amelia.
    Sam heard the jingle of spurs and slap of leather before the voice.
    â€œI know this horse,” Dallas said as he emerged from the round pen, leading Jinx.
    Before his words sunk in, Sam saw Dallas as the HARP girls would. He looked exactly as a ranch foreman should.
    Gray-haired and bowlegged, Dallas had the walk of a lifelong cowboy. He rode horses, whittled bits of wood into figures, and told details about local life in a way that made them sound like legends.
    Dallas had been on the ranch since Sam was born. Even though he didn’t share Sam’s attachmentto mustangs, most of the time he tolerated her feelings with good humor.
    Right now, he coaxed Jinx to stand still for a pat.
    The gelding was sweated up and nervous. He rolled his brown eyes until the whites showed, but Dallas pretended nothing was wrong as he petted the grulla’s neck.
    â€œYou know him?” Sam asked.
    â€œSure,” Dallas nodded. “Can’t be another grulla with a broken heart brand on his shoulder. Brynna told me not to brush him out. She wants you to do it tomorrow in front of the girls.” Dallas shook his head and gave a disapproving frown, then added, “He used to be called Jinx.”
    â€œHe still is,” Sam said. Though it was hard to believe Dad hadn’t told Dallas the gelding’s name, she guessed that was an example of the differences between them. Dad and Dallas saw horses as just another part of doing ranch business.
    â€œThe Potters got him years ago. I see he’s got a freeze brand, but I never knew he was a mustang. He musta been a yearling, or a little older when I first saw him,” Dallas mused.
    The Potters. Sam remembered the name from before her accident. She thought they’d had a child her age, but she couldn’t remember if it was a boy or girl.
    â€œDidn’t they move away?” Sam hazarded a guess.She almost remembered a conversation with Jake in which he’d tried to fill in some of what had happened while she was in San Francisco.
    â€œYep. They up and sold the Happy Heart Ranch and became millionaires.”
    The Happy Heart Ranch. Sam looked at the broken heart scar on the gelding’s shoulder. That name explained the brand, but then she thought of a big billboard she’d seen every day from the school bus window.
    â€œDid that have anything to do with the housing tract near Darton? Happy Heart Homes?” Sam asked, but Dallas was already nodding. “I always thought it was an embarrassing name,” Sam admitted. “But it used to be a ranch?”
    â€œâ€™Course.” Dallas nodded a few times, as if gathering momentum for a story. “Old man Potter was always a saving sorta guy.”
    â€œâ€˜Saving’? Do you mean he was stingy?” Sam asked.
    â€œStingy would be a compliment. Why, there was men refused to throw down their bedrolls near him on cattle drives. Afraid Potter’d steal the gold outta their teeth while they were sleeping.”
    Sam laughed. “And Jinx was a cow pony on the Potter ranch?”
    Dallas nodded. “Potter said he shoulda noticed the horse was a jinx right off, the way that colt acted. See,he had a habit of playing chicken with the fence.”
    Sam tried to picture that. “You mean he charged the fence and then—”
    â€œâ€”stopped just short of ramming into it,” Dallas confirmed.
    â€œThat doesn’t sound safe,” Sam said. Wooden fences could shatter into giant splinters. “What do you suppose made him do that?”
    â€œAt first, he was probably tryin’ to get up his courage to