LJ was an odd choice all around. She was determined to hire the best person for the job, man or woman, but she hadn’t expected him to be so . . . big. She’d been the tallest girl in her class at five ten, but he towered over her by more than half a foot. Not the lanky kind of tall, either. Every inch of him was packed with muscle.

Not that it should matter. He didn’t seem like a creep, and that smile of his wasn’t the least bit threatening. It was mischievous and full of fun, brightening his whole body from his suspiciously clean cowboy hat to the tips of his scratched boots.

She hadn’t planned on going toe-to-toe with her overprotective father until after she hired someone. And it especially sucked that she’d had to do it in front of LJ. She should explain, but he probably wouldn’t be any happier to learn her dad’s objection was because he was the wrong gender instead of the wrong race.

Taz nosed through the hay until she found the lead rope, and then she backed away, ears laid back. LJ didn’t react, keeping up his whistling until the filly forgot the rope. Then he took his hands out of his pockets, hid the rope behind his back, and started playing a game with the horse that was somewhere between follow the leader and hide-and-seek. Andra smiled. It was similar to a game she played with her own mare, Gracie. When no one was watching, that was.

Even if he had witnessed one of her freeze-ups, she was glad she’d kept LJ around for the interview. He was the only candidate who’d answered her emailed questions by talking about horses instead of himself. And in those moments when she’d been helpless, locked up tight by a glitch in her own brain, he’d only moved to protect her.

LJ led the way through to the outdoor pen attached to the stall. He laughed as the filly trotted to follow, nosing around to see what he had hidden behind him.

Andra squared her shoulders. It didn’t matter what he thought of her, or even if he’d already seen her at her craziest. What mattered was if she could trust him with her babies.

For the next forty minutes, she watched his every movement. She’d found that you could tell a lot about a man by what he thought was wrong with your horses. As far as she could see, LJ couldn’t find a thing wrong with hers. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry, either. He spent the whole time playing games with Taz, sometimes with the lead rope he was supposed to be training her for, sometimes without. One thing was for sure, though: neither she nor the horse could take their eyes off him.

She cleared her throat. “That’s good for today.”