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“I’ll see you soon?” I asked but she didn’t answer. I didn’t push.

I CALLED HER the next day and in a flat voice she informed me she was fine. I didn’t ask if she wanted to see me.

I started thinking through things. I didn’t want to go back to Florida. I wanted to see my horses, train them, race them, but I didn’t want it all taken from me just weeks or months down the line. The Bureau had been able to get me a legitimate trainer’s license and I didn’t see why one couldn’t be issued to me on my own. I’d passed the trainer’s test. I’d even won a race already. Quitting the Bureau to train horses wasn’t necessarily a levelheaded, logical decision but horse people aren’t known for their level-headedness.

Two days after going up to rescue Ruby from Saugerties, I went into Headquarters and gave notice. No one really seemed to give a shit. There was too much going on. Terrorist alerts. A war-happy monkey for president. I proposed to buy my three claimers off and my boss, a not-so-friendly guy named Greg Langdorf, said he’d let me know. He seemed to think I was a bit soft in the head. I didn’t think that highly of him either.

No one at the Bureau seemed surprised by my announcement. The only one who had anything to say about it was Lenny, a guy I’d gone through the academy with.

“How will you live?” he asked me.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not gonna make any money,” he said.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I smirked at him.

“Hey, just stating the facts.”

“I don’t have a lot of overhead. And I soured on the Bureau a while ago. More than that though, I need to be around horses.”

Lenny didn’t really get it but I figured Ruby probably would. If I ever saw her again. For now, I decided I should just give her a lot of space. A few weeks’ worth.

I had just come back to the motel room to pack my things and head back to Florida to close up shop. My cell phone rang, and Cat, exhibiting a new neurosis, growled at the sound. I felt like growling at it myself until I saw the incoming number: Ruby’s.

At first she screamed at me. I’d never heard her outright angry. But I was sure hearing it now. I started grinning. I was glad she couldn’t see it. That would have made her even angrier.

I threw some food in Cat’s bowl then got in the car and drove to Ruby’s. Fast.

I don’t know what I’d expected, but she looked great. Her strength was back.

“You look great,” I said, venturing to peck her on the cheek.

“I do?” She seemed genuinely surprised.

“Yes.”

We sat on her couch. We looked at each other.

“I feel weird,” she said.

“I would imagine so,” I said.

“I don’t mean about Attila. I just feel sad about him. He didn’t deserve that. I meant I feel weird about you.”

“Oh,” I said.

“I’ve missed you,” she said in a very small voice.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. A lot,” she said.

It occurred to me that she had a funny way of showing it. But I didn’t mention her taking up with a crooked jockey.

“Attila just happened. I didn’t know where you and I stood. And he just sort of walked into my life and I let him. But it deteriorated as suddenly as it came on. I think it was over. And now of course, he’s dead.”

“I’m sorry, Ruby.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“No, I mean about not communicating better. I was, I still am crazy about you. I thought about you constantly when I was in Florida.”

“You did?”

“I did.”

“And now you’re going back to Florida.”

“No.”

“You’re not?”

“Well, I am for a short time. But I’m coming back here. I’ve quit the Bureau.”

“What?”

“Had to do it. It was just luck that I got two horse-related jobs in a row. Soon I’d be sent somewhere undesirable to do something repellent on behalf of a government I no longer wish to serve. I got horses in my blood and I need to tend to that.”

And the other thing I needed to tend to was her. The girl was in my blood as surely as those horses were. I leaned over and kissed her. I thought I would taste her grief. But I didn’t. She’d absorbed it already, contained it inside herself, in a place that wouldn’t taint what was between us.

I LOOK DOWN at her now. She’s still lying on her side with