I shrug. "I was thinking about it."
"That's what you want to do with me today? Teach me how to ride a horse?"
"I thought you'd look pretty cute up on a horse."
"Cute, huh?" She laughs. "You know nothing about me." She presses a finger to my chest, and damn, I want her to press a whole lot more against that chest of mine, her body, her breasts – her tits are big and round. I feel a tension grow between us, and I wonder if she feels it.
I look down at her and she looks up at me, and fuck, I know she does.
"I want to teach you all sorts of things, Liv."
"Yeah?" she asks. "That means you're quite experienced?"
"In horse-riding? Sure. Other things, not so much."
She licks her lips. "Oh, I'd think a guy like you would be pretty experienced in a lot of arenas."
I swallow. "Well, there's a lot about me you don't know either."
She smiles softly. She surprises me by running a hand through my hair. "Your hair is a little long for a cowboy."
"That bother you?"
She shakes her head. "No, I like that I can run my fingers through it."
My breath catches. I'm fucking falling, hard, fast, for this girl, and it's trouble in the most incredible way. "Let me put you on a horse, Livingston."
She smiles. "I can't believe I'm going to say yes to this."
I take her hand and I lead her to the corral. "Are you scared?"
"Terrified," she admits.
I look back at her and I wonder what she's not saying, what story she can't tell me. "I have one request," she says. "That's all."
"Don't worry," I tell her. "I'm not putting you on that beast. That horse you've been staring at, that’s Flame. He was caught in a barbed wire fence about a month ago, and it soured him bad. His wounds healed, but he’s all pissed off now and won't let anybody near him. He’s in a hissy fit, and he's got reason for it."
“Will he be okay?” she asks, her eyes going soft.
I nod. “He just needs enough time to settle and try again. Can’t let him go too long or he’ll never get over his fear. Don’t want that to happen to this boy.”
"No," she says with a tenderness I wasn’t expecting. “We don’t want that.” She looks up at me. “But riding him wasn’t what I was going to ask about."
"All right. Well, what is it?"
"I was just going to say, I don't want to ride here. Not around the ranch. Take me out on a trail, farther away."
"You don't want to just trot around the corral?"
She shakes her head. "Please, no, I don't want anyone to see us, see me."
I swallow, trying to understand her. I would've figured she'd want to stay somewhere safe, secure, in a fenced off area, but she's pleading with me. "That's fine," I say. Then my eyes lift, and I think of something. "Hey, why don't we pack a picnic, grab a blanket, and go out on a trail? I'll take you to a nice place where we can have lunch."
She smiles. "Yeah, you'd do that?"
"It's my day off. Remember?"
She nods. "I can go pack us a lunch at the ranch house. You can saddle up the horses."
I smile, liking how she’s catching on to this cowboy thing. "Yeah. And I can find us a blanket."
She laughs. "We're not going to be doing anything underneath that blanket, though, right?"
I grin. "Sure, but you didn't say we couldn't do anything on top of it, now did you?"
She smiles. "You're trouble, Ledger."
"That's true," I tell her.
She shakes her head, her golden hair catching the sunlight as she moves. A fucking princess. "Meet me back here in 20 minutes?"
"Perfect," I tell her, squeezing her hand. "I'll get the blanket and saddle up the horses. You get the food and put on a pair of jeans. That little sun dress you're wearing, it won't do."
She smiles. "All right. Anything else I should know?"
"Yeah," I tell her. "I'm really happy to be taking you out on this date."
4
Liv
This was probably a terrible idea.
I should've just told Ledger the truth. That not only do I know how to ride a horse, I'm actually incredibly good at it.
But there was something so sincere in the way he looked at me, the way he offered to teach me, that it made me want him to be the one to get me back in the saddle. And when he was talking about that poor horse that had been caught in the barbed wire, fearing he’d go too long without being ridden and never ride again – I admit to getting scared that might happen to me too.
For the last month I've been too heartbroken to even consider putting my foot in a stirrup, too anxious to even consider the thought of settling into a saddle. But when Ledger suggested it, it didn't feel like I was betraying Chestnut. It felt like maybe I was turning a corner.