Page 28 of Defending Casey

“It made sense to me. You were athletic. You were charismatic. It’s why so many girls wanted to date you when you got older and how surprised they were when you chose me.”

Hale turned and looked at her, studying her expression. It was a heady feeling to have a man that handsome focused directly on her. Heady and slightly arousing.

Yes, she was at her daughter’s school, but she was only human, and Hale? He was all man.

“You want to know when you caught my eye?”

That wasn’t something she expected to be asked.

And it certainly wasn’t something she wanted to pass up. “Yes. Of course!”

Hale looked around and walked her over to a portion of the covered walkway where some trees would give them a quiet place to stand as others continued to walk and drive past the curb.

When they stopped, he settled her back against the wall and kept hold of her hand as he leaned closer. “It was the day I saw you ride.”

“What?” She shook her head. “When was that?”

He grimaced a little and she couldn’t help but tense up, wondering what he was about to say.

“Claudia had a bunch of us over for a riding thing and we were out in her pasture when I saw someone riding in the distance. I didn’t know you back then, hadn’t even seen your face, but the way you rode was like you’d been doing it all your life.”

Chuckling, she agreed. “You know I did.”

“Well, back then I didn’t. All I could see was the way you moved with the horse. It was… beautiful.”

The look she gave him was a mixed one. Yes, she was thrilled at the compliment, but she was having a hard time understanding all of it. “Wasn’t Claudia just as good?”

That wince was back, and she now recognized it for what it was. After all, she got a sour look when she thought of Claudia too.

She could almost see the wheels turning in Hale’s head as he tried to come up with the right words.

“She had riding instructors,” he explained, even though Claudia made sure everyone knew about the things her father gave her, “Western, English, pretty much an instructor for everything and yet…” He hesitated for a moment. “She was really hard on her mounts. If I hadn’t seen you and wanted to stay longer, I would have suggested we head back earlier.”

“She had all those awards though,” Casey was struggling to put it all together, “but I never did see her ride up close. When she saw me out riding, she’d turn her mount and ride away. I always thought that she did that because she thought I was beneath her.”

“Claudia thought everyone was beneath her, but if there was one thing that told me I didn’t want to be close to her was that she didn’t care about her horses. She sawed on the reins even when the horse was already following her lead. She just wanted to control things and didn’t care what it meant for others.”

“And me? How was I different? Like you said, you hadn’t seen my face. You didn’t know who I was.”

“Oh, I had to find out who you were, Casey. It wasn’t hard since I worked part time for Mister Sumner at the feed store. But even though I hadn’t seen your face, I knew a lot about you by the way you rode. My mom taught me pretty much everything I knew back then. She had a light touch with her mounts. When she rode, she didn’t control the horse, she worked with it. You were the same way. Gentle. Sure of your hand. You rode with heart, Casey.

“I knew then that I had to get to know you. I had to get closer to you.”

Hale lowered his head and leaned in.

The heat, even in the shade, made her feel like she could melt into him.

It felt like the clocks had turned back in a heartbeat. Ten years fell away and suddenly she was young and in love with her first and only love and he… he was just about to kiss her.

Oh, please yes.

The school bell rang, its normally bright and brassy reverberation suddenly shrill and heart-stopping.

* * *

Hale stepped back,putting a good distance between them, and then regretted doing it.

Casey’s cheeks were pink with a blush that made him smile.

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