Page 39 of The Cowboy's Second Chance Bride

She shook her head. “I was just caught off guard by the intensity of my feelings. There’s no validity to the claim, and it can’t hurt my dad. Just me. Now that this Band-Aid has been ripped off, I won’t be blindsided by the next one.”

“I will never hold it against you should you decide to quit at any time. Got it?”

“I’m not a quitter. But thank you.” She smiled, but her eyes spoke to her sadness.

Off in the distance, an elk made a loud, wailing bugle sound. Sabrina jumped toward me. I twisted to the side to grab her horse’s reins, catching them just as the mare was about to take flight.

“Oh no!” Sabrina pointed to my horse beating feet out of the valley. “For such a large horse, he really is a scaredy-cat, isn’t he?”

I handed her the reins, then put two fingers in my mouth and gave a low whistle. “This usually brings him back.”

“So he’s done this before?” She arched a brow as she ran her hand up and down her paint’s neck.

“Once or twice.” I waited a beat and whistled again.

Nothing.

“Looks like he’s gone gone.”

“Ha,” she said. “You think?”

“Don’t laugh. We’re going to have to ride back. Together.”

Her smile widened as she mounted her horse. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. Two people can share a horse without it meaning anything, right, Cal?”

Either she did not feel our chemistry, or she was a master at hiding it. I would put my money on the latter. She might not want to be with me—breaking her heart had likely sealed our fate of being apart—but that didn’t mean we still didn’t have chemistry.

Sabrina patted the front of her saddle. “You can ride bitch.”

I gave her myAre you kidding me?look.

Her smile widened. “You can’t ride the skirt. Your feet will drag. You’re too tall.”

“Seems to be an issue for you,” I said.

“Not me. It’s not my problem. It’s yours.”

I studied her before making my decision. She was going to torture me regardless—sharing space did that to me. So I might as well do it in comfort. I grabbed the pommel like I was going to pull myself up in front of her but instead snaked my other arm around her waist and pulled her off.

She cried out. “Cal, what are you doing?” She toppled onto me, all legs and arms. I spun around, righted her, then planted her on her feet before snatching the reins she’d let go of and quickly mounting her mare.

“Now, who’s going to ride bitch?” I quirked a brow, my smile splitting my face.

She glanced at the rump, likely weighing her options.

“Sure, you can ride there,” I said. “We both know that’s not comfortable, but at least your legs won’t drag.” I held out my hand to pull her up. “Your choice.”

She took my hand. “You’re an asshole.” She stuck her foot in the stirrup over mine and let me lift her.

“So you’ve said.” I adjusted on the saddle so she had some space in front, but it was small, and when Sabrina took her seat, she was square in my lap. Her back was flush against my chest. Her spicy scent enveloped me. I closed my eyes and tried to gather my wits.

She looked over her shoulder and said in a husky, quiet voice, “Is there a problem?”

Hell yeah, there was a problem. Sabrina bouncing in my lap the forty-minute ride home was going to kill me. I was going to literally die from either a heart attack or an aneurysm. There was no way my blood pressure wasn’t absurdly high at the moment. I considered telling her I would slide back onto the rump, but she was right. My feet would drag, and my weight on the back part of the horse wouldn’t be good either.

“There’s no problem,” I said.

Yet. Give this ride ten minutes max, and we were going to have a problem. A hard one at that. It was going to be right there between us.

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