Page 33 of Property of Rio

I burst out laughing, which was no doubt her intention. “Come on, let’s sit over here and eat before you start playing with the horses.”

“You’re timing me, right?” she questions.

“Definitely, Issy,” I reply, sitting next to her so I can kiss her temple.

“Fuck, she’s fast,” I murmur as Issy crosses the imaginary finish line. Looking down at the stopwatch, I call out in excitement, “She’s hovering around fourteen seconds, Issy.”

“Gotta get it down,” she replies. “This is gonna be her year, Rafe. I can feel it.”

“Maybe if she lays off the apples?” I query, making her laugh. “Actually, you know she always seems to perform well with a crowd cheering her on, so it’s probable that she’ll be at least a second faster during an actual race.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” she says. “What if we inject some background audience sounds, containing clapping and hollers through the sound system, Rafe? I’m sure we can download some, right?”

“That might work,” I state after mulling it over. “Let me get Pokey on it for you since we have videos of past rodeos here on hard drives that he can pull from.”

“Have you heard back from the association about the next rodeo here?” she questions.

“Probably won’t be until later on in the year, since they want to schedule the shows in the areas where the weather gets a bit iffy since we’re relatively temperate in these parts year-round,” I tell her.

“At least it’ll be after foaling season, since I’m hoping to help Pancho and Luis with that,” she replies.

“I need to put you on the ranch’s payroll,” I tease.

“No, you don’t,” she protests.

“You’re right, I don’t, because as my ol’ lady, I’ll always take care of you,” I advise, leaving no room for argument. “But I know you do a lot around here, Issy, and you should be compensated for what you do. Plus, you give lessons as well.”

“Which I get paid for, remember? Usingyourranch at that!” she exclaims, her hands on her hips. “As long as I have money to take care of things I need, I don’t have to be rolling in it, Rafe.”

I shake my head because the club as a whole does very well with all of our ventures, both the legit and somewhat gray area’d ones, plus the ranch itself is beyond profitable since we offer stud services, as well as mares for those who have their own studs they want to breed into championship lines. We also board horses. Paps definitely knew what he was doing all those years ago, because even if we didn’t have any businesses outside of what the ranch offers, all of us would be doing well financially.

So, even though Issy is content, she has no clue what dollar power she truly has backing her. Since I love spoiling her and plan to do so as often as I can get away with it, without her fussing at me, I’ll be paying close attention to things she notices. I might even see if Pokey can hack into her wish list… because like most women, she has an extensive one with a variety ofitems, from Funko pops of characters she likes, to books, to boots and western wear.

“We’ll agree to disagree, Issy, okay? Just don’t yell at Chick if he comes and asks for your banking information so he can get you set up on direct deposit.”

She rolls her eyes at me then shrugs. “Whatever you think is best, Rafe, because I know at the end of the day, you’re gonna do what you think is best anyhow.”

“Where you’re concerned? Absofuckinglutely,” I growl out. “Now, let’s run her through again.”

NINETEEN

Isla

Being with Rafe today, hanging out with him as I work the horses is more than I expected and anticipated. Sometimes, I forget just how knowledgeable he truly is because he’s more focused on leading his club instead of riding these days. Still, at the end of the day, I feel like I have the best of both worlds because he rides horsesandbikes, so he’s a cowboy biker. Although I wouldneversay that out loud to him.

As I lead Stargazer around the corral in a canter to cool her down, I call out, “How was the last run?”

“About the same,” he replies. “But I’ve already texted Pokey and he’s working on creating something we can play through the sound system to see if that’ll help her times.”

“I really think it will, Rafe. Now, let’s go get Starlight out and I’ll put her through her paces.”

“You’re such a rough taskmaster,” he jests, making it to my side and kissing me.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet, baby,” I reply, referencing a song we used to sing back and forth when we were learning tricks on the horses. I truly love the history we have together, and I suspect it’s just going to make our relationship that much better and sweeter in the long run.

I get Starlight warmed up while Rafe cues up the music I’ll be using for her routine then when he motions to me, I start. One of the challenges of dressage is the rider isn’t permitted to use any vocal or verbal cues. My years of racing Starlight has allowed us to transition rather well to the sport that relies on executing precise movements with almost imperceptible signals from the rider. She responds beautifully as usual, and I know Rafe is recording us so I can analyze our routine later.

Once time is up, I let her cut loose with the barrels even though we no longer compete on the circuit. “Fuck, she’s still as fast as she was before you retired her,” Rafe yells when we cross the finish line.

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