Page 58 of More Than Anything

“The black one belongs to Dixie. The brown set belongs to Buttercup,” Avery told her. “Have you decided?”

“Yeah. I want Buttercup,” she told him, reaching for the brown saddle.

“Works for me.” Avery had sort of hoped she’d choose the palomino. Dixie was a bigger horse, and he’d actually picked her out for himself before he’d even seen Buttercup. “Here,” he said, handing her a blue saddle blanket with big silver stars all over it.

“Wow! That’s pretty. Where’d you get that?”

“At the farm store. I bought it for you. It reminded me of your eyes.”

Lydia smiled as she threw the saddle up onto the horse’s back. “But when you bought them, you didn’t know I’d want to be here.”

“No, but I was hoping. Looks like it paid off,” he said with a chuckle and a wink in her direction.

“Guess so.” She went about saddling and bridling the horse and Avery watched her, grinning the whole time. God, she was beautiful! “Oh, I guess I should do this.” He watched as she pulled a ponytail elastic from her pocket and captured her long hair in it before she took the reins and led Buttercup out into the lot. “You about ready?” she asked, and he watched her mount the horse and check all her tack.

“Yeah. Got it,” he called out, then led Dixie out and climbed aboard. “Ready to go. Since they’re new and don’t know us, let’s take it easy today, okay?”

“Oh, I can’t do anything else. Too damn sore!” she laughed, fidgeting in the saddle.

“Sore, huh?” he laughed.

“Yeah, sore. Somebody’s been ridingmehard!” she laughed over her shoulder.

“Yeah, and you weren’t complaining, as I recall,” he pointed out.

“Point well made. Looks like we’ve got company.” A half-dozen of the cows meandered toward them, curious about the humans they knew being taller on top of the horses. “I’m pretty sure the ones GrandpaSirus left have never seen a horse.”

“Well, they’ll be seeing horses now. Y’all run on,” he told the cattle, laughing at them. “You’ve already been fed!” They laughed as they rode out across the pasture, two of the youngest of the heifers following them.

Most of the midday was spent on the horses, with Lydia declaring Buttercup the best horse in the world. That made Avery laugh, especially since he’d seen Dixie in action and knew she was a great cutting horse. By early afternoon, they’d brushed the horses down and turned them out to pasture, then headed to the house for some lunch.

But lunch devolved into a makeout session, and by late afternoon, they were out of the shower and back in bed again, acting silly and trying out different positions. “I think we’ve gone from making love to fucking each other’s brains out,” Avery gasped.

“Looks that way. Is that a complaint?” Lydia asked, rocking to and fro as Avery pumped into her from behind.

“Hell no! I’m not complaining a bit. Oh, god, I’m gonna, yeah, yeah, OH YEAH!” Avery yelled out, slapped her on the ass, and buried himself in her, then ground down hard. “Yeah! Another quart! OPEC ain’t got nothin’ on me, girl!” he laughed out as he fell beside her on the bed.

She lowered herself onto her chest and dropped her knees out from under herself unceremoniously, plopping down beside him, her chin resting on his chest. “You’re damn good in the sack, boy, I tell ya,” she said, her head bobbing up and down as she talked with her chin anchored on his collarbone.

“And you’re silly,” Avery told her, grabbing her and tickling her, listening to her shriek and laugh as he kept it up.

“Avery! Stop, Avery! Damn it! Stop it!” she screamed and batted at his hands until he finally just wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her to him. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Damn, would you look at that,” he said, pointing to the clock. “It’s almost time to feed the cows again. We’ve fucked away the whole day?literally,” he laughed.

“Oh, shit! I should probably check my phone. I bet Bill’s looking for me,” she said, grabbing her phone. “Yeah. I’m in trouble now.” He watched as she hit something on her phone screen and said, “Yeah, it’s me. What? Oh, yeah, that’ll be okay. Their closing is set for the twenty-third. No problem. No, just been working. Trying to get some new leads,” she lied, then winked at Avery as he trailed a finger up and down her bare arm. “Not yet, but I’m feeling pretty good about it,” she said into the phone, and Avery took his wandering finger and slipped it into her pussy. Her eyes went wide and she mouthedStop that!That just made him have to stifle a laugh. “Okay. If I hear anything, I’ll let you know. Sure thing. Bye, Bill.”

“Your boss mad?”

“No. He just wondered why he hadn’t heard from me. But honestly, I can’t do this very often. Idohave to work, you know.” She sat for a minute, then said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“You can’t possibly be making anything off this farm yet, and you’ve spent a lot of money on this house, your garage, the barn, a four wheeler, fencing, cows, even the horses. How in the world are you doing that?”

Should I tell her?Avery knew from past experience that he had to be honest. He hadn’t wanted to say anything, but she’d asked, so telling her the truth was a necessity. He most definitely wasn’t going to start their relationship out with a lie. “Um, I took all the money from my trust fund when I came out here. I wanted to start over. So I have plenty of money to live on until the cattle start paying the bills.”

“Oh.”

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