Page 72 of Redemption

He smirked at me, like he knew my mind had plummeted straight into the gutter. He did his own lazy perusal and it was downright lascivious. “Ready.”

“Great,” I said, smiling tightly, and set off at a gentle jog towards the stables. He kept pace with me, putting us closer together and I veered off, creating some space between us but he didn’t say anything.

When we reached the stables, I spotted Tate Wilder, Reverence’s farrier and veterinarian already looking at the horses.

“Hey Tate,” I called, waving at him. He came by to run health checks on all the animals and change the horseshoes too when needed. He lifted his head, his black hair falling over his forehead and pushed his glasses up his aquiline nose. He had the most gorgeous high cheekbones, and jawline that I’d ever seen. He’d filled out a lot since high school. Tate used to be the quiet, shy boy in the corner who most people ignored. He lived next door to my best friend Gertie, so I used to see him a lot. He was very studious, sometimes his seriousness was off-putting but I liked him. And he was passionate about animals which was always a plus.

“Good morning, Katarina,” he replied. His stiffness meant he always full-named me even though we’d known each other for twenty years.

Jack stepped forward and held out a hand. “I’m Jack, nice to meet you, Tate.”

Tate eyed the hand that had been stretched out before replying. “Yes, I know who you are. Nice to meet you too, I guess.” Of course Tate knew who Jack was, the whole freaking town did.

Then Jack did something bizarre. He rested his hand on my lower back and stroked his thumb over my spine. My breath hitched at his touch but I pulled away. I didn’t want anyone, including Jack, to think there was something more going on here. I felt his eyes on me but I ignored them.

“What are we thinking then, Tate? Who needs what?”

Tate’s signature frown appeared. “Marshmallow looks good, I know August takes great care of him. But I think Pickles has an infection in her hoof so I need to look into that.”

Tate rattled off a few more things and then I sat and watched him as he took out his instruments andlaid them out ready, counting each time he did it before carrying on with what he was doing, which was a little odd. I watched him get to work, the movements aggressive and forceful and I flinched a few times as he dug out the mud and grass from the horses’ hooves even though I knew it didn’t hurt the horses.

“How do you know there’s an infection?” Jack asked. He’d been watching Tate closely, like he was trying to learn as much as possible from him.

Tate frowned again before pointing to the side of the hoof. “See this swelling here?” Jack nodded. Then Tate lowered the hoof to the ground and walked Pickles in a circle. “See her reluctance to put her full weight on it? That tells me there’s an infection here.”

“Ah yeah I see it,” Jack replied, nodding. Then he asked more questions about the horseshoes. It was cute how he wanted to learn it all. I shook my head, turning away from his eager questions and went over to stroke Chester. The gentle giant nudged my hand and I reached into the treat bag and dug out a couple of sugar cubes to give him.

There wasn’t a huge amount to do today so we spent the morning with Tate and weirdly, I felt bad pulling Jack away when he was learning so much. So I left them to it and went off to investigate one of the pastures but soon Jack found me.

“You need me to do anything today?” he asked, tucking his hands into his pockets, his forearms flexing as he did.

“Nope, I can handle everything. You can go back and enjoy learning from Tate,” I replied.

He reached for me. “You sure?”

“Yep!” I spun away and kept going. I knew I was being off with him but I couldn’t help it, I had a lot offeelings I needed to sort through and I needed space to do it. I had too many things on my mind, trying to save the ranch, mainly coming up with a way to fend off Martin in two weeks when I inevitably didn’t have any money.

Throughout the day, I grew progressively moodier. I didn’t know what to do or where to start. I didn’t see Jack again and after dinner, I shut myself in my father’s office in an attempt to come up with ideas.

I felt so incompetent at all this, and it brought up all the old feelings of doubt over my abilities, stemming from back when I was at college. I was a failure all over again, only right now it really mattered. Except I wasn’t learning, there was no safety net. The training wheels were off and I was flailing to try and keep myself upright, to no avail.

The only thing I could think of was taking out one big loan to try and cover all the little loans and then at least I would owe the bank and not a bunch of random strangers who could turn up at any moment. I decided the next day to try that and was buoyed by finally taking some kind of action.

When I saw Jack the following morning, looking gorgeous in a light blue Henley that matched his eyes and a baseball cap, I had the annoying urge to run into his arms but I didn’t. I needed to put some distance between us.

“You’ll be working with August and Maddy today,” I said when he smiled and said good morning.

His expression faltered. “Sure. Everything okay?”

I nodded sharply. “Yeah, I just have some errands to run.”

He looked me over from head to toe. I’d worn my nicest dress and heels and put my hair into abun, hoping to impress the bank with my appearance at least.

“If you need me, you only have to ask,” he said softly.

He always wanted to help, was eager to help, but this was my burden and I needed to fix it to prove that Daddy was right to put the ranch in my hands. That I could cope on my own, that I hadn’t wasted thirty years of my life and was still unable to stand on my own two feet and manage the ranch.

I didn’t say anything and when August appeared at our side, I left. I could feel Jack’s stare on me as I got in the truck but I tried to put him out of my mind as I drove into town.

---