Page 33 of The Brave and the Reckless

“Yeah.”

“Here.” He pulled a long string of wooden beads from his pocket and dropped them into my hand. Some of them had a vague blue or green sheen to them, but it looked like time and sunlight had gotten to them. They were fixed with a thick knot to a metal hair clip at one end. “It’s a good luck charm. Tradition before the first show of the summer. You can braid it into his mane.”

“I see.” This was more touchy-feely than I’d meant to get with Tornado, but braiding hair and beaded charms would definitely make us BFFs.

I ran my hair through Tornado’s silky black tresses until I found a strip that looked right. Noah didn’t say anything about my choice, but I felt the weight of his attention on me. I focused solely on my fingers, weaving the most precise braid of my life, just so he had no reason to complain about it.

“You’re not getting cold feet on us, are you?” he asked when I was halfway down the braid.

“No,” I scoffed. Despite my nerves, I wasn’t going to run off. I’d never thrown in the towel just because things got a little uncomfortable.

“Good.” He ran a hand up and down Tornado’s neck. “A lot of people love and need Bravetown, and the shows are a big part of that.”

“No pressure.”

“It’s a lot of pressure, Esra. We’re constantly aware of how much the entire town depends on the survival of the park and the tourism it brings.”

“Will you lay off?” I finished the braid off with the little rubber tie at the end of the string of beads and turned to face Noah.

“No, not until you realize how big of a role you play here.” His mouth was set in that stern line that sharpened the shadows across his face.

“You’re going to die of a heart attack real soon if you don’t lighten up a little.” I rolled my eyes at him, but after all the concerned looks I’d earned today, his words still nagged at my gut.I was supposed to be scooping ice cream.If I had wanted to constantly be reminded of what a letdown I was, I would have stayed with my parents. Instead I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, where I only knew my brother, having to scrape the last cereal from the box untilmy first paycheck came through. And I wasn’t even getting any free ice cream out of it.

My thought spiral was interrupted by Tornado twisting his neck and pushing his big soft face against my chest. I froze with my hands in the air. “What’s happening?”

Noah furrowed his brow. “He’s calming you down.”

“What? I am totally calm.” My voice hitched an octave, betraying my blatant lie. “At least I was before your horse started motorboating me.”

“I’m training him to be a therapy horse. Here. Feel this.” Hands raised slowly as if he was approaching a wild animal– me, not the horse– he inched closer and folded his fingers around mine. He guided my hands around Tornado’s head to the underside of his jaw. His touch was too slow and too gentle and too warm. My spine straightened. I knew this kind of touch, and I didn’t want a pity party.

“I don’t want to be calmed down,” I hissed and shook his hands off. “I am perfectly calm and happy and content. I had an offer to spend the summer on a yacht in the south of France, you know? I mean, the dude was like sixty and I wasn’t crazy about that, but I chose this damn cowboy park over sunshine and champagne.”

“Just. Feel.”

I rolled my head and groaned. As annoyed as I was with Noah, I’d come here on a mission to make friends with Tornado, so I stroked the silky hair under his jaw. It took a second for the slow thrumming to register against my fingertips. “You want me to feel his pulse?”

“Yes.”

My fingers stilled over the steady beating. I instinctively started counting. “It’s so slow. Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. Just feel it.”

Tornado huffed and nudged his forehead deeper into me, forcing me to hold on tighter to him to stop from tumbling backward. His head was the size of my entire torso. Which meant feeling his pulse turned into a full horse hug. I sighed and slid my second hand closer to the first, tracing the slow beat beneath his hair. Even a clock ticked faster.

I counted again, but by the time I got to twenty-three, my mind wandered to Tornado’s warmth seeping into me. I started again and made it to seventeen before I got distracted by the way his coat was all silk in one direction and a little stubby the other way. By the third time I counted, I barely made it past ten before my eyes fell shut and my breathing started matching Tornado’s slow in- and exhales.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, but when I blinked, my skin was warm, my muscles soft, and the light seemed too bright.

“Go home. Get some sleep,” Noah said, voice low.

Right. I’d forgotten he was here. My arms fell off Tornado and the horse shook his head, taking a step back. I raised my brows but couldn’t even look at Noah. Something had passed between me and his horse, and it was strange and vulnerable, and I didn’t want his judgy glare to ruin it. “So I’m well rested and don’t fuck up the show tomorrow?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Sure,” I muttered and slipped out the box’s gate, still not meeting his gaze. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Young.”

I had not gotten any sleep.

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