Page 72 of Roads Behind Us
It was unlike anything I’d ever witnessed as Bea laid her cheek against Blue’s neck, and he lowered his big head until it rested on her back.
“Look, Daddy,” Athena whispered. “He’s huggin’ her.”
Rye stared at me, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head, but then he shook the surprise off his face. “Okay, okay, that’s enough of that. If you steal my horse, I’m gonna have to ban you from the barn.”
Bea laughed, and she stepped back, but she didn’t stop touching Blue. She stroked his wide cheek and asked, “May I ride you?”
Rye passed Blue’s lead to Bea, and when she led him down the aisle, Presley mumbled, “Told ya so.”
“I’ve never ridden before,” Bea told Blue. “I’ve never even had a pet. Please be patient with me.”
Blue nodded and whinnied quietly, and they left the shade of the barn. In the sun, his speckled roan coat was striking, but his dark tail and mane matched the color of Bea’s hair. They looked like they belonged together.
Rye noticed it, too, and he croaked out his jealousy to his horse. “You’re breakin’ my goddamn heart here, buddy.”
“Oh shush,” Bea said. “I’m just borrowin’ him. You’ll get him back.”
Athena and I stood off to the side while the guys prepared Blue, saddling him and adjusting Athena’s saddle’s stirrups to fit Bea’s shorter legs.
Something kept tickling at the back of my neck, an awareness that had me turning and searching the trees. For what, I had no idea, but it felt again like someone had been watching us. There was no one, though, so I slipped my arm over Athena’s shoulder and tugged her closer, leaning on her a bit.
When Bea was seated and visibly scared out of her mind, Rye gave her a quick tutorial. The unsure scowl on her face didn’t have him convinced she’d listened, so he started over.
“Don’t pull on the reins. Hold ’em in your hands gently. If you want to turn?—”
“I heard you. I got it,” she snapped. And then she clicked her tongue twice and carefully squeezed her legs around Blue’s big body. He loped forward toward the gate, and Bea let out a nervous laugh.
After they’d walked two slow circles around the ring, she nudged Blue into a trot with a squeeze of her calves and called out to me. “Do you see this, Bax? I’m ridin’!”
“I see you.” She was all I’d been able to see since the day she showed up in her beat-up Chevy with a little chip on her shoulder and a light in her green eyes.
“Look at her go,” Athena said. “She’s fearless.”
“Kinda like somebody else I know,” I replied, and I flicked the top of my daughter’s white cowgirl hat.
I’d been so mesmerized watching Bea that I hadn’t even heard Aubrey’s car coming up my drive. “What’s goin’ on?” she asked when she came to stand between Rye and me.
“Hey, baby.” Rye leaned down to kiss her cheek, and he slipped his arm around her waist. “Didn’t expect you till later. Slow day at the bookstore?”
“Yeah. I closed early, and then on my way here, I almost got into an accident. Some jerkoff was speedin’ down Old Fish Creek Road, and he nearly ran me into the ditch.”
Rye kissed her again, but this time she lifted her face to him and caught his lips with hers.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, waving away his concern. “I’m fine.”
“Well, good then, you’re just in time to see that woman steal my horse. I think he’s in love with her.”
“Is that Bea?” Aubrey asked, squinting against the sun to see better.
“Yeah,” Rye said, “except now we’re callin’ her Stealer of Horses, kinda like that white-haired chick on Game of Thrones—the Mother of Dragons.”
At the end of our line of observers, Athena snorted.
In the middle of the ring, Presley called out to Bea, encouraging her, but also reminding her what to do.
“Shh!” she said. “You’re ruinin’ my moment.”
