Page 17 of The Boyfriend List
“I’m going to give you guys some treats to feed the horses so they can get used to you, okay? Please don’t rush up to them or stick your hands in their mouths. Just open your hand, keep your palm flat and your fingers together, and let them come to you,” Eli instructs as he pulls out some sugar cubes from a bag in his pocket and drops one in each of the girl’s palms.
They climb onto stools to get high enough to feed them, and I watch the horses eat out of their hands. Queenie and Hattie are clearly delighted.
I snap a couple of pictures for Brooklyn, unsure of what else to do besides make sure my nieces don’t get bitten by a horse.
“Hey, London, you want to feed them too? You won’t lose any fingers. Promise,” Eli says.
Why not? “Sure.”
I mimic my nieces and extend a sugar cube toward Ember, who has a caramel colored coat and light brown mane. Huh. As a city boy, I didn’t expect to enjoy being on the ranch like this, since the closest I got to the outdoors was walking our family’s dog. But this is kind of nice. Even if I’m smelling hay and horse.
“We’re going to take it nice and easy. Queenie, we’re going to start with you first, okay?” Eli says, crouching down to look my niece in the eye.
He leads Honey out of the stall and she follows along easily, her tail flicking from side to side as she walks. I’m struck by their sheer size, even if Honey and Ember are shorter than Thunder. Still, Honey seems gentle enough, andonce out of her stall, she stands there patiently as Eli puts a saddle on her and secures it.
He does the same with the other horse, Ember, and then grabs two helmets for Queenie and Hattie. They put them on reluctantly, pouting that they’re grey instead of the bedazzled pink I’m sure they were hoping for.
Eli gives them a boost up onto their respective horses.
“Whoa!” Hattie says, gripping the horn of the saddle. “I feel so tall!”
She looks down with a giggle. At least she isn’t scared of heights.
Queenie and Hattie both start riding around the enclosure—the paddock?—while Eli leads their horses around using the reins.
They go from hanging onto their saddles for dear life to relaxing, smiling, and telling me to take pictures of them.
“Look, Uncle London, no hands!” Queenie raises both her hands off the horn of the saddle like she’s on a bike instead of a giant lumbering animal. Thankfully, Honey doesn’t even notice.
“Please don’t do that,” I say quickly, just as Eli echoes my warning. “You could fall and I don’t want to have to take you to the hospital for a broken bone today.”
She pouts. “Fine.”
Watching my brother’s kids learn new things and have fun with animals reminds me of how vast the difference is between my life and my brother’s. Sure, Brooklyn is the oldest, so of course he would get married and start a family first. He moved out at eighteen and married his college sweetheart at twenty-one.
So he wasn’t there for the darkest moments of our parents’ marriage, when their fights escalated from screaming to using me as their go-between. Or when Dad would leave the house for days at a time, never telling me or Mom where he was going. The first few times, I tried to follow him, but I gave upafter the third try. What was the point in chasing a man who didn’t want to be caught?
I’ve never told Brooklyn any of it, wanting to spare him and his newly formed family from the heartbreak.
After maybe an hour of the girls riding around and getting comfortable on their horses, they get thirsty and hungry. Fortunately, Brooklyn packed their bags with cartons of chocolate milk and baggies of beef jerky, and they dismount for snack time. After snacking, they ask if they can braid the horses’ manes and tails.
Eli asks me if I also want to have a go on a horse, promising me Thunder, the most patient and least temperamental mount he has. I agree, even if I feel slightly condescended to by his promise of the slowest and oldest horse. I’m wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, does that not count for something? Or should I have also stopped to buy a cowboy hat and boots?
“Go, Uncle London!” The girls clap and cheer for me and giggle as I fail to swing my leg over the first time trying to get into the saddle.
“Easy does it,” Eli says as I find my footing the second time.
Hattie was right: Idofeel tall up here. Not that I typically feel short, at six feet tall, but still. Being this far from the ground is a slightly dizzying experience.
“You’ve never been on a horse before, have you?” asks Eli as he takes the reins.
“Is it that obvious?” I ask before realizing I’m clenching my teeth, and every other part of my body. My feet feel strange in the stirrups as they bounce against the horse’s sides. I try to convince myself that this is fun, like I’m on a giant motorcycle with Perry. A motorcycle that has teeth and a brain of its own.
Eli chuckles. “Try to relax a bit. I’ve got you, and you’re going super slowly. You have a helmet on. If you fall, the worst thing you’ll hurt is your ego.”
“Oh, you don’t know my nieces. They’ll laugh at me until the end of eternity.” They still make fun of the time Perry fell off his motorcycle when he was learning to ride the darn thing. Still, they’re my nieces, and they’re adorable, and I love them.
He grins. I ease up my grip a little and the thought of Gloria’s boyfriend list flashes through my mind again. Am I really doing this to impress a woman?
