Page 18 of When I Forgot Us
“Slow down. I don’t ride as good as you. You’re leaving me behind.” Saddle leather creaked, and she gathered up the reins between her fingers.
Laughter. The voice of a boy not yet a man filled her thoughts. “I’ll never leave you behind, Michelle. Not ever.” He rode a palomino in front of her. Long legs dangled, narrow shoulders beginning to fill out. His head swiveled toward her…
The memory ended before he turned, but the feel of leather in her hands remained. Her fingers twitched, the phantom feeling evaporating.
“No.” She grasped for the slippery moment, but like all the others, it fell away into the dark abyss.
“What’s wrong?” Chase rode through the gate and right up to the trunk of her car. He dismounted and dropped one rein, leaving the horse behind.
“Nothing.” She’d grown tired of making every day about her amnesia. Today, she hoped to break free from the struggle and enjoy her time at the ranch. The slip of her past rooted somewhere. It gave her hope that someday the rest of her memories would return. Why continue bothering him with her issues? He didn’t owe her anything. It was her problem. Time she started dealing with it and stopped dragging everyone else into her mess.
Where had the sudden independence come from? Or had she always possessed it, and the memory yanked it loose from the blank slate of her personality like how the sarcasm had emerged a few days ago? “What am I working on today?”
He stared hard at her for several seconds, his face tightened in hard lines like he wanted to push but wasn’t sure how or if he should. With a grunt, he relented and backtracked to the horse. “Feed and water first. Then I need to check the hay barn.” He grinned.
“And how do we get to the barn?”
His laugh tickled the back of her mind, reminding her of a warm fire flickering on a cold night. “We can ride horses or take the truck.” He led the horse toward the barn, pointing at the feed room as he passed. “Your boots are in there. Let me get Hershel put up and I’ll walk you through the feeding schedule.”
She retreated to the feed room, dropped onto the stoop, and yanked off her sneakers. The bright blue and white glared in the warm browns and tans of the barn. Everything from the wooden walls to the dirt ground made the whole thing appear dingy.
It was the opposite from her apartment. Why did sitting here with her shoes in her hand and a pair of old brown boots by her feet give her a sense of purpose?
A shudder in her spine and the world tipped sideways. Another memory rushed past.
“You really want to ride in the rodeo?” Her legs ached, and her fingers were pressed deep into a horse’s mane. A bracelet on her right wrist scratched the sensitive skin when she twisted it around and fidgeted with the horseshoe charm.
The boy in front of her doffed his cap and slapped it to his chest. Late afternoon sunshine limned his silhouette and stretched his shadow across the ground. He reached out a hand, and his shadow touched the tip of her horse’s nose. “Not really.” He slapped the hat back in place and scrambled into his saddle. “I’m going to be a cowboy. A real cowboy who rides all day. My horses won’t buck, and my cows won’t be mean.”
She laughed a bright, giggly sound.
“Michelle?”
Chase’s voice startled her, and she jumped, slapping a hand over her heart.” What?”
He pointed at the boots. “Are they the wrong size?”
“I don’t know.” She dropped her sneaker and tugged on the right boot, then the left. “They’re a little tight, but I think they’re supposed to be that way.”
“Let me see.” He dropped into a crouch, one knee on the ground, and set her booted foot on his bent leg. “Does this hurt?” His thumb and forefinger squeezed the sides of her foot beneath her toes.
“I don’t feel much. Just the pressure.” Almost the same as the pressure in her head. Who was the boy in her memory? He’d made her laugh and wasn’t afraid to speak his truth.
Chase tugged her jeans down over the boot and checked the other one. “Wiggle your toes.”
She did. Unlike with her sneakers, the toes of the boots didn’t move with her. The stiff leather encased her calves and offeredher a sense of protection from the horses’ hooves. A strangled feeling in her chest unraveled.
He grunted that sound she found amusing.
“You talk to your mama with that mouth?” Her laughter came out so fast and hard that she snorted.
Chase reared back from her, shock spreading across his face. He palmed his mouth, but she caught the smile he tried to hide. When he stood and held out a hand, she grasped it and let him pull her to her feet.
Her laughter and the sudden motion drove her off balance, and she staggered sideways until he looped his arm around her waist and held her upright. “Easy.”
Heat raced through her when he chuckled. That same warm glow started in her heart and spread through her entire body.
His face lit up, the amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes. “What’s gotten into you?”
