Page 13 of His First Baby Rodeo

“Well, no.”

“Are you avoiding it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I don’t think I’m being ridiculous,” she said. “And for the record, I wouldn’t think you were being ridiculous either. It makes sense to me that you’d be a little hesitant about getting back in the saddle after an accident like that.”

“I’m not afraid of riding. I’m a rodeo rider.”

“Yeah, I get that. Still, it’s normal to be gun-shy after an accident. Look, just let me saddle Driftwood up for you. He definitely seems like the chillest one of the three.”

She was right about that. And even though it hadn’t occurred to him that he might be avoiding getting back in the saddle, now that she said it out loud, he realized hewasfeeling some anxiety about the whole thing — and that wouldn’t do. He had to get past it as quickly as possible. He’d seen firsthand what happened to people who suffered a bad fall from horseback and allowed it to get into their heads. The longer they went on without riding again, the harder they found it to start. Some of them never managed to get on horseback again, and that couldn’t be his fate.

Still, he didn’t want her to know that she’d been right about him. “All right,” he said, struggling to keep his voice calm and even. “Saddle him up.”

She retreated to the stable and came back carrying his favorite saddle. Mac was surprised that she hadn’t needed to be told which one — but then, maybe that wasn’t such a surprise. It was obviously the one with the most wear. You didn’t have to be a genius to figure it out.

She began to saddle up the horse. “You should come over here and give the straps a feel,” she suggested. “Make sure I’m doing them how you like them.”

He came over and tugged at one of the straps. “This could be a little tighter.”

“Are you sure? We don’t want to choke him.”

“Hey, you asked.” He was remembering the way it had felt when the saddle had slipped beneath him, though he knew he couldn’t admit that.

El shrugged and tightened the strap. “How about now?”

He couldn’t in good conscience make it any tighter — and besides, he did want Driftwood to be comfortable. If his horse was in pain, Mac would be less safe, and he knew it. “Yeah, this is good.”

“Can you get up without help?”

“I’m fine.” He stepped into the stirrup and slung his leg over.

He didn’t expect El to be able to re-mount without help, but she wound her fingers in Saltspray’s mane and hauled herself back up. “You set the pace,” she said.

It was a kindness, he thought, her allowing him to do that. She had picked up on the fact that he was nervous, and she was letting him take the lead.

He ought to be grateful.

Instead, he felt annoyed.

“There’s no reason we have to ride together,” he said. “It’s a small paddock, but it’s not that small.”

“I just thought we might talk while we exercised them,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “I figured you could give me their histories. Things like that.”

“Let’s just get the work done,” he said. “If you have any questions about the horses, you can ask me later tonight.”

El shrugged. “Fine,” she said. She turned Saltspray and took off in the opposite direction, leaving Mac to watch her go.

God, she really was beautiful. She was the kind of woman he could easily imagine riding through the surf on a beach. Riding in slow motion. He half wished he could pull out his phone and take a video of her without seeming creepy. Of course, taking a video of her like thatwouldbe creepy, even if he was just doing it because her form was so perfect and he wanted to remember what it had looked like after she was gone.

Because that was the only reason. Or at least, it was the main reason. He thought.

One good thing was coming out of all this. Keeping his eyes on El meant that he was distracted from his own fears. He’d been on horseback for several minutes now and hadn’t even thought about what had happened the last time he’d been astride a horse. And now that he was riding, hedidfeel more at ease, as though his anxiety was fading away. He’d been right to do this.

She had been right to talk him into this.

But he couldn’t let her know that. Because every time he looked at her, he found his heart beating double-time. He couldn’t let her know that she had the power to talk him into anything, or who knew what he might allow himself to be talked into next? And he couldn’t let anything happen between the two of them, because this was Jeff’s little sister. The last time he had seen her she’d been nothing more than a college kid. She was older now, but she was stillJeff’s sister. He didn’t imagine Jeff would like it very much if he found out anything had happened between the two of them.

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