Roughshod loomed over me like Trump Tower, all tall and golden and utterly intimidating. She and I had been having a stare down while Ty adjusted her saddle , but now he called me around to the side.
“Put your foot in here,” he said, pointing to something he called the stirrup.
My lesson had started with a detailed explanation of the horse-related gear—sorry, tack. I’d learned everything from the bit to the billet strap and everything in between. Only I was pretty certain I would forget it all by tomorrow.
I looked at the distance between my foot and her stirrup.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Ty shook his head. “Of course it will.”
I inched away a little.
“Trust me,” he said. “You aren’t the first greenhorn I’ve put in the saddle.”
“Green what?”
“You’re just going to pop up and sit for a minute.” He waved me closer. “Tet a feel for the girl.”
Every city girl instinct inside me wanted to run—back to the house, back to the airport, back to civilization. But I caught a glimpse of Eddie from the corner of my eye and that reminded me why I was here. I was trying to salvage my career, and if that meant getting up on the back of a giant then that’s what I was going to do.
“Just for a minute?” I echoed.
He nodded, his bright blue eyes smiling.
Putting one foot in front of the other, I walked to his side, lifted my foot and placed it i the stirrup. Okay, that wasn’t as impossible as I’d imagined.
“Now wha—“
Ty’s hands wrapped around my waist and before I could blink he had lifted me up into the air.
“Swing your leg over the saddle.”
“I—“
“Your other leg,” he corrected when I tried to move the one that was resting in the stirrup.
As I dropped into the seat of the saddle, a leg dangling from either side of the horse, Ty released me.
“Don’t let go!” I shouted.
“Relax,” he said, resting one hand on my thigh and the other on Roughshod’s neck. “I’ve got you.”
Roughshod chose that moment to shift her weight. I grabbed the saddle horn with both hands.
“Don’t squeeze your legs,” he said, as I was about to do just that. “It’d signal her to speed up. Relax your mind and your body, and that will relax the horse.”
Relax? Was he insane? I was sitting on top of a horse! There was nothing relaxing about that. The rocking lull of the subway, that was relaxing. A full body massage was relaxing. Compared to this, even New Year’s Eve in Times Square was relaxing.
“There’s my good girl,” he whispered to the horse, rubbing his hand over her neck. “You’re a gentle one.”
Even though he was talking to the horse, his hand didn’t move from my thigh.
The more the two of them ignored me, the more… comfortable I became. Not quite at ease, but slightly less terrified. I felt my muscles began to unclench and I could feel my breathing deepen.
“Now, I’m going to lead you in a bit of a walk—“
“Walk?” I squawked. “You said I was just going to sit up here.”
He turned his sparkling eyes up at me. “I lied.”
I watched, in horror, as he grabbed the lead line attached to Roughshod’s halter and started walked. I held the saddle horn in a death grip, while trying to force my legs to stay relaxed.
The horse took one step and my weight shifted to the left. Before I could scream, she took another and I shifted back the other way. As she moved forward I gradually got used to shifting my weight back and forth to keep centered in the saddle.
By the time Ty walked us around the entire pen and back to the starting point and was feeling like an old pro.
“That wasn’t so hard?” he asked as he helped me down to the ground. “Now was it?”
“No, it—“
My breath caught as I slid down the side of the horse and found myself sandwiched between her body and Ty’s tee-covered chest. I sucked in a deep breath and inhaled the scent of hay and horse and something undefinably male.
Don’t look up, I warned myself. Don’t look into his—
Too late.
I lifted my head and met his blue eyes straight on. From this close I could see the tiny lines around his eyes when he smiled and how his lashes curled up in an enviable way.
“Is the, um—“ I swallowed and tried to regain some of my composure. “Is that the end of the lesson.”
He tilted his head slightly to the side. “Not quite. You’ve got to learn how to put a horse away properly.”
“H-how do I do that?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
When he moved away, my body wanted to follow. But just then Eddie moved into a new position and I jerked myself back into reality. I wasn’t at the Black Willow to swoon over some hot cowboy. I was here to film a show, resurrect my career, and get back to New York as quickly as possible.
We walked Roughshod to the barn, took off her tack, and brushed her down before sending her back into the pasture with her friends. Ty was just locking the gate when a phone started ringing.
He jogged into the barn and grabbed a bight red, corded phone off the wall.
“Yeah?” he answered. He stood tense as he listened. “Aw, hell, not again.” He grabbed his ball cap and roughed a hand over his head. “No, we’re finished up here. I’ll take care of it.”
As he hung up the phone, he turned to face me.
“Our fence line’s been compromised,” he said, walking toward a rusty shed across the drive. “Some of our cows got onto McLaren property.”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I silently followed him to the shed.
He pulled open the door, stepped inside, and emerged a moment later carrying a tool box and a spool of wire.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, watching as he set his armload in the bed of the truck.
“Me?” He turned back to me, smiling. “You’re in this too, sugar. We are going to go herd the cattle back onto our property and repair the fence.”
My heart thudded a little at the way he said we.
Eddie and I piled back into the truck and Ty started down the road and teeth-rattling speed. I had a feeling this operation wouldn’t be as simple as he’d made it sound.
Andy's Playlist #6: Passenger Seat by SHeDAISY
Tune in tomorrow for the next installment.
