“Are you ready to learn to ride?” Kate asked, bringing her back to the task at hand.
“You know,” Rowan hedged, “I was thinking maybe we could just take the horse for a walk.”
“For a walk?”
“Yeah.” She realized how utterly ridiculous she sounded, but was not able to stop the words as they came. “You know. Instead of riding, we’ll walk beside the horses, and just lead them around the pastures.”
“Like a dog,” Kate finished. She raised an eyebrow and was very clearly trying not to laugh.
Rowan decided to keep going with it, more as a joke now than anything. “Dogs seem to like it. Why not horses as well? Relaxing for everyone. People and animals alike.”
Kate could no longer contain the laugh. “It will be fine. I promise I won’t kill you.”
Death was only one of a number of terrifying scenarios running through her mind. She joked about taking the horses for a walk, and she played off her fear as comical, but there was truth behind that sarcasm. She knew what horses were capable of, as gentle as they might appear. It was not lost on her that Kate’s dad was currently in a wheelchair because of a horse. That thought played over and over in her mind. But she knew better than to mention that fact. So she put the hat on her head and tried to relax into Kate’s excitement for the afternoon.
She followed Kate toward the pasture where two horses were tied up to the wooden fence.
“This is Stryder.” Kate patted the taller of the two, a dark brown, way-too-powerful-looking horse. Then she patted the other, a much shorter and stockier horse who was squat with a banana-shaped body, his stomach sagging down. “This is Mickey.”
“I want to ride Mickey,” Rowan said, without giving Kate a chance to assign her the muscle-y giant.
Kate frowned. “Are you sure? He tends to buck.”
Rowan’s eyes went wide and Kate laughed, pushing on her arm.
“He’s a sweetheart,” Kate said. “They both are. You can ride Mickey. The worst he’s going to do is stop and chew on the grass every few steps.”
“Not funny, Kate,” Rowan said, but she realized she was smiling.
Kate held her fingers close together. “It was a little funny.”
Rowan stepped closer to the horse, held out her hand, and then gently touched the horse’s head. The horse paid her no mind, standing there in the sun, eyes half closed. She jumped back a bit when it shook its large head to brush away flies, but then she went back to petting the giant animal.
“Don’t bite me, don’t kick me, don’t toss me to the ground, and we’ll be fine. Got it?”
Mickey just shifted his weight, eyes lidded, looking like he was ready for a nap rather than a workout.
Kate rested her hand on Rowan’s arm. “Really, you’ll be fine. Mickey is a lazy old gelding. Before I left for college, I used to teach lessons with him. I’ve had little kids ride him. He’ll saunter along about as awake as he is now.”
Rowan looked at Kate, whose green eyes steadied her. She felt her elevated heart rate gradually return to normal. She had never once had the urge to ride a horse. Not even as a kid. She had always preferred her feet planted firmly on the ground.
“Let’s get you mounted up, and I’ll explain things from there,” Kate said.
Kate untied Mickey and led him over to a small set of stairs, which she indicated for Rowan.
Her breath caught and her anxiety spiked. Breathe, she reminded herself. People ride horses all the time.
She moved toward the stairs.
“You’re going to step up, put your left foot in the stirrup, and lift your right leg up and over.”
She swallowed hard, trying to quell the panic that rose up from her chest and into her throat. “Do I have to?”
Kate held Mickey’s reins in one hand but took one of Rowan’s hands with her other. “You don’t have to do anything. This is completely optional.”
Rowan met Kate’s grounding gaze until the wave of panic receded. “I’ll give it a try.”
Kate gave her hand a squeeze of support, and Rowan moved to the little steps. She did as she was instructed, put her left leg into the stirrup and swung her right leg over. She was sitting on a horse.
“I’m doing it,” she said in amazement. She looked down at the ground, seeing it a good four feet below her. The fear remained, but she was surprised at how steady and balanced she felt in the saddle. She had expected to feel as though she could fall at any moment.
“You’re doing it,” Kate affirmed.
Rowan reached into her pocket for her cell phone. “Can you get a picture of this for me? I want to show everyone back home.”
Kate took the phone and stepped back a few feet. Rowan smiled for the photo, envisioning what her parents and friends were going to say when she sent it to them.
“You look good up there,” Kate said, as she handed the phone back to her.
She blushed. “I probably look terrified. Which I am.”
Kate shook her head. “You look like a natural.”
She watched as Kate untied Stryder, then stepped into the stirrup and lifted herself up and over. No steps necessary.
That, Rowan thought, is what a natural looks like.
Kate walked her horse over so Stryder stood in front of Rowan and Mickey, facing them.
“Okay,” Kate said, “first of all, if you need to stop or slow down, pull back on Mickey’s reins. Don’t pull too hard. They’re connected to the bit in his mouth. Just a gentle pull.”
Rowan watched as Kate demonstrated with Stryder and then tried the movement herself.
“Excellent,” Kate said. “Just like that.”
Rowan gave it a few tries to make sure she had it down pat. She definitely wanted to know how to slow down and stop.
Kate demonstrated a few other simple steps such as how to get Mickey to move and turn. She had Rowan nudge Mickey into a walk by giving him a light squeeze with her heels.
Rowan didn’t know how hard to squeeze and had visions of Mickey taking off in a gallop so she barely brushed her heels over Mickey’s stomach.
Kate watched and laughed. “I don’t think Mickey could even feel that. You’re going to have to nudge him a little harder.”
She tried again, and this time Mickey took a couple of steps forward and stopped.
“Horses are a little like people,” Kate said. “People have different personalities and temperaments. So do horses. Some horses are boisterous and outgoing and want to run all over the place. Mickey is the horse equivalent of a soft-spoken introvert. I promise, you won’t have to worry about him going too fast. The challenge for you will be to get him to keep moving.”
Rowan scratched Mickey’s neck. “I like you, Mickey.” Slow, with many breaks, sounded perfect. She nudged Mickey forward, and the two of them walked slow circles around the fenced-in field. Kate had her change directions a few times, but they didn’t do anything harder than that, for which she was exceedingly grateful. She’d seen the movies where one character gets on a horse that bolts, and they can do nothing but hold on, terrified. As Mickey slowed to a stop yet again, she started to realize the improbability of that happening to her.
A slight wind made the afternoon an almost-bearable temperature. Since moving to Texas, the sun had been unrelenting, and she was relieved to find that a few large clouds offered a break from that scorching sun. The afternoon was about as perfect as she could have imagined.
“How are you feeling?” Kate asked. “Still scared?”
She shrugged. “It’s all right I suppose.” But she smiled, letting Kate know that she was downplaying how good a time she was having.
Kate nodded with a matching smile. “Yeah. It’s okay. Not too terrible.”
Rowan looked down at Mickey, who sauntered lazily forward, head down, snacking on grass every few steps. She was still a little unsure about this horseback riding thing. She couldn’t see herself wanting to ride just any horse. But she and Mickey? They could be pals.
❊ ❊ ❊
Kate watched as Rowan relaxed into riding. At first, she’d thought Rowan was joking about her hesitation, but it quickly became clear Rowan was actually terrified of the animals. That fear surprised her. Growing up in Texas, she didn’t know many people who were terrified of horses. She’d taught lessons for a number of years, but even when she’d encountered some uncertainty, she’d never really seen terror. Everyone she’d ever taught had, at the very least, wanted to learn to ride. As a rancher’s kid, she couldn’t recall her first time on a horse. Her baby album was filled with photos of her dad holding her on the backs of horses or riding with her in a baby carrier on his back. The horses had been her favorite part of growing up on the ranch. That and the baby cows. She’d always loved seeing the newborn calves.
She watched Rowan ride slow laps of the pasture. She didn’t think Rowan was even aware of the smile that had not left her face. She looked so proud, sitting atop Mickey as though she’d conquered Everest. Rowan wore a tank top that advertised a band Kate assumed had to be a punk or metal band, based on the neon creature plastered across the front. Her dark jeans were faded and worn out on the thigh. The cowboy hat on her head looked comically out of place, which only highlighted Rowan’s easygoing, try-anything spirit, and made the whole surprisingly attractive. Kate smiled as she watched her, a lightness expanding in her chest.
In addition to watching Rowan learn to ride, though, Kate kept an eye on the sky. The clouds were moving in fast, and the wind had picked up significantly since they had started riding. She didn’t want to make Rowan stop too soon because it was clear that Rowan was enjoying herself, but she also wanted them to be indoors before the rain hit.
“We should probably get the horses in,” Kate said, as one of the gray clouds moved in overhead. “Storm’s coming.”
Rowan looked at the sky and then back at Kate. “What do you mean? It’s not that cloudy.”
Rowan was right. The sky was still largely open, with the sun shining brightly. But the horizon had darkened, and the clouds overhead were a dense dark gray, not puffy and white. Kate knew how to read the ever-changing Texas sky, and a darkening horizon was all it took to tell her they needed to get the horses in.
“The weather changes fast here,” she explained.
Rowan followed her to the gate. “I haven’t seen a single drop of rain since I got here a month ago.”
“That sounds about right,” Kate said. The weather in North Texas was fickle. The entire summer would be scorching sun, without the shadow of even a light cloud cover to offer any protection. The hot, dry summer would be bookended by two stormy seasons, with a cold, gray winter in between. Rowan had arrived at the end of the stormy season, and it seemed a late spring storm was about to hit.
Kate showed Rowan how to dismount and helped her off Mickey. They led the two horses to the barn where the others waited in their stalls. She took the saddle and bridle off of Stryder, then helped Rowan untack Mickey.
“Thanks for the lesson,” Rowan said. She stood beside Mickey, stroking his neck, clearly more interested in the animal than she had been an hour earlier.
“It wasn’t as bad as you thought, was it?”
Rowan shook her head. “No. I suppose not. I didn’t die, so I can’t complain.”
“I told you I would keep you alive.”
“Well, I appreciate it. I think my parents would miss me if I died. I mean, I did up and leave them for Texas, but that betrayal aside, I suspect they want to keep me alive.”
Kate laughed and grabbed the tack buckets so that they could brush the horses down.
“You’re a character, Rowan Barnes.” She handed Rowan one of the buckets. “You know that, right?”
Rowan shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She looked at the bucket, taking inventory of the items inside.
“We’ll start by brushing them down,” Kate explained. “Then we’ll clean their hooves to make sure no rocks are stuck in their feet, and then we can tuck them into their pens to rest.”
Rowan grabbed Kate’s arm, and when Kate looked over at her, she saw fresh fear in Rowan’s eyes.
“Okay, I get the part about brushing,” Rowan said. “Brushing I can do. But what’s this about cleaning their hooves?”
“I’ll walk you through it. Don’t worry. It’s not that hard.”
Rowan looked as if she was about to say something, but Kate held up a hand to stop her. “I haven’t killed you yet, remember. Trust me on this one.”
Kate brushed down Stryder and helped Rowan finish up with Mickey. Then she pulled the hoof pick out of the bucket and showed Rowan how to get the horses to pick up their feet, and how to scrape out the mud and rocks, demonstrating with Stryder.
She held the hoof pick up to Rowan, who looked back and forth between her and the pick as though she were crazy.
Kate moved closer to Rowan.
“Stand with your shoulder next to Mickey’s,” she said.
She watched as Rowan tentatively did as she was instructed.
“Good.” She stepped in behind Rowan, and then took Rowan’s right hand, and moved it over to Mickey’s front leg.
“You’re going to brush your hand down his leg,” she said, guiding Rowan’s hand.
She could feel Rowan tense as her hand neared Mickey’s hoof.
“Relax,” she said against Rowan’s ear.
She could feel Rowan’s warmth, and breathed in Rowan’s soft sandalwood scent. Rowan’s arm was soft against hers, and she could feel the rise and fall of Rowan’s chest with each breath.
Rowan swallowed and nodded.
“Good.” Kate had to steady her own breathing as she helped guide Rowan’s hand down Mickey’s leg until they could squeeze the horse’s fetlock, which urged Mickey to lazily shift his weight and lift his hoof.
Kate handed the hoof pick to Rowan, who tentatively used it to dig out the mud and rocks.
Kate stood back and let Rowan finish before helping her with the next hoof.
“You don’t go easy on the newbies, do you?” Rowan said, once she finished.
Kate shrugged. “I could tell you were capable of cleaning his hooves. It’s all a part of the lesson.”
“Lucky me,” Rowan said, but she was smiling.
Just as they tucked the horses into their pens, the rain began. It started hard and heavy, battering the barn roof.
“What the hell?” Rowan asked, looking out at the rain, which was coming down in buckets.
“I told you,” Kate said. “The weather changes fast here.”
Rowan stood at the entrance to the barn, looking at the sheet of water. “Not so much as a raindrop since the move. What is this? Is this the apocalypse? The next big flood?”
Kate laughed and stepped up next to Rowan. “Yeah, the storms here get pretty intense. We’ll wait it out here, then head to the house.”
Rowan, however, appeared to have other plans. She was already stepping out into the rain.
“What are you doing?” Kate called out, over the drumming of the water.
Rowan held out her arms and twirled. “I love the rain! I’ve missed the rain.” She laughed and opened her mouth.
This was the happiest Kate had seen Rowan, and she smiled as she watched.
Rowan waved for Kate to join her.
Kate shook her head.
“Come on!” Rowan’s clothes were soaking wet, clinging to her body after only a minute. Kate enjoyed being warm and dry. She was happy to stay tucked away within the cozy barn.
Rowan looked at Kate for a long moment, and then Rowan’s cold, wet hands were taking hers and pulling her out into the water.
Kate screamed as rain splashed down onto her. She laughed, though, at the shock of cold water. She pulled the opposite direction, trying to pull Rowan back into the barn, but with only a half-effort, and let Rowan tug her farther into the rain.
“What are we doing?” Kate shouted over the water.
“We’re having fu
n,” Rowan shouted in reply. She let go of Kate’s hands and twirled again. Then, she grabbed Kate’s hand and spun her as well.
As Kate twirled, something happened. She felt lighter. It was a physical change, almost as much as it was an emotional change. The weight of the past couple months slipped off her shoulders, and she raised her arms to the sky and spun.
Rowan stopped her and steadied her by placing a hand on each shoulder. “Fun, right?”
Water dripped down Rowan’s face. Her dark hair was plastered across her forehead, hanging over her eyes, but Kate could still make out the sparkle there.
Kate nodded. “It was—”
She was cut off by Rowan’s lips on hers. Rowan took Kate’s face in her hands and kissed her hard in the rainstorm, sending a spark through Kate, like lightning. Kate heard her own gasp of surprise, and then her eyes closed and she fell into the kiss.
She was vaguely aware that somewhere in the distance, a low roll of thunder traveled across the sky. Neither of them broke the kiss.
Her hands found Rowan’s hips, and pulled her closer, pressing tight against her. Even through the cold water, Rowan’s body was warm and soft.
Rowan’s thumb traced over her jaw, and she opened her mouth to Rowan with a low moan.
Rowan claimed her with her mouth, and Kate dug her fingertips into Rowan’s waist in a desperate attempt to hold on.
Rowan’s teeth raked over her lower lip, sending a shock of heat through her.
Kate moved her hands to Rowan’s back, wanting her closer, wanting more. She could hardly think. There was Rowan and her lips and tongue and hands and, oh God, it was everything.
The first few pellets of hail interrupted them.
Rowan pulled back, looking around at the little balls of ice as they hit the ground, clearly confused as to what was happening.
Kate was very used to hail, but even she needed a second for her brain to catch up before she could grab Rowan’s hand and pull her back into the barn.
Rowan’s eyes were wide as she looked out at the hail. “Holy shit. That hail’s like, the size of a golf ball now.”
Kate looked at the ice that had gathered on the ground. Golf ball was a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. It battered the barn noisily.
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