by Holly Rayner
“Hey, would you mind taking a look at this?” he asked, and Anne-Marie knelt down close to him to see what he was looking at.
There was a small cut on the horse’s instep. It wasn’t anything serious, but Anne-Marie strode quickly to the supply room to get some salve to keep it from getting infected.
“Good catch,” she said, retuning to Kaled’s side.
He held the horse’s foot while she applied the medicine, and as she reached across him their faces were mere inches apart. The subtle scent of his cologne paired with the earthy smell of the barn was enough to make her want to turn and make out with him right then and there.
After the salve was applied, she tilted her face ever so slightly, feeling his presence fill her entire world.
Then she realized just how inappropriate that was, and she pulled away.
She thought she heard him exhale, though she couldn’t possibly be sure. Had he wanted to kiss her, too? Was she reading too much into it all? She needed help. She wouldn’t get it if she fell into delusions of romance and lost the one prospect of it.
“That should heal nicely, but we’ll want to keep an eye on it, especially with a foal on the way.”
“Agreed,” Kaled said, standing and dusting the hay and dirt from his jeans.
Anne-Marie placed the harness on Aloha before guiding her out to the pasture and releasing her to the grasses. The sun was high in the sky above them as Kaled joined her to stare out over the fields.
“That wasn’t so bad,” he said.
Anne-Marie smiled. “I’m so glad you think so, because this afternoon we’ve got some fences to mend.”
SIX
Anne-Marie made a quick lunch of sandwiches and apples, which they ate on the porch. Wildly curious about Kaled but entirely unsure how to ask him about himself, she focused on her meal and stayed fairly quiet while they ate. She noticed how Kaled’s gaze would frequently stray to the horses in the fields, and she wondered what he was thinking.
Probably about how much oil was sitting beneath their hooves.
After a deep drink of water, Anne-Marie filled two canteens for them and led the way to the field.
“Sunshine and Daydream are probably the best two to take us out to the fences,” Anne-Marie said, and Kaled replaced his Stetson as he fell into step with her.
“Do you need a saddle?” she asked.
Kaled glanced down at her. “Of course. You don’t?”
Anne-Marie shrugged. “I don’t usually use one. I’ve preferred to ride bareback since I was a kid.”
“Well then, why don’t I give it a try?”
“It’s not for novice riders,” she said, shaking her head as they walked toward the barn.
He placed a gentle hand on her wrist, stopping her. She turned and looked up at him, her skin tingling beneath his touch. His eyes were asking her a question, though she wondered if there was more than one that he was asking.
“I think I’ve shown I’ve got a fair amount of knowledge in this arena. Give me a chance, will you? Please, Anne-Marie?”
He kept his hand on her wrist, and they stood like that, locking stares, for several seconds before Anne-Marie relented with a nod of her head.
“All right, but if you fall off and hurt yourself, I’m not liable.”
Kaled grinned. “That’s a deal.”
They approached the two horses, and Kaled watched as Anne-Marie jumped up onto Sunshine’s back, using her mane for help. He gave Daydream a smooth pet and pulled a bite of apple from lunch out of his pocket and placed it under the horse’s snout, which she vacuumed up without hesitation. She gave him a nuzzle for the treat, and he smiled as he hopped onto her back, shifting into a comfortable seated position. He steered toward Anne-Marie and fell into step by her side, lifting an eyebrow.
“Well? These fences aren’t going to mend themselves.”
Anne-Marie laughed as he took off at a trot, and she quickly joined him, guiding them toward the outer patch of fence that still needed work.
“Not a lot of fences out here still use wire,” he said, once they got there. “Most ranches have upgraded to wood.”
Anne-Marie shrugged, keeping her eyes on her work as she answered. “Wire’s cheaper and easier to maintain than wood. It’s also hardier in bad weather conditions.”
“Do you get a lot of bad weather out here?” he asked, gazing up at the cloudless blue sky.
“We get our fair share of sunny days, but yes. One good storm can take out an entire perimeter, and we’re not in a place right now that we could fix that right away.”
Anne-Marie had decided before Kaled’s arrival that she would not try to hide anything from the man. It was obvious what kind of circumstances she was in. There was no point in beating around the bush about it.
To her relief, Kaled simply nodded as he kneeled down to his own section of fence and began mending.
They worked side by side beneath the hot sun as the horses enjoyed a quiet afternoon of eating grass. Kaled worked fast, and he worked well. The stretch of fence he was able to fix set her ahead by a week, and she smiled at him as she handed him a canteen of water. He took it, his fingers brushing against hers, and opened it up and took a deep drink.
Anne-Marie watched him as she took her own drink. His face was glistening with a sheen of sweat, and after he put his canteen down he began removing his plaid shirt, and she almost spit out her water. Instead of his bare chest, though, she was met with a black undershirt, and she felt a pang of disappointment even as she scolded herself for having such thoughts about him. He used the plaid shirt to wipe his brow before replacing his hat and glancing out at the sinking sun.
“How much more do you think we should do today?” he asked. He was still holding on to his tool, clearly ready to get back to work if needed.
She stared at him for a moment, tilting her head. “We’ve gotten more done today than I could have gotten done in a week. At this rate we’ll have the whole perimeter done in a few days.”
“Happy to help, ma’am,” Kaled said, tipping his hat at her with a dimpled grin.
Her heart stumbled all over itself. Collecting her wits, she decided a nice break was in order, and she grinned back at him.
“I have an idea. Come on,” she said, guiding him in the direction of the horses.
Kaled handed his tools to her to place in her belt, which she did, as they walked toward the horses. Seeing her prepare to mount, Kaled reached his own horse, who was already in love with him after his apple gesture, and easily mounted. The animals turned toward the ranch, as they had been doing for so long, but Anne-Marie tugged gently on Sunshine’s mane, stopping her.
She glanced over at Kaled with a challenge in her eye.
“What say you to a race?” she said.
Kaled’s eyes gleamed at the dare, a clear acceptance.
“Last one to the edge of the property loses!” she called out, spurring Sunshine onward and taking off toward the far hillside.
She laughed as the wind whipped her hair, the sweat on her skin drying as the earth began to cool with the setting sun. She could hear Kaled riding behind her, though she knew she had the upper hand.
As the far gate appeared in her line of sight, and she was nearly there, she glanced to the side only to find Kaled right there beside her. He sent her a lopsided grin as they reached the end together.
“A tie!” he called out, laughing.
She laughed with him, feeling giddy and young and free—all the things she hadn’t felt since her parents had passed, leaving her with the burden of running things on her own.
She took a deep breath, staring out at the rolling fields of grass and trees. “What do you think?” she asked, watching his expression carefully.
Kaled looked wistful as he gazed out at the endless fields, the groves of trees, and the Texas sky above.
“It truly is beautiful,” he said.
Anne-Marie continued to watch him as he took in the scenery, sensing a change in him. Sh
e wasn’t naïve enough to think that she could change his mind so quickly, but she could start now, on day one. Perhaps, by the end, she really would convince him that driving her from this land wasn’t the best idea after all.
“It certainly is,” she said. “Now, just picture that grove of trees torn up and mutilated, the grass pulled from its roots, and a nice, big rig tearing deep into the ground, spewing smoke as oil is ripped from the earth.”
Kaled winced slightly at her words, but Anne-Marie wasn’t finished.
“There is more to life than profit, Kaled. Just look at the enormous bounty nature can provide. Is that really worth destroying for a resource that is on its way to extinction? No banker or CEO can put a price on this.”
They stared out at the setting sun together, and Anne-Marie allowed Kaled to maintain his silence as he absorbed her words. She could feel that he was hearing her, perhaps for the first time, outside of his suit and his cellphone and his business partners breathing down his neck at all hours of the day. She had watched as he’d finally turned his phone off at lunch, shutting out that world altogether.
It had certainly been a promising development.
After a while, Kaled sighed. “We should head back,” he said.
Anne-Marie nodded, turning Sunshine in the direction of the ranch, which looked so small in the distance. They took their time riding home, sitting in contemplative silence, enjoying the light breeze that had swept in. When they reached the fields, they dismounted.
“I’m going to clean up and get things ready for dinner. Can you start getting everyone cleaned up and back in their stalls?”
Kaled nodded. “Of course.”
He had been very quiet since their ride to the outer gate, and Anne-Marie allowed him to hold his silence. It seemed that he was thinking through what she had proposed, and if that was the case, he could have all the silence he needed. Anne-Marie wondered how long it had been since the man had actually been somewhere that allowed quiet. He lived in the city, and his phone never stopped beeping.
She couldn’t imagine it.
Stepping inside the house, she took a breath, an image of Kaled removing his flannel flitting across her mind. Forcing her thoughts to fence mending so as to cool her jets, she headed to her room and took a hot shower, blasting the sweat and dirt of the day away.
When she got out, she changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt, brushing and braiding her hair before heading back out to the kitchen. Before starting the meal, she decided to check in on Kaled and see if he needed any help. She opened the front door and gazed out into the fields.
There, Kaled was surrounded by three horses, gently patting and speaking with them all. Anne-Marie’s breath caught in her throat as she watched him. He was so natural, so at peace with the animals, and it was clear that they instantly trusted and adored him.
Anne-Marie knew a lot about animals, and one thing she was sure of was that they were excellent judges of character. If the horses liked Kaled this much, there was something truly special about him. Watching him in the fields as the sun set in the distance completely took her breath away. As she watched him, her arms wrapped around her body, he looked up and met her gaze, and she started.
Not knowing what else to do after being caught staring, Anne-Marie turned back into the house and went inside. She walked into the kitchen and leaned her back against a wall, looking up at the ceiling. She was being a fool. A lonely, schoolgirl-hearted fool.
Taking a steadying breath, she pressed away from the wall and began rummaging in her pantry for some food for dinner. She found a series of foodstuffs that she could make a country meal with, which was certainly more involved than anything she had made in the past few years, and found some pots and pans to begin cooking with.
Hearing the water turn on outside, she glanced around, wondering where Kaled was and what he was doing. She realized then than the back shower was running, and he was likely beneath it.
Anne-Marie swallowed, doing her best not to think about him beneath that shower. Instead, she filled a pot with water and set it on the stove. She turned on the oven and removed some chicken breasts from the refrigerator, setting them on the counter while she opened up all her cabinets, looking for something she could make with it.
It wasn’t that Anne-Marie couldn’t cook. She had simply never made the time. Cooking for one was probably one of the loneliest things a person could do, and so she spent as little time as possible at the table she’d once shared with her parents, usually opting to snack in her bed until she fell asleep.
As she closed a cabinet, she jumped when she saw a clean, fully dressed Kaled standing over the stove, looking at the food.
“Interesting spread you’ve got here,” he said.
Anne-Marie’s cheeks grew warm in embarrassment.
“I didn’t have time to get to the store. I’ll have to go tomorrow so we can have a better menu.”
Kaled perused the counter again and then peeked out the window toward the back of the house.
“Nonsense. You wait right here. I think I’ve got an idea.”
Anne-Marie stood, bemused, staring at his retreating back as he headed toward the back of the house and disappeared for several minutes. When he returned, he was carrying a handful of fresh spices from the garden.
“I recognized a few of these from my home country, Al Hajidh. We can use them to infuse the meal a little bit, if you’d like? Are you feeling adventurous?”
Anne-Marie grinned, crossing her arms. “I’m nothing if not adventurous,” she said, and Kaled joined her at the counter as he expertly instructed her how to make a sauce for the chicken that was a perfect combination of Middle Eastern and American.
They worked well together, pairing ingredients and taste testing until their sauce was just right. Kaled baked the chicken, watching it carefully.
“I never pictured you as someone who cooked his own meals,” Anne-Marie said as she stirred the sauce.
“You’ve made assumptions about me based on two business encounters. It never occurred to you that I might be a little more than just a man in a suit?”
“I know you’re more than that, but beyond it, you’re royalty. In my limited experience, I was unaware that a sheikh would prepare his own meals. Wasn’t that done for you? You’ve already admitted that it was unconventional, maybe even frowned upon, that you worked in the stables, so I don’t think I’m entirely off base here.”
Kaled waved a spoon in her direction. “Well played. You are correct on that level. At home, most of my meals were prepared for me. Still, I did attend university—here in the States, in fact—and while I was at school it became apparent that I would have been very unpopular if I’d continued on in my previous lifestyle. So I adapted. A good friend of mine taught me how to cook, and I worked to infuse my own favorite flavors into the available cuisine.”
The oven beeped, signaling that the chicken was ready, and Anne-Marie delicately pulled the baking sheet out. Kaled filled two bowls with pasta and placed the chicken and sauce on top, preparing a meal that looked fit for a king.
He placed the bowls on the table as Anne-Marie grabbed utensils. When she turned, she saw him standing with a chair pulled out, waiting for her to sit.
“Shall we?”
SEVEN
Anne-Marie stared at the chair for a moment. He was being gallant. Had anyone ever been gallant toward her before?
Realizing that he was standing there waiting for her to sit, she took the offered seat with gratitude. He sat across from her, digging his knife and fork into the chicken and cutting a small piece before taking a bite. When he did, he looked at her and smiled.
“Not bad!” he said.
Anne-Marie picked up her own knife and fork and followed suit. The food was actually exceptional, the sauce bursting with flavor. It was the best meal she’d had in a very, very long time.
“I think you underestimate yourself, Your Highness. Is that what they call you in Al Hajidh?”
Kaled blushed. “It is,” he admitted. “Though it’s a title I gave up after coming here. At first it was fun, being singled out as royalty, but it became pretty obvious, after a while, that most of the people hanging out with me were only doing it to get favors or enjoy my lifestyle, so I kind of switched gears in school and starting spending time with people who I knew liked me for who I really am.”
“And who are you, really?” she asked, leaning in.
Kaled’s gaze turned thoughtful as he considered his answer.