Breaking the Reins

by Juliana Haygert

  “Yeah, what time do you usually get up?”

  I couldn’t help the grin that spread on my lips. I was about to burst his bubble. “6 a.m.”

  “All right. I’ll be here at six thirty,” he said, dead serious.

  My face fell. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.” He tipped his hat to me. “Good night.”

  And just like that, he walked past me and out of the stable.

  Chapter Nine

  I was up and ready at 5:20 a.m. The truth was I barely slept all night. My mind went on and on about several things, including the fact that Eric had no idea Leo was helping me with Argus, and that was bad. Really bad. First, because it seemed like I had something to hide, and I didn’t. Second, because Eric would be jealous and possibly mad about it. He would consider it a betrayal, which prompted me to think hiding Leo’s help was better. But it wasn’t. Or was it?

  Confused, I finally gave up sleeping and prepared a strong coffee for me, while pretending I wasn’t thinking too much about which clothes to wear. In the end, I shoved on one of my usual cutoff jeans shorts, a tank top, and my boots, and I pulled my hair up in a ponytail since the day promised to be hot. It sure would.

  Crap. Get your head out of the gutter, Hannah!

  The day would be hot, as in the weather. Not because Leo would be here. No. Not at all.

  Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

  At 5:50, I entered the stable and almost had a heart attack.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Leo stood in front of Argus’s stall, a bucket of grain in his hands. “Bom dia,” he said, without looking at me.

  I retreated two steps and spied out. Sure enough, his Grand Cherokee was parked beside my car. How did I miss that?

  I returned my gaze to him. He put the bucket into the lazy Susan on the wood wall of Argus’s stall, then closed it. Leo watched Argus intently, but if the horse noticed our presence and the fact that he was given food, he hid it well.

  And, while Leo observed Argus, I observed Leo. He was wearing jeans, a black polo shirt, and cowboy boots. He wore the same style of clothes I always saw him in, but the fact that he looked so damn good in them, that his black polo hugged his large shoulders and looked a little too snug around his biceps and triceps, that the jeans weren't too tight but still fitted enough so I could see the contours of his perfect, round butt, and that the black cowboy boots were a nice touch showed me he was truly a horse guy, not just someone who liked horses.

  My eyes wandered to his face, to the way his jaw, chin, and cheekbones seemed chiseled to perfection, and how his longish light brown hair curled around his neck, and the way his blue-green eyes shone with something I couldn’t define when they turned to me.

  Crap. I shook my head and cleared my thoughts.

  “You’re early,” I said, crossing my arms.

  “I know.” He turned to Belle’s stall. “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I could compensate for being late yesterday.”

  He opened the lazy Susan on Belle’s stall and filled her bucket with grain.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I said.

  “I know.”

  I didn’t understand him. Who in any good sense would come to a stranger’s ranch before six in the morning and start doing chores?

  After serving Belle, he walked to Chip’s stall.

  Frowning, he looked at me. “Tche, are you going watch or are you going to help me?”

  I shook my head once more. “Sorry.” I walked up to where the buckets were lined on the floor along the wall. I grabbed a bucket for Black Jack because I knew his lazy Susan wouldn’t have one. He liked to chew on his buckets, and we avoided leaving them in his stall longer than necessary. “I was … caught off guard. Besides Jimmy, I don’t have help around here.”

  Leo closed Chip’s lazy Susan and turned to me. “Only you and Jimmy for the entire ranch?” I nodded, and he continued, "I can’t imagine taking care of a ranch like that. In Brazil, our ranch is big, but it has at least twenty employees, and here we have about seven. And looking at it, your ranch is about the same size as ours.”

  I inserted the bucket into Black Jack’s lazy Susan. “Yours has forty-three acres more.”

  One corner of his lips tugged up. “I forget you probably know that ranch better than we do.”

  I closed the lazy Susan. “I wouldn’t say I know it better, but the O’Connors were good friends with my grandma. I spent a lot of time there during my childhood."

  “How do you do it? I mean, taking care of the ranch by yourself?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Grandma did it with only Jimmy’s help. I guess I can do it too.”

  “But you have college too. And your father’s business, right?”

  I nodded. All right, this conversation was going to a place I didn’t want it to go. Time to get back to the matter at hand. “So, what’s the plan today?"

  He stared at me for a few seconds, as if noticing I was changing the subject on purpose and wondering why. “I’m not sure,” he finally said, walking up to the next horse’s stall. “What time is the first riding class?”

  “At seven.” I spied into the tack room and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 6:20 a.m.

  He served breakfast to the horse. “That’s early.”

  “Yes. This class is older, people between thirty-five and fifty-five years old. They wanted the class to be before work hours. Then, the other class is at eight. A children’s class.” I smiled. “Seven to ten years old. They started about a month ago, two times a week. They didn’t know anything until then, and they are doing so well.”

  He tilted his head at me. “You sound proud.”

  Noticing I had been smiling, I closed my expression again. “I guess I am, though Paul is the instructor and he’s the one that should be proud.”

  He nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  In silence, we checked on the horses’ water. The stalls had an automated water supply, but even so, I was neurotic that they could stop working and leave the horses without anything to drink for hours. In this heat, that wouldn’t be a good thing.

  A few minutes later, Jimmy arrived.

  “Mr. Fernandes. Good to see you here,” Jimmy said with a big smile.

  “Bom dia, Jimmy,” Leo said.

  “Morning.” Jimmy tipped his hat at me. “Miss Taylor.”

  “Hello, Jimmy,” I said.

  “Don’t tell me Miss Taylor finally gave up being Super Woman and hired you to help us out,” Jimmy said, still sporting a wide smile.

  “What?” I squeaked.

  Leo chuckled. “No. She’s still Super Woman, but she asked me to help with Argus.”

  “Oh, that’s nice.”

  I cleared my throat. “How about we get the horses ready for the first class?”

  “Right,” Jimmy muttered.

  Leo and I entered the tack room, grabbed saddles, bridles, and reins, and headed out to the arena while Jimmy brought the horses over.

  Jimmy held the horses, Leo saddled them, and I put on their bridles. It was so synchronized I could hear the song our movements composed. If someone walked in on us right now, he or she would think we had been doing this together for a long time. I was not sure if the two men noticed, and I wouldn’t be the one to bring that up.

  Leo was saddling Black Jack, the last horse, when Paul came in. I introduced Paul to Leo and vice versa.

  “So nice to get here and have all the horses set,” Paul said in his perpetual teasing tone. “Miss Taylor, I say you hire this young man and let him do that every day. I would certainly appreciate it.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Sorry,” Leo started. “My schedule is already too busy. I can’t have two jobs without totally screwing one.”

  “Darn it!” Paul flung his arms into the air, pretending to be hurt.

  Soon, the students arrived and the minutes flew by as they greeted everyone, got ready, chose their horses, and set out with Paul.<
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  “It ain’t barely seven and I’m already spent.” Jimmy sighed. "Miss Taylor, I’m gonna check on the other stable, if that’s all right?”

  “It sure is,” I said.

  Leo and I watched Jimmy as he crossed the small gate at the arena and walked up the hill to the stable in the back.

  Then, Leo pointed over my shoulder. “I see you have a round pen.”

  I nodded without looking toward it. The covered round pen was connected by fences to the arena. It had not been used in ages.

  “We should take Argus there,” Leo said. “It’ll be a smaller place for him to run from us. Unless you have more stuff to do around here.”

  “No, it’s fine. Argus is priority. I can do whatever I have to do later.”

  “I don’t mind helping.”

  “I know.”

  He didn’t mind helping. I could see that. I could feel that. And it hurt. It hurt because a total stranger wanted to help me while my boyfriend ran from this place when he could.

  Taking a deep breath, I stepped around him, toward the stable. “Any idea of how we take him there?”

  Leo followed me inside. “Not really.”

  We stopped before Argus’s stall. The horse had not moved at all since I had first seen him this morning, over an hour ago. If it weren't for the slow up and down of his ribs, I would think he was dead.

  Or maybe he was sick.

  Panic rose in me, and I opened the stall door.

  Leo’s hand on my arm stopped me. “What are you doing?”

  “He hasn’t moved yet. I’m worried.”

  Leo closed the stall door and pulled me back. “He’s testing you. Don’t let him win.”

  I turned my face to him and I found him too close to me. I inhaled sharply. “Checking on him is letting him win?”

  “It is when he’s playing a game, yes.”

  I sighed. Leo was right, as I was finding out he usually was. As much as I didn’t want to play any games, Argus was playing one. A serious one. And I had to be careful of any move I made.

  “What then?”

  He beckoned me to follow him into the tack room.

  There, he grabbed some bridles and reins from the wall. “You’ll distract him, somehow.”

  “Somehow?”

  “Yeah, make some noise, call him, threaten to enter and get close to him, but don’t really do that.”

  “Okay …” I said, sounding doubtful even to my ears.

  “I’ll try to sneak in and put the bridle around him, and then we can pull him to the round pen.”

  I stared at him. “And you really think he’ll just let us pull him across the arena and into the round pen?”

  “Any other great ideas?” he asked, and I shook my head. “Then let’s try it.”

  We walked over to Argus’s stall. He was in the same position, but I noticed he was alert. His ears were slightly perked and his body seemed a little tense. Crap, he really was playing.

  I went to the left most corner of the stall, while Leo was on the right.

  “Argus, boy, come here,” I said, feeling lame about it. I tapped on the wood railing. “Boy, I have something to show you. Come on." His ears moved a little, but other than that, nothing. I leaned over the rail. “Look at me, boy.” Using my hands and arms, I pulled myself over the rail.

  “No,” Leo muttered.

  “I won’t go in,” I whispered. “I’ll sit over the rail. If he comes at me, I jump down.”

  Even though Leo didn’t seem satisfied with my answer, he nodded.

  I sat over the rail, keeping one leg in and one leg out, just in case. “Look, Argus.” The horse turned his head toward me, and I almost smiled. “Come here."

  It took him a few minutes, but with lots of cajoling, the horse finally stood up and turned his whole self to me, though he was still on the other side of the stall, with Leo in his peripheral sight.

  My stomach was in knots with anticipation. “Come on, boy.” I ended up swinging the second leg over the rail and into the stall. Leo shot me a warning look, but I ignored him. “Come on, Argus.”

  He gave one big step toward me, probably putting Leo out of his line of sight.

  Then, as Leo climbed over the rail, I talked nonstop, so Argus wouldn’t hear him. “Come on, boy. You can do it. One more step. Here. See? You can do it. I’ll show you something. Come on.” Leo stood directly behind him, a few steps to the side. Still, my heart bumped hard against my chest. If Argus decided to kick his hind legs, he would hit Leo and that would definitely be bad. Very bad. “You can do it, boy. I won’t hurt you.” Argus gave another step in my direction, and I sighed in relief. Still not good enough, but better. “Come on. Just one more step. I believe in you.”

  Leo jumped forward, and in one fluid motion, put the bridle over Argus’s face. He pulled back through the reins, causing the bridle to fall into place when Argus wiggled. The horse neighed and reared, and Leo stepped to the side, holding the reins firmly. The horse pulled back, Leo pulled forward, and I sat with my heart in my throat, afraid Argus would stomp over Leo.

  “Get out,” I yelled.

  Leo slid his hand to the end of the rope connected to the reins and retreated to the door, while Argus jerked from side to side, neighing loudly.

  I jumped out and opened the door for him. He stepped out and I closed it. It was better to keep the horse in there until he calmed down a little than to try to pull him like that across the arena.

  Leo held on to the reins with firm hands.

  “What now?”

  “We wait.”

  We did wait. For over twenty minutes. By then, Leo’s arms had to be hurting.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  He glanced at me. “For?”

  “For this.” I gestured to everything around us. “I’m sorry it’s so difficult.”

  He chuckled. “You thought it would be easy?”

  “Not really. But I guess I never stopped to consider how difficult this can be.”

  “I know what you mean,” he whispered, and I wondered if we were talking about the same thing, which brought on my curiosity with full force.

  I looked at Argus. He was quieting down, but not as much as I wanted him to.

  “You know a lot about me. Now it’s your turn. Tell me about you,” I said, still looking at Argus.

  Leo let out a loud sigh. “There’s not much to tell.”

  “I’m sure there is. How was life in Brazil? Do you miss it?”

  “I miss it, but not as much as I thought I would. I miss our farm, for sure, but the one here is almost as good. I miss some of the horses that we didn’t bring; I miss some of my friends. The worst part is knowing that, if we go back, those friendships won't be the same.”

  I turned to look at him. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve barely spoken to them since we came here. I know they will always have my back, but it’s not the same thing. Before, we spoke every day, several times a day, and talked about any crap that popped into our minds. Now, I have no idea what they are doing, what they are up to. If we go back, I have my doubts things will go back to the way they were before.”

  “Do you plan on going back?”

  A lopsided grin took over his lips. “Our plan right now is to stay for the next six months, and hopefully get a new contract in a couple of weeks to stay a whole year. After that, we don’t know. I would like to stay,” he said in a low voice that made butterflies zoom in my stomach. “Brazil isn’t that big on polo and the U.S. is. We have much to offer and some of the clubs here are among the best in the world.”

  The butterflies melted away. “Oh.”

  Leo nudged me in the ribs with his elbow, and I almost jumped. “Look, he’s calm.”

  I turned toward Argus. He was calm. Still tense and alert, but he was just standing there, not fighting anymore.

  “Ready?” I asked, reaching for the door.

  Leo nodded and I opened the door. I grabbed a whip from the shelf along
one of the walls, and rushed to stand along the way, so the horse wouldn’t be able to come the opposite direction.

  Surprising both of us, Argus followed Leo’s tugs and pulls, and followed him to the arena without any problems. I followed them out and closed the back gate, just in case.

  Right in the center of the arena, Argus reared, neighed, and pulled back. Leo couldn’t hold on to the rope without falling or being stomped over, so Argus trotted away from him.

  I dashed to Leo. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes.” He glanced at his palms. They were red from trying to hold on to the ropes.

  “That doesn’t look good.” I reached over and placed my hands under his. The warmth of his skin seeped into mine, and I realized what I had done.

  He tensed. I felt it in his hands. I shouldn’t have, but I looked up and found him watching me. He was close, his eyes intense.

  “It’s not that bad,” he said, pulling his hands away.

  Clearing my throat and probably blushing, I looked around for Argus. He was on the north most side of the arena, trotting from side to side, kicking and rearing and neighing and snorting nonstop.

  “Should we just let him be again?”

  “I don’t think so. We can’t let him win.”

  “But we can’t force him into anything either.”

  “Think of this like parenting. Parents want to be friends with their children, but before being a friend, you have to be a parent. You can be firm and impose things without actually demanding it and applying fear into the horse.”

  I returned my eyes to Leo. How did he know so much about this? It was incredible. I couldn’t imagine doing this on my own.

  I was about to say thank you, but he spoke first.

  “Do you have a rope? I mean, not the ones from the reins. I mean a longer rope. Over thirty feet long.”

  “Yeah, inside the tack room. Do you want it?”

  “Yeah. Oh, and gloves,” he added. “Can I borrow them?”

  I frowned. “Okay, I’ll go grab them.”

  He nodded and I ran into the stable, grabbed the long rope and gloves from the closet, and ran out again. Argus was still thrashing close to the fence, and Leo had walked a bit closer to him. His stance was firm, and yet not tense, as if he was studying Argus, his guard up, but he wasn’t afraid. Not at all.