Breaking the Reins

by Juliana Haygert

  I handed the rope and gloves to him just as the cars of a few parents bringing their children for the next class arrived. They parked their cars, and the kids came running to the arena.

  “Don’t enter,” I said. “That horse is misbehaving, and I need you to stay outside, okay?”

  The kids nodded, an eager and fascinated look on their faces.

  Paul came back with his first class. Noticing Argus wasn’t in good shape, he told his students to wait outside the arena too.

  Meanwhile, Leo put on the gloves and worked on the rope. His hands moved fast, pulling here and there, tying knots and whatnots. I was dizzy from watching.

  “What …?”

  With a winning smile, he held up a lasso to me. “You’ll see.” He gently touched my hand. “Can you please step back a little?”

  I didn’t say anything; I just retreated.

  And he started.

  Leo flung the lasso above his head and began circling it. Swoosh, swoosh, I heard, each time the rope made a complete circle. He walked closer to Argus, only to have the horse trot away. Still holding a smiled, Leo shook his head and threw the lasso. When he saw the lasso, Argus skidded to a stop, missing being captured by inches.

  The kids cheered and I smiled.

  What a sight. Leo with a lasso, chasing after an enraged Argus. Who knew he could do this? It was incredible how he kept on surprising me.

  Leo pulled the lasso back and started again as Argus, now knowing what was happening, galloped the perimeter of the arena.

  “Get out, Hannah,” Leo said, his eyes following Argus around, and the horse was getting close to where I was standing.

  I didn’t really want to, but I got out. Sort of. I climbed the fence and sat on top of it, close to the children.

  Leo tried tricking Argus. He whirled the lasso above his head, his back to the horse, and pretended he was going to throw the lasso to one side, but threw it to the other side instead. This time, he missed Argus by an inch. Or less.

  The kids yelled, sounding excited, and the horse neighed, irritated.

  Even if Leo caught him, I wasn’t sure we would be able to do more with him today. He was already too distressed, and it wasn’t even eight in the morning.

  Leo swung the lasso over his head and began spinning it. He spun and spun it while Argus galloped and galloped. I knew what he was doing. The patience game. I would have lost already.

  “Won’t he throw the lasso?” Lisa, an eight-year-old girl, asked me.

  “He will,” I said. “As you guys can see, Argus isn’t in great shape. With a horse like him, you have to be patient.”

  “What happened to him?” Billy, a ten-year-old boy, asked.

  “His previous owner didn’t take care of him.”

  “And how did he end up with you?” Morgan, a seven-year-old girl, asked.

  “Kids,” Morgan’s mother began. “It's not nice to ask so many questions.”

  I smiled at her and mouthed, “Thank you.”

  As much as I would love to tell them all about mistreating a horse, or any other animal, and how not nice that was and such, I wanted to pay attention to Leo and his work. I could lecture the kids about this another time.

  I returned my focus to Leo and Argus. They were still playing the patience game. Leo whipped that lasso like a boss, marching slowly with squared shoulders and straight back, and Argus ran from him, trotting like a mad horse.

  Then, Leo stopped walking, but kept the lasso going. Noticing something had changed, Argus slowed down to a trot, but he didn’t stop. Leo didn’t even turn to face Argus anymore, but when Argus came around him, I noticed the tiny shift in Leo's stance.

  He threw the lasso and caught Argus.

  The kids boomed beside me and I smiled.

  Leo knelt down, pulling on the rope, while Argus jerked around, fighting Leo. I jumped down from the fence and ran to him.

  “Need help?” I asked.

  He shook his head, too focused on the amount of force he had to channel to hold on while the horse pulled. Leo angled the rope toward the ground, and put his knee over it to give him a stronger base, forcing Argus to turn his head slightly down. Gritting his teeth, Leo held on.

  Argus thrashed against the lasso, as much as he could.

  Leo extended one arm along the rope as far as he could, entwined his hand on it, and pulled it. Argus fought, but he didn’t have a choice. He advanced toward Leo until he reared and pulled back at it, causing Leo to lose his grip. He wobbled, and I thought he would face-plant into the ground, but he recovered and tightened the grip around the rope before all of it was gone.

  He reapplied the force.

  “I might need that help, after all,” he muttered, and I noticed he was a little out of breath.

  “Tell me what to do.”

  “Hold the rope and help me pull it when I tell you too.” He dared a glance at me. “Oh, you don’t have gloves. Then no.”

  “Here,” Paul yelled. I turned my head to him. He was taking off his gloves.

  I waited for Argus to trot to the other side to dash closer. Paul threw them at me. I caught them and slipped them on as I ran back to Leo.

  I grabbed the rope behind him. “I’m ready.”

  “Okay, let’s do this. Now,” he said. We pulled on the rope, and I instantly felt the struggled when Argus worked against it.

  “Holy shit,” I muttered.

  Leo chuckled.

  This wasn’t a game.

  We knelt down again, but this time Leo didn’t use his knees as help since I was with him. He inclined the rope toward the ground, and did the same thing as before. He stretched his arm along the rope and clasped it in his hand.

  “One more time. Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  “Now,” he said. We pulled the rope. Argus yanked against it, but we kept pulling. I was sure I was now gritting my teeth too. “Again,” Leo said. We applied more force, and Leo brought more of the rope in. “Again.”

  This time, when we were done bringing the rope in and holding it there, Argus fell to his knees.

  The kids cheered. I thought I heard Paul cheering too.

  Smiling, Leo stood up. “You can let go now.”

  With a loud sigh, I dropped the rope. My arms were killing me.

  Keeping the rope stretched, Leo walked closer to Argus. When he was about five feet from the horse, Leo tugged on the rope gently. I could see the battle in their eyes. It was as if they were having an entire argument without words. Argus resisted at first, but then stood up with Leo. As a sign of trust, Leo relaxed the rope.

  Leo glanced at me. “Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll do much more today. How about I take him back to the stable?”

  I nodded.

  Leo directed Argus back to his stall. The horse tested him a few times by stopping, but Leo just needed to tug a little more firmly on the rope and Argus began walking again.

  “Wait there, kids,” I said. “Let me help that class.” I pointed to Paul and the students with him. “Then we’ll get to yours, okay?”

  They didn’t seem enthusiastic about it, but there wasn’t much they could do.

  Paul opened the gate and let his students come in the arena. Jimmy entered with them—I just now noticed him here. Immediately, he started helping Paul’s class with dismounting and putting things away.

  I was about to help them when Leo came back to the arena, the rope still in his hands.

  “I must say, I’m impressed.”

  He offered me a huge smile. My heart skipped a beat. “Oh yeah?”

  “I didn’t know you could do that. How did you learn that?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure. It was something so natural when growing up on a farm where cattle are raised.” His proud smile changed to a naughty one. "But let me show you something I learned when I was about ten years old.” He retreated a few steps from the crowd. “Let the kids in. They will like this.”

  “This?” I asked. My curiosity corroded my
insides.

  “You’ll like it too.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Come on, morena, do it.”

  “Morena?”

  Laughing, he turned to the children. “Come inside, kids. While you wait for your class, you might want to see this.”

  The kids all but lost their legs on the fence and gate, climbing and rushing through it. They closed in around Leo, but he asked them to stand back a little, and they did so.

  I stood with them.

  Leo swung the lasso over his head. Then he turned it sideways. Then to the other side. Then in front of him. Then on his back.

  He was doing tricks with the rope. A trick roper.

  Oh my God.

  Next, he circled the rope close to the ground and jumped in the middle. The kids clapped, cheered, laughed, and smiled. It was contagious.

  Leo drove the rope around his body, from his feet up to his head, and he never stopped actually whirling the damn rope. He brought the rope to his front and played with it, making figure eights and pushing the rope in on itself. I was expecting it to knot, but it never did. After a few minutes showing off those tricks, Leo turned the rope sideways again, close to his body, and he jumped through it.

  The kids went wild and I laughed.

  I glanced over my shoulder. Paul, Jimmy, the students, and the kids’ parents were all watching, with huge eyes and smiles.

  Leo did the side jump again, and once more, the kids screamed.

  Then his eyes settled on me, and I knew what was coming a millisecond before it happened. He threw the rope at me and caught me.

  The kids laughed out loud.

  “Very funny,” I said, trying to sound mad, but I was laughing too.

  “It actually is,” he said, pulling me closer to him.

  The kids took that as a cue, and they stood around Leo and me.

  “Can you do that again?”

  “How do you do that?”

  “Are you a magician?”

  “Can you teach me?”

  And the questions went on.

  Leo tried answering as much and as fast as he could, but kids were kids, and he couldn’t keep up with eleven of them.

  He was saved when Paul and Jimmy called them to get ready. They didn’t want to go, but Paul said he would bring Leo another day if they came quickly. So they did.

  I tried making a mad face at Leo again. “Can you please let me go?”

  “Maybe,” he said, a hint of a smile on his lips.

  I stared at him. “You were right. I liked that.”

  The smile stopped hiding and shone in his face. “I knew you would.”

  Chapter Ten

  After the kids had gone to their classes, Jimmy went back to his chores, and since Argus was probably done for the day, I invited Leo for a snack. After all, I had breakfast three hours ago and I was already green with hunger.

  I made us coffee and we sat on the swing on the front porch.

  “So, what are the other secrets you hold?”

  He almost spit his coffee. “Me? No secrets. You get what you see.”

  “Hmm, I see a famous polo player, ranked number six in the world, and—”

  “Number four.”

  “But … I was sure it was six.”

  “It went up two weeks ago and it’ll probably go up again next week or so. I know because I’ve been counting my points."

  “Oh … okay then. Number four in the world ranking, a skilled trick roper, and on the way to becoming a horse whisperer. With a nice family, at least that’s what it seems."

  “Sim. It is pretty nice.” He sipped from his mug. “Bia, Gui, Pedro, and Ri are my best friends."

  I pulled my feet up on the swing and wrapped my arms around my legs, laying my cheek on my knees, careful not to spill coffee from my mug. “How old are they? I mean, I can guess, but … I’m curious.”

  “Ri is twenty-five, Pedro is twenty-three, Gui is twenty-one, and Bia and I will be twenty-one in August.”

  “Hmm, your birthday is getting close.” I tilted my head up, resting my chin on my knees. “How about Gui’s parents? They just let him come with you guys?”

  “Yeah. Gui is a great player, and if he didn’t come, his talent would be wasted. His father was supportive, but his mother was heartbroken. She calls several times per day.”

  “Is he an only child?”

  “No, he has a younger sister. Gabriela is seventeen.”

  Another girl among four guys. I bet they gave Beatriz and Gabriela a hard time. Which brought to mind the next question.

  “What about girlfriends and boyfriends?” I asked. He gave me a quizzical look, and I felt the heat spreading on my cheeks. “I mean, it's normal for people to date. I can’t believe not one of you had a serious relationship before moving here.”

  “True. Ri has a girlfriend, Joana. They talk daily and she spent a weekend here two weeks ago. Now he’s talking about going down there for a weekend soon. He plans on proposing to her, then after the visa and all that crap is done, bringing her to live here."

  “That’s romantic.”

  “Yes and no. Can you imagine being newlyweds and living with the in-laws? And it’s not only my parents. There’s another four of us. I'm not sure she’ll like that idea,” he explained.

  “You’re right. That wouldn’t be good.”

  “Because of that, Ri is trying to convince Dad to build another house on the property. However, we don’t really know if we’re staying, so Dad doesn't want to do that just yet.”

  “I guess that also makes sense.”

  “As for Pedro, he had an on-and-off relationship with a girl from our school, Paula. They put a real end to it when he was about to leave. Gui was never the serious type, and Bia hid her boyfriends from us, so I’m not sure if she was dating someone when we moved here."

  I laughed. “I understand why she hid them from you guys.”

  He didn’t laugh. In fact, he was too serious. “That’s not funny.”

  “It is, actually.” I poked him in the ribs with my elbow. “What about you?”

  He averted his eyes. Uh-oh. “In truth, I was much like Gui. Not the serious type.”

  Something inside of me deflated. “Oh.”

  He brought his gaze back to me. “But I think I met a girl I—”

  His cell phone rang, and I realized I was tense. Too tense.

  He pulled the phone from his pocket. “Merda,” he muttered, looking at the screen and frowning. “Oi." He answered the phone sounding way too curt. “Sim. Sim. Eu não vou me atrasar, tche. Tá bom." He turned it off and shook his head. “Sorry. It was my father.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. It was not the first time I saw him tense because of his father, and I wondered what was there that I didn’t know. I wanted to ask him but I was afraid to.

  He sighed. “You can ask about it.”

  “What?”

  “I can see the questions in your eyes. Ask about it.”

  “I don’t mean to pry,” I whispered.

  “I know. If I don’t want to answer, I won’t. But you’ll never know until you ask me.”

  I held my breath and formulated what I thought was the right question in my mind. “What happened between you and your father to make you this upset?”

  He looked out at the stable, and I thought he wouldn’t answer it. “A couple of years ago, my father and I had a big argument,” he finally said. His thumb poked the black ring on his finger. “We didn’t speak to each for almost two years. Unfortunately, things never went back to normal between us. I guess this is the new normal.”

  Wow. Two years without talking to his father? I couldn’t imagine that. Well, maybe if my father sold the ranch behind my back or something. Even so, I guess I would try to let my anger dissipate and solve things. Or not. It was hard to gauge how I would act. Besides, I had no idea what the cause of Leo’s and his father’s argument was and, feeling he didn’t like this subject, I wasn’t about to ask. Not y
et.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.” He stood up. “Bom, I think I should be going. I still have to stop home before heading to the club."

  “Oh, okay.”

  He placed the mug on top of the porch rail and looked at me. “When should I be back?”

  I wish it would be this evening, but I was sure Eric would come after practice.

  “I don’t know,” I confessed, looking down at my mug.

  “I need to know one thing. Eric doesn’t know I’m helping you, does he?” Still not looking at him, I shook my head. He groaned. “And you don’t want him to know?” I shook my head once more. “Certo. Then why don’t you write down my number and call me when you want me to come?”

  Hmm, having Leo written in my contacts wouldn’t be a good idea, but I could program his number with another name. Not the best of ideas, but it was the only one I could think of.

  He told me his number, I programmed it in my phone, and then I called him so he would have mine.

  “Good. Okay.” He looked at me, and I thought I would faint with the potency of his eyes. “Have a great weekend.”

  He ran down the stairs and rushed along the path to his SUV.

  I watched him as he drove away and I replayed the morning in my head. Though we hadn’t had any progress with Argus, it felt like a productive morning, in some way. I just didn’t know which.

  ***

  “Good morning, baby.”

  I rolled to my side and found Eric sitting on my bed, wearing his silk pajama set, a tray with breakfast on the nightstand by his side.

  The heavy sleep-fog slowly faded away, and I realized it was Saturday morning. Eric had come last night for dinner as I had predicted, and he stayed for the night. We talked a lot, mostly about his trip to Florida the next day for a big tournament, which he was sure he would win.

  “Good morning,” I muttered, hugging my pillow and closing my eyes again.

  “No, no.” He nudged my shoulder. “Wake up, baby. I made you breakfast.”

  “Hmm, five more minutes.”

  He laughed. “It’s almost nine in the morning, and I’ve gotta go soon, so please, can you wake up and have a nice breakfast with me?”

  I opened my eyes. “You gotta go?”

  “Yes.” He ran a hand over my hair. “I had to schedule a meeting for this morning before leaving for my trip. They didn’t want to wait until I’m back, and I’m not willing to lose this business. Sorry, baby.”