“I don’t know. It’s a throwaway question. I’m just lowering your defenses with easy ones.”
Lexi laughed. “Pretty sure you’re not supposed to reveal that, this early in the quiz.”
“This is why I’m a horse trainer, not a detective. Answer the question, perp.”
“Vanilla. With maple syrup.”
“Really? I totally had you for a chocolate girl.”
“Nope.” She smiled, then felt her face fall as she realized even her ice-cream choice was boring. “Vanilla all the way. That’s me. Boring.”
He drilled her with his eyes. “Pretty sure we’ve had that discussion already. And I’m pretty sure you know that boring is the last adjective in the world that I’d apply to you.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“Ready for another question?”
“No.”
“Good. Ocean or desert?”
“Ocean. Hands down.” She smiled. “Duh.”
“That was another gimme. How about ocean versus mountains?”
Lexi felt her nose wrinkle as she tried to figure out how best to answer. “Still ocean, but the mountains are growing on me.”
“Okay, if you had a night off, would you rather stay in and read a book or go out?”
“Book, unless the going-out offer was too good to resist.”
He smiled. “And what would make it too good to resist?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Shots and karaoke come to mind.”
“Didn’t you swear those off less than twenty minutes ago?”
She laughed. “Right. Because they lead to drunk-texting and mortal embarrassment.”
“Last question.” His face grew serious, and she swallowed nervously. “The woman I was out with the other night—the one who laughed through dinner, got ice cream on her nose, and giggled in the rain. Was that the real Lexi? Or the Lexi you’re trying to become?”
Chapter 15
Lexi searched his face, hearing—was it hope?—in his question.
“That was the real me.” She took a deep breath, looking into his eyes. “And the real me had a really great time.”
He paused. “I hear a but there.”
“No buts. It was…fun. Easy.” She tipped her head, realizing again just how simple it had been to be with him. But was that because they were compatible? Or was it because she knew he was so far out of her league that there was no way he could ever think of her as more than a sweet summer fling?
“Well, so did I.” He shrugged. “You know, Lex, I might be totally out of line here, but it seems to me, if you’re trying to somehow change yourself in order to impress somebody who should have loved you just the way you are, there’s something dead wrong with that equation.”
She shook her head sadly. “I know. And if it was just one guy, one breakup, one dead end, I could maybe see it that objectively. But it’s been the story of my entire life. I’m like a Dear Abby letter, for God’s sake.”
“What?” He blinked, shaking his head.
“You know.” She waved a hand. “Dear Abby, every time I have a boyfriend, he breaks up with me so he can date somebody better. It’s happened a million times, and now my fiancé just left me at the altar. Could it possibly be me that’s the problem?”
Lexi saw Gunnar start to smile, but tamp it down when he looked at her face. Then he stood up and came around the counter, opening his arms.
She crossed hers in response. “Please. No sympathy hugs. It just ups the pitiful factor here.”
“It’s not a sympathy hug, Lex. Come here.” He reached out and gathered her to his chest, resting his chin on her head. “Has it occurred to you that maybe your difficulty lies not in the keeping-the-boyfriend part, but maybe in the picking-the-boyfriend-in-the-first-place part?”
“Ya think, Sherlock?” Her voice was muffled against his chest, and she fought not to uncross her arms and hold him more tightly.
“I’m just saying. I mean, when you met The Idiot—who, for sake of civility, I will call by his given name for the remainder of this conversation—did you really think you were destined to be together forever?”
Lexi laughed shortly. “When I met Tristan, he was hanging upside down from a cliff face, having just lost his grip on the rock he was climbing.”
“Were you climbing?”
“God, no.” She shivered. “And thank you for making that sound like you couldn’t possibly believe I’d be so daring and unafraid, by the way. I was walking my neighbor’s dog along the path at the bottom of that cliff.”
“Ah, so you rescued him? Because there’s that whole rescuer-high thing, and the victim-guilt thing. That can get people together—people who might not otherwise click.”
She sighed, pulling back, leaning against the counter. “No. I didn’t rescue him. I freaked out and called 911. They rescued him.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “So then he offered to buy you dinner to thank you for not letting him dangle there and die?”
“Something like that.”
Exactly like that.
“And two years later, a ring. Were you happy for those two years?”
“Of course I was. I wouldn’t have stayed if I wasn’t.” She looked down at her nails, finding one that clearly needed her immediate attention. “We weren’t completely different. Just—maybe we liked a lot of different things. But obviously we liked some of the same things, too.”
“Obviously.”
“Gunnar, I know how this sounds. And you forcing me to analyze it while painfully hung over? Not really helping.”
“I’m sorry.” He sighed, looking at his watch. “I have to go do a lesson.” Then he put up his hands as he backed toward the door. “I guess I just wish I could exorcise The Idiot from your brain so you could actually enjoy the rest of the summer out here, being you…not being someone you think he’d like better.”
—
A few days later, Gunnar swore silently as he vied with Duke for control of the rope. The horse was antsy tonight, like there was something in the air that he didn’t like the smell of. He’d been fighting the rope for five minutes now, and Gunnar’s forearms were starting to feel it.
Oh, who was he kidding? The horse had been fine, before Gunnar’d taken him out to the ring. But now Duke was feeling every bit of Gunnar’s mood, like it was traveling right through the lead line. Instead of being one hundred percent focused on the task at hand—on the horse at hand—Gunnar’s head was elsewhere.
He looked up at Lexi’s cabin, saw her sitting on her porch swing with a book, and then ripped his eyes away to concentrate on Duke. Ten minutes later, he gave up, leading him back to his stall.
“You want me to take him?” Cole came around a corner. “I’ve got fifteen minutes before the evening ride.”
“Nah. I’m good.”
Cole reached for the line. “No offense, but your head’s elsewhere, buddy, and Duke knows it. I’ll get him settled.”
Gunnar felt the quiet reprimand in Cole’s voice, and instead of arguing, he handed the lead line to him. Dammit. His head was never elsewhere. He prided himself on staying focused, on seeing every last muscle twitch of the horses he was training. He knew—half a second before they did—exactly what they were going to do next, and it was what made him one of the best trainers in Montana.
It was also what had kept him from getting dead, and Cole was right to call him on it. Duke wasn’t a horse you dealt with if you didn’t have one hundred and ten percent concentration onboard.
“Thanks.” Gunnar touched his hat. “Appreciate it.”
He headed out of the stable, eyes automatically looking uphill, but Lexi was no longer in sight. She was probably inside, covering up her perfectly beautiful face with that damn makeup he hated. Or maybe she was trying to figure out what her next impress-The-Idiot venture was going to be.
Yeah, so maybe he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head since that one, mind-altering kiss, but clearly, she wasn’t having the same problem.
He headed to the other stable, knowing the only thing that would clear his mind right now was a ride. He wasn’t on the guest schedule tonight, as Cole had been trying to keep him clear for his training, so he had the rest of the evening free. He’d grab some dinner and a couple of water bottles, and head out. Maybe if he got himself free of the ranch hubbub, he could think straight.
Ten minutes later, he loaded up his saddlebags and led Smoky out to the corral just outside the stable. He stopped short when he saw Lexi leaning on the fence, jeans and actual riding boots on, a real Stetson settled on her head.
“Well.” He tipped his head. “You look—different.”
She shrugged. “Got some help from Jess.”
“Going for genuine cowgirl this evening?” He could already picture the shots she’d send to The Idiot. And The Idiot, because he was an idiot, wouldn’t even appreciate the effort she was going to here.
“I’m not going for anything, really.” She stood up straight. “Just…me.”
“Oh.” He let Smoky head for the water bucket in the corner. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“Not sure yet,” she answered. “But I decided I’m going to work on it. Someone never-minded my never mind the other day, and now I’m a little discombobulated.”
He smiled. “That’s rough.”
“I know.” She nodded. “So I was wondering—and not now, obviously, because it looks like you’re all set to head out—but I was thinking maybe, possibly…I’d really like to learn to ride. For real.”
“Why?” He tried to keep the suspicion out of his voice, but he’d be damned if he was going to put her on a Whisper Creek horse again, if all she was after was a photo op.
She was silent for a long moment, long enough that he felt his frown deepen. Dammit, it still was about Tristan. But then she took a deep breath.
“I want to feel what you feel when you ride.”
He tipped his head. “What?”
“I see you ride, and it’s like—I don’t know—this bliss. It’s like you were meant to be on horseback. Jess looks so happy when she rides. And Cole and Decker? When they ride, it looks like they were born on horseback. I—I’d love to feel that. I got a taste of it when I cantered on Rocket, and…I really want to feel it again.”
He considered her words, rolled them around his head, and couldn’t help but think she was being genuine here. But he still had to ask.
“So this isn’t about your ex? Not about impressing him with your cowgirl skills?”
She shook her head, closing her eyes like she was in pain. “Pretty sure I’ve impressed him in a whole different way in the past few days. Not sure there’s any coming back from that video.”
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad.”
“Gunnar, you were there. It was definitely that bad.”
“Okay.” He smiled. “It was pretty terrible. But in your defense, you had a little bit of liquid courage onboard. Tends to dull the senses. And the talent.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “For your honesty and your generosity.” She stepped back from the fence. “So do you think I could maybe ride again sometime? If you have time?”
Gunnar looked at the hills just west, where his land waited. Then he looked at this tiny girl propped against the fence, trying her hardest to swallow her fear so she could figure out who the hell she actually was anymore.
He took a deep breath, hoping he wouldn’t regret what he was about to do, because spending any more time with Lexi was going to send his brain in directions he really couldn’t handle right now. And though all he’d wanted to do was head out on Smoky, Lexi wasn’t ready for the trail, and he had no desire to spend the next hour doing circles in a corral.
“I’ve got a better idea. Did you pack a swimsuit?”
“Yes?” She looked at him suspiciously.
“Good. Go put it on under your clothes, and meet me back here in fifteen minutes. I’m going to show you something I bet you haven’t seen yet.”
“Are you taking me…swimming?”
“Sort of. Depends how you do.”
“Gunnar?” She blew out a breath. “Are you going to strap me into a canoe and send me down some white water rapids, just to get rid of me?”
He nodded as he pointed toward her cabin. “You’re onto me. Your impending death begins in fifteen minutes. Wear your best suit.”
As he watched her walk back up the hill, he shook his head. What was he doing? He ought to be working Duke right now, since all the guests were getting busy with the evening activities. He ought to be fixing that leak on his cabin porch. He ought to be planning a new route for next week’s trail ride.
None of those things was going to get done if he was spending his time taking Lexi out to the lake, but all he could think about was how he was going to spend the next couple of hours with this gorgeous woman, teaching her something she’d never done, and hopefully making her laugh in the meantime.
Because of all the things he already loved about Lexi, her laughter was what got him right in the gut, every time. Whether she was using her comic hero voices to distract a little kid while she bandaged up a cut, or when he’d walked in on her failed baking experiment with Ma, that laugh just made him have to laugh right along with her.
Yeah, Duke and the leaky porch could wait.
—
“Oh, my God.” Lexi breathed out as the truck came over a rise and Nagamoon Lake came into view. “It’s stunning!”
Gunnar automatically slowed and pulled off to the side of the road so she could enjoy the panorama before they headed downhill to the beach area.
“Not quite an ocean, but pretty okay, right?” He winked, knowing that hundreds of photographers had parked in this exact spot over the years, waiting for the perfect cloud formation or sunset over the distant peaks. He’d seen this shot on postcards, calendars, and mugs downtown, and he was pretty sure Kyla had grabbed a picture from here for the Whisper Creek website.
“Pretty okay, yes.” She rolled her eyes. “I really need to get Ma to put me on the excursion schedule one of these days. Kyla and Jess come out here every session with the guests, but I’ve always been back at the ranch.”
“Well, the lake’s spring-fed, so the water’s almost too cold to swim in most of the year. You’re not missing much there.”
“But the view!” Her smile grew as she looked from left to right. “I could sit here all day and just look at it.”
He laughed. “Nah. We have things to do. I still can’t believe you live on an ocean and have never been in a kayak.”
“Have you ever kayaked on an ocean, Gunnar?” She hiked her eyebrows. “Because—you know—waves.” She made her hands do a wave that could have rivaled a tsunami, which made him laugh again.
“Gotcha. Well, no waves here. You’re safe.”
She fiddled with her seatbelt. “No helmets required?”
“Not unless you head over the dam at the other end.”
“There’s a dam?” He heard a tinge of panic in her voice.
“There is, but the worst thing that would happen to you if you went over it is that you’d have to get out of your boat and drag it back up. It’s a massive drop—like two feet, I think?”
“You know.” She looked out the side window. “You’re not nearly as funny as you think you are sometimes.”
“Noted. I’ll try to work on that.”
He reached the parking lot of the boat launch and jumped out of the truck, coming around to get Lexi’s door before she could get it open. If he was going to terrorize her with new experiences, the least he could do was be a gentleman about it, after all.
Because it seemed like she’d suffered from a distinct lack of gentlemen in her life, and he aimed to do something about it.
—
As they pulled the kayaks down the sand, Lexi looked out at the lake, and a feeling of utter peacefulness stole over her. It was tiny—maybe half a mile across and a little bigger lengthwise—and she felt comforted
that she could probably swim to shore from anywhere she might dump herself out of this tippy little kayak.
Gunnar had assured her that once you got in, they weren’t really tippy at all, but having never stepped foot into one, she wasn’t sure yet whether to believe him.
When they got to the water’s edge, she checked her life-jacket straps to be sure they were tight, then pushed the boat far enough in that it was fully floating. Then she looked at it, trying to figure out how exactly a human could manage to get her body through that hole without tipping the whole boat over.
“I’ll steady it for you,” came Gunnar’s voice from behind her. “They’re not so easy to get into if you haven’t done it before.”
He held the kayak still, and she clambered in, feeling like an uncoordinated gazelle, but within a few seconds, had settled herself on the padded seat, stretching out her legs in front of her.
“Hey, this is actually kind of comfortable,” she said.
“Told ya.”
He pushed his own kayak away from shore, stepping in just as gracefully as he mounted Smoky, and she looked away so she wouldn’t be completely undone by the sight of his abs peeking out from under his T-shirt.
Well, maybe she didn’t look away entirely. She was human. And female. And omigod, those abs.
Lexi picked up the paddle, watching how he dipped left, then right, moving along in a straight line along the shore. To her surprise, it only took a few off-kilter strokes before she, too, was moving.
They paddled along for a minute or so in silence, and then he turned around. “So what do you think? Better than paragliding?”
“I think this sport might have been invented just for me, actually.” She smiled, loving the way the boat glided through the water with just the lightest of touches.
“I thought you’d like it.”
They paddled along, side by side, and Lexi drank in the sights and sounds and smells of the lake putting itself to sleep. Water lapped gently against the boats as they slid through the water, and every few minutes, Gunnar would point to a landmark or nest or—at one point at the very far end of the lake—a beaver.
There were no houses or camps, since the lake sat in the middle of preserved property, and motorized boats weren’t allowed, so the peace was broken only by the calls of birds and the splashes of little creatures playing near the shoreline. Lexi could totally picture a National Geographic feature on the lake alone, let alone the surrounding hills, or the mountains in the distance. It was pristine, quiet…beautiful.
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