Once Upon a Groom

by Karen Rose Smith

  On Monday evening, Jenny and Zack drove down Copper Mine Boulevard to the town square. She couldn’t help noticing he was moodier than usual, and she was pretty sure of the reason for his demeanor. “You didn’t want to sub for your dad at this meeting, did you?”

  Straightening in his seat now, his head practically hit the ceiling of the pickup. “Another committee meeting to decide something about Miners Bluff? I hate this kind of thing. Besides that, it’s not even about something important. This committee is going to decide on the decorations for the gazebo, square and outlying streets. Dad always offered money to back whatever decorations they wanted. He still will, even if he isn’t there. So I don’t understand why they need my opinion.”

  Her silence in the cab of the truck seemed to bother him. “Say it.”

  “Say what?” she innocently asked.

  “What’s on your mind.”

  “You should look beneath the surface.”

  “Of stringing lights on the gazebo?”

  “No, of what the season means to your dad…how the part he plays in Miners Bluff contributes to his worth, and I don’t mean monetarily. He’s tired. He doesn’t feel as if he can do anything he used to do—not with any verve—so he’s frustrated. If he can’t do it, then he wants someone to do it for him.”

  “Do what?”

  “Be there. Have a say. Maybe even give a few ideas that will pretty up the town for Christmas.”

  Zack rested his hand on his thigh, one very muscular thigh. Jenny remembered the feel of his legs against hers while they’d briefly danced at the reunion. That memory brought back another picture she put away to think about later.

  “My dad has always been manipulative. He sees this meeting as a way to get me involved in Miners Bluff.”

  “Would that be so bad?” Jenny asked.

  “It’s not bad. It’s not good. It’s just not going to happen. I don’t even know if I’ll be here ’til Christmas, so why care about the lights and decorations?”

  Jenny pulled into a parking slot she found in front of a lawyer’s office. Light snow had begun to fall and she knew that wasn’t going to help Zack’s mood any. He was used to California sun. Yet he didn’t complain as they stepped out of the truck.

  He checked his watch. “We’re early. Let’s take a walk in the park before we get cooped up in one of those meeting rooms in the town hall.”

  “Sure. We can walk to the gazebo.”

  They ambled across the street to the park that sat at the center of town. Signs detailing the history of Miners Bluff were posted at two of the entrances, and at this hour, walkways through the park were lit by tall, old-fashioned streetlamps that cast a soft glow through bare maple, oak and sycamore branches. The snow floating into the lighted path was absolutely beautiful as it sugared everything it touched.

  He suddenly stopped and she could see he was focusing on the here and now and where they were, rather than on where he wanted to be. She had to wonder exactly where that was. His gaze targeted the gazebo that they were heading toward, the benches on the pathways, the white picket fence surrounding the outskirts of the park.

  “It hasn’t changed,” he noted.

  “Not much. The gazebo gets a fresh coat of paint every other year. The lamplights have new energy-saving bulbs. But other than that, it’s the park of your youth.”

  “I didn’t come into town much as a kid. Everything we needed at the Rocky D was brought to us.”

  “You never came here to ride those big swings over there? Or climb on the jungle gym?”

  “I was always too busy with the horses, or exploring areas of the ranch where Dad particularly didn’t want me to go. This park was just a place we came to for special events, holiday celebrations, summer festivals. But it wasn’t really part of my life. How about you?”

  Jenny was slow to answer because she had to think about what she wanted to say. She could just gloss over the truth, but, after all, this was Zack. “I met my first horse here when I was about five,” she said with a smile. “It was a Shetland pony and it was love at first sight. I remember my mom smoothing her hand over my hair and saying one of these days when Dad won a great big purse, he’d buy me a horse. Someday we’d move out of the trailer and live in a real home.”

  Jenny shrugged as if it was all really in the past. “But someday never came. I sneaked into the rodeos as often as I could in summers, talked to the owners, got their permission to handle their horses. But from fall to spring when I needed someplace to go, I came here. I know we’re talking about hanging Christmas decorations and that doesn’t seem important to you. But when I was a kid, I loved to look at the flowers planted around the trees, the ivy growing up and along the fence. It all just seemed special. And at Christmas, the decorations that sparkled made me believe that someday I could give my life sparkle, too.” She shrugged. “Maybe lighting up the park for Christmas will give a child a fantasy of what he can be or do in the future.”

  They had reached the gazebo now. No one else was in sight.

  “You really didn’t have a home.”

  She’d never talked to Zack much about her childhood—she’d just given him bits and pieces. The one thing she’d never wanted was for Zack to feel sorry for her. “Our trailer was a home when Dad was there. It was a home while Mom was alive. It was still a home even when only I was by myself…until I got lonely. That’s when I’d go looking for a horse to talk to.”

  Zack stopped, eyed the park again, then responded, “I know what you mean. I did the same thing. After all, I had a lot of horses to choose from, and every one of them had their own personality. I learned that about animals before I learned it about people.”

  “I won’t ask which are easier,” she said with a laugh.

  “Right. We both know the answer to that one. But once I got my first video camera, I could see more about the horses I videotaped and more about people. I could study them from behind that lens more easily. I became part of the scenery and they forgot I was there. I’d be shooting from across the pasture and Duke’s ear would flicker because he knew I was around. Yet he still let me examine the way he related to the other horses, the way he ran, the way he just enjoyed a sunny day.”

  “I remember Duke. You took him on our rides up to Moonshadow Mountain and Feather Peak.”

  Zack had been attached to Duke. Was he attached to anyone or anything now?

  “Do you have anyone special in your life?” Yes, she wanted to know for her own benefit, but she was concerned about him, too.

  He put one gloved hand on the gazebo above her head then stared down at her as if he wanted to decipher where her question came from. Finally, as if he’d come to a decision, he answered her. “No, no one special. I broke it off with a woman I’d been seeing before I came back here for the reunion.”

  “How long had you been dating?” Her voice held just a slight amount of interest as if his reply didn’t matter.

  “A couple of months. I think I sensed from the beginning we weren’t right together.”

  She could imagine the dilemma he might face. “How do you know if someone’s interested in just you or in what you have? Can you trust your instincts?”

  “My gut instinct usually pays off. Sometimes, though, I ignore it, just to have a little…fun. But there are consequences to every action and complications.”

  She knew all about consequences and complications, possibly even more than Zack did.

  He nodded to the folder in Jenny’s hand. “So tell me about your ideas for Christmas.”

  If she could get him interested, would he stay? Hardly. But maybe she could get him involved.

  Opening the folder, she turned toward one of the lights atop the gazebo. He moved closer to her until he was looking over her shoulder at the folder in her hands. Zack wore a more expensive aftershave than he had when he was a teenager, but she still responded to its woodsy scent. She still got goosebumps when his breath fanned her ear.

  She swallowed hard and p
ointed to her sketch. “We have a couple of women’s groups who have volunteered to make evergreen wreaths with candy-cane-striped ribbons. They’d be pretty around the outside of the gazebo. Then I thought we could invest in some of those outdoor flameless candles that have timers. They’d go on every evening at dark and stay lit until midnight. We could actually attach a few of them to the ledge around the gazebo.”

  “So the gazebo would be like a shelter from the storm.”

  “Exactly. In the trees around the gazebo, I’d like to arrange those nets of twinkle lights. They’ll have their energy sources from the lamp posts.”

  “Any color at all?”

  “I’d like to hang some of those solar balls from the trees. They come in all colors.”

  “What about vandalism and the chance they’ll be stolen?”

  She rolled her eyes. “This is Miners Bluff, Zack. Low crime. Noah will put the word out in schools that anyone caught vandalizing will have stiff community service. He’s the chief of police now. Did you see him at the reunion?”

  “Not much more than a nod and a wave. Maybe I’ll have the opportunity to talk to him in the next few weeks.”

  Noah Stone, one of their classmates, was of Hopi descent. He brought unique sensibilities to his role as chief of police, and the people in town appreciated them.

  “You can connect with him tomorrow if you’d like. I got a call from him before we left. He rescued a horse and asked if I’d like to gentle him.”

  “Do you do that often?”

  “Whenever we hear of one in need. Silas let me redo one of the old barns and corrals for that purpose.”

  Silence met her answer. Finally, he tapped a sketch in her folder. “What’s this?”

  Putting aside the subject of rescuing horses for the time being, she explained, “I know the private businesses will decorate for Christmas, and have their own lights and garlands. But I’d like to put a star on the courthouse’s bell tower. Don’t you think that would be a striking touch?”

  “The bell still tolls at noon on Saturday?”

  “And at midnight on holidays. I thought that star would be a nice reminder of what we’re celebrating. Kids need to know Christmas is about more than Santa Claus and presents.”

  When she closed the folder and turned to face him again, he said, “Kids seem to mean a lot to you.”

  Her heart hammered. This was a subject she really didn’t particularly want to talk about with him. She could give something away too easily. “Kids and Christmas just go together.”

  “It’s more than that. I saw you with them during your riding class. Are you worried your biological clock is ticking?” he asked, half-joking.

  “Sure, that’s it,” she said with a shaky laugh.

  He cocked his head as if he knew she wasn’t telling him the whole story.

  They were the only two people in the park, and the velvet sky and the falling snow created an intimate atmosphere. She gazed up at Zack, seeing the boy he’d been and the man he was now. In spite of her best intentions to keep her distance, both tugged at her heart, created warm tingles on her skin, almost urged her to resurrect the past.

  Silver light flickered in his blue eyes and she recognized desire when she saw it. She felt an answering heat in her own body and leaned in a little closer. He braced his hand on the gazebo and leaned into her, too.

  The sound of a car horn startled them both.

  Quickly, Zack straightened. “We should get over to the town hall.” He checked his watch. “Everyone else is probably there by now.”

  Maybe they were, but she didn’t care. She was too busy asking herself what had almost happened. Was Zack about to kiss her? Would she have kissed him back? Her mouth went dry at the thought.

  Thank goodness some driver had probably wanted a parking space.

  Because one of Zack’s kisses could change everything.

  The following afternoon, Jenny heard the horse trailer roll in and was excited at the prospect of gentling a rescued horse. At least doing this would keep her mind off Zack.

  She still wasn’t sure whether he would have kissed her at the gazebo. What would have happened if he had? How would she have responded? She hadn’t been able to focus at the decorations meeting, and she hadn’t slept very much, either. Just having Zack in the house made her edgy.

  So this morning she’d done something she might come to regret. She’d asked Brody Hazlett to the dance at the firehouse’s social hall on Friday night. Needing more distance between her and Zack, she thought this date might do it. After all, Brody had asked her out before, though she’d always come up with a reason to decline his invitation. Although he was an attractive, down-to-earth guy who loved animals as much as she did—he was a veterinarian—her heart didn’t race at the sight of him like it had—and still did—with Zack.

  Leaving the tack room in the barn, she went outside and let the November breeze brush her face. She headed for the smaller barn that she’d refurbished to house horses who had been mistreated. There were only four stalls. The doors to those stalls could be opened to a corral that gave plenty of room to horses who wanted to be free. When they felt safer, they could enter the stall.

  Today, Noah Stone was bringing her a gelding named Dusty. She didn’t know what to expect. She never did. This was one of those situations that had to be taken moment by moment.

  To her surprise, as she walked to the corral gate, Zack was standing by the driver side of the truck talking to Noah. They’d been classmates once, but Zack and Noah hadn’t run in the same crowd. But time and age were great equalizers and the two men seemed friendly now.

  As she approached them, Noah sent her a smile. Zack’s expression was neutral.

  Noah said, “I was telling Zack I’m often the one who gets called when someone around here sees a horse being mistreated.”

  “You said Dusty was malnourished?” Zack asked.

  “That and other things. I had a time of it getting him into the trailer. I had to use blinders. I don’t think he’s the type of horse who’s going to want to be in a confined space.”

  “Any history?” Zack inquired, obviously interested.

  “Just what I told you. The rancher bought him at an auction, fell on hard times and couldn’t feed him. He tried to ride him, but Dusty wasn’t cooperative.”

  “I don’t think I want to know any more,” Jenny said. “I don’t think I need to know any more.”

  Zack had been taking in their conversation. “Getting him out shouldn’t be a problem. But leading him where you want him to go might be something else.”

  “I’ll open the gate and you can back the trailer in,” Jenny informed Noah.

  Zack’s gaze met Jenny’s, and she felt a shiver run down her spine that wasn’t from the cold.

  After another look that made Jenny remember the closeness of their bodies last night all over again, Zack motioned Noah through the gate opening into the corral.

  As Noah backed up the truck and trailer, Zack asked her, “Does Noah’s father still have horses?”

  “A few. But he’s had some health problems and Noah has been helping him with the chores on their ranch.”

  Once Noah stopped and climbed out of the truck, Zack suggested, “Why don’t I go inside and back him out.”

  For a moment, Jenny felt indignant. “I’m fully capable of doing this, Zack.”

  “I have no doubt you are. I just thought you might want to take the blinders off.” He was right about that.

  “All right. Thanks,” she murmured, knowing she couldn’t be so touchy around Zack. That would tip him off that her feelings were more personal than she wanted to admit.

  After Noah opened the back of the horse trailer, he lowered the ramp. “Okay, Zack,” he called.

  Inside the trailer, Zack called back, “Give me a few minutes, okay?”

  “If he thinks he’s going to sweet-talk him,” Noah said with a shake of his head, “he’s sadly mistaken.”

  “I don’
t think it’s sweet talk. Maybe Zack just wants to get him used to a kind voice.”

  As she and Noah waited, she wondered if Zack still had “the touch.” He’d been so good at handling horses as a kid. But mishandled horses were another matter. It could take many months to calm Dusty down, many months to establish trust. Even the training she did with cutting horses was all about forming a relationship. She’d learned that from Noah Stone’s father and grandfather. She’d worked there one summer when she was fifteen and learned lessons she’d keep for a lifetime. Not lessons about not owning a horse, but becoming friends with a horse, about not expecting a horse to listen like a human, but about creating communication bonds both she and the animal would understand.

  Horses had herd instincts. She had to become leader of their herd of two—a kind leader but a confident, firm leader. She’d had to learn her skills, but Zack seemed to have been born with them.

  Zack called, “I’m going to back him out.”

  As soon as the horse’s back legs were off the ramp, he was kicking out, pulling at the lead, defying everyone around him. Zack held on and wouldn’t let him rear up.

  “Blinders off,” he called to Noah and Jenny. “They’re driving him crazy.”

  Before Noah could move, Jenny had slipped up beside Zack, unfastened the blinders and let them drop into her hands. All the while, Zack kept a firm hand on the lead and spoke in gentle tones.

  Jenny could have cried. Dusty, a buff-colored gelding with a black mane and tail, was trembling. She felt so sorry for him. Yet she knew she couldn’t get too close too fast. She knew she had to bide her time. The horse’s gaze couldn’t seem to settle anywhere.

  Zack suggested, “You and Noah drop back. Let me lead him in.”

  The horse had stopped kicking, though he was dancing around, moving fretfully. Jenny knew better than to try and touch him yet. She had to let him come to her.

  “All right,” she said. “Noah, do you think you can ease out of the gate? Once I close it, Zack, you can take off the lead and let him run free.”

  Jenny held her breath as Noah eased the truck out of the corral. Dusty tried to rear up but Zack held the lead and his strength was obvious.