by Leslie North
In the face of such blinding optimism, Trevor didn’t know how to fight back—what's more, the sight of Sabrina's slender neck unobstructed by hair was proving unusually distracting for him. The suds started bubbling up in the tub, and a rich coconut aroma rose into the air. He imagined this must be what a spa in the Caribbean smelled like. He shot a paranoid look over his shoulder, but there was no one in the immediate vicinity to witness his folly. He was certain that if his brother stumbled upon them now, he would never hear the end of it.
"There!" Sabrina said brightly. She rose and twisted the spigot off. Peggy's ears perked forward, and the horse pawed the ground expectantly. Sabrina laughed. "See? She likes it already! At least someone thinks my ideas are good."
"I don't think your ideas are bad," Trevor muttered. Sabrina glanced up in surprise from caressing Peggy's nose, and he felt a little hot under the collar all of a sudden. He hadn't expected her to take his remark to heart. Maybe he had made worse of an impression on her than he had guessed, if she thought his outreach so surprising now. "Not all of them, anyway," he amended.
He moved a little closer, laying his broad, bare hand on the mare's opposite cheek. Peggy snorted and nodded, evidently pleased with all the attention she was receiving. "I appreciate that you're trying to marry every harebrained idea you have with what's best for the horses, Miss Hearthstone."
"Please," she interrupted. "If your brother can call me 'Sabrina,' then so can you." She grinned. "Besides, it will look good in front of the guests if we already have a rapport established. It will make it seem like we're on the same page…even if that isn't always the case."
Trevor crooked a smile and shifted his weight. "Well then, Sabrina, you're going to want to take that top off." He indicated her pink checkered shirt with a sweep of his hand and was amused when he saw her cheeks darken to a similar hue. The subtext of his unexpected comment wasn't lost on him. "Peggy's a doll, but she isn't a Barbie doll," he continued. "You think the idea of a bath gets her excited now, just wait till the hose comes out again and the suds start flying. Things'll go a lot easier the less heavy clothes you're wearing."
"Good point," Sabrina said thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it…."
Trevor watched as Sabrina moved back to strip her outer layer off her shoulders, revealing that the smooth, bare skin of her collar bone was as freckle-dusted as her nose. Trevor swallowed and kept his expression carefully neutral even as she turned from him to toss her shirt over the stable door. Something as simple as an unexpected smattering of freckles shouldn't come as a revelation to him, but he couldn't deny the sight’s appeal—especially on a woman already as effortlessly lovely as Sabrina. She obviously wasn't afraid to let the summer sun come out and kiss that porcelain complexion of hers.
"There." She fluffed her ponytail to fullness and turned back to Trevor. "Is this better?" She stood before him now clad in a white T-shirt and jeans, which he supposed was the best he could ask for.
"Gonna guess I can't convince you to get out of those," he said, gesturing with the end of Peggy's lead rope to Sabrina's skinny jeans.
Sabrina grinned. "Not unless you want to turn this into a bikini horse wash."
"I'll just bet you have a bikini packed away in your suitcase somewhere," he muttered.
"That's for me to know and you to never find out," the adventure coordinator teased him. "Well, unless you have a Jacuzzi hidden around here somewhere that I don't know about, Mr. Wild."
"Not a lot of Jacuzzis out in this part of the country. I think this is as close as you're going to get," he replied. "All right. First things first." He picked up a curry comb and passed it across Peggy's back to Sabrina. "Go down her side and work the dirt and dust out of her coat. Then take the body brush, there," he pointed toward the next brush arrayed on the bench, "and go over her a second time to make sure she's clean. You start in on bathing her first, and you're going to wind up with a mud-caked horse that smells like a damn cupcake."
"You hear that? He likes that smell," Sabrina confided in Peggy. "Maybe I shouldn't tell him it's my body wash we're using."
The thought had already crossed his mind, of course, and he had just as quickly banished the mental image that went along with it. He didn't need to know that Sabrina Hearthstone smelled as good as she looked. But he also hadn’t told her where to find the ranch’s supply of soap they normally used on the horses.
They worked down the length of the mare in relative silence, communicating their progress through little puffs of dust that erupted into the air beneath their brushes. "Good," Trevor said after a while. "See how relaxed she is? If you want to pursue this crazy idea of yours, you're going to want to encourage trust between the horse and camper. We brush them down like this twice a day, so it's something they're used to already. It makes them feel good and signals to them that they're in capable hands. They'll be more likely to trust you with whatever potions you want to throw at them after this."
"May I give her a sugar cube?" Sabrina inquired. Trevor nodded, and watched as she plucked two from the box on the bench: one for Peggy, and one for herself. The adventure coordinator held his eyes as she popped the second one mischievously into her mouth. Trevor experienced an immediate, impulsive desire to reclaim it—using his own mouth, preferably.
He shook his head to clear it quickly. Sabrina watched him, tonguing the cube around behind her perfect teeth, and crunched down with a grin. She was teasing him, but the angelic quality of her smile told him she had no idea what part of him specifically she was teasing. Maybe their first meeting had been effective after all in establishing a cold front—even if he felt anything but cold toward Sabrina right now.
"Comb out her mane next," he said gruffly. "Use the curry comb if you want. I'll go around back and get her tail. After that, we'll start in with the water."
"Yes, sir," Sabrina said as she moved to the front of the mare. Once they’d groomed Peggy from tip to tail, they reconvened by the suds bucket. Trevor passed Sabrina a sponge and a jelly scrubber.
"I'll let you lead on this," he said.
To his surprise, Sabrina glanced at him uncertainly. "I…well, you're doing a great job directing me so far," she admitted. "If you give me instructions, I'll feel more confident relaying them to our guests—knowing they came from you."
Trevor said nothing in response. As Sabrina rose from wetting her sponge, he quietly assumed a position behind her to keep up his instructions. The crown of her head barely came up to his chin. When she turned to look back at him, she seemed taken by surprise by their height difference. Her eyebrows rose as she glanced up the length of his chest. She gave her head a little shake and turned back to the horse.
"Start here?" she suggested. She began to soap Peggy's neck in slow rotations. The horse whickered.
"Right," Trevor agreed. "Start back up at the head. She trusts you by now, but the sponge and soap and water are less expected than the brush was. Give her time to adjust and see what you're doing."
"How about you?" Sabrina inquired offhand. "Have you had enough time to…adjust…to me yet? Or do you still not trust me?"
"I trust you." He responded automatically, and he wondered if he should have actually thought about his answer first. "Your heart's in the right place."
"But you don't think my ideas are sound," she argued. "You might think my heart is in the right place, Mr. Wild, but you also think my head's in the clouds. To you I'm all blonde hair, fun earrings and coconut-scented oils and bubbles, but I'm as hard a worker as you are. I just have different goals. I want to help the people who devote their lives to unglamorous chores, like you do, feel special. I want to help them relax."
"Relax," Trevor echoed her. His hands found her shoulders and he paused her work. "Peggy can tell that you're tense."
"Am I?" Sabrina's voice wavered a little. "I hadn't noticed."
Trevor let his hands slide down the slope of her shoulders. He felt it when some of Sabrina's tension eased out of her posture, and she relaxe
d back into him slightly. "Better," he coaxed her. "Remember that horses can sense the emotions you project. That's probably something you want to tell our guests."
"Our guests?" she repeated as she resumed washing Peggy. "Does that mean you'll be involved after all?"
"It's my ranch," Trevor reminded her. "I'm involved in everything that goes on here whether I like it or not."
"What about Trent? Doesn't he help you?"
"Trent has his own life to lead. He has a share in Wildhorse, but that's about it. I try not to ask more of him," Trevor said. "He volunteered to help you settle in while I was away."
"He's a good man." Sabrina hesitated. "You both are. Your grandfather…he's the one who raised you?"
"After dad died in a riding accident. I was seventeen."
Sabrina stopped washing at this revelation. Trevor reached along the length of her arm and wove his fingers with hers to encourage her to keep going with the sponge.
"And your mother…"
"Before that. She died in childbirth." Trevor kept the hand on hers steady. "My father remarried. After his death, my stepmother, Pam, moved back to Austin with my half-brother, Charlie. She was a hard-working woman, but never cut out for this life—her heart wasn't in it."
Trevor fell silent. He watched over Sabrina's shoulder as their joined hands continued to work the lather into Peggy's coat in slow, relaxing circles.
"They both have their lives to lead. I was ready to begin my life as an adult and take on the work I inherited here. We still keep in touch and do holidays together."
"Wow, that's…" Sabrina tucked a loose strand of hair behind one ear with her free hand as she absorbed his story. Finally, she gave a little laugh. "I can't believe you of all people just opened up to me like that. I guess this coconut bubble bath wasn't exaggerating the magical properties it boasts about on the bottle."
"I have no problem talking about myself or my life," Trevor stated. "I'm just not given to talking about them often."
"Or talking at all," Sabrina supplied, with a hint of irony in her tone.
"I've been plenty talkative with you," he pointed out. "Just didn't think you were especially open to hearing what I had to say."
"I'm not open to what you have to say?" Sabrina turned halfway around in his arms in astonishment, and Trevor realized for the first time the real implications of how close they were standing to one another. Guiding the woman from behind had felt like harmless flirtation before, but having her lips this close to his own was a definite threat to the professionalism they had fought to establish.
"You're right," he amended quickly. "You've been surprisingly open to compromise. I misjudged you."
"Thank you." Sabrina spun back around to face Peggy, and the moment passed without her ever having noticed it begin. Trevor stifled a sigh of relief and pressed his chest close to her back once more as he resumed guiding her.
"You have nice hands," he mentioned as he enclosed her hand in his and directed the next sweep of the sponge. "They're soft. If you're going to follow me around and get in the thick of things, you're going to want a pair of work gloves to protect them."
"I'm honestly trying to decide if I should feel complimented," she said. "Seems to me a man like you wouldn't find much to admire in a city girl's hands. I wish I had more callouses."
"You'll get there." He didn't pull away from touching her until they had finished soaping Peggy's side together. Sabrina bent to squeeze the sponge out, and shot an amused look over her shoulder.
"Does that mean you're going to let me stick around for a little while, Mr. Wild?" she asked him.
"Trevor," he corrected automatically. "You wanted to establish a rapport, remember? It sounds unequal when I'm the only one on a first-name basis."
"Right. Trevor." Sabrina shook her head with a chuckle. "Guess I'm going to have to remember my own rules in addition to yours."
"I'll let you do her other side on your own," he said. "Once you're finished, we'll hose her down and towel her dry."
Trevor moved into the back room to get the right hose head. When he stepped back out, he paused in the doorway to watch Sabrina. She had to rise up on the toes of her formerly pristine cowboy boots to reach Peggy's back, but the adventure coordinator would allow for no oversight. That is going to be one clean horse, Trevor mused as he rejoined them. Can't imagine old Peg's ever been so spoiled in her life.
He didn't take his eyes off the petite blonde as his hands worked to attach the spray nozzle to the hose. He had thought the constant sight of Sabrina Hearthstone traipsing around his ranch in her too-tight pants would distract him from his work. He wasn't sure he thought any differently about it, seeing her now—but he was willing to let it stand. For the moment.
"Here." He passed the hose to her. "Dial it back and let her get used to the temp before you spray her down fully."
"Are you sure this thing is on completely?" Sabrina squinted one eye and studied it. "Hang on, is the dial supposed to read going this way?"
There it was. The return to normalcy he needed, the challenge to his knowledge he had been holding his breath for all morning. Trevor didn't know whether to feel annoyed or relieved at its reappearance now.
"It's on the right way," he stated. He crossed his arms and shifted his weight to one hip. "You think I haven't done this multiple times a day for the better part of fifteen years?"
"I'm just saying that I'm pulling the trigger and can't get any water out." Sabrina held the hose out of the way when he reached for it. "Hey, will you give me a minute? I'm not trying to start a fight or anything, I'm just saying the safety reads 'off,’ but no water's coming out! There's got to be a blockage somewhere."
Sabrina turned the nozzle toward her face to study it again as Trevor backed off. The reason for the lack of water flow hit him: he hadn't turned it on at the spigot. He wheeled away from her on his heel and fought the urge to slap his forehead at the oversight. Not your fault, he told himself internally as he crouched to twist the faucet on. You're not used to having a woman around. You're distracted.
A wild gasp of breath from behind him caused his head to swivel in alarm. Whatever had just happened to Sabrina, she had suppressed the instinct to scream to avoid startling Peggy. As it was, the mare was throwing her head back and yanking at the lead rope. Clearly something had spooked her while his back was turned.
"What is it?" He was on his feet and all but running to Sabrina's side. "Did she bite you? How are you hurt—?"
The adventure coordinator turned, face dripping and ice-blue eyes rounded in shock. "No! No, I'm fine. Honestly!" She gave a little laugh at her own expense and put her hands up. "It's totally my fault. I was aiming it right at myself when you…."
Trevor's gaze traveled downward to reassure for himself that she was fine, and stopped immediately at her chest. His look went no further.
Sabrina's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What? What is it?" She glanced down and soon saw for herself what the trouble was. Her white T-shirt was plastered against the front of her frame and transparent all the way down to her navel. Her bra and the swell of her breasts beneath it were in stark evidence.
The bra was such a blinding shade of hot pink he was surprised he hadn't noticed it through the shirt before, even when it was dry. The shirt was such an ineffective buffer against the outside world now that he could have reached out and traced the lacework design through it with his finger, his whole hand….
Sabrina's chin shot up so quickly she probably gave herself whiplash. Only after her arms came up to cover herself was the spell over Trevor broken. He blinked and met her eyes. He had never seen a woman in more distress than his adventure coordinator.
"I…" she stammered. "Um…"
"Wait there."
For once she listened to him. Trevor snatched his Carhartt off the stable door and whipped it around her shoulders. The jacket was almost big enough to engulf her, and she closed it over herself gratefully.
"Thank you," she said after a
moment. "Looks like my other shirt didn't escape the torrent, either." She gazed forlornly at the wet heap her flannel had become.
"This probably wasn't a good idea," Trevor mentioned.
"No," she agreed with a laugh. She reached out to pat Peggy's neck. Trevor noticed that Sabrina struggled to meet his eyes after the…incident…but he felt a similar aversion to looking at her, so he didn't press it.
"You want to go get changed, I'll finish up here with Peggy," he offered. "And I'll get you a list of tasks our guests could do around the ranch that might be a little less risky."
"A list would be nice," Sabrina said.
Trevor's mouth quirked. "You're going to wish you never said that."
"I have a feeling you're right!" Sabrina laughed. She raised her blue eyes from limbo to finally meet his, and her beatific smile he was already growing used to returned. "Thank you, Trevor." Sabrina stepped away from Peggy, closer to him. Her slender hand found his shoulder and she gave it a squeeze of gratitude. "At the very least, thank you for not giving me a hard time about all this. I promise I won't run into any more learning curves."
Coincidentally, curves were also on the forefront of Trevor's mind as he watched Sabrina turn and stride quickly from the stable. The addition of the Carhartt certainly left much to the imagination. Fortunately, Trevor now had a very clear image of the dips and swells of Sabrina Hearthstone's body, which he could recall any time he wished.
"I'm in trouble," he muttered. "Aren't I, Peg?"
Peggy rocked her head up and down and snorted.
4
Sabrina
"All right, Sabrina," Sabrina whispered to herself. "You can do this."
A week and several of Trevor's lengthy checklists later, and she found herself striding across the dewy front lawn of Wildhorse about to address her first group of "visitors" to the ranch. The program was still in the testing phases, of course, which was why she had asked Trevor's help in gathering together some of the locals to try out a schedule of activities.