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“Everything go okay?”
I’d finished with Jack, wrote up my work for the day, and walked over to the house with Marlo. Austin was doing work in the office, and came out when he heard us enter.
“Everything went as planned,” I replied when Marlo headed for the kitchen.
“And?”
“And the results? He didn’t have any fluids in his lungs, so it’s safe to assume he was just in the birthing canal for too long. Number five took a while coming out and I think he backed up traffic.”
Austin smiled and asked, “Is that official vet terminology?”
I chuckled and shook my head.
“Nova, can you eat lunch with us?” Marlo asked from the back of the house. She appeared in the living room and waited for my answer. She seemed so genuinely optimistic, I didn’t want to say no.
“Um, sure. I mean I have a sandwich in the car but—”
“Oh, I’d much rather you try my bean soup.”
“Oh. Then okay, I’d love to.”
“Good,” she grinned. “It’s ready to eat whenever you two are ready; it’s just in the slow cooker.”
“I’m ready now,” Austin told me. “That fritter barely made a dent.”
I met Katie for the first time when she arrived for lunch. She was a cute girl, a miniature of her sister, but she didn’t seem too friendly. Okay, I’m being nice. She was a bitch. But I just accredited it toward being a teenager and brushed it off. Sam entered a few minutes later and she was a lot easier to talk to.
Between his mom and sisters, Austin didn’t say much during lunch, but I got the feeling he was at least happy. I mean he didn’t seem fazed by eating with a bunch of girls and being excluded from most of the conversation, and I just assumed that was part of his easygoing personality.
Sam took me to the stables after lunch while Austin returned to the office to work. The separation from him was both good and bad. When I was with Austin I felt like I was his friend, there to meet his family for the first time. When I wasn’t with him, I felt like I was at the ranch to get familiar with my new job—which is obviously why I was there. But spending time with Sam was almost like spending time with Austin. She was his sister, but I still felt like I was getting to know her on a personal level and not a professional one.
“I’ll have you ride Joker,” she said, leading me to the arena. There were already two horses saddled and ready to go in a small waiting pen, or as Sam called it, “on deck.”
During the walk over, I’d already warned her about my lack of riding skills. She didn’t seem bothered by it and promised we wouldn’t be doing anything too extensive. There were already two girls on the far end of the arena working with horses, and it made me feel a little self-conscious. But Sam had me mount Joker when she mounted Ridley, and as soon as Ridley entered the arena, Joker followed right after without my encouragement. That was the routine for a while, and I could see why Sam put me on that particular horse.
But after twenty minutes, Sam just parked her mount at the side of the arena and had me ride Joker on my own. She talked me through the session, and the horse responded perfectly to everything I did. I was actually having fun, especially because Joker was so well-behaved and easy to manage. I didn’t like trotting on her—it wasn’t very comfortable for me—but when the other two riders exited the arena and we had the whole thing to ourselves, Sam brought Ridley out and we loped around the entire loop together. After I got my riding rhythm down, it felt fluid, and I would take loping over trotting any day.
“You look good on a horse!” Sam hollered at me. “We’re going to do this every Saturday, okay?”
I wasn’t going to argue. I loved it. But I’m sure being in an arena, riding laps, was probably easy.
We continued loping, even switching to form a figure-eight the length of the arena. After that, we cooled the horses down with a walk and then returned them to the waiting pen. By then, a woman and a little girl entered the building, and Sam informed me it was her next riding student.
“Well, thank you so much,” I told her after we both dismounted. “What do I owe you?”
She laughed. “Nada. We all serve each other; we’re just a big family here. When I need a favor, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, that sounds fair.”
“Sure. Now go humor my brother for a bit,” she said, nodding toward the arena office.
I saw Austin leaning against the wall, and I honestly didn’t even know if he’d been there the entire time or not. Of course, I was immediately embarrassed, and when Sam said, “Hey, Daisy!” to the little girl who approached, I made a quick exit. I almost wanted to walk right by Austin, but I think he seemed to sense that, and got in step with me right away.
“Hey, what’s the rush?” he smiled when he followed me to the tack room.
I sat on a bench to put my shoes back on, and then returned Sam’s boots where they belonged.
“I think you’ve ridden more than you claim,” he finally said when I didn’t answer. “You looked pretty great out there.”
“And how long were you watching?”
“Just the last ten minutes.”
“Then you didn’t see the bloopers session the twenty minutes before that.”
“Nah, I doubt it. Not on Joker.”
“You’re right; she’s pretty easy. I’m sure that’s why a five-year-old can ride her, too.” I motioned with my head to the little girl now sitting atop the horse I’d been riding.
He laughed, and even though I was afraid of being made fun of, he truly had the best laugh. In fact, it turned my insides into a fluttering mess.
“You’ve taken offense to my compliment,” he observed. I eyed him carefully but didn’t respond, and he shrugged. “Sorry, Nova. I thought you did well. I said you looked good riding a horse. How does that offend you?”
“It doesn’t,” I mumbled. “Sorry, it just...”
“It just what?”
“It makes me feel self-conscious.”
“What does? Riding? Compliments?”
“People watching me,” I growled quietly.
“Oh. I’m sorry, I’m used to seeing my sisters ride all the time and...I guess I didn’t think about that. I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable.”
I tried to shake it off like it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s okay.”
He studied me for a few seconds, but it made me feel even more insecure so I left the tack room with him following. “I have to head into town for about an hour. You wanna come with me?”
I slowed my pace. “No, probably not. I have some things to go over with Jack if he has a chance yet. Lunch and riding set me back a little.”
“Ah, Jack doesn’t stick to a schedule anyway. He’s used to just going with the flow. He won’t mind if I steal you for another hour.”
And there I was again, stuck in the middle of my two new obsessions. I wanted to go with Austin because I liked being with him, but I knew it was distracting me from the other thing that was supposed to be my main focus that weekend.
My willpower was being extremely tested.
“Sorry,” I told him again. “I really should just stick to the reason I’m here. I’ll, uh, I’ll see you later,” I waved, leaving him standing there.
I quickly made it to Jack’s office and thanked the heavens above that he was there, ready to go over some of his daily routines with me. Austin was a delicious distraction that I needed to deal with sooner or later, and I needed to make it sooner.