“This is what you gave up work for?” he calls out from atop his horse.
“You wouldn’t understand, dumbass,” Logan calls back. “And those stalls aren’t going to clean themselves, you know.”
Reid turns to leave but, with an irritating grin, throws over his shoulder, “You two are like an old married couple.”
“Hey!” I shout at him. “We are not!”
Reid laughs. “It’s just a figure of speech. Did I touch a nerve?”
And he’s gone. He’s always known how to poke at Logan and me.
I roll my eyes. “Your brother.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“Do he and Maren have anything going on between them?” I ask him.
“Your little sister’s best friend?” He furrows his brow. “Not that I know of. Why?”
I tell him how pissed off she seemed during the Derby. “She did not want someone else getting a date with Reid. That was clear.”
“But Reid’s dating Daisy. Or screwing her. Maybe Maren doesn’t know that, though.”
“Or maybe she doesn’t find Daisy to be a threat because she knows that woman doesn’t want something serious.”
“So, you think if Reid started to date someone for real, Maren would be bothered?” Logan tugs gently at the ends of my hair. “She’s a cute girl. But she’s too young for Reid.”
“Well, I agree with you there. For now,” I add. “But in a few years? She could be just what he needs.”
Logan stands up. “How about we go for a ride together? Then, we’ll get breakfast.”
I stand with him, but I put my hand on his arm and angle him in the direction of the main house. “Can we flip those two things? I’m starved.”
“How about we compromise?” Logan says. “We’ll grab food from the house and bring it with us on our ride.”
I sit atop Queen, the “lady” of the stables as Logan’s dad likes to call her, while Logan mounts Dexter. Thanks to Mrs. Wild, we’ve got a picnic breakfast tucked into the bag on Logan’s lap.
It’s already ridiculously hot out, despite it not being close to midday, and I wipe the sweat off my forehead as Queen breaks into a canter.
I’ve got one of Logan’s spare cowboy hats on my head, thank God, so my face is shielded from the sun, but I’m still hotter than I would be sitting inside an air-conditioned bar right now.
And yet, there’s no place I’d rather be than riding next to my best friend as we head through his family’s massive acreage toward our favorite overlook.
“Whoa.” Logan barely has to pull on the reins, and Dexter slows to a stop.
I call out to Queen, and she slows to a walk and then stops when we reach Logan at the top of the hill.
“Look at that.” I point to the scattering of green and gold and purple below. “It’s like you can see all of Hill Country from here.”
“I love this spot,” Logan agrees.
I jump off Queen, and Logan and I tie up the horses over by a small spring-fed pool tucked in the shade beneath some oak trees. We set down our bag on the flat rock a few feet away.
We sit and eat our breakfast of bacon strips and fried egg English muffin sandwiches, and I use my phone to take pictures of the wildflower beds below.
“Wildflowers would look nice in a wedding bouquet,” I say randomly.
Logan jerks his head to me. “What did you just say?”
