Winnie shrugs. “She said we shouldn’t make any rash decisions. I guess she can tell that we, you know…” She hesitatesto finish her sentence, fiddling with the edge of the blanket. “Like each other. Right?” She looks up at me with such a hopeful, vulnerable expression on her face, and I know that I could crush her completely by answering that question the wrong way.
But I’d never do that. “Right. I much more than like you, Winnie. And I think we should stay married for as long as we want. We may have gotten into this thing for money, and because you’d been put into a tough spot by your parents, but we get to do the rest on our terms.”
“The rest on our terms, huh?” Winnie says, stretching her hand out in front of her, and staring at the simple wedding band I placed there, its polished surface gleaming in the light. “That sounds perfect to me.”
BARN BULLETIN
I’ll be using the ring all day, everyone. I have lots of training to get done. -Candice
And then I’ll be having a riding lesson!!! -Winnie
You sure that’s a good idea? Doesn’t Rosie still run away when you try and bring her inside? -Tomás
Play nice, children. -Beau
37
WINNIE
“Heels down, toes up,”Candice calls out to me. “Yes, like that. Your seat looks great now.”
I’m walking Rosie around the ring all by myself, and she’s being an absolute dear, and has been calm the entire time. She plods around the ring slowly, as if she can tell that I’m not ready to go any faster yet.
“Can you take a photo of me?” I ask. “I want to show Jonah.”
Candice gives me a thumbs up and takes out her phone. She snaps a few as I turn Rosie to face her. We make another lap around the ring, and I focus on keeping my legs and feet in the position Candice told me to.
“One day, I’ll be good enough for us to really run,” I whisper, patting Rosie on the neck. “You and I will finally get to be free.”
After the lesson is over, I dismount using the block. As I swing my leg over, I feel a bit dizzy, and it takes me a moment to get the maneuver right. I must be tired or something, and I do my best to shake the feeling off.
Candice and I walk Rosie back to the barn to rub her down. She didn’t work up a sweat in our slow-poke lesson, but grooming makes her happy. And it’s a nice chance to get to chat with Candice. I’ve been bursting with wanting to tell her aboutJonah all day. Now that I’m confident we’re actually together, I want to scream it to the entire world.
Candice hands me a curry comb, and we each tackle a side. Rosie buries her face in her hay, munching as we brush her brown coat.
I’m trying to figure out how to naturally bring Jonah up when Candice says, “Why don’t you tell me what has you smiling so hard today.”
I shake my head. Nothing gets by Candice.
“Jonah and I are together.” I grin as I say it. “And we had sex! A lot of it!” That part comes out so loud that Rosie swings her head over to look at me. “Sorry, Rosie. You wouldn’t understand. You don’t really seem to like the male horses here very much.” It’s true. Rosie doesn’t like Ballantine nearly as much as she likes Maggie and Brown Sugar.
“Oh my God,” Candice says. “I knew it! I knew you and Jonah wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off one another once you moved into his house!”
“But we didn’t even really like one another at all when we got married.” I rub the curry brush right over Rosie’s favorite spot to be scratched.
“Yeah, but you can easily not like someone and still want to fuck their brains out. I mean look at me and Nathan.” Candice winks at me over Rosie’s back.
“True. You did really,reallyused to hate him. Until you really, really wanted to screw him.”
“What can I say? He’s irresistible once he puts on his chaps and the rest of his little rodeo outfit.”
Candice and I dissolve into a fit of laughter.
“Tell me how it happened,” she says. “I want all the juicy details.”
Candice was the first person I told about my first kiss when I was fourteen, in a letter I sent to her. She wrote back in purplegel pen, asking me what it was like. So I don’t mind sharing the details with her—it makes me feel like I’m a giggling, happy teenage girl. I never really got to be one, not once I got good at pageants.
“Well, for starters, Jonah is pretty big…”
