And so it went for half an hour or so. He’d give me tasks, tell me the names of the moves we were making, and then give feedback. Apparently, you did most of these in actual dressage competitions on all levels, except the difficulty level would be completely different with different gaits and other types of moves added to the mix.
“I wanna see you do an actual dressage program one day,” I told him when I finally felt as if I wouldn’t feel my legs tomorrow.
“We can definitely do that. Ursula doesn’t mind it, and she’s pretty well trained now. She loves jumping the most, so we’ll have to reward her by letting her get a few jumps in after.” The man was so fond of the ornery, even a bit dangerous mare, it was endearing as hell.
All through my riding lesson, Lake had been leading Ben around the arena. They’d trotted a few more times, and Ben was beaming when we got to the middle of the arena to dismount.
“Now, we could do this with the mounting block, but your legs will feel wobbly, so being on solid ground might be easier,” Theo said, then added, “And we’ll be there to catch you anyway.”
“Catch us?” I frowned as I swung my leg over Hope’s wide back and winced at the way my hips whined at me. I pushed away from the saddle and felt Theo’s hands on my hips. For a split second I thought he was overreacting, but then I felt like I was falling off a cliff’s edge, backwards, and my legs went all noodley. It was only Theo’s grip that kept me from planting my ass in the sand. “Holy shit!”
“There you go.” Theo chuckled. “Let me go make sure Ben gets down without mishaps, too.”
I watched as Ben went through the same thing, except his distance to the ground was less. His legs were equally as useless as mine had been.
“How do you do this all day every day?” he whined at Theo as he tried to take a few steps.
Theo laughed. “You get used to it pretty fast. You have just spent the better part of an hour torturing muscles you rarely use. It’s as simple as that.”
“I wish there was a hot tub,” I said as I led Hope toward the arena gate.
Lake gasped. “Ooh, that’s an awesome idea!” He looked at Theo. “Behind the house maybe? Extend the concrete slab and put it there?”
Theo gave him this smitten smile that made me feel happy for my best friend. “Sure. You have the money.” Then he excused himself to go gather Truce so he wouldn’t see his sister vanish into the stable.
We took the horses inside to take off their gear and make sure they were fine to go back into their respective paddock and corral.
When they were all situated, Lake nudged me. “Hey, I have an idea.”
“Oh?” I followed him away from the others, since it seemed like something he wanted to talk about in private.
He led me to the cabins and pointed at the right side one. “How about you and Ben take that one? While he’s here, at least. It’ll give you some privacy, and Theo can come to my room at the house.”
I frowned. “What about Rey?”
“I think he’s imprinted on Cook.” Lake smiled. “If we tell Cook to keep an ear on Rey, he’ll do it. Then we can tell Rey our plan and I’m sure he’ll be fine with it, too.”
Something about what he said made me pause. “Wait. Do you think there’s something between Rey and Cook?”
Lake tilted his head and thought. “If there is, Cook is too good of a man to let it go anywhere before Rey turns eighteen.”
“That’s what…six months from now?”
“Yeah.” Lake sighed. “It’ll be rough for them, I’m sure. But I trust Cook, and Rey isn’t a kid, is he?”
I shook my head. “Definitely not. It’s easy to think he is one, but he’s so much older than his years.”
“And I guess Cook sees that, but he’s also a law-abiding citizen so…” He shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”
“He’d better. The laws are what they are for good reason.” I’d seen some shitty excuses for statutory rape in my short time in healthcare.
“I know.” Lake kissed my cheek and gave me a hug. “He’ll be fine.” Then he smiled. “So, what do you say?”
“Is the cabin even clean?”
“I may have asked Karla to clean it when she last came by. It’s ready if you are.”
Karla was the cleaning lady who came by every week to make sure the house looked good. Rey had done most of it right after we came here, but then he’d gotten the foster kittens and had less time for cleaning. Now he was basically Cook’s apprentice, it seemed, and we wanted him to have that outlet for his energy instead of the cleaning that got a bit…unhealthy at times. Besides, when he didn’t have to clean, he could study whatever he wanted.
