“Yeah.” Cash’s left cowboy boot came down on the clutch. With his right foot on the brake, he started the engine and shifted into reverse. Carefully avoiding the guests who were meandering in and out of their cabins, he backed up. Shifting into first gear, he smoothly headed the car south, toward the front of the ranch. Driving around the house, he expertly shifted into second gear and then downshifted again before pulling into a parking spot next to the van.
“Obviously, you can drive a stick shift,” Tracy said as they stopped.
“Since I was twelve.”
“Okay then,” Tracy said and saluted him a bit mockingly. “Well done.”
Without a word, Cash exited the car and came around to her side as he’d done when he let her into the vehicle. He opened her door and extended his hand. Making her first bodily contact with Cash, Tracy placed her hand in his. Her hand tingled. Tingles? Ridiculous! Those tingles traveled all the way up her arm. Cash tugged her out of the passenger’s seat and let go of her hand. He closed her door, and she handed him the cowboy hat.
“That’s how we drive on Triple C-East,” he said, putting on his hat.
“Are you always such a gentleman?”
“No ma’am,” Cash said with the slightest cock of a rakish, nearly black brow. And with that, he placed a thumb and finger between his lips and let out a shrill whistle. A moment later a beautiful horse galloped around the house. It slowed to a trot and stopped beside Cash. “Ever ridden a horse, Tracy?” he asked similarly to how she’d asked if he’d ever driven a stick shift.
“Not since I wastwelve…once at a carnival…on a small horse tied at the end of a pole and walking around a circular pen.” Tracy’s shoulders sagged at the memory. “It was sad.”
“Should be outlawed,” Cash said as he patted the auburn-colored mane of the reddish-brown horse. “This is Captain.”
“This is the biggest horse I’ve ever seen in person.”
“He’s a red dun stallion, standing seventeen hands tall which is how horses are measured. He’s an American quarter horse, bred and raised here on my ranch.”
“Nice to meet you, Captain,” Tracy said, keeping a safe distance from him as Cash mounted the huge horse.
“Come on,” Cash said and took his left foot out of the stirrup.
“What?” Tracy glanced down at her dress. “How?”
“Sidesaddle.”
She shaded her eyes against the morning sun and looked up at him to say, “I’ll walk.”
“Sissy,” Cash taunted. “Put your left foot into the stirrup and grab my arm.”
“No, really I’ll walk,” Tracy said, having traded the tingling for trembling. She changed the subject with, “So do you live in this great big house all by your lonesome?”
Cash’s cell phone rang and he answered it instead of her. Tracy decided it was her chance to escape riding that huge stallion. With a toss of her hair over her shoulder, she left Cash in her wake and took off on the trek around the imposing house. Daring as fast a clip as she could in her stilettos, Tracy heard him speaking to someone about escorting the guests to the stables to choose horses.
It was an absolutely beautiful summer day. In town or in the country, the blue skies of Colorado were endless. On this sprawling ranch the combination of flat land and rolling hills beckoned. She and Jacob had been working tirelessly for weeks, inside the downtown office building, on several small articles for the magazine. They’d turned them in, and Tracy knew Jacob was looking forward to this outdoor working vacation of sorts as much as she was. With a quick glance to the rear, she saw Cash slide his phone into his back pocket.
Tracy turned her attention to studying the house and was a ways down the road when the trotting of hooves sounded from behind her. Suddenly, an arm slid around her waist and she was effortlessly hoisted into the air and seated in front of Cash. With both her legs dangling over the left side of the horse, Tracy locked her arms around Cash’s waist. His chest was hard and the arm holding her across his spread legs felt as solid as a metal pipe. They trotted around the wide curve of his house and the cabins came into view in the distance. Holding on for dear life, she noted Donna standing in the doorway of the center cabin. Was the woman scowling at them or was the sun making her frown?
“Yes, I live in that great big house all by myself. But I’m not always alone.”
Cash’s deep voice was so close, Tracy felt his breath move her hair. “I inquired on behalf of the article I’m writing, Cash. That’s all.”
“Are you afraid of horses, Tracy?”
“Of course not.”
He chuckled. “You’re afraid of horses.”
“Give me the wildest one most likely to buck me off.”
“You’re ridin’ him,” Cash said.
Like an electric shock, excitement zinged through the center of Tracy’s body. Did Cash mean him or his horse? Not afraid of horses? Having fallen off that one carnival horse she’d ridden and almost trampled by the one following him, she was terrified. When Cash headed his horse, named Captain, she remembered, into view of the stables several of the women clapped. She saw another frown, maybe concern or possibly disapproval, briefly cross Donna’s face and then it was gone. Jacob, always with a smile, took pictures of her riding sidesaddle with Cash.
