Nick was standing on the far side of the yard, chatting to a man who looked to be a couple of years older than him. He was leaning casually against the bonnet of his car, one foot resting on the bumper. He looked like an advert for something outdoorsy and expensive. My heart gave a small lurch, but that was probably because I’d just spotted two very large horses standing beyond the men. The animals were both saddled up, and from the way they were pawing the ground, they were obviously impatient to go. Both horses were being restrained by a young girl. She leant closer to the smaller, dapple-grey one and whispered something into its mane. I had a horrible feeling it was probably an apology.
Nick straightened up the moment I climbed out of the car. There might have been the merest twitch of his lips as he made his way towards me. His friend, the owner of the farm, wasn’t nearly so restrained.
‘Well, howdy, ma’am,’ he said, doffing an imaginary Stetson by way of a greeting.
I gave a rueful smile. I really had no one to blame but myself for the ribbing. I looked up at Nick, waiting for a jibe, but he held up his hands as though in surrender.
‘I have nothing,’ he said.
I grinned and turned to face Nick’s friend, who I instantly liked.
‘Hi. I’m Lexi,’ I said, holding out my hand. ‘Thank you so much for letting us borrow your horses.’
‘Doug,’ he said by way of introduction, as his calloused fingers gripped mine. ‘It’s the least I can do, considering the number of times I’ve dragged this one out of his bed in the middle of the night.’ He paused just long enough for me to conjure up a totally inappropriate visual, which meant I completely missed his next comment.
‘…and Nick tells me you’ve not done much of this before.’
I took a long shot that we were talking about riding and not impersonating my sister.
‘Not at all, really,’ I said. Idefinitelydidn’t imagine the worried expression that flitted across his daughter’s face.
‘You’re probably going to need to wear that jacket,’ Nick advised, looking down at the quilted garment I was carrying. ‘It’s going to get chilly once the sun goes down.’ He was wearing a dark cable-knit jumper that made his already broad shoulders appear even wider. ‘And you’ll also need to wear this,’ he said, picking up a riding hat and passing it to me. He saw my hesitation and perhaps mistook it for vanity.
‘The hat is non-negotiable, Lexi,’ Nick said firmly. ‘You don’t wear it, you don’t get to ride.’
‘Where’s yours then?’ I asked, looking around for a second hat and failing to spot one.
Nick’s crooked grin put in its first appearance of the day. ‘I don’t need one. I’m not going to fall off.’
‘I thought you said I wouldn’t either,’ I shot back, reaching for the hat and putting it on my head.
‘Are you sure this is onlymake-believedating?’ Doug asked, his eyes flitting between me and his old friend. ‘Because you certainly bicker like a real couple.’
I could hardly blame Nick for telling his friend the truth about what we were doing, but it wrong-footed me even more than the idea of climbing on to a horse did. A change of subject was needed, so I turned to the young girl who was waiting patiently beside the horses.
‘Hi, I’m Lexi. Thank you so much for letting me ride your horse. I’ll take good care of him.’
‘Her,’ the girl corrected, with a very teenage eye-roll.
‘I’ll look after Dotty,’ Nick assured the girl, whose expression transformed into one of undiluted adoration as she looked up at him. Were they aware that she had a king-size crush on her dad’s friend, I wondered?
Getting on the horse was actually much easier than I’d feared, thanks to the mounting block they’d thoughtfully provided. Nick obviously needed no such assistance and had swung himself up easily on to the black horse.
‘Could you take a photo of us on Lexi’s phone, Pippa?’ Nick asked the young girl when we were both settled and ready to go.
I pulled my mobile from my jacket and passed it to the teenager, who expertly rattled off a variety of snaps from different angles. After passing me back the phone, I was surprised when she took a couple of steps backwards and began heading towards the farmhouse.
‘Oh, I thought you’d be coming with us,’ I exclaimed, feeling a tiny frisson of panic. This far from ground level, it was hard to work out if it was the ride that I was worrying about or being alone with Nick. At Lassiters we’d been on neutral territory, but here he was very much in his natural element, and I very much wasn’t.
‘Pippa’s got homework she needs to finish,’ Doug answered on behalf of his daughter.
‘We’ll be just fine,’ Nick said, turning to me in his saddle. ‘I’ve got you.’ As we began a slow and gentle walk out of the yard, I couldn’t decide if his words made me feel safer or even more nervous.
We took a bridleway that led from the yard to open farmland, and happily both horses seemed very familiar with the route. I realised there was very little I actually needed to do as far as riding went, so revised my objective to just staying on.
‘Are you okay? You’re doing really well,’ Nick commented a few minutes later, when the farm was well behind us.
‘Try telling that to my bottom,’ I said unthinkingly, before realising I’d drawn his attention to a part of my anatomy I really didn’t want him thinking about at all.
