‘Sitting down might be a little uncomfortable tomorrow,’ he admitted. ‘And you’ll really feel it in your inner thighs.’
I definitely didn’t want him thinking about my inner thighs either.
‘Were you working at the practice today?’ I asked, trying to steer us back to polite conversation.
‘No. I’m not rostered on this weekend. I had Holly for the day, but she’s gone to a sleepover tonight with ten girls from her class.’
I grinned. ‘That’ll be fun when you have to return the invitation.’
A look that was hard to identify crossed his features. ‘I think that’ll probably be her mum’s department, not mine.’
I considered not probing, but my curiosity was too strong. ‘Do you and your ex not get along? If that’s not too personal a question to ask.’
Who was I kidding? It waswaytoo personal. I was stepping well outside of acceptable boundaries, but thankfully Nick didn’t appear to take offence.
‘Well, we certainly don’t get along as well as we once did,’ he replied with a rueful smile.
‘At least you can joke about it.’
‘I can now. But it wasn’t so funny at the time.’
‘What happened?’ I asked, shocked by my own curiosity. It was as though I’d forgotten how to filter my thoughts before they came tumbling out of my mouth. ‘You don’t have to answer that,’ I added on a rush.
Nick shrugged and I searched his face carefully. I could see the lingering scars from an old painful memory. ‘It’s not an original story. Boy meets girl at university. They marry too young, too soon, and get pregnant too early. And then six years later she calls out another man’s name at a moment when she really ought to have known who she was with.’
The bitterness of the old betrayal was still in his voice.
‘Oh God, Nick. I’m so sorry. That must have been awful.’
‘More so because it was my best mate’s name,’ he said, his lips tightening on the words.
‘Doug?’ I asked on a horrified gasp.
Thankfully, Nick seemed to find that amusing.
‘I’m pretty well adjusted, but I think that would be pushing it. No, it was another friend. Strangely, he and I lost touch after that.’
‘Are they still together?’ My tongue appeared to be on a mission to embarrass the hell out of me.
Nick shook his head. ‘She told me afterwards she’d only had the affair to get my attention.’ He urged his horse forward, making it impossible to read his face as he completed his sentence. ‘I guess it worked, although perhaps not in the way she’d expected.’
I suddenly wished I knew him better, because if I did, I might have found the right response to his open honesty. But I didn’t, so it was easier to remain silent. I was searching for something to say that would lighten the moment or create a diversion and fortunately the sun helped out by starting its slow dip towards the horizon, bathing the sky in a palette of reds and mauves.
Nick glanced up. ‘Photo op time?’ he asked, pulling his black horse to a halt.
I nodded and watched as he leant across and gently pulled on Dotty’s reins to bring her to a stop.
‘Shall we go for a selfie?’ he asked, skilfully repositioning both horses so we’d be backlit by the descending sun. He took my phone and held it aloft, as he leant into the gap between the two horses.
‘Can you come a little closer?’ he asked.
I did as he asked, until we were shoulder to shoulder in the frame. If I’d been more experienced in the saddle, that was the moment when I might have felt my right foot slip out of the stirrup. But I was too distracted by Nick putting an arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer towards him.
The photographs, when I examined them later, told their own story, although not necessarily the one I’d intended. We were smiling in the first three, happily unaware that in photo number four our expressions would be entirely different. Neither of us saw the squirrel scamper down the tree and run directly in front of us. But Dotty did. I’d never been on a rearing horse before and if there’s a trick to not being unseated, I didn’t know it. I’d been so preoccupied creating the perfect photo of Amelia and Sam that I’d even relaxed my hold on the reins. What happened next was inevitable. One minute I was sitting on the horse and the next I was airborne, while Dotty was galloping away at speed.
Nick’s reactions were fast, but nothing was going to save me from connecting with the ground. Luckily, his arm had still been around me when the squirrel spooked my horse, and he managed to grab a fistful of my jacket when she reared up. It wasn’t enough to hold on to me, but it definitely broke my fall. Everything took on a slow-motion quality and it seemed an eternity before my bottom connected heavily with the soft, muddy earth as I landed with an embarrassing squelch.
Nick leapt from his horse and was crouched down beside me in an instant. ‘Don’t move,’ he urged, his hands already running up and down my legs in a way I might have enjoyed in other circumstances. ‘Are you hurt?’ he asked, taking his eyes from my legs and darting them to my face. ‘Did you hit your head?’
