Diablo nickered in greeting. The horse angled sideways and slid his head through the pen’s piped fence to nibble on her suit.
Sierra smiled. It wasn’t full or bright, but it was there, and to Benji it was like the first glimpse of sunrise after years in a dark cell.
‘Hi, handsome,’ she greeted Diablo and, raising her hand, gently rubbed the horse’s upper lip with the backs of her ringless fingers.
‘He wants one of those sugar cubes you always used to sneak him,’ Benji told her, being careful to keep his tone unaffected. He had learned the hard way that any show of emotion other than indifference when referencing their past would backfire spectacularly.
‘I know.’ She dropped her hand, stepped back. ‘I didn’t bring any. I … I, ah, came to talk to you actually.’
Benji only nodded as Diablo stretched further, trying to get closer to her through the bars of the round pen.Me too, buddy.Me too. What he wouldn’t give to touch her again, even casually – a brushing of fingers or a friendly elbow nudge. At this point, he was tempted to trip into her just so that he could momentarily have contact.
‘I was wrong the other day,’ she continued, oblivious to his need. ‘I didn’t mean to snap at you—’ She stopped talking suddenly, frowned. ‘Actually, I did. It was deliberate. But wrong. I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay, Si.’ He tried to keep talking, tried to keep her there just a little bit longer in the hope that she might cave and ask to see Ty. If she would just go into the barn, just glance into his stall … ‘I understand why—’
‘It’s not okay,’ she said, talking over him. ‘But it won’t happen again.’ When Diablo whinnied, his irritation at being ignored clear, Sierra tucked her hands into the pockets of her suit pants. ‘That’s all I wanted to say,’ she added, her voice strained.
Benji could see her fighting her need to touch the horse again. The tension, the restraint, radiated from her, in the taut line of her jaw and the flinty chill that emptied her eyes of emotion. As much as he wanted to push her, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He forced a smile instead. ‘We both know you’d rather bathe in mud than eat crow, so I appreciate the apology.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I hate that me being here makes things harder for you, Si. And I’m trying to keep my distance. But it’s hard, you know … This is the only home I’ve ever really had. And Mav and you—’
‘I know.’ She shook her head, blinked rapidly. ‘I know. That’s why I said what I did. And that’s why I’m apologizing for it.’
‘Okay.’ Gripping Diablo’s halter by the tie ring beneath the horse’s throat, he gently nudged the horse back from the fence, giving Sierra space. But he had to add, ‘You know if you want to start slow, we could take Diablo and Ty out, maybe overnight at Wrangler’s Clearing. Just talk—’
Her eyes snapped to his. ‘No.’
‘Okay.’ He started backtracking. ‘If you don’t want to—’
‘Want?’ Sierra stared at him from eyes heavy with dread andshock. ‘Want has nothing to do with it,’ she whispered. ‘Ican’t.’
Benji frowned. ‘Sierra, you’re the best horsewoman I know. You can—’
‘I have to go.’
Before he could delay her further, before he could let himself out of the pen and chase after her, she was moving across the dirt road, never breaking stride despite her pretty, break-neck heels.
He watched as she drove off in a cloud of dust without looking back.
‘Well’ – he turned back to Diablo – ‘that went well.’
The horse sighed, clearly pissed that he hadn’t gotten his sugar cube.
Benji stroked the horse’s thick neck. But all he could do was agree with the animal’s frustration. ‘I know, buddy. I know.’
He meandered back to the barn, Diablo following without a lead rope. Benji took his time putting the horse back in his stall, gave him an extra handful of sunflower seeds in lieu of the sugar cube he’d been deprived of.
At ten in the morning, most of the barn staff’s work was done for the day. Horses that would be taken out on trail rides with guests had been brought in from pasture, groomed, and fed. The stalls had been mucked, the water troughs cleaned.
Soon, the resort day would begin. Guests would filter down for their scheduled lessons or rides. Benji would assign horses and teach those lessons, just as he would chat and smile and take pictures for any folks who asked.
It might not have been his dream job of breeding and training cow horses for the rodeo circuit, but it included enough of the essential components – namely, horses – that Benji enjoyed it. Hell, he loved it.
There was routine and stability even though no day was the same.
‘He’s looking good.’
Benji turned to acknowledge Skye, the wrangler who’d replaced him when he’d left Hunt Ranch before Mav’s injury had pulled him back to help. ‘He’s looking perfect,’ Benji countered because the one thing he was proud of was his horse.
Although relatively new to the horse world, Skye’s arrival at Hunt Ranch had been preceded by a call from one of Mav and Benji’s friends from their Junior Rodeo Days.
