‘One lesson,’ she begged. ‘One lesson, to tell me what I’m doing wrong, and then I can research how to fix it on my own.’
Sierra hated how tempted she was. There had been a time when she would have given anything to wrap up her office work an hour or two early so that she could run a few patterns before it got dark. And now … after seeing Ty again, that old door had reopened even though she would have chosen to keep it shut tight. ‘Where are you losing time?’
‘I think we’re taking the barrels too wide. Smokey is kinda like Ty. She’s a devil on the straight. But she tries to avoid running near the barrel at all. It’s almost like she’s afraid she’s going to plough into it.’
‘Areyouafraid she’s going to plough into it?’ Sierra asked. ‘Because a horse knows its feet, knows its speed. But if you’re in the saddle and she feels you tensing up or bracing – even slightly – she’s going to think there’s something to worry about.’
‘I guess I am,’ Skye admitted slowly. ‘She’s so fast. Sometimes I doubt that she’s going to slow and turn in time before running through the barrel.’
‘How’s her groundwork?’
‘Perfect.’
Sierra exhaled a huge breath. ‘How responsive is she to your leg?’
‘Exceptionally. I don’t use spurs at all; she doesn’t need them.’
Needing something to do with her hands, Sierra picked up a pile of paperwork and tapped the bottom of the stack on her desk, realigning every page. ‘I’ll stop by at four today, watch you run.’ When Skye grinned, Sierra added, ‘Once.’
Skye nodded. ‘We’ll be warm and ready to go by the time you get there.’ She pushed to a stand, called Bandit to her side with one click of her fingers as she moved towards the door.
‘Oh, and Skye?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Was Benji the one who told you to ask me for help?’
Skye looked genuinely confused. She shook her head. ‘No. I overheard a couple of the wranglers talking about how you used to race and figured you might know how to help me.’
‘One lesson – and no promises,’ Sierra said, ending the conversation.
Skye grinned. ‘See you out there.’
Chapter 12
Benji knew, perhaps better than anybody, that grief wasn’t linear. It was erratic and ruthless, one day completely dormant, the next explosive and all consuming, those up-down emotional battles leaving a person exhausted. And because he knew that, he had expected that Sierra would pretend that the night before hadn’t happened. He’d prepared himself to face her cool anger once more.
So, when she pulled up in a golf cart and climbed out dressed in a snazzy navy-blue pencil skirt, white blouse, blazer, and a pair of her old Ariat Western boots, he could only stop and watch her warily. She shouldn’t have looked like sex on legs in the mismatched outfit, she shouldn’t have made his heart hammer furiously after all this time, and she shouldn’t have looked over at him and smiled – but she did.
She raised one hand in a small wave as she approached. ‘Hi.’
‘Hey …’Wow. Smooth, dude, he berated himself. And because his hands itched to reach for her, he hefted the saddle he was carrying higher, gripped it tighter. ‘You come down to see Ty?’
Sierra glanced behind him towards the big barn. ‘Maybe in a bit. I … ah, said I’d watched Skye run, see if I could give her any tips.’
He could barely focus on that new progress in light of her casual friendliness. ‘That’s great, Si,’ he replied cautiously.
‘I was hoping to run into you actually.’
He braced. ‘Oh?’
‘Yeah.’ She tucked her fingers into the tiny pockets of her blazer. ‘I wanted to thank you for last night. It … It was a difficult day. For both of us. And I didn’t handle it well. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t apologize,’ he said. ‘Not for that. I’m glad I was there for you.’
She met his eyes, and in hers, Benji saw all those unspoken things. Like how it had felt to be together again, to hold one another with no expectation of sex. Or how they had spoken of Her for the first time, and maybe more importantly, survived it and come out closer than they had been yesterday morning.
She looked over his shoulder, breaking the intense spell they had both been under. ‘Well … Thanks, Benji.’
