“Where did you get them from?”
“Some from guest ranches that were no longer running trail rides. Different places across the country. There are a lot of retired rodeo animals on the ranch, but we don’t use them for this.”
“Oh, I love that. Retired rodeo horses to go with the retired rodeo riders.”
“You make me sound ancient.”
“Not ancient,” she said. “Just seasoned.”
He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and kiss her, but they had a whole audience. So instead, he just ushered her into the group of other guests who were receiving instructions on what to do.
They had ranch hands helping the inexperienced riders get set to go. It was a group of about fifteen people. “I’ll help you,” Cody said, waving off the hand who was going to help Marlowe, and who frankly looked a little bit too eager to help.
“Get your left foot in the stirrup here,” he said. “Grab hold of the horn on the saddle. And then you’re going to pull up with that leg in the stirrup and sling your right leg over the side.”
“That sounds complicated,” she said.
“It’s not. I promise.”
“What if I go too far and I just fall off the other side?”
“I’ll catch you,” he said, moving around to the other side of the horse. “See? If you go over, I’m right here.”
She looked very skeptical, but she followed his instructions, and then very suddenly, was seated on the back of the horse. Her eyes were round. “This is so much higher than I thought it would be.”
“Horses are tall.”
“I know. But I didn’t know it felt this tall.”
“You’ll do good.”
“Will you ride in front of me so that I can see you?”
“I’ll do one better. I’ll ride behind you so that I can keep an eye on you.”
They blended in with the other riders, and Cody could tell himself that he was doing quality control, seeing exactly what kind of experience his guests were having, but really, it was an excuse to watch Marlowe. That she had never been on a horse before shocked him. But she was taking to it all right.
Maybe she would learn how, and they could do more riding together. Maybe it was something she would enjoy a lot later. She was at the threshold of a brand-new life. She could do whatever she wanted. Learn whatever she wanted.
Fundamentally, he was just a step along the way. That Band-Aid she had ripped off.
It made his gut feel uncomfortable, but there was nothing else to call it.
It wasn’t only physical, he could accept that. They were helping each other. They were both growing, changing, learning a little bit because of each other.
It was the strangest thing that a woman who had lived across the country all her life, who had a very different set of circumstances, a very different twenties and early thirties, could be the person that he understood the most. The person who understood him most. That was what it felt like.
Like she just knew him.
But also, she didn’t know details about his life, so he got to share them with her. Got to talk about things that he’d been through and watch her reaction to them. It made him see things differently.
He hoped he did the same for her.
Because he knew how it was. When you were a kid who had to kind of be a grown-up, you didn’t think that you were too young to deal with any of that.
You felt so capable. And then later, you looked back and realized how messed up it was, but sometimes it took somebody with a completely outside perspective to really see it.
It was nice to be in the group. Nice to be on the ride, but he just wished that they were by themselves. Yeah. He was going to take her for a ride out here. Was going to make sure that she got even more of a taste of ranch life.
