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‘I know.’ Once Skye was done with the polo wrap, she used tape to doubly secure the Velcro straps in place.
‘Don’t rush the first barrel.’
‘I know.’
‘And remember to keep his body under him—’
‘TJ.’ Skye waited until he looked down at her before repeating, ‘I know.’
He slowly went back to his braiding. ‘I’m sorry. I know you’ve got this. I just … I guess I am a bit off – being back here.’
Skye taped off the second polo wrap, but instead of moving on to Kai’s back legs, she went to TJ. She waited for him to tie-off the braid, then wrapped her arms around him. ‘It’s okay to feel that way. Anybody would. But I’ve got this. I’m good at this.’
‘You are.’ He dropped a kiss on top of her head, teasingly said, ‘Jesus, what am I going to feel like when our kids start doing this?’
Skye’s body jerked involuntarily. She tipped her head back to look at TJ. ‘What did you say?’
He countered with another question. ‘Wait, do you want kids?’
Skye was slightly astounded. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it, to be entirely honest.’ She took a step back, needing space to make sense of the emotions swirling through her.
‘Well, with or without kids’ – TJ pointed from her to him with his index finger – ‘we’re gonna make this thing between us official.’
Skye cocked one hip. She crossed her arms over her chest, half in defiance, half to steel herself against her racing heart. ‘I think you’re supposed to ask me, not tell me.’
‘Oh, I’m gonna ask you. But I’m gonna date you first, give you all those things you missed’ – he shot her a bland look – ‘while you were sewing your wild oats.’ Infuriatingly, after dropping that bomb, he just refocused his attention on braiding Kai’s mane.
Skye refused to question him about when he planned on asking because she was embarrassed by how much she wanted to. Instead, she moved to Kai’s back legs and started wrapping them, her silence pointed and loud – but not fooling either of them.
TJ wisely hid his grin from Skye as she crouched down to finish wrapping Kai’s legs. He hoped that he’d distracted her enough from her anxiety with the casual bomb he’d dropped. But because he’d meant every word, he hoped she would think about it too.
He’d give her time, because she was still so young and had things she needed to do still. And he’d ask her properly, on one knee, when the time was right. Until then, he’d try his best to be patient and let her live a little more.
As soon as she was done Skye stepped into the trailer. But just thirty seconds later, she called, ‘TJ, have you seen my hat?’
‘On the counter!’
‘It’s not there!’
He walked around to the trailer door and stepped inside, scanned the cramped space for the black hat.
‘I had it yesterday.’ Skye marched to the shower and yanked open the door.
‘You wearing my hat in the shower now?’ TJ teased.
Skye just scowled at him and kept looking.
TJ joined in.
After five minutes of searching, he was about to give up and give her the pink hat on his own head, when she said, ‘Aha! Got it!’ and fished it out of a top cupboard.
‘Okay. Ready to haul ass?’ he asked once she’d plopped it on her head.
Skye didn’t reply, only nodded once, firmly.
They walked the short distance to the warm-up arena together.
TJ stood, his arms resting on the arena siding, and watched Skye run Kai through her warm-up. The horse looked good. He was calm and centred.
