Good question. What had he been thinking, pursuing the question of her painting naked? He didn’t need to know whether she did or not, and he certainly didn’t need to know if the pictures were any different. In no time at all he’d crossed whatever lines he’d supposedly drawn yesterday.
“It’s my fault.”
He turned to find her standing in the doorway of the barn, her hands shoved in the pockets of her quilted vest. “No, it’s not,” he said. “I could have kept my big mouth shut.”
“I’m the one who brought the stupid mug.”
“It’s not a stupid mug. It’s funny and sexy. If yesterday hadn’t happened, then we’d both be laughing about this mug.”
“See, it is my fault. I asked you to kiss me and now we have this . . . problem.”
“You were stressed. I could have refused to kiss you, but I didn’t, so I share the blame.”
She blew out a breath. “But I should have seen which mug I was grabbing and picked another one. I know we have to be careful.”
“You were half asleep, damn it! The most important part of this episode is that you made coffee and thought to bring along a mug to share it with me. That blows me away.”
She gave him a tiny smile. “It does?”
“Yeah. Your impulse was pure even if the mug isn’t. So let’s rewind this whole situation and start over. You brought coffee to share, which is not only a sweet gesture, but it shows you’re more awake this morning. How did you sleep?”
“Like the dead until around three. So I got up and sketched for an hour and amazingly got back to sleep again. Getting up at six was a little rough, but nothing like yesterday.” She gestured to her clothes. “As you can see.”
“I noticed right away. And FYI, I love the Spider-Man lunchbox.”
“I actually took it to art school and used it there. Getting it out again brought back memories.”
“Good ones, I hope.”
Hesitation flickered in her eyes. “Mostly.” She glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, Mac, turn around and look.”
The awe in her voice tugged at his heart as he turned to greet another sunrise with her. She responded to it with more enthusiasm than anyone he’d known, but she was the only artist he’d ever known, so that made sense. Sunrises would always remind him of Anastasia, which was ironic, considering how she’d avoided them all her life.
She walked up to stand beside him. “I already have so much to thank you for, but getting me up to see a sunrise twice in a row is high on the list.”
He glanced over to see the pink light touching her skin with a rosy glow. “I’m glad the sacrifice has some rewards.”
“Lots of rewards.” She gazed at the changing colors. “I don’t know if I could paint fast enough to capture it, and a picture won’t do it. There’s no point in taking out my phone.”
“I know. I’ve tried with mine. You need a fancy camera, and even then . . .”
“I have a fancy camera but I don’t use it much. For reference my phone does a fine job.” She watched in silence for a moment. “I think Georgie’s pregnant.”
“You do?” He stared at her.
She nodded. “And from the panicky way you responded, I think you knew that, but you aren’t supposed to tell me.”
He wasn’t going to lie to her, so he decided not to confirm or deny that statement.
“It’s the only explanation that makes sense. Otherwise they’d wait until after the film crew is gone.”
“Maybe they’re trying to avoid getting too close to Halloween, or Thanksgiving, or maybe they don’t want to get snowed on. Once we hit November, anything’s possible. The weather now is perfect.”
“Totally plausible, but Georgie didn’t say any of those things to me yesterday. Also, she didn’t drink wine with dinner last night or the night before. She likes a glass of red wine with dinner.”
Mac continued to keep quiet. Georgie should have realized she couldn’t fool her little sister. Anastasia was too sharp.
“See, she doesn’t want to tell me she’s pregnant and put more pressure on me to learn to ride, but she doesn’t want to give me a dishonest reason, either. She said it was because they were so eager to tie the knot, which is the truth as far as it goes.”
“I don’t think people in Bickford would care whether she’s pregnant.”
“Aha!” She whirled to face him. “So she is!”
He backed up, hands raised. “You didn’t hear it from me.”
“Oh, Mac.” She laughed. “I won’t give you away. I’ll pretend I don’t know a thing.”
“But we’d better get to work. You’ll be taking Jasper out of his stall this morning.”
She blinked, and some of her self-assurance disappeared. “I will?”
“You told me to push you.”
“I know. I’m thinking about the moment I got Prince out of his stall and what happened after that. I never really had control of him.”
“You’re bigger now. You’ll have a rope and he’s already wearing a halter. It’ll be just like yesterday except I won’t be the one taking him out.”
She nodded, but she didn’t look convinced she could do it.
“Just yesterday you stood in the yard with him while I fetched the tote and you seemed okay with that.”
“But we were both standing still. When we were moving, you were in charge.” She swallowed. “But I’ll do it.”
“You need to get used to handling him alone. When you’re out there with the wedding party and everybody’s on horseback, all kinds of unexpected things can happen. If you have even a trace of that old terror left, you could react in a way that puts you and others at risk.”
“And my sister’s pregnant.”
“Just barely. Don’t forget she’s going on the trail ride this weekend, so it’s not like she can’t be married on horseback the weekend after that.”
“Good point.”
“She’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine, but I want you to be best buddies with Jasper before the big day.” He gestured toward the barn. “After you.”
“What do I do, first?” Tension laced her words.
“Breathe.”
“Ha-ha.”
“No, I mean it.” He set the mug down next to her lunchbox on the hay bale. “Take a nice deep breath and blow it out slowly.”
She stopped in the middle of the aisle and followed his instructions.
“Good. Any better?”
“Some.”
“Then do it again.” He took the lead rope out of the tack room while she pulled in another deep breath and let it out. Then he walked up next to her. “Okay, now?”
She glanced at him. “If I say not quite you’ll know I’m stalling, so I won’t say it. I’m fine. Or as fine as I’ll be until I jump this next hurdle.”
“Then take this lead rope, go into the stall, and clip it to his halter.”
She took the rope. “You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easy. He likes you. He’ll be thrilled that you want to take him out of the stall and groom him.”
“Thrilled, huh?” She paused in front of the stall and Jasper stuck his head over, as always. “Hey, Jasper.” She stroked his nose. “Want to take a short walk with me?”
He bobbed his head.
Mac observed that with interest. “Funny I never noticed how consistently he does that. I must not ask him questions.”
“Because you already know all the answers.”
“Don’t I wish. Need any help opening the door?”
“No. I watched you.” But she hesitated. “What if he starts to come out before I have the lead rope clipped on?”
“He shouldn’t, but just say back, and he’ll back up.”
She squared her shoulders and opened the door. Jasper, bless him, stayed right where he was. He
r movements were tentative, but she stepped into the stall and hooked the lead rope to his halter. “Now what?”
“Just turn around and start out of the stall. He’ll come right along with you.”
When she faced him again, anxiety shone in her eyes. “Will he step on me?”
“No. But I’ll walk along beside you so you can gauge the pace.”
“Thanks.” She was quivering a little, but she did exactly as he’d directed her and soon they were headed down the aisle. Jasper did what he’d been trained to do, walking steadily along beside her.
“You’re doing great. When we get outside the barn, let’s walk him around a little so you can get used to the feel. Turn left, turn right, maybe take him around in a circle.”
“All right.”
“I’ll step over by the fence and give you room to maneuver.”
She glanced at him in panic.
“You’ll be fine. Jasper’s crazy about you.” He wondered if she’d ever catch on that he was projecting his feelings onto the horse. Jasper liked her, but he liked everybody unless they were mean to him. Mac’s feelings, on the other hand, were quite specific to her and they were growing stronger with every minute.
He leaned against the fence and watched her with pride and an emotion he dared not identify. He’d always thought she was adorable and a very talented artist. But because of this project he was learning things about her he wouldn’t have known otherwise, personality traits that made her more appealing than ever.
At the age of six she’d been intrepid. If her mother hadn’t forbidden her to ride, she’d be an accomplished horsewoman like Georgie. She wouldn’t have needed him to teach her anything. He shouldn’t be glad that she’d suffered that trauma at a young age. But guilty though it made him feel, he was.
CHAPTER 12
The grooming went faster than the day before, but the saddling and bridling went slower because Mac made her do it pretty much by herself. Thank goodness she still hadn’t been required to stick her thumb inside Jasper’s mouth. The day would come, Mac assured her. She hoped by then Jasper would seem like a lap dog and she’d have the courage to do it.
Mac decided to use a mounting block for her to climb on Jasper. Then he had her climb back down again, to make sure she could do it by herself using the block. After the fiasco yesterday she was relieved that he’d chosen that method.
The less time they spent touching each other, the better. She avoided looking at his mouth just as she had all through dinner the night before. But she couldn’t very well avoid looking at him. He was her teacher, after all, her broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, bodacious teacher.
“Let’s have you mount and dismount a few more times,” Mac said. “Maybe if you practice that you’ll feel like trying it without the mounting block, although I grant you Jasper is a tall horse.”
“He is, but that’s good. I need to conquer the fear of being up high, and he’s helping me do that.” She climbed on again, using the block, sat in the saddle for a moment getting the feel of being up there, and dismounted again.
Mac propped his hip against the hitching post and folded his arms as he watched her. “I just thought of something we’re missing. If we’re going out into the corral this morning, you need a hat.”
She laughed. “Where’s Travis when you need him?”
For some odd reason Mac looked annoyed. “We don’t need Travis. I can round you up a hat.” He pulled out his phone. “Let me see if Ed has one we can borrow. I’ll bet he does.”
Interesting. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Mac was jealous of the relationship she had with Travis. That was illogical on many levels. She and Mac had decided they wouldn’t become involved, for one thing, so jealousy shouldn’t even be on the table. Yet it seemed to be there.
Mac had to recognize that she wasn’t attracted to Travis. Nothing about their interaction was sexually charged, whereas she was pretty sure people had guessed there was chemistry between her and Mac. Like Ida, they were waiting to see if anything would come of it.
She continued to practice her mounting and dismounting while he talked to Ed.
“Ed’s bringing down a couple of hats Vivian doesn’t wear much. She’ll happily loan you one.”
“That’s nice of her.” She mounted for at least the fifth time. She was losing count. She wondered if Jasper was as bored as she was. “I should probably buy one if I’m going to become a rider.”
“Wouldn’t hurt.”
She sat there judging the distance to the ground. The more she’d fooled with the mounting block, the less she liked it. There wouldn’t be one waiting for her in the canyon.
She might not have to get off and back on again during the wedding, but if she wasn’t good at it she’d be trapped on Jasper the whole time. “Would you please move the block? I want to see if I can get down without it.”
“Sure.” He moved it well out of the way. “Have at it.”
She’d mastered the trick of getting her right foot out and her leg over the cantle in one smooth motion. Putting her weight on her hands, she slipped the left foot free and began sliding down.
“You’ve almost got it.”
“How far?”
“About six inches.”
“That’s far enough.” She hopped down, spun around, and lifted her hands in the air. “Nailed the landing.”
“Yeah, you did.” His gaze had taken on that melted-chocolate look that turned her insides to mush.
He liked her a lot, and they were only two days into this. Over the weekend they’d have more hours together. They were probably fooling themselves that they could keep things strictly platonic.
Ed showed up with the hats, one brown and one black. In order to put them on, she had to take her hair out of its ponytail. She didn’t have a mirror, either. Both hats fit, so she had to rely on Mac and Ed to tell her which one was better.
Ed refused to choose one over the other. “They both make you look prettier than a picture,” he said. “You can’t go wrong with either one.”
“The brown,” Mac said without hesitation.
“How come?”
“It goes the best with your eyes.”
Oh, Mac. She wondered if he had any idea how Ed would interpret that statement.
Not surprisingly, Ed gave her a knowing smile. “There you go. The brown it is. Vivian said to keep it as long as you need to. It was in the closet gathering dust. I can testify to that because I’m the one who brushed it off before I walked down here.”
Anastasia settled the hat on her head. “Thank you, and please thank Vivian for me. I’ll buy my own hat soon and then I’ll return it.”
“I probably shouldn’t say until I check with her, but my guess is she’ll give it to you if you want it. Our daughter doesn’t wear such hats and Vivian really doesn’t use either of these. I bought her one with a special hatband studded with turquoise, and she wears that one.”
“I’m sure she does.” She’d always thought Ed and Vivian made a sweet couple and the hat story only confirmed that they were still devoted after many years of marriage.
“Okay, then.” Ed tucked the black hat under his arm. “I’ll leave you two to carry on.” He gave them one last glance before heading back to the house.
That last look convinced her that he knew something was going on between her and Mac. He might have even seen them kissing. But pointing that out to Mac wouldn’t be particularly helpful.
“You look great in that hat.” His admiration was obvious. Even if Ed hadn’t witnessed the kiss, he would have noticed Mac’s behavior this morning. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear one.”
“I wasn’t a cowgirl. I didn’t ride. It seemed like an affectation to me, so I didn’t consider it.”
“Not even to keep the sun out of your eyes?”
“Nope. I’ve us
ed shades.”
“I guess that’s right. You had a really wild pair you wore this summer. I’d forgotten about those.” He gazed at her. “And you can’t wear a pony tail with that hat.”
“Nope.” No doubt about it. The hair down and the hat on had put him in some kind of a trance. If she stepped into his arms right now he’d kiss her again.
And then he’d be upset, because he was attracted but reluctant. He could still be worried about Georgie’s reaction, although Anastasia suspected it might be something besides that. But now wasn’t the time to quiz him, with Jasper saddled and ready to go. She had the hat and she’d learned to dismount by herself. Time to ride.
“Let’s see if I can climb on without the mounting block.”
That seemed to snap him out of it. “I’d like you to be able to do that.”
“Then here goes.” She grabbed the saddle horn with her left hand. Holding the stirrup with her right, she stood on tiptoe and managed to get her left foot securely in place. After that it was easy. She was on in nothing flat.
“Good.” He put a hand on Jasper’s shoulder and glanced up at her. “You look like a pro up there.”
“It’s the power of a hat. I saw what it did for Ryan Nesbitt yesterday. Apparently it’s working the same magic for me.”
“Could be.” He looped the reins over Jasper’s neck and handed them to her. “I’ll lead you into the corral. How much do you know about neck reining?”
“Assume I know nothing.”
“All right.” But he kept looking at her with that light in his eyes. “I can’t get over the difference the hat makes.”
“It’s an illusion, Mac. I’m no different.” But he wasn’t totally wrong. The hat did have a subtle psychological effect. With it on, she fit the profile of a competent rider.
The hat wasn’t new, but it had been subtly shaped by a woman who could ride rings around Anastasia. Vivian had been a barrel racer when she was younger. She could probably do a credible job of running those barrels even now.
Compared to Vivian, the owner of the hat, Anastasia was a fraud. Now she had a third goal to add to her list. She’d started out wanting to see the Ghost in person. Yesterday she’d tacked on participating in her sister’s horseback wedding. Her third goal had just been revealed. She wanted to become worthy of this hat.
Wild About the Wrangler Page 13
