by Jeanne Allan
Sunlight glistened off Worth’s wet skin as he bent over to remove Jamie’s diapers. Wide shoulders, narrow waist, trim hips. Strong, powerful legs. Elizabeth wanted to run her fingers over his shoulder blades and back as his muscles flexed. A tanned, beautiful back. The kind a woman could cuddle up to at night. In her imagination, she felt the warmth of his skin.
Worth straightened, laughing as he cradled the naked, wet, squirming baby to his bare chest with large, capable hands.
Elizabeth blinked rapidly in the strong sunlight. Jamie looked so happy. So content. So safe.
“Here you go, Red. One waterlogged Jimbo looking for his mom.” Worth handed Jamie to her, her son cocooned in a large, colorful towel. Only his beaming face peeked out.
“Thank you for watching him.”
Worth wrapped a towel around his hips and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Don’t feel obliged to return the favor.”
Elizabeth immediately fired up. “If you thought watching Jamie for me for a couple of hours would convince me to pretend I’m your girlfriend to protect you from your sisters’ matchmaking scheme, you thought wrong.”
Gently tickling under Jamie’s chin, Worth gave her a crooked smile. “I was teasing you. I watched Jimbo because I like him.” He walked by her into the house.
Leaving Elizabeth overcome with guilt as Mary Lassiter’s words echoed in her head. Worth had been his mother’s Rock of Gibraltar. Rocks were always there. Steady, uncomplaining. Supportive.
What kind of person refused to help someone who’d made sure his little sisters brushed their teeth?
“By the way.” Worth opened the back screen door and stuck his head out. “The horse you’re riding tomorrow is named Rosie.”
The look on Elizabeth’s face had almost made Worth tell her he was kidding, but he’d bitten back the words. Mollycoddling her was no way to help her fight her fear. If you had a horse who’d developed an irrational fear, you taught the horse to unlearn the fear by gradually approaching the source of the fear until the horse learned for itself there was nothing to be afraid of.
Even allowing for a father’s natural tendency to brag about his child, Russ’s remarks told Worth that Elizabeth knew how to ride. She’d simply been mounted on horses beyond her abilities, which had resulted in frightening and painful experiences.
All Worth had to do was replace her painful memories with positive experiences. “I’m counting on you, Rosie,” he said, laughing when the mare responded with a reassuring nicker. “She knows how to ride. She just needs to gain some confidence.”
Leaning on the corral, he scratched under Rosie’s chin and throat and thought about the changes in Elizabeth since she’d arrived in Colorado. Not that the visit was turning a coward into a brave woman. He was pretty sure Elizabeth had never been a coward, but life had set her back on her heels, and she no longer trusted her ability to cope.
He’d seen flashes of doubt and insecurity in her eyes. As if she’d somehow failed. Worth had never asked why Lawrence had been going to the grocery store the night he’d died. If her husband had been running an errand for Elizabeth, she probably blamed herself for his death.
Worth couldn’t fight that demon for her.
The most he could hope for was to prove to her she had the strength to fight her own demons.
Some people might think that riding a horse didn’t have much to do with life, especially Elizabeth’s life which involved raising a son and getting back to climbing the corporate ladder in the hotel chain she had worked for until Jamie’s birth. Worth knew better.
Successfully overcoming an ingrained fear bred success in other areas of one’s life. Elizabeth felt beaten down now, but conquering her fear of horses would give her confidence in her other abilities.
His grandpa Yancy was fond of pointing out that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Worth didn’t expect Elizabeth to be riding Wally and roping cows before she left. Riding Rosie was nothing but a baby step toward freeing Elizabeth from a crippling fear.
Getting her on Rosie’s back was a start.
If he could get her there.
CHAPTER SIX
“MOM must have dug those old jeans of Greeley’s out of the rag bag, but they seem to fit okay.” Worth eyed her hips as if he were measuring her for tailored trousers.
Or a shroud.
“I’m not riding a horse,” Elizabeth said through her teeth. A point she’d been too stunned to make clear yesterday when Worth made his grand announcement out the back door.
“Russ thinks you are.”
“Only because you told him I was. At the dinner table last night. And at breakfast this morning when you reminded your mother I needed clothes to ride in.”
“Pretty clever, huh? You couldn’t argue with me for fear I’d tell Russ your dirty little secret.”
She couldn’t believe he had the audacity to brag about his despicable behavior. “This is your idea of revenge because I refused to go along with your asinine ideas and pretend to be interested in you. I have news for you. I planned to tell you I’d play your little game, but you blew that.”
“Why?”
She couldn’t believe he had to ask. “Because you tried to twist my arm, that’s why.”
“No, why were you going to agree to play along?”
“None of your business. I’ve changed my mind.” She wasn’t about to tell him it was because he’d helped his sisters brush their teeth. “And I’m not riding any horse.”
“How do you plan to get out of it?” Worth asked with great interest.
“I’m spraining my ankle,” she said defiantly.
Grinning, Worth lifted a battered cowboy hat off a corral post and plopped it on her head. “You’d better wear this. It’s easy to get a sunburn at this high altitude.”
Elizabeth ripped the hat from her head and flung it from her. The hat sailed into the corral and landed near the feet of the ugliest white horse she’d ever seen. A brown horse snorted in alarm and dashed to the other side of the corral, but the white horse stepped over to the hat and curiously sniffed it.
Worth pointed to the horse. “Meet Rosie. She might get excited if a fire truck snuck up behind her and blew its siren, but I doubt it.”
The horse’s face was long and bony, part of one ear was missing and her body was shaped like a barrel. She picked up the hat from the ground and ambled over to Worth. Up close she looked even uglier. And bigger.
Elizabeth backed away. “I’m not riding.”
Worth accepted the hat from the mare. Scratching her neck, he said without looking at Elizabeth, “There are a lot of things mothers need to teach their sons. A fear of horses isn’t one of them.”
She sucked in air. Poor Jamie. No father and a coward for a mother. There was nothing she could do about either. “Millions of people spend their entire lives without ever going near a horse.”
“They don’t have Russ for a grandfather. You planning to build a wall between him and his grandson?”
“He can visit us. In a city where we don’t have to ride horses.” A lump grew in her throat as she thought of an older Jamie struggling to find common ground with Russ. The way she struggled.
“Russ doesn’t like cities.”
“I don’t like horses.”
Worth slapped the hat against his thigh to remove the dust and stuck it back on her head, pulling it down around her ears. Holding the brim in both hands, he drew Elizabeth toward him and said patiently, “Horses don’t come any steadier than Rosie. She’s intelligent and good-natured and she’ll see you don’t get in any trouble.”
“I’m not riding,” she said mechanically. Didn’t he realize she would if she could?
Worth tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear. “I don’t know for sure how old she is, but at least twenty-five. Hannah rides her and as soon as the babies are strong enough to sit up and hang on, they’ll ride her.”
Elizabeth’s blood chilled. “You’re not putting Jamie on her.”
“I wouldn’
t do that. He’s not ready to ride.” He flicked her hat brim and walked away.
Neither was she. Elizabeth watched him open the gate to the corral, wishing she had the courage to get on the horse. Or the courage to walk away in the face of Worth’s certain contempt. She put off doing anything. “Why don’t you know how old the horse is?”
“Allie brought her home a few years back. This investment broker from New York, who had a second home here, was having money troubles so he let go his hired help and turned his half-dozen horses out in a small pasture. The hired couple moved away, and he stayed in New York and forgot about the horses. The horses quickly denuded the pasture and were starving to death when Allie heard about them.”
“That’s awful,” Elizabeth said in horror.
“Three were too far gone to save.” Worth led the two horses out of the corral and tied the brown one a distance from Elizabeth. “Allie managed to find homes for the other two, but this gal,” he rubbed between the white horse’s ears, “was old and so gaunt and bony, nobody thought she’d live, but she’s got heart.”
“I don’t want to ride her.”
“She may not look it, but Mom thinks she’s part Tennessee Walker. She’s got a smooth, rocking-chair gait. Blow in her nose so she’ll know you’re friendly.”
“I’m not friendly.”
“I’ll fix the stirrups after you mount up.”
“You’re not listening to one thing I say.”
“I will when you talk sense,” he assured her.
The horse turned her long head to look at Elizabeth and made a small inquisitive sound.
“She has blue eyes.” Only Worth Lassiter would have a blue-eyed horse.
“They’re called glass eyes. Some people used to think blue-eyed horses can’t see as well, but they can.”
The horse had a sweet, patient face. Elizabeth worried her bottom lip indecisively. “This is stupid. Russ won’t be impressed by me riding an old nag.”
“You hear that, Rosie? She called you an old nag.”
The horse couldn’t possibly understand, but Elizabeth would swear the mare looked hurt.
“Mom sometimes rides her, but she’s been knee-deep in wedding plans, so Rosie’s feeling neglected. Russ thinks you’re doing me a favor.”
“Mary could ride her now instead of watching Jamie.”
“She’s involved with her wedding lists, and Jimbo’s happily playing in his playpen.”
“You think you’ve thought of everything, don’t you?”
He gave her a self-satisfied grin. “Yup.”
Elizabeth had a strong feeling the man and the horse would stand there all day waiting for her. She took a tentative step toward the mare. The horse barely blinked. Elizabeth took another step, and another. The horse simply watched her. Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth blew lightly into the mare’s nostrils. The horse snorted gently. Elizabeth jumped back in alarm.
Worth caught her. “Ready to ride?”
“I don’t know if I can,” she said, hating the tremor in her voice. The next second Elizabeth found herself high above ground clutching a saddle horn while Worth adjusted her stirrups.
Then he swung aboard the brown horse. “It’s like riding a bicycle. It’ll all come back to you.” Horse and rider headed around the barn.
Rosie stood waiting patiently for a signal from Elizabeth. She nudged the horse with her knee, and the mare ambled after Worth. He didn’t bother to look back but led the way across an empty pasture.
The mare walked with a smooth, even gait and Elizabeth gradually relaxed enough to notice her surroundings. A jet contrail drew a line in the brilliant blue sky above white-tipped mountain peaks. As they entered a meadow, a deer on the other side raised its head, then bounded into the trees and disappeared. Worth followed a track through the grass. Hearing a faint rustle over the sound of horse hooves, Elizabeth looked down to see a ground squirrel frozen beneath the leaves of a wild geranium. Her breath caught as she waited for Rosie to bolt, but the mare merely noted the small mammal, then placidly walked on. Elizabeth expelled air with a whoosh of relief.
After about thirty minutes Worth stopped his horse on top of a small knoll and waited for Elizabeth to join him. Silently he pointed to a small stock pond below. A female mallard floated on the water’s surface, seemingly ignoring the balls of fluff paddling behind her.
Worth rested his forearms on the saddle horn. “Why’d you come?”
“At which point did you give me a choice?” she asked tartly.
“I thought you were going to fake a sprained ankle.”
“A lot you would have cared if I had sprained my ankle.”
He gave her a lazy smile, not acknowledging her charge. “You know I wouldn’t have forced you to ride.”
“I knew you’d bully me until I did exactly what you wanted me to do, so it seemed a lot easier to get it over with.”
“You need to learn how to control your blushes if you’re going to go around telling whopping lies, Red. That’s not why you’re riding. Miss being on a horse, did you?”
“No.” Overhead a swallow swooped low to snatch a bit of cotton drifting from a cottonwood tree. Elizabeth fiddled with the leather reins. “Did your sisters ever manage to keep anything from you?”
He screwed up his face as if he was giving her question serious thought. After a few seconds he grinned. “Nope. So you might as well fess up and tell me the real reason why you’re riding. You know I’ll bully you until you do,” he added with dry amusement.
Elizabeth had no intention of telling him anything. Her reasons for riding were none of his business. “Why is she named Rosie?”
“We never knew her name.” Worth straightened. “We can ride side by side here.” Their horses moved off. “She was so thin, she was lumpy when Allie showed up with her. The hands wanted to name her Mashed Potatoes and call her Spud, but she’d been subjected to enough indignities. Her coat was filthy from rolling in red mud, so I named her Rosie.”
Worth continued to surprise her with unexpected sides to his personality. His complexities made it difficult to pigeonhole him. Or ignore him. She slanted a look at him from under her hat. “Have you ever been scared of anything in your life?”
“Sure.”
“Name something.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose with a gloved hand. “When I was about eleven, I overheard a conversation in a store about a couple being killed in a car accident and leaving behind a bunch of kids. One lady said the kids were split up because no one wanted to take them all. I was scared to death Mom and Grandpa would die on us. Cheyenne was five, Allie four and Greeley about Jimbo’s age. I spent weeks planning how we’d run away and hide so nobody could split us up. Mom found out when she went riding one day and came across my stash of canned goods in an old line shack.”
“Was she mad?”
“Annoyed I’d tried to solve the problem on my own instead of going to her. Turned out she and Zane’s folks had put in their wills that each would take care of the other’s kids if something happened to them. As soon as I was legally old enough, she arranged that I’d be my sisters’ guardian if anything happened to her.”
Elizabeth focused on Rosie’s tattered ear. “So the last time you were scared of anything, you were still a boy.”
Worth reined in his horse. “Every year I’m scared the alfalfa will get hailed out, that we’ll lose calves in a late spring blizzard, or a mare’ll have trouble foaling.”
“I’m not talking about those kinds of fears,” she said impatiently. “I mean being afraid of the dark or heights or spiders. That kind of thing.”
Leaning forward, he rubbed his horse’s neck. A pair of pale peach-colored butterflies played tag over the meadow. The drowsy silence was broken by a staccato drumming sound as a flicker searched for bugs near the top of a blue spruce tree. Worth’s horse stamped its foot, and the bird flew away with a flash of russet feathers. Worth didn’t answer her question. Probably because there wasn’t anyth
ing which scared him.
Elizabeth studied a low area filled with faded iris and wondered why they didn’t move on.
“It scares me half to death that I’ll turn out to be like Beau,” Worth said unexpectedly in a voice so quiet Elizabeth could barely hear him. “The family’s always condemned Greeley’s birth mother for walking away from her baby, but we don’t talk much about how our father abandoned his entire family. We made excuses for him, but the truth is, he was a coldhearted, selfish man who used Mom and had no interest in his offspring.” The deliberate lack of emotion in his voice gave his words the unmistakable ring of truth.
Elizabeth knew how ridiculous his fear was, but she also understood how real it was to him. Logic had nothing to do with fear.
No one knew that better than she. Fear had become her constant companion. She hated it, but hating didn’t make it go away.
Impulsively she reached over and laid her hand over his as it rested on his thigh. “You may be a lot of things, Worth Lassiter, including arrogant, single-minded, obnoxious, and a bully, but you would never abandon your family. I didn’t know your father, but I haven’t heard anything about him that tells me you’re like him.”
He lifted her hand from his and played with her fingers. “Gotcha, didn’t I?”
Elizabeth stiffened with indignation, but before she could lash out at him, she noticed the tiny muscle jumping in his jaw. Worth was trying to pass his confession off as a joke. Baring his soul had obviously embarrassed him. An endearing, little-boy trait. Hanging on to his hand for support, she stood in her stirrups and, leaning over, planted a kiss on his cheek.
Her hat collided with his, knocking both to the ground. Worth touched his cheek and gave her a whimsical smile. “I’ll have to remember that line the next time I want a pretty girl to kiss me.” Bending down, he swept their hats up off the ground.
Elizabeth wasn’t about to let him think she was so stupid she couldn’t tell the difference between truth and malarkey. “If you are so desperate that you’re making up pathetic nonsense to attract women, your sisters are right. You need to get married now. As soon as we get back, I’m calling Cheyenne and telling her I’ll be happy to help her find you a wife.”
