"I know," Genie replied. "She misses Dad and she's latched onto Josh to fill the vacancy."
"How is your father?" Ruth asked.
Ruth's question caught Genie by surprise. She still had trouble imagining Ruth and her father in a relationship, with Ruth happily married to a man who was about as far removed from Sebastian Matthias as any man could be. She also hadn't expected to hear Ruth say anything that would draw attention to the affair, such as it was.
"Dad's kind of in limbo right now," Genie replied. "He misses Mom and Abby. They used to travel with him everywhere and now it's just Dad and his manager and driver on the bus, and a crew of stagehands trailing along in other vehicles."
"Your father has a bus?" Ruth asked.
Genie nodded. "He bought it after he and Mom… umm… got together again after they had been separated. His being away was what caused the problems."
After a very long stretch of awkward silence, Ruth said, "It's good the way things worked out. Sebastian was never right for me, but he had a charismatic personality and was very handsome, and before I knew it I found myself rushing headlong into something that never should have been. It's hard to explain."
"Not so hard," Genie found herself saying.
Ruth gazed at her, and after a moment, she said, "I've noticed that you and Josh seem to be attracted to each other."
"Josh saved our lives," Genie said.
"I know. He was afraid he was going to lose the two of you."
Genie looked at Ruth. "Josh told you that?"
Ruth nodded. "He was clearly disturbed."
Genie came close to telling Ruth that Josh was probably more disturbed by what happened during the horseback ride back to the ranch than the rescue, but decided against it. In two weeks she and Abby would be leaving so it was pointless to engage Ruth in a heart-to-heart discussion about feelings she didn't understand herself.
When she said nothing, Ruth added, "You've done some riding now so you should go on the next overnight. I'd love to look after Abby. Matt and I get such a kick out of her. She comes up with the funniest expressions."
"I know. She cracks me up sometimes," Genie said. "I'm not sure about the overnight though. It could be awkward."
Ruth looked at her, curious. "Awkward in what way?"
Genie sighed. She didn't know how much to get into with Ruth about Josh because she didn't even know Ruth, but she did feel a connection to her, strange as that was. "It's just that with Josh, things are a little uncertain right now."
"Love gets complicated," Ruth mused, "but the outing will do you good. So, you plan on going, and Matt and I will look after Abby." Without waiting for a response, Ruth turned and left, and Genie wondered what it was that made her feelings for Josh so transparent to Ruth. She'd said nothing about loving Josh, only implied that there was something between them.
A few minutes later, Josh announced to Abby that the lesson was over. After he'd unsaddled and unbridled Dewey and turned him out, Josh handed Abby a dog biscuit, and said, "If you give this to Jeb, who's under the chuck wagon, he'll let you pet him." He pointed to where a large wagon was parked off to the side of the stable.
Abby took the dog biscuit and scampered off, and Josh pulled Genie out of sight of the open doorway and into his arms and kissed her, long and hard, and as before, she kissed him back, but with even more passion than before. She had no idea what was coming over her. She'd never felt like she was on the cusp of losing control, not even with Cal when they were engaged, but with Josh, there was no talk of marriage, yet she felt like doing exactly what Josh suggested…
Why don't you give this badass bullfighter a chance to show you that I'm pretty good at what I do and we'll see where it takes us…
But when Josh moved his hands down Genie's sides, and his thumbs followed the contour of her breasts, she placed her hands on his wrists, and said, "I'm enjoying what you do far too much, and I admit there's a chemistry between us, but we need to cool things down. I plan to go on the next overnight, but only if I'm certain we won't go creeping off into the night to have a love fest under the stars."
"No problem," Josh said. "I'll be way too busy to even think about creeping off for a love fest." But the smile that followed told Genie a very different story. The problem was, the idea of making love with Josh under the stars was an idea she was finding hard to set aside.
***
For the rest of the week, Genie and Abby spent time with Annie and her menagerie, as Ryan laughingly called Annie's three ducks, who laid giant eggs, her two milk goats and their five kids, her dozen laying hens and Quincy the rooster, and a single turkey named Benjamin, who would live out his life there, all of which came running up to Abby when she shook the can of grain. It was one big happy barnyard. They also spent time watching Ryan working the Kiger mustangs, and Abby got to give grain to the hinnies, which Genie learned were a cross between a Kiger stallion and a female burro. Annie managed to talk Ryan into purchasing five burros from the Bureau of Land Management, to breed to their two Kiger stallions, in an effort to raise a line of Kiger hinnies with zebra markings on their legs, and the first foal was a little hinny that Annie named June because that was the month she was born.
On Annie's insistence that same week, Genie also tagged along on the trail rides with the guests, while Annie looked after Abby. Although Genie felt the frustration of seeing Josh at the head of a string of riders and not being able to talk to him or touch him, she was beginning to feel comfortable on a horse. Josh matched her up with a big gentle bay named Chester, and she'd brushed him, and saddled and bridled him like the guests were doing. She'd even trotted along with the rest of the riders, which had her holding onto the saddle horn, and before the ride was over they did a short canter, which had her again holding onto the saddle horn.
By the third day out, when they were up on a high hill and had stopped to see the view, Josh broke from the front of the pack and rode back to where she sat on Chester, and said, "You need to let go of the saddle horn and work on your balance."
"I don't know whether I'm ready to do that yet," Genie said.
"You're ready," Josh replied. Instead of turning and riding to the front of the pack, he sat silently staring at Genie, long enough for her to say, "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah," Josh replied. "I'm having a hard time keeping my hands off you. It's frustrating having you along and not being able to do that."
"I could skip tomorrow's overnight," Genie offered.
"Not an option," Josh said. "I have plans for that." He turned his horse and called to the riders to follow, and as Genie took her place in line, all she could think of was having a love fest under the stars, and that's the kind of thoughts she had to quash, permanently.
Shortly after dinner, when Genie didn't see Josh in the stable getting things ready for the overnight, she figured he was in the barn jumping rope. Ever since his comment about having a love fest under the stars, she'd been reconsidering going on the overnight. She and Josh were both geared up for it, and she was setting herself up for heartbreak by allowing herself to continue on the same course she had with Cal, so she decided it was safest to renege on the overnight and instead, spend the time with Annie.
However, on stepping into the barn, instead of hearing music accompanied by the swish of Josh's jump rope, she heard sounds like metal pounding against metal. She knew Josh was a farrier, but the energy behind the pounding seemed excessive for shaping a horseshoe. She tracked the sound to a large back room that appeared to be a vacated machine shed where, in the middle of the concrete floor, stood what was in the process of becoming a life-size horse made out of horseshoes welded together. Josh was standing at the anvil pounding on a shoe, but when she stepped into the doorway, he caught sight of her and stopped and waited for her to speak.
Genie stared at the horse, which was welded to a metal framework base. It had high arches in its neck and tail, and one front leg was raised. "This is beautiful," she said. "No one, including you, ever men
tioned you were an artist."
"I'm not," Josh replied. "Pounding horseshoes helps work off frustration when jumping rope for an hour doesn't."
Genie circled the horse, both amazed and baffled that Josh could make such a remarkable piece and not talk about it. Nor had Annie mentioned it, and now she wondered why. Annie had been very verbal in trying to get them together, so it seemed odd that she hadn't pointed out this talent of Josh's. "Have you done many of these?" she asked, "A few smaller pieces," Josh replied. "It depends on how many old horseshoes I have laying around. This one's for Ryan and Annie. They want something out at the road to advertise their Kigers."
"Then you're just giving it to them?" Genie asked.
"No," Josh replied. "It's a down payment on a parcel of land. They have more than they need, and I want a place to hang my hat when I'm not on the rodeo circuit."
"That's it? Just to hang your hat?"
"For now."
"What about at your folk's ranch?" Genie asked. "According to Annie, your dad set aside parcels for each of you."
"He did," Josh replied, "but by the time you cut the place up the plots are impractical for ranching, and Adam's wanting more land, which is why Ryan sold his piece to him, so if Adam can come up with the money, I'll sell him my piece too. Besides, I'm beginning to like the wide open spaces here, and I could have a pretty nice spread by the time I'm ready to settle."
Which, Genie realized, was a long ways off. There were still all those rodeos to follow. Returning her attention to the horseshoe sculpture, she placed her hand on its back, and said, "How long did it take you to make this?"
"I don't know, I did it during my off time," Josh replied. "Maybe a couple of months."
Catching sight of a drawing on the workbench, Genie lifted the paper and saw that it was a beautifully-executed drawing of a bucking bull. "Did you do this too?" she asked.
"Yeah. I do posters for rodeos," Josh replied. "That was the illustration for the Sisters Rodeo poster, but I mainly drew it to show the city council. They commissioned me to do a horseshoe sculpture of a bronc to put at the entrance to the rodeo grounds, but I wanted to do a bucking bull instead, since this is cattle country, so I used that to convince them. They liked it."
"Then they're paying you for the bull sculpture?"
Josh nodded. "$6500 bucks." He started pounding on the horseshoe again.
"That's a lot of money for two months during your off time," Genie said, wondering why Josh couldn't pursue horseshoe sculptures instead of the rodeo lunacy, but Josh was making too much racket to hear her. Glancing beyond him, she caught sight of a poster taped to the concrete block wall of the building. Walking over to it, she saw that it was the same bucking bull except it had a rider on its back, and it was in color, with lettering and information about the rodeo. When the clang of pounding horseshoes stopped momentarily, she said, "Can I have this?"
Josh shrugged. "Sure. There are a stack of them in the bunkhouse."
Genie removed the poster from the wall and looked at it more closely, while saying, "How do you do this? It looks almost like a photograph, but I know it isn't."
"The originals are pastels," Josh said. "I do them in the evening to pass the time since I don't much like TV."
Genie set the poster on the workbench, and before Josh started pounding again, she said, "I'm not going on the overnight. Maybe that will help some of your frustration, and mine."
Hammer paused in his hand, Josh stared at the horseshoe for a few moments, like he wasn't sure what he'd heard, then looked at Genie, and said, "What do you mean by your frustration? Women don't go through what men go through. Having the hots for a woman who's always just out of reach does a real number on a man."
"I'm not out of reach now," Genie said.
"Are you telling me you're available?"
"No, I'm telling you I'm frustrated too, which is why I decided not to go on the overnight."
"You know what, babe? You're still sending me a crapload of mixed messages." Josh tossed the hammer onto the workbench, and walking over to where Genie stood, pulled her into his arms, and said, "And frustrated or not, I want you on that overnight." He kissed her, and even though Genie had been prepared to go into a long-winded colloquy about the futility of heading into a relationship that was a dead end, she wrapped her arms around Josh's neck and kissed him back. Caught up in the circle of his arms, and hearing her own soft moans of pleasure reverberating in her throat as Josh's mouth and tongue connected with hers in a long sensual awakening, she knew, about halfway into the kiss, that she would be going on the overnight.
***
Before setting out on the trail ride to the campsite, Josh announced to the group that whereas the ride took the better part of two hours, it looped around and circled back so the campsite was only about twenty minutes from the ranch if there was an emergency, which had Genie relaxing some. After the incident with the dam breaking, she liked the idea of being closer to home.
The day was comfortably warm, and the two-hour ride leisurely, following along the stream bed of a wide canyon for a distance before making a winding zigzag path up a hillside through a series of switchbacks. Somehow Josh managed to work it so Genie was riding directly behind him and at the head of a string of a dozen-and-a-half riders, so when they stopped at vista points, she and Josh ended up side-by-side on their horses. It hadn't escaped her when Josh's horse sidestepped toward hers, and his leg brushed against hers, and when he caught her eye and winked and smiled, she knew he'd done it intentionally.
Other times he'd send subtle signals—demonstrating to her the proper way to hold her reins by wrapping his hand around hers and toying with her fingers overlong while rearranging the leathers, and when he pressed his palm to the small of her back to remind her to sit straight, his hand remained longer than necessary, and the little pat before he removed it was like an intimate touch. There was also his hand lingering on her calf when he stood by her horse while reminding her to keep her heels down, and the little squeeze of her leg afterwards definitely sent a signal.
But she also thought Josh was being obvious, so when they stopped by a spring that trickled up between rocks so everyone could get a drink, and Josh was waiting on his horse beside her, she said to him, "You're not being very subtle."
Josh glanced around, and when he saw that no one was within hearing distance, he said, "I know, but I'm trying to discharge some frustration. It's not working so well, but I have my jump rope with me in case we don't get a chance to sneak off for our love fest."
"No love fest," Genie said, "but I wouldn't object to a long kiss behind a big rock. I liked the taste of your tongue, but I couldn't figure out what it was."
"Sen-Sen," Josh replied. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small foil packet that was, diagonally, half red and half gold, and said, "My grandmother bribed us during church with these. They lasted through the sermon and kept us quiet." He lifted up the folded corner and tapped a tiny black square into his palm. "In case you don't know what Sen-Sens are, they're tiny licorice landmines that pack a wallop."
Instead of looking at the tiny black square, Genie found herself staring at the packet, which she'd seen Josh slip into his pocket earlier and thought, at the time, was a condom. She found herself smiling because she'd been prepared to set him straight, and all the while he'd been preparing for another long kiss.
"Okay, this isn't good," Josh said, catching her smile and connecting it to the foil packet. "You just put an image in my head that's making my pants tight, and I don't think jumping rope will cure it."
"Then maybe we'd better skip the kiss behind the rock because if you start sucking on those things it will end up being another long kiss, which will make your pants even tighter," Genie said. "And just for the record, you had that problem the first time I came into your hospital room to take your vitals and check your bum, so I'm not entirely to blame for it now."
"That was the first time it happened while I was there," Josh p
ointed out. "The other nurses on the floor didn't cause that reaction."
"Why me then?" Genie asked.
Josh eyed her with amusement. "You want me to go into detail? It could get pretty graphic."
"No, just a short explanation. I'm curious."
"Okay then, you're put together right, you have beautiful long hair a man could get lost in, and if the skin you keep covered is as tempting as what I saw from my vantage point when you bent over to change my ice packs, I could think of a whole lot of ways to activate the nerves beneath it. You want me to keep going?"
"You got your point across," Genie said, "but now I know we'd better skip the rock kiss."
"For your benefit or mine?" Josh asked.
"Both."
"Then it's no problem," Josh said. "I brought along an extra jump rope."
"You're not serious?"
Josh laughed. "No, but based on our last kiss maybe I should have." He slipped the Sen-Sen packet into his pocket, then raising his hand, put his thumb and index finger to his mouth and blew a loud, shrill whistle to get everyone's attention. "Okay guys and gals. Time to move on."
The riders mounted and took their places in line as before, and they started out again, but now, as Genie watched Josh's broad-shouldered back and firm male butt swaying in the saddle, the idea of jumping rope didn't seem so farfetched. She was definitely frustrated, and a long, heated kiss behind a big rock wasn't all that was dominating her mind. She couldn't seem to set aside the love fest, just as she couldn't earlier, when she'd thought the packet in Josh's pocket was a condom and she'd tried to justify reasons why it would be okay to act on it.
Relieved that she no longer had the choice, she turned her attention to the trail ride and the magnificent panorama of hills and buttes and gorges, and the fact that she hadn't touched the saddle horn since they started out, just to prove she could ride without doing it.
It was another half hour before they reached the campsite, which was on a wide flat area on top of a high hill, with a faraway view on one side and a grove of aspen trees behind. A large open shelter housed a barbecue grill, a cooking area, and several long picnic tables. A short way from the shelter was a combo restroom and dressing room, with one side for men and the other for women.
Dancing With Danger: Book 8: Dancing Moon Ranch Series Page 10
