Taming Adam

by Shirley Penick

  Rachel frowned as Adam rode away from them. That man had to be the rudest person on the planet. He couldn’t take two minutes out of his precious day to help them? Well fine, they didn’t need his help anyway. Jerk.

  Cliff suggested a pretty chestnut mare after Alyssa told him about Rachel’s equestrian experience. She didn’t live on a ranch like Alyssa, but she’d spent hours at the Jefferson House growing up and a fair amount of that had been on horses. She’d never competed like Alyssa did, but she’d spent time learning how to barrel race and she even had a trick or two she could do without embarrassing herself.

  Once they got the horses saddled, Alyssa asked, “So, what do you want to see first? The cattle, the pasture, the river, or the haying fields?”

  “How about the place you were when the blizzard blew through, and you can tell me the story as we ride out there.”

  Alyssa laughed. “That was just a spring storm, not a blizzard and I was fine. No real story to tell.”

  “Uh huh. How many years have I known you? There is a story, and you are going to tell me. So, get to talking, missy. Or I’ll ask the twins since they seem to know everything and have no secrets. Or shame.”

  Alyssa rolled her eyes. “I suppose it would be better coming from me.”

  “Yes.” They crossed into the birthing pasture, where new mothers and their babies were still being kept closer to the house. The new calves were so darn cute it was hard to concentrate on what Alyssa was saying, but that event had been a turning point in Alyssa’s relationship with Beau, and Rachel wanted to hear the real story. Not the glossed-over version that Alyssa had told everyone else.

  “So, it was a sunny spring morning, a little chilly but not too cold. I was in the vet truck...”

  The tension in Adam’s neck was finally starting to loosen. He’d let Jake have his run and then they’d headed over to the river for a nice cool drink. Jake munched on some of the sweet grass that grew next to the Colorado River. Adam skipped a few rocks and a fish jumped out of the water. The sunlight sparkled on the silver and pink scales of the rainbow trout as it leapt in the air and sent a shower of water drops glistening skyward. It splashed as it landed back into the river and Adam laughed in pure joy of the moment.

  The rest of the tension drained from his body and he felt himself center. But play time was over and he needed to get back to the house. He still had to brush his horse down before he went back to his computer in time for the video conference call.

  He walked toward Jake, who was still happily munching, when a damn drone came out of nowhere and practically whacked him right between the eyes. He batted at it and shouted. Then the darn thing flew right at his horse who’d looked up to see what the commotion was about. When the drone almost beaned his horse, Jake reared up and then took off at a run toward the barn.

  Adam whistled at his horse, but the normally well-behaved animal just kept running like the fires of hell nipped at his heels. Well hell, now he had a good long hike ahead of him unless he could get someone to come get him. If he didn’t have the call coming up with a half dozen people spread across four time zones, he’d just walk back. It was only a couple of miles, but he didn’t really have the luxury of time. He got out his phone and sent a group text.

  Adam: Drone scared Jake, he’s headed back to the barn, somebody let him in, brush him down. I’m in the North-East pasture and have a video conference call in 15. Need someone to come get me, asap.

  After a flurry of texts it was determined Alyssa and Rachel were the closest. The hands with vehicles were mending the fence and it would take them longer to shore up the hole they’d found before they could come get him. The girls could ride together on Alyssa’s horse and he could take the one Rachel was on.

  Alyssa: On our way!

  Adam: Thanks, I’ll be walking toward the house.

  Alyssa: Not for long.

  Alyssa was true to her word. Adam saw the women racing hell-bent for leather in his direction not five minutes later. His heart stopped when they got within a dozen yards of him. They slowed so they were riding in tandem, brought the horses close together and Rachel stood up in her saddle, then stepped over behind Alyssa and sat down still holding the reins of her horse. By the time they had executed that move they were right on top of him. Rachel tossed him the reins, and he climbed on. The stirrups were too short for him, but he didn’t have the time to lengthen them, he’d just have to suck it up.

  He yelled, “That was the most foolhardy thing I’ve ever seen. You don’t know these horses well enough to attempt something like that. We’ll be talking about it later.” He swung the horse around and headed back to the house at a dead run. They were going to get a dressing down, about doing stupid stunts on horses they didn’t know, but right now he had to get back for the call.

  Rachel yelled after him, “You’re welcome.” She said something after that, but he couldn’t tell if it was his name or “asshole”.

  Chapter 3

  Rachel adjusted the height of the tripod holding her Canon 80D. She had come out early to take some pictures of the mountains and pasture in the natural morning light. Not that there weren’t a ton of people up bustling around. Feeding horses, checking on the cattle. But Alyssa wasn’t up or out yet, so that gave Rachel some time to take some pictures for herself. They were planning to meet in two hours to start on the engagement photos. Alyssa wanted the announcements to come out right after graduation.

  Alyssa and Beau were going to be getting married in just a couple of months because they wanted to be back from their honeymoon in time to direct the breeding, which would start in early August. They were pushing it back just a week or two to give them a little more time. It was going to be a darn busy few months.

  Alyssa planned on Rachel spending most of that time in Colorado to help with everything, beginning with the engagement photos, then graduation photos, wedding planning and going right on through to the wedding. They would be taking a quick trip back to Washington for her bridal shower and bachelorette party and then the whole family would be driving back to Colorado for the wedding. Rachel wouldn’t be the official wedding photographer since she couldn’t be both the maid of honor and the primary photographer, but she planned to take a lot of the behind the scenes photos.

  She snapped a couple of second’s worth of pictures, which would give her about a dozen frames to work with of that scene, then she adjusted the shutter speed to take the same view in an overexposed light, she’d already done the underexposed ones. She loved to play around with HDR shots, the high dynamic range of the three light settings made a much richer finished photograph. Sometimes she did photo stacking too, using a lot more pictures for lots of detail, especially on her close ups, but HDR was her favorite. When she was happy with that scene she moved the camera to a different view. She was working with her wide-angle lens and after that she’d switch to telephoto to zoom in on some of the interesting features in the mountains. She didn’t have time to go too far, but there was plenty for her to shoot right from the yard.

  “Looks like a Canon 80D,” Adam said, as he stopped next to her.

  “Yes, it is,” she replied, not taking her eye from the view finder. She was still ticked at him for being a jerk yesterday.

  “Nice camera.”

  “I like it, still saving up for a Mark IV.”

  “Also, a nice camera. Perfect for a professional. Alyssa says you’re getting there and even selling some things in an art gallery.”

  Fine, he was making small talk, she could do that. Rachel finally turned to look at him. “Alyssa is my biggest fan, but yes, I’ve got people buying my photos, so I can’t complain. She had to drag me into the art gallery, at first, but it’s worked out well.”

  “I can see her doing that, she’s certainly a force of nature.” He chuckled.

  She frowned at him. “I thought you didn’t like her.”

  “Oh no, nothing like that, I think she’s a very nice girl. I just don’t know if she’s mature
enough for Beau. He’s a very serious vet.”

  “I don’t really think it’s your call.” She said folding her arms over her chest. Rachel didn’t like his presumptuous attitude. “She’s serious about working with animals too, did you see any lack of maturity during her internship?”

  He kicked at the dirt as he looked out toward the mountains. “No. Actually, quite the opposite. She did an excellent job.”

  “Then maybe she and Beau know what they’re doing.” She arched an eyebrow at him.

  “I sincerely hope so.” He shrugged. “She said you were thinking about art school.”

  Changing the subject, she would let him off the hook this time, but he better back off or she would really give him a piece of her mind. “I am, but I haven’t decided. I know I want to be a professional photographer, but I don’t really know what direction I want to take that. Studio, weddings, more landscapes, book covers, high fashion.”

  He shrugged and looked back at her, his dark brown eyes boring a hole in her. “Wouldn’t art school help you figure that out?”

  “It might, or it might confuse the issue even more. So far, I’ve mostly done nature. Landscapes, flowers, stuff like that and they’ve sold. I’ve taken some old buildings; barns, churches, houses. People seem to like those, too. Birthday parties and weddings for people in our town of course, the kind of thing anyone with a decent eye and camera get sucked into. Whether they like it or not.”

  “Did you like it?”

  She sighed. “I didn’t hate it, but no, I can’t imagine doing weddings and birthday parties all the time. I’m a more solitary person than that. Taking pictures of Alyssa doing rodeo was fun, but partly because she is my best friend.”

  “Speaking of rodeo, that stunt yesterday—"

  “Yes, yes, I know, foolish of me. Didn’t know the horse well enough. Even though I’d been riding her for an hour and Alyssa said both the mares we were riding had participated in rodeo, when Emma had done some trick riding. And we’d already played around with them some to see how they handled. We thought Tony would enjoy it and we’re talking about entering the rodeo competition at the harvest festival, if I’m still here.” She gave him an imperious glare. “We are not quite as stupid as you might think, Adam.”

  “Well I’m glad to hear that, but think about what it might have looked like to me not knowing your skill or training or how the horses might react.”

  “Fine, I can see your point, but maybe you should realize that twenty-two-year-old women are not babies and are capable of knowing their own limits. Do you treat your sister like she’s too young to know what she’s doing?”

  “Well, no, but I know what she’s capable of.” He ran his fingers through his hair and slapped his hat on his leg before putting it back on his head. “I need to get moving, good luck with your decisions.”

  She wanted to tell him good luck on minding his own business but decided that was a little too obnoxious, since he was mostly being pleasant for a change. He walked a few steps from her then turned around and gave her a half smile that did something to her insides she didn’t plan to think about.

  “There is plenty of nature and lots of old buildings around for you to photograph while you’re here for the next few months. Alyssa shouldn’t be able to keep you busy every minute with wedding plans and picture taking. Feel free to ask any of us for suggestions or directions.”

  “Thanks, I’ll do that.” As he walked away she admired his well put together self, he had a nice butt for starters and an easy gait that got a woman to wondering about things. He’d even been decent to her, which tended to make her notice his attractiveness even more. Not that she would be interested in anyone normally so grumpy and judgmental.

  Adam continued on to his truck, the woman had just put him in his place about several issues. She might have a point, but he was still the oldest brother and he took his responsibilities, as such, seriously. He didn’t need a lawsuit from her breaking her neck on his ranch. He didn’t need his brother to be married to the wrong woman. He didn’t need to find Rachel such an attractive woman, even though she was one. He didn’t need any more complications in life. What he did need was to find a way to be at peace with Beau’s decision and be a good best man for his brother. Beau was hell bent on marrying Alyssa and that was that, so maybe it was time to stop grousing about her and get on board. Everyone else in the family thought it was great so maybe he was wrong. He sure as hell hoped he was.

  He got in his truck and headed down the drive, he was meeting some of the local cattle ranchers for breakfast in Granby. They tried to meet after calving season each year to have a powwow about how things had gone. It was only about a twenty-minute drive and he was going to do his best not to think about how attractive Rachel had looked out in the early morning sunshine. Nope, he didn’t want to think about her lovely legs and fine ass as she bent over to look into the viewfinder of her camera. He didn’t want to think about her thick brown hair that had red highlights where the sun burnished it. And he didn’t want to think about her large hazel eyes, and that sweetheart mouth. Or that he wanted to ravish her just to shut her up, well maybe that wasn’t the only reason, but it was a good one. Nope, he wasn’t going to think about those things. Not even her obvious intelligence, clear thinking and dedication to her art.

  He hit his hand on the steering wheel. Focus on something else… but what? Maybe that damn drone. He should ask the rest of the ranchers at breakfast this morning to find out if any of them had seen it on their property. Or if they had any idea why it might be on his. This was the second time it had been seen on their land, the first time it had been flying low and had startled the cattle, this time it was his horse. Neither time had it caused a serious problem, but it could have, if things had gone a little differently. He’d checked on his horse after the call and he was fine. The hand that had rubbed him down had said he’d been skittish at first, but had calmed down once he’d been groomed and put in his stall.

  He’d decided the first time had been a fluke, but he couldn’t say that now with the second time. What was it doing? He hadn’t gotten a good look at it since he’d been trying to avoid it being embedded in his forehead or Jake’s. It just didn’t add up; the first time it had been in the pasture and this time it had been in the trees next to the river.

  Maybe it was someone in the National Forest whose drone had gotten away from them. They did border that land, but the river was pretty far away. He just didn’t get it.

  Rachel knew it was time to pack up her equipment, so she could meet Beau and Alyssa to take the engagement photos. She swapped out her telephoto lens for the regular one and gathered up everything else. She and Alyssa had talked about a lot of different ideas, from formal shots to super casual. They were going to take lots, so there would be plenty to choose from. Some were going to be in front of the family room fireplace, some outside, there were plenty of beautiful places on the ranch. Rachel had even rigged up a black screen and had some other colors to switch it out, including a green screen. She had her light boxes in the family room.

  Alyssa and Beau were waiting for her in the family room, all dressed up in their fancy clothes. “Well, don’t you two clean up well?”

  Beau grumped, “Don’t get used to it. I did it, but I don’t think these clothes are going to be the ones we want for engagement photos, they aren’t natural looking for either one of us. Although Alyssa does look beautiful. But she won’t give me even one little kiss, I might mess up her makeup. What kind of a veterinarian wears makeup anyway?”

  Alyssa elbowed him. “One that is getting her engagement pictures taken. Now hush up and let’s do these formal ones so we can put on some real clothes.”

  Rachel laughed, Alyssa had never been real big on formal attire. They took every pose they could think of. Then changed into slightly less fancy clothes and did it all again. They went through several more rotations of clothing changes, finishing with their jeans and boots.

  “Okay, for the o
utdoor shots we need to narrow down the clothing changes, what did you guys like the best?” Rachel asked.

  Beau said, “I like that black print dress with your cowboy boots. Can we take some outdoor pictures with that one?”

  Alyssa nodded. “I like it too, it’s kind of girly but with my boots on it makes it more me. To tell the truth I like you in your old jeans and sleeveless shirt.”

  “I think that combination might make a very interesting photo. Let’s try it, Beau bring along your nicer jeans and a couple of shirts. Alyssa bring your jeans outfit. And that white shirt you have and your cutoffs. Both of you bring your hats. It’s who you are.”

  They did as they were told. They took pictures in the field where they were growing hay, with the mountains in the background, then some by the fence. The day was slightly cloudy but that was actually better than too much sun.

  They swapped out their outfits and took some on the dirt road, holding hands and playing around. But nothing seemed quite right.

  Alyssa said, “Let’s take some by the river. It’s so pretty down there.” They brought all their crap and got in Alyssa’s SUV for the drive to the river. They took lots of pictures by the river in several outfits and then walked out of the trees to find Beau’s pet cow, Dolly, by the Equinox. He’d rescued Dolly when she was just a calf and though they had bred her, she was far more pet than any other heifer on the ranch.

  Alyssa grinned. “Oh, let’s take some pictures with Dolly. Not for the engagement photo, but I want to put one on Facebook.”

  As Rachel snapped the pictures with Dolly and the couple, she just knew Alyssa would pick one of these. Now that they were just playing around with the cow they had relaxed, and their interaction with Beau’s large pet was adorable. She hadn’t done a lot of engagement pictures and realized if she was going to do more she would need to find a way to get the couple to relax and just have fun together. The ones on the road were better because they did play around some, but these were the best. Dolly was going to be a star.