Sixteen Steps to Fall in Love

by Liz Isaacson

  Boone stood there, gesturing to know if he could come in. She unlocked the doors and he slid into the vehicle with her. All at once, she knew how she could be strong enough.

  She’d just pretend she was singing with her back to Boone. She’d done that. He’d given her the strength to do it.

  “Hey,” he said. “You didn’t call, and I saw you sitting here.”

  She practically lunged across the console, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her mouth sloppily to his. He chuckled, aligned everything, and kissed her until the panicky feeling inside trickled away.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Boone sensed something new in Nicole’s touch. It felt a bit frantic and a bit manic, but he went with it. He knew what Pastor Scott was going to ask her anyway, so he let her kiss him until she pulled away.

  She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. “He wants me to sing the solos in the Christmas program.” She indicated a folder she’d tossed up on her dashboard. “I guess they wrote it just for me.”

  “That’s great, Nicole,” he said, reaching for the folder. “What do you think?”

  “You know what I think. I think I’m going to throw up.”

  “It’s only September,” he said, flipping the folder open. “And look, your song of the day last week was Silent Night.” He tipped the sheet music toward her, but she didn’t even glance at it.

  Misery rolled off of her in waves, and Boone wished he understood this particular affliction. But he’d never had a problem standing up in front of people and talking. Or singing.

  “You can sing for me every night, if you think it will help,” he offered. He closed the folder and put it back on the dashboard.

  “I don’t think that will help.”

  He reached over and took her hand in his, glad when her initial resistance melted away and she allowed him to lift her fingers to his lips. “What will help, sweetheart?”

  She turned and looked at him then, a raw vulnerability on her face he’d never seen before. “I don’t know, Boone. Prayer?”

  “I can pray for you.” He smiled the gentlest smile he could. “Maybe you’d like to come out to the ranch and sing to the horses. They like it.”

  “Is that what you do when you go out there on the weekends?”

  He swallowed, his own fears about to come to fruition. “No.” Boone didn’t have a plan for this, but maybe blurting it out would be okay. Maybe he could be vulnerable with Nicole while she was completely real with him.

  “I go out to the ranch on weekends for equine therapy,” he said, the words slow and measured, each one appearing in his mind as he said it.

  Her fingers on his tightened. “Really? Therapy?”

  “At Courage Reins. The horses…help.”

  Nicole continued to peer at him, clearly wanting more of the story. Boone’s chest tightened, and his memories surged forward.

  “They might help you too,” he said. “You could come out with me one weekend, if you want. I’m going this Saturday.” He went twice a month, and Pete had said he could probably cut back to once.

  But Boone liked the therapy sessions. Liked talking to the horses like they could hear him, liked the way he felt calm for days afterward.

  “I’d like that,” she said. “We’ll be late for church.”

  “Just the opening musical numbers,” he said, a sly grin crossing his face. “But it’s fine. If you don’t want to hear why I’m in horse therapy, that’s fine.” He reached for the car door handle, but she practically jerked his arm off.

  “I want to hear.”

  Their eyes met, and Boone was struck once again with her beauty. He trusted her when he’d only told this particular secret to Peony before.

  “So I came to Three Rivers because of the animal hospital,” he said. “But that was only one reason.” His brain flowed back a couple of years, and he marveled at how different his life was. Just the fact that he was sitting in a church parking lot was leagues from where he’d been in Temple.

  “Anyway.” He cleared his throat, realizing this was a story and he had to do all the talking. “Another was my cousin, Squire. He needed help on the ranch, and I figured if the hospital fell through, I’d at least have that.”

  “You didn’t like your family’s ranch,” she said. “How’s this one different?”

  “No expectations,” he said. “And my father’s not here.” He didn’t let his mind go down that path. “There was a third reason,” he said.

  Several seconds went by, with only the air conditioner blowing air on them for sound. “Go on, Boone,” she said. “I won’t judge you.”

  “You might.”

  She lifted his hand to her lips this time, and Boone appreciated the gesture and her words when she said, “I won’t. I promise.”

  He pulled in a deep, deep breath. “I had a job in Temple. I was the large animal vet, and I’d make visits to ranches throughout the area. A herd of cattle came down with something, and I….” Rushed the diagnosis.

  Didn’t get all the facts.

  Thought I was so smart.

  Let my pride get the better of me.

  “I misdiagnosed them,” he said. “Over five hundred head died before I realized my mistake.” He pressed his eyes closed, the memories from that time rushing at him, choking him, drowning him.

  Her fingers tightened on his. “Oh, Boone. I’m so sorry.”

  “I couldn’t stay there. I packed in the night and left in the morning. I came to Three Rivers and stayed at the ranch for a couple of nights and that’s when I learned about the animal hospital here.”

  He looked at her, everything he was feeling simply coming out of him. He didn’t know how to hold it back, and he found that with Nicole, he didn’t want to hold it back.

  “My dad told me to come on home and join my brother on the ranch. We fought a little. Not much, because I refuse to engage. That’s why we don’t get along. He doesn’t understand that I’d rather run in the morning and take care of pets and cows in the afternoon.”

  Nicole gave him a warm, wonderful smile. “It’s the running I don’t understand.”

  Boone sucked in a breath and then released everything he’d kept bottled up in a loud laugh. She laughed with him, and the awkwardness and tension between them fled.

  “Come on,” he said as he caught sight of a family hurrying inside the church. “We don’t want to be too late. Then only the front pew will be left.”

  They got out of the car and walked toward the church hand-in-hand. Nicole paused on the sidewalk and tipped up toward him. He thought she’d kiss him again, which he was more than willing to do, but she simply whispered, “Thank you for telling me.”

  She settled back onto her feet and looked at him. “Sure,” he said, unsure of what else to vocalize.

  “I think you’re amazing too, Boone.” She opened the door to the church, and Boone followed her inside. Her words rang throughout his whole body, and he had a suspicion he’d follow her anywhere.

  He wasn’t sure if the thought excited him or terrified him. He simply knew he was moments away from falling all the way in love with her, and that definitely brought a sting of fear to his heart.

  Friday morning, Boone sat in his office, not much on his schedule for the day. No surgeries. Only three appointments. Autumn had definitely hit Three Rivers, and people were back in school and life was humming along.

  His mom had texted that morning about the holidays, but Boone wasn’t sure what to tell her. He glanced at his phone again, wondering if he dared take the sixteen steps down to Nicole’s office and ask her to drive to Grape Seed Falls with him for Thanksgiving.

  He wasn’t sure what his hesitation was. He’d shared more with her than anyone else, and she indeed hadn’t judged him for his mistakes with the cattle in Temple.

  Sighing, he got up and started walking. Step one, two, three…. Sixteen steps later, he arrived in her doorway, and she glanced up at him. Her smile came quickly, and Boone wanted to dar
t inside, secure the door, and kiss her until he couldn’t breathe.

  “I have a couple of questions,” he said. “First, do you really want to come out to Courage Reins with me tomorrow? I’d need to call ahead and see if they have a horse for you.” He paused, this first question definitely the easiest one for her to answer.

  She had not practiced any of the Christmas songs with him, nor had she even brought it up again.

  Nicole wiped her hand over her hair, pushing back some of the wisps that had fallen out of her ponytail. “Yes,” she said. “I think I’d like to come.”

  Boone took a step into her office, then another until he could close the door behind him. If Joanne thought it was weird, he didn’t care.

  Nicole blinked at him, her surprise evident in her gorgeous hazel eyes. “What’s going on?” she asked with plenty of trepidation in her voice.

  “My mom wants me to come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I was—” He cleared his throat, wishing this were easier. He and Nicole had been dating for a while now, but were they to the stage where he took her home to meet his family?

  “I was wondering if you felt like…I was thinking…Maybe we should go together.”

  “Go together to your family’s for Thanksgiving?”

  “Yeah.”

  Nicole glanced to the closed door. “I have to tell you something.”

  Boone leaned forward, interested in anything she had to say. “All right.”

  “I’ve never left Three Rivers.”

  Boone sat back like she’d hit him. “What?”

  “I’ve lived here my whole life,” she said, anxiety entering her expression. “And I’ve never left.”

  “Well, we went to Amarillo to go to the hospital.”

  “Yes, I’ve driven to Amarillo.”

  “You never went on vacation?” Even though his family had been poor growing up, with most of their money going right back into the ranch, his parents had taken him to Galveston to see the Gulf of Mexico and to California to play in the Pacific Ocean.

  “My mother has been sick for a long, long time, and my last sibling left home when I was only seven.” The pain behind her words wasn’t hard for Boone to hear. In the past, he might have missed it. But not today.

  “So we’ll go, if you want,” he said. “We can tour Hill Country while we’re down there. It’s beautiful. We can go over to Austin if you want. Go to the Gulf.” He raised his eyebrows. “Do you want to travel?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He lifted his phone. “So I’ll tell my mom yes?”

  “Have you told her about us at all?”

  “A little,” he admitted. “I told her I was seeing someone. I’ve never mentioned how serious it was.” In fact, he’d like to know how serious they were. “If we go to my family ranch for Thanksgiving, that’s serious.” He gazed at her, desperate for a label. “Right?”

  She swallowed and nodded. “I think that’s pretty serious.”

  “You don’t sound happy about it.” Boone put a smile on his face. “For the record, I’ve never taken anyone home to meet my family.”

  “For the record, I haven’t either.” She stood and he joined her at the end of her desk. “Tell your mom yes.”

  “Yeah?”

  Nicole tipped up to kiss him, whispering, “Yeah,” into his mouth before kissing him again.

  Boone lost himself in her touch, glad they were continuing to move forward. Most of his past relationships had stalled at some point, sticking before moving on.

  But this thing with Nicole felt like it could expand and grow for years to come, and Boone couldn’t wait to introduce her to his family.

  Well, maybe not his father, and Boone had the sudden urge to protect her from him as she surely wouldn’t be good enough.

  Why wouldn’t she be good enough? he thought as he stepped away and said he’d go make the phone calls and texts he needed to.

  He wasn’t sure why Nicole wouldn’t meet his father’s standards, but the thought gnawed at him while he dialed Courage Reins, and he couldn’t be happier he had his therapy riding session tomorrow so he could work through some of his tangled thoughts.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Nicole woke on Saturday morning with a hive of bees in her stomach. Despite growing up in a small Texas town, she hadn’t been on a horse since her childhood riding camp.

  And she was going to be riding a lot today, as well as…well, she didn’t really know what equine therapy entailed.

  When Boone showed up at her house in his huge truck and wearing his cowboy hat, she knew it involved her heartbeat racing around her chest like she’d met a celebrity.

  He was just so dang delicious in that hat.

  “Am I really bringing Valcor and Taz?”

  “Yeah, sure, the dogs just run around out there. They love it.” He gestured to the back of his truck, where both of his dogs had their front paws perched on the frame, their eyes eager and their tongues hanging out.

  “Valcor weighs six pounds.”

  “He can hang out in Pete’s yard. He’s got kids. They’ll love him.”

  Nothing seemed to rattle Boone, and she wondered again why he went out to the ranch for therapy. Of course, he’d told her about the cows he’d lost, and maybe that haunted him more than she knew.

  He also didn’t have a great relationship with his dad, and Nicole couldn’t even imagine what that was like. Her best friends growing up had been her parents and a rose bush, and she suddenly wondered why she hadn’t gone out for therapy earlier.

  “So I don’t have a hat,” she said.

  “Oh, hang here a sec.” He spun away from her and dashed back to his truck. She didn’t “hang there,” but stepped back inside and told Taz to come while she picked up Valcor.

  “We’re going out to a ranch,” she said. “There are other dogs there, and horses, and cows, and probably some chickens.” She met Boone at the bottom of her front steps, and he presented her with a beautiful dark purple cowgirl hat.

  “I got this for you.”

  “When in the world did you get this?”

  “Yesterday afternoon, when I left early.” He grinned at her. “You seemed like the eggplanty type.”

  “Don’t ever say that again,” she said, handing him Valcor and taking the hat from him. “No woman wants to be told they’re the eggplanty type.”

  He laughed and took the dogs to the back of his truck, helping Taz to jump in with his beasts.

  Nicole simply held the hat, wondering how in the world to put it on. When Boone saw her, he chuckled again and said, “It just goes on top, sweetheart.” He took it from her and gently pressed it on her head, almost all the way to her ears. “Like that.”

  “It’s a bit…something.”

  “It’ll form to your head,” he said. “That’s why cowboys don’t share hats. They’re broken in to our exact head shape and size.”

  “Really?” She glanced up at his hat. “So you wouldn’t let me borrow that?”

  He pressed his hat further onto his head. “It would take a mighty act of God.”

  She laughed, and he helped her into his truck. She slid across the seat so she could sit right next to him on the drive out to the ranch.

  “You better tell me a little about your family,” she said. “How did your mom take the news that you were bringing your girlfriend?” The word fell from her lips, and she really liked it.

  I’m Boone Carver’s girlfriend.

  She’d never thought those words in that order before, and a rush of warmth filled her from top to bottom.

  “She called,” Boone said. “Nearly blasted my ear off with a screech.”

  Nicole laughed. “I’m surprised at that. Seems like a man like you would’ve had a lot of girlfriends.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” he said and didn’t elaborate. “But she was excited. I, uh, haven’t been home in a few years.”

  “I thought you went after the thing in Temple.”

  “I did. For a
night. It’s…going there is hard for me. I had a good childhood, don’t get me wrong. But.” He sighed. “I don’t know. It’s just too hard to go there and feel like I’ve let my dad down. It’s easier if I just do my own thing.”

  “What about your siblings? You talk to them?”

  “My sister the most,” he said. “My older brother just got married, and I was there for that one night. I think that’s why my argument with my father was so mild.” He made the turn onto the road that led out to the ranch, bypassing the street that went down to his house without even glancing that way.

  A few miles went by, indicating that Boone was finished with the family stories.

  “So tell me about the therapy,” she said, her chest squeezing as she thought about getting on the huge animal.

  “It’s what you want it to be,” he said. “They work with veterans and people with mental disabilities. For people like me, I can walk with the horse. Brush it down. Learn how to take care of it. Ride it. Whatever. It’s just being with the horse that matters, at least to me.”

  “And you sing to yours.”

  “Well, I don’t,” he said. “You’ve heard my terrible singing.”

  “Oh, come on.” She looked at him to make sure he wasn’t joking. He didn’t seem to be.

  “Well, I’m not you, sweetheart.” He shook his head and smiled. “I just talk to my horse. I’ve had a bit of luck with just getting out what I’m thinking to a non-judgmental party.”

  “What do you tell them?”

  “Whatever’s bothering me.” He cut her a glance. “It’s private. That’s the whole point.”

  Nicole took the hint and the rest of the drive happened in relative silence. Her nerves doubled as he turned onto a dirt road and bumped down a ways before rounding a curve.

  The ranch spread before her, and Nicole had been out here years and years ago. It was completely different now, what with two houses, and couple of huge stables, and another building that looked like it was made of windows and didn’t belong on a ranch at all.