Accidental Cowgirl (6 page)

Hayley shook her head. “I’m hoping he’s got the maturity
not
to prefer the type who hangs all over a perfect stranger advertising her wares.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Kyla grimaced. “I’m not here to find a cowboy, anyway.” Maybe if she told herself that enough times, she’d stop thinking about Decker.

Hayley put her index finger on Kyla’s toes, increasing her resistance. “C’mon, you can do it.” She grinned when Kyla glared. “Just trying to help. For two weeks, our mission is to get you better. All of you.”

When Kyla reached her twentieth leg lift, Hayley pulled off the weight and gave her a quick hug. “Good job. Bertha will be proud.”

“Do
not
remind me of her this week.” Kyla shivered. Bertha was five-foot-ten, and two hundred pounds of slave-driving physical therapist—and Kyla was desperate to be free of her as soon as humanly possible. Thus the extra exercises.

As Kyla packed up her PT supplies, Hayley checked out the schedule on the wall and looked at the clock. “Ooh, ladies, it’s time for our first riding lesson!”

Jess reached down and pulled Kyla off the loveseat. “C’mon, Kyla. Time to go meet our steeds.”

Hayley chortled. “And our horses.”

Kyla groaned as she stood up, limping a little bit. “If I die this week, you guys are responsible.”

Jess and Hayley put their arms around her as they walked toward the door. Hayley leaned her head close. “If you die, can I please have your apartment?”

As they headed up the pathway to the stable, Kyla eyed the riding ring nervously. Seven horses were lined up along the fence, and though they looked calm enough, she couldn’t shake her fear. She put her hands to her temples as she felt icy prickles start. Dammit. Not again.

* * *

“Oh, jeez. These horses are really big,” Kyla whispered as they entered the corral. She slowed her steps as she eyed them. “Jessie, I don’t know if I can do this.” She started to back toward the gate, but Jess hooked her elbow through Kyla’s and pulled her gently forward.

“Gorgeous, aren’t they?” Jess breathed. Kyla wasn’t sure whether she was ignoring her on purpose, or was truly mesmerized.

Hayley nodded. “They’re beautiful.
This
was the kind of animal I was meant to work with, not the psychotic Fifis of the city.”

Kyla backed up a step as one of the horses snorted. Her head still prickled and she knew she was breathing too shallowly, dammit. She leaned on the fence for a moment, concentrating on pushing more air out than she was taking in.

Hayley and Jess had been so determined to help her get away from the city that they’d apparently forgotten she had a well-conditioned, utter terror of horses.

Her hand tightened around the fence post as she checked out the line of them waiting patiently along the corral. She really wished she could view them as anything other than a threat to her bodily health right now.

“Wonder which ones are ours?” Jess asked.

Hayley pointed at Cole. “Let’s go check with Cowboy Cole. Looks like he’s the one with the clipboard.”

As Jess and Hayley headed toward him, Kyla hung back at the gate, still taking deep breaths and letting them out as slowly as she could manage. She’d been thrown in fourth grade, after a runaway ride that had lasted six lifetimes, and had absolutely no idea how she was going to get herself onto a horse this week without throwing up.

Hayley headed back her way, pointing to a russet-colored horse with a jet black mane and tail. “That one’s Kismet. She’s yours. Mine’s right next to her.” She pointed to a white mare with a gray mane and tail. “That’s Twinkle. Jess is on the next one. Sky Dancer, I think he said. I love these names!” She pointed down the line to where Jess was heading for a dark brown giant of a horse. “C’mon, Kyla. Let’s meet our babies.”

Kyla hugged the fence line, reluctantly stepping toward where the horses were waiting, reins draped over the top bar. None of them looked like they were truly tied there, but she had to admit none of them looked likely to stage an escape, either.

The sun was taking the edge off the morning chill, and the sky was so intensely blue it almost hurt her eyes to look up. She’d never thought of Boston as particularly smog-ridden, but maybe she’d been looking at the sky through layers of acrid exhaust all these years?

She could hear little clinks and clanks as the horses shifted around, jostling their reins and stirrups. Tom and Maureen were on the other side of the corral with Decker, and when she looked back toward the gate, Cheryl and Theresa sidled through it in full riding gear, leathery and skintight.

Jess was already cooing to her mount, rubbing the white blaze on his nose. “Kyla, you look a little nervous, honey. Are you okay?” Jess stroked her horse’s nose with one hand and patted her neck with the other.

“I’m not nervous, Jess.” Kyla shuddered. “I’m completely petrified. You guys do remember I have a history with these beasts, right?”
And a more recent history that requires the care of a psychiatrist, but let’s not get into that right now, shall we?

“Now, now,” Hayley chided. “One little fall shouldn’t sour you forever.”

“It was hardly just a little fall, Hayley. The stupid horse ran me into the next county.
Then
bucked me off. I got a concussion, for goodness’ sake. I think it was the first time I realized I was mortal.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “You know they can sense fear, right?”

Hayley nodded, then stage-whispered back, “Then stop acting scared. Kyla, we’re at a professional ranch. These horses are ridden by beginners all the time. What can possibly go
wrong?”

“Are you kidding? Have you ever been thrown? It hurts.” Kyla buckled her helmet. No way was she getting any closer to the horses without head protection.

“Are you more afraid to get thrown? Or to get embarrassed in front of Decker? What in the world do you think is going to go wrong?”

“I don’t know! Everything? Like, what if … what if it decides it wants to go left, even though I want to go right? It’s bigger than me. It’s definitely going to win. Or, what if, when I get on, the poor horse realizes how much I weigh, and just sits down with a big
oof
? How embarrassing would
that
be?” Kyla winced as she realized her voice sounded way more like a whiny eight-year-old than the Princeton-educated MBA she actually was.

Hayley swung her leg expertly over her horse’s back, then grabbed the reins. “Kyla, if your horse sits down with a big
oof
, I will personally pay for a three-day spa package back in Boston and excuse you from all further horse-related activities.”

Kyla looked at Kismet and put her hands together in prayer. “Oh, please sit down and say
oof
. I’ll give you extra carrots or sugar cubes or whatever you love best.”

“Bribing the horses already, Ms. Bennett?”

Kyla swung around, face immediately hot. Of course, of all people, Decker had heard her. Hayley smiled and turned her horse to follow Jess toward the riding ring, leaving Kyla alone with Decker. As she looked around, she realized she was the only one who had yet to mount her horse.

“Is everything all right?” Decker asked. “Kismet okay for you?”

“Oh, sure. Definitely. She’s fine. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Decker looked at her for a long moment, then reached into his pocket for a carrot. “C’mere. I’ll let you sneak her a treat so you can get on her good side.”

“Does that mean she has a bad side?” Kyla followed him gingerly around to Kismet’s head.

“Nah. She’s about as sweet as they come, aren’t you, Kismet?” The horse nickered in response, nodding her head and bumping Decker’s chest. “See? Even she agrees.” Kyla smiled for the first time since she’d entered the corral. Okay, maybe this wouldn’t be completely horrible. Decker looked back at her. “So you rode as a kid?”

“Just a little. I used to visit my grandparents in Vermont for a couple weeks every
summer. They had ponies, so I got to ride them sometimes.”

“Get thrown?”

Kyla startled and looked quickly at him, but he was looking at Kismet, patting her neck. “How’d you know?”

“Just a feeling.”

Kyla took a deep breath. “Polo pony named Jose Cuervo. Apt name, by the way. I got on, he got ticked and took off like a rocket, and after a long, long,
long
thirteen seconds, I fell off and conked my head. I never got back on, so I guess I’m ruined forever.”

Decker chuckled. “Well, you should have gotten back on.”

“I was a little busy getting stitched up at the hospital.”

“C’mere.” He motioned her closer to Kismet.

Kyla sidled toward Kismet’s head, but kept her hands behind her back. Kismet eyed her, then snorted loudly. Kyla jumped backward. “See? I think I bring it out in them.”

“Or she had a bug on her nose. Give me your hand.” Reluctantly, Kyla held out her hand, and Decker dropped a thick piece of carrot into it. “Now hold it out for her.”

Kyla stretched out her hand, and as she got close to Kismet’s head, the horse leaned closer and opened her mouth to grab the carrot. At the sight of her teeth, Kyla snatched her hand back. “Good God, Kismet. You’ve got some big teeth, girl.”

Decker sighed, taking her hand in his. “If you hand it to her like that, she’ll chomp off your fingers even if she doesn’t mean to. Lay your hand out flat, like this. Tuck in your thumb, and put the carrot right on the flat part.” He shaped her fingers as he spoke, and Kyla tried not to think too hard about the warmth and soft roughness of his hand.

She placed the carrot on her now-flat palm and reached it slowly toward Kismet, who stretched out her neck and delicately nuzzled the carrot into her mouth. Kyla opened one eye and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the carrot gone but all five fingers intact.

Decker cracked a smile. “See? You’ve still got fingers, she got a treat, and now she’s yours forever. Now, let’s get you up in the saddle so you can catch up with the others.” Kyla followed him around to Kismet’s left side and took a deep breath as she put her foot gingerly in his cupped hands. Oh, this was going to hurt.

He lifted her onto the horse like she weighed no more than a kitten, then grabbed Kismet’s reins and got her turned around toward the riding ring. Handing Kyla the reins, he
slapped Kismet’s behind. “You’re up!”

Before she had a chance to say thank you, or to wonder how he’d managed to get her up on a beast she’d sworn never to go near again, he’d headed to the other side of the paddock to adjust Maureen’s stirrup. She had no choice but to stay on.

As Kismet walked sedately toward the circle of horses, Kyla shifted on the saddle, trying to find a comfortable position for her leg. No way was she going to let on to Decker that she was in pain. She was sure he’d dealt with enough women all summer trying to grab his attention. The last thing she was going to do was act like one of them.

As if she’d conjured the action with her thought, Cheryl suddenly reined in and stopped, making a show of checking her stirrup. Then she simpered, “Decker, would you mind checking this for me? It isn’t feeling right.”

Decker strode over and pulled on the stirrup, holding Cheryl’s ankle at the same time. Cheryl smiled as she looked down at him, and Kyla’s stomach turned. How did men
fall
for this crap?

Worse, why did she care?

“Ow,” Kyla moaned as she stumbled up the three steps to the cabin after dinner.

“Double ow,” Hayley agreed, limping up the stairs behind her. “How come horseback riding never looks painful on TV?”

Both of them collapsed into the porch swing as Jess gracefully bounded up the steps and floated into the swinging chair. Hayley scrunched her eyes and growled, “Why don’t you hurt, Miss Perfect?”

Jess shrugged. “Yoga, I guess.”

Kyla tried to pull her feet up under her, but her thigh was having none of it. “Please tell me there’s nothing on the schedule tonight. I don’t think I can move.”

“I think we should go for a nice long walk and stretch our legs.” Jess flipped one leg over her head and pulled her ankle downward.

Kyla groaned as she watched Jess stretch. Oh, to be able to do that with her own body. “Did you not hear the part about
I can’t move
? And
ow
? Good Lord, how do you
do
that with your body? It’s just wrong.”

“A walk’ll be good for you, sweetie. It’s too gorgeous here to sit in our cabin all evening.”

“But I
like
the cabin. It’s adorable. I like my big gooshy bed and the calico quilts and the warm fireplace and the clawfoot—hey! I know what I need to do tonight. Take a nice, long bubble bath.”

Hayley lumbered out of the swing and started doing runner stretches on the cabin stairs. “She’s probably right, Kyla, though I’d flip a coin for that bathtub right about now.”

Jess unfolded herself from her chair and stretched her arms over her head, then pointed gently at Kyla. “Well, you’re going to hurt way worse in the morning than you do now if you don’t stretch out that body tonight. We’re walking, darlin’.”

“
You
can walk,
darlin’
. I’m taking a bubble bath.”

Two hours later, Kyla found herself swatting mosquitoes in the woods. She was pretty convinced she should have opted for the bubble bath after all, especially now that they’d walked
an extra mile because Jess had been looking at the map upside down. “Are we there
yet
?”

“Almost, sweetie.” Jess rattled the package in her hand. “Have some more M&Ms.”

Kyla held out her hand, peering ahead of them in the darkening forest. “I think I finally see the ranch. Did you call ahead to have my bath prepared?” She winced as her already-strained muscles objected to clambering over a fallen tree. “And this might be a good time to ask something I’ve been wondering about. Did you two know there’s an actual spa in town? With spa-ish sorts of things? And no horses?”

“And no mosquitoes, either, I bet.” Hayley slapped her arm. “They probably even offer a package with
guided
hikes so no one gets
lost
.”