Between Hope & the Highway (18 page)

Her brown eyes flashed.

I clicked my tongue twice to signal Eagle into a trot. “I’m not saying
you’re
stale. That’s Mack-y’s area of expertise.”

“Stop badmouthing Mackay.”

“He’s freezer burnt vanilla, sweetheart. I’m surprised you didn’t sleep all during the service sitting next to him. Now Chance…you said yourself he’s Rocky Road. No one gets bored with that.”

She rolled her eyes. “This is a ridiculous conversation. Check Eagle’s collection.”

I saluted. “Yes, boss.”

After riding around the arena while Liz took notes, we traded places so she could ride Blue Boy as I rated him on the training scale. When she finished, she walked him over to me.

“What do you think?”

“His rhythm’s off.”

She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. “That’s what I thought.”

As we walked our charges to their stalls, I said, “You and Mackay’s rhythm is off as well.” I locked Eagle up and met her at Blue Boy’s stall. “Let’s pretend I’m Chance asking you out.”

“Not going to happen.”

“Humor me.”

She made a face. “No kissing.”

“Miss Ruthersford!” I gasped. “I’m not that kind of guy. All I wanted was to ask you out, not make out.”

She laughed, which made me feel as if I’d scored a touchdown. “You know what I mean. My hand still hasn’t recovered from all that slobber you left on it.”

I grinned at the memory. “It could’ve been your lips, baby. Just remember that on cold, lonely nights.”

She huffed. “You’re impossible.”

Before she could open the next gate, I sidled closer. “Ready to role play?” I pulled back, surprised by how good she smelled. Ironically, she smelled of vanilla. “Okay, I’m Chance.”

I puffed out my chest, licked my fingers and played with the front of my hair. When she giggled, I knew I’d imitated his mannerisms perfectly. I grinned, trying to show all my teeth like he did.

“Hey there, Liz.” I made my voice higher and rushed my words. “I wondered if you could do me a favor.” I puffed out my chest and slicked back my hair again. The real Chance did that constantly.

Her eyes crinkled as she tried to stifle a smile.

“A couple buds from high school are getting together to see a movie. I haven’t seen them in ages…” I paused and switched to my real voice. “Which means about six months in Chance’s lingo.” I raised my voice to his level again. “But well, never mind that. We were tight back in the day. So I wondered if you’d go with me since I don’t want to show up stag. They’d razz me or maybe even think I bat for the other side. Can’t have that. Please say you’ll go. Pretty please?”

She laughed. “You play Chance better than Chance. But believe me, I’m not his type.”

“I disagree. You’re pralines and cream. All soft and delicate, but a little nutty. You’d mesh well with Rocky Road.”

Her elbow jabbed me in the gut. “Who are you calling soft, Bubble Gum?”

I laughed. The morning passed pleasantly as we kept joking and worked the other horses. When we headed to the house for noon meal, I teased her again.

“So we’ve discussed two flavors—Vanilla and Rocky Road—but we never discussed the third. What flavor would you say Seth is?”

“He’s not a flavor. He’s only doing me a favor by training me on the barrels.”

“And why do you think he’s so anxious to do that?” When she didn’t reply, I said, “Let me assure you that if I wanted training, he’d be too busy to deal with me. But then, I guess he doesn’t want to get all close and personal as he shows me how to sit the saddle just right.”

A blush crept up her high cheekbones. “Seth is just nice.”

“Like Mackay?” I stuck my finger in my mouth and gagged. “Except if Mackay is bargain bin vanilla, Seth is pure aged vanilla at its finest since he’s a cowboy.”

“He’s definitely aged.”

“The guy’s only four years older than me, and I’m twenty-three. Besides, don’t you think older guys like younger women?”

“He doesn’t like me.”

Surely the girl couldn’t be as clueless as she pretended. “Seth is probably mooning over you right now trying to figure out how to get you training more with him.”

“Oh, hush.”

“I think you should branch out and give one of those other guys a chance. Pretend I’m Seth.”

“Not this again.”

I stood bowlegged and slouched. Bobbing my head, I swallowed several times before speaking in a raspy tone. “Howdy, Liz. I saw you out on Blue Boy. It looked like he’s coming along fine…real fine.” I mimicked his slow drawl. “Have you had any more time to work on that last move I taught ya?”

She nodded to humor me.

“Well, that’s great…just great.” Seth had a habit of repeating himself. “I have some time tonight if you want to learn the next move—the hitchy-kitchy.”

She snorted at my made-up word.

“Thought maybe we could take a drive. There’s supposed to be a super moon tonight. Don’t even need a flashlight, no sir-ee.” I bobbed my head and swallowed, making my Adam’s apple pump up and down like the older hand’s.

When she closed her eyes, I knew she fought laughter.

“We could practice the hitchy-kitchy under the moonlight. That’d be fine…just fine.” I waggled my eyebrows in a very non-Seth like way, sending her over the edge. A series of seal-like barks erupted from her that made me bust out laughing. I’d never heard anyone laugh like that before.

“Stop it,” she gasped.

“I’m pretty sure Seth wants to do the hitchy-kitchy with you rather than barrel racing.”

She kept barking like a seal. “I mean it. Stop talking. You’re making my side hurt.”

“No one with a laugh like yours should be stuck with plain old vanilla, even the pure aged stuff.”

She narrowed her eyes.

I raised my hands. “That’s not a jab, just the truth. Has Mackay ever made you laugh like that? And I take back what I said about Seth. He’s a great guy, but he’d bore you stiff in less than a week too.”

We entered through the back door and headed to the washroom. “Stop belittling those guys.”

“All right, Praline.”

She elbowed me. “Shut it, Bubble Gum.”

I snickered, loving her sharp wit and elbow. The girl wasn’t perfect, but I was beginning to appreciate why my brother liked her so much. She was pretty cool.

Chapter 31

Liz

“Breakfast was delicious, Charity.” I set my napkin on my plate and stood.

Rawson stood as well.

“Are you feeling sick, son?” I heard Charity ask as I left the room. “You still have food on your plate.”

“No. I just…”

I didn’t hear the rest of his response, but hoped he wasn’t ill. He was our ride to church.

“Hey, wait,” Rawson called after me.

I turned and smiled at him. Since he’d given me that flashy watch, he hadn’t been such a pill. I’d glimpsed another side of him other than the jerk. He made me laugh, and was excellent with the horses. It made me wonder why his dad put me in charge. Rawson was strong, intelligent, and possessed more people skills than I did. Charm oozed from his every pore, while I stumbled over words and froze up in front of clients.

“What do you need?”

He fidgeted. “Do you think you could maybe back off on this whole church thing? Benny’s getting too into it, and I don’t want to keep losing sleep every Sunday to drive you guys there.”

I narrowed my eyes. “No one’s forcing you to come.”

Emotions battled across his handsome face. “Benny’s too easily swayed. I have to go to keep his head on straight.”

I winced at his poor choice of words. They sounded terrible in connection to his brother’s crooked neck.

“That came out wrong. I didn’t—”

“I’m sorry if worshiping God offends you. I’ll make sure to offer your brother drugs or some sleazy porn in the future instead.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “That’s not what I—”

“Just go back to bed. And when you wake up, get out on the right side this time so you’re not such a grump. I’ll call Mackay for a ride.” I pushed past him.

“Vanilla?” Unlike the other day when he’d been teasing, he sounded downright mean. When I scowled, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pick a fight.”

“I find that hard to believe. If I’ve learned anything about you in the past month it’s that you love to argue. Contention is your middle name.”

His shoulders relaxed. “True, but I gave you my watch, so I should probably concede.” He threw me an apologetic look. “It’s just that Benny’s good heart makes him gullible, and I don’t want my little brother to—”

“Fine. Talk to him and stay home. I’ll call Mackay for a ride?”

He hissed. “You don’t need to call Mack-y. I’ll take you.”

“Don’t bother. I don’t want to risk filling your head with rubbish like how God loves you and can save you from hell and horrible ideas like that.” I marched down the hall.

He caught my arm and turned me around to face him. “Stop getting your feathers ruffled.”

Electricity seemed to shoot up my arms where he held my wrists. My heart beat like a tom-tom, making me choke on air as I stared up into his captivating eyes. Light green flecks burst from his pupils like rays into the startling blue of his irises.

“Let me go,” I said, but didn’t try to break his grip.

“Stop being so sensitive.”

“I’m not being…”

He backed me up against the wall.

“…sensitive,” I squeaked. His body pressed against mine, making it impossible to form words. I’d lied. Right then, I was the very definition of sensitive. Warmth flooded my body and the sensory receptors in my skin exploded where our bodies touched. As his cool breath caressed my cheek, I feared I might faint.

“I’m taking you to church.” His eyes didn’t leave mine.

“Okay?” It came out a question because my body was busy putting out internal fires.

His lips twitched. “All righty then.” He released me and stepped back. “I need to get ready for
church
…and you need to spruce up.”

His snarky words shattered the evil spell I’d fallen under.

“Yeah, I’m sure you need to change at least six more times.” It was a lame barb, but my brain wasn’t operating at optimal performance. He’d thrown me off my game. Shoot! He’d thrown me out of the dang ballpark.

“At least,” he chuckled.

After our awkward exchange, I dreaded the drive to town. I didn’t know what had happened, but knew it was only one-sided and needed to be forgotten.

When I walked out to his truck, I shook my head. Rawson wore black jeans, a lime green dress shirt and a black blazer with a bolo tie. So Montana—not the green shirt, but the bolo. He also sported a black cowboy hat that looked fresh off the rodeo circuit. The worst thing was…the whole get-up looked amazing on the primping peacock. So unfair.

“Wow.” Benny said as he hobbled to the passenger door. “I thought last week’s outfit was outrageous, but you topped it with the Kermit the Frog shirt.”

I snickered into my hand. He was right. The burgundy shirt and silver tie Rawson had worn last Sunday had nothing on this.

“Glad you like it, kid.”

“I hope you aren’t planning on wearing that hat in the chapel,” I said.

He tipped the brim. “Wouldn’t be caught dead without it, darling. This here’s the genuine El Presidente by Stetson and will keep religious rubbish from getting into my head.”

I almost laughed, but caught myself. The last thing I wanted was to feed his inflated ego.

When we arrived at church, I could tell Rawson’s garish outfit irritated Mackay.

“I can’t believe that guy. Doesn’t he possess an ounce of self-respect?”

Bumping shoulders, I tried to distract him from our pew mate. It worked. He wrapped an arm around me and didn’t glance at Rawson again. I carefully evaluated my emotions, wanting to feel a spark of something for Mackay. If he elicited any yearning—even the smallest atom—I’d know I could build on that and cast the no-good Kermit cowboy out of my head.

Mackay’s fingers caressed the top of my arm, but didn’t create the slightest zip, bang, or spark like the crazy ruckus Rawson’s contact had produced this morning when he trapped me against the wall. My cheeks heated like a burner above a gas flame at the memory.

“Are you feeling well, Miss Ruthersford? You look a little flushed.”

I gulped as Rawson’s hand on my skirt brought me back to the present and provided stark contrast to Mackay’s platonic touch.

“Uh, it’s hot in here?” Again, it came out sounding like a question. Dang him and his brain-frying magic.

“Are you crazy?” Benny said. “I’m freezing. Remind me to bring a jacket next time.”

Thankfully, the service began and I didn’t have to justify my red cheeks and sweaty neck. Mackay continued stroking me as I struggled to stay awake. When my head bobbed for a third time, I almost wished Rawson would lean over again and touch my knee. I needed a good spark to jump-start my system.