River's End (River's End Series, #1) (10 page)

Joey stopped his horse. In a rush, he yelled, “Erin’s up on the mountain, Jack. She had some kind of freakout and nearly fainted. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with her, but she refuses to move. She’s really freaked out right now and I don’t know what else to do.”

Jack grabbed Joey’s mount and held Commander’s head still. “You left Erin up on the mountain?”

“She refused to come down.”

Jack glanced at the saddled horse. “You took her up The Horn? On Georgie? What the hell were you thinking? She’s never even been in a corral with a horse before.”

Jack swore as Joey swung his leg and dismounted. “Maybe I could get the four-wheeler up there.”

“It’s too steep. Trail’s too small.”

Joey looked stumped. “I didn’t know what else to do, Jack.”

Jack swung his leg up and over Joey’s horse. “I’ll be back.”

He left without another word to his little brother to clean up yet another mess. What the hell was Joey thinking? Jack ran his horse up the mountain at a swift canter, leading Georgie behind. He slowed when he hit the trail across the rim of the mountain called The Horn.

Jack spotted Erin about a third of the way across the mountain, in the worse spot of the trail, from her point of view, of course. He glanced down. The trail was skinnier there, merely old game trails that stretched across the sloping pasture and ended with the rocky drop-offs that plunged towards the valley below. It was one of Jack’s favorite spots. He and Lily used to ride up there a lot. First as kids, then as teens, and finally, young and married. They came there to get away, and be alone, or make love, talk, and share their lives. Jack sighed as the happy memories revisited him.

Now, however, he saw Erin Poletti curled up into a small ball off on the side of the trail. She looked miserable. Her head was down and her eyes were scrunched tightly shut like a small child who imagines the monsters in her closet.

He slowed his horse and Commander reacted to the slightest pressure. He dismounted and dropped the reins. All of his horses were trained to stay when their reins were dropped. It was essential to trail-riding that he trusts his horses to stay put if he had to get off to cut a tree limb, or adjust his gear. Or, as in this case, to save a girl.

He stood over Erin and she turned towards him, opening her eyes finally. Tears streaked her cheeks and she was ghastly white. He put his hands on his hips as he tried to figure out what to do and glanced off towards the horizon.

He eventually walked towards her and sat down. He was pretty sure rushing her wasn’t going to help her predicament.

Sitting down, he stretched his long legs out before him and leaned back on an elbow. Then he picked up a strand of grass and ran his fingers over it. He was quiet as he waited for her to get past her panic attack long enough to talk to him. Lately, it seemed like all he’d been doing was fixing Joey’s mistakes. What was Joey thinking by bringing Erin up there? He told Joey she’d never even touched a horse before now. Why would he drag her up there across the mountain? Despite his distrust of her, he was pretty sure she wasn’t faking it. But he was not so sure how he could get her down.

The snorting and stomping of horses alerted Erin that Jack was coming for her. He appeared around the corner with his horse going way too fast over the too narrow trail. She closed her eyes at the pitch of her stomach and pictured him simply falling off to the side and tumbling to his death. He stopped his horse and jumped down. She was mortified at being caught up there, but even more afraid to look up at him. She couldn’t stand to look out towards the horizon. She stared at her feet, anticipating his derogatory words to her for being such a wimp.

But… he didn’t speak. He came closer to her, and sat down, stretching his long, muscled legs out beside her as he leaned back on his elbow. After several long moments without a word to her, she finally peeked at him from the corner of her eye. His hat was pulled down low, and he was chewing on a blade of grass while looking out towards the valley. He seemed as relaxed as one might be sitting on the couch watching a favorite movie. She concentrated on his dark blue–jean-clad legs that stretched a foot past her own, and the boots that he wore so often, she wondered if he took showers with them on. They seemed as much a part of him as other men might wear a watch.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I can’t get on that horse again.”

“Okay.”

“I can’t walk either.”

He nodded and his gaze finally shifted to her. His startlingly bright blue eyes stood out against his red hair. His eyebrows that now arched up over his eyes were a darker auburn to his red hair. He had a few freckles that seemed almost lost in the tan he managed to hold onto throughout the winter. He grabbed the blade of grass from his mouth and tossed it. “So what do you have in mind?”

To cry.
That’s why she was almost physically ill. She didn’t have anything in mind and didn’t know how to get down. She sucked on her lower lip while trying to hold back her tears. She could not spill them in front of Jack. It would only emphasize what a pointless, worthless, weak girl she was.

He continued to look at her and she dropped her gaze to her knees, now tucked up to her chest.

“Are you only afraid of heights and snakes?”

“I didn’t know that I was. I’ve never experienced something like this.”

“Why didn’t you tell Joey to stop?”

“I did as soon as I realized where we were.”

“As soon as you realized?” He repeated her words, but his tone conveyed he had no clue what she was talking about.

“Yes. My eyes were closed. When I reopened them, we were here.”

His gaze settled on her face. She turned completely away. She didn’t want to see the smirking, or his anger directed at her. But… suddenly, Jack was
laughing.
He was laughing out loud at her. She looked up with a frown. Why would he laugh at her? He was shaking his head as he pushed off his elbow and sat up.

“So you were holding onto the horse with your eyes closed?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus! My brother’s such an idiot. He didn’t notice that?”

She shrugged with surprise. He thought Joey was the idiot? She thought for sure he’d say she was the idiot. She dared to peek up at him.

“He should have noticed and stopped. He should have never brought you off the trail and certainly not across here.”

“Oh. He said he’d ridden with lots of novice riders.”

Jack laughed. “There’re novice riders, and than there’s you. You didn’t even know how to touch a horse through a stall door.”

“I didn’t want to look like a jerk. I thought I could do it. But the horse seemed much taller once I was on it, and all I could think of was how easily it could bolt. Then I thought if I closed my eyes, maybe I could make the ride, and then… we were up here. And I all I could picture was one of the horses losing its footing and hurling both of us to our deaths. The trail is skinnier than one I’d ever walk on. How can a horse with four legs stay on it if I can’t with two legs?”

Jack was fully grinning at her and she blinked in surprise. Jack never grinned at anything she said. But now he was, and she couldn’t figure out why. Or why he didn't seem all that mad at her. She felt sure that once Joey told him where she was, Jack would have been furious at her and ordered her down without even getting off his horse.

“Horses are more sure-footed than any human. They won’t fall off the trail. They’ve all been across here dozens of times. But you couldn’t have known that. You should have started off by riding the horse in the fenced arena. Maybe someday, I can show you properly; that is, if this experience doesn’t scare you forever from riding horses.”

“More like, if I make it off here alive.”

He shook his head, still smiling. His smile made his eyes sparkle, and his face appeared almost boyish. Almost fun. She didn’t expect this out of the stern-faced Jack. She liked it. She like seeing him for once not looking at her with total disdain and disgust.

“I’ll get you down.” The confidence in his words was almost reassuring. And she almost felt like she could trust him.

His gaze settled on the valley and he nodded towards it. “Sure is a pretty spot, huh?”

Pretty spot?
It might be the last place she ever saw, and Jack thought it was a pretty spot? If she were actually interested in the view, she couldn’t have called it pretty. It was a breathtaking, soul-stirring, coming-to-God kind of beautiful. They were on top of the world, which spread out before them and even the largest trees appeared small from where they sat atop the mountain. The ranch below them had an aerial view usually only made possible from airplanes. The river meandered in a twisting ribbon near spotted squares of farmland, orchards, and cleared housing sites that looked minuscule below them.

“It would be the most beautiful spot I’ve ever seen, if I were looking at it from a flat, scenic, turnout on a highway.”

“Probably why Joey brought you up here.”

“Why would he bring me on this impossible trail?”

He shook his head. “Because we’ve been riding it since we were kids. All of us have, my boys too. He probably didn’t think a thing about it.”

She jerked her head back in reproach. “You don’t let Charlie up here.”

Jack laughed again. “Yeah, I let Charlie up here.”

She shuddered. Were they crazy? She thought Jack was a better, more reliable and vigilant father than that.

Jack pushed his hat back and scratched his hair before sliding the hat off and flipping it next to him. He shook his head and his red hair fell into place. She looked away, wondering why she suddenly found his movements so compelling to watch, so interesting, so… almost sexy.

The thought riled her. Jack was sexy? No. Jack was scary, intimidating, and kind of mean even. But not sexy. He was too stern, too old, too critical of her for him to be sexy.

But then, he had a body of a lean, muscled cowboy. He had hair that caught sun and light like it was on fire around him. He had a smile, though rare, that set her pulse skittering in a weird sensation. And he was the only man she had ever been around with whom she couldn’t get the upper hand. He never got nervous around her. He never wanted to have sex with her. He didn’t notice her as woman, or flirt with her, or let her control him. In fact, he was completely immune to her, which was something she didn’t know what to do with.

She stared down again at her feet; not the best place for her thoughts. She slept with his brother. There was no getting around that. Or becoming more to Jack than just that.

“This was Lily’s favorite spot on the ranch.”

She turned her eyes up to his profile. Jack never revealed personal information to her, or in front of her.

“Lily was your wife?” She knew that Lily Rydell was Jack’s wife, but thought to say it if only to keep Jack talking to her.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“When did she die?”

Jack glanced at her. She blushed and dropped her head, staring harder at the grass clumps surrounding her feet. Maybe that was asking too much.

“More than five years ago now.”

“Charlie was young.”

“Charlie was way too young then.” Jack’s voice changed, and became huskier.

“You were all too young. I’m sorry. It must have been terrible for you, and for the boys. Does Charlie remember her?”

“Not much. But Ben does.”

She wanted to ask more, and know more, to know everything. But it wasn’t her right or her place, and she feared it would piss Jack off at her. This was about the friendliest he’d ever been with her, and she did not want to ruin the moment.

Jack finally looked at her. “You’re looking calmer now. You think we could try to get out of here? Rain’s not too far off.”

She glanced up at the edge of the sky where he pointed. It did look dark. She then realized, with a sinking heart, that Jack had only spoken to her so civilly to calm her nerves. He distracted her long enough to get her panic under control so he could get her out of there, not because he had any interest in hearing what she had to say.

“How?”

“Any chance you’ll let me lead you out of here on Georgie? You can close your eyes and hold onto the saddle horn. You don’t have to do anything.”

The horses stood waiting where Jack left them. Their heads were down as they calmly munched on the grass springing up green and lush around them. They seemed calm and even majestic against the sky and valley beyond them. But to get back on one of them? And ride down the mountain?
No.
She could not do that.

But she didn’t have a choice now, did she? What if Jack simply got disgusted and left her there? Her hands immediately became moist with sweat.
No!
She could not be stranded here alone again either.

Her stomach knotted as the dizziness swept over her head and right down into her gut.

Jack jumped to his feet. “By your face, I’m guessing that’s not going to happen.”

“I want to. I just… I can’t. I know you can’t understand how I don’t just buck up and do it but…”

He stood over her with his hands on his hips, and his elbows out. “I do understand. I don’t think you’re faking it. If I did, I would have long ago gotten you down.”

“Oh,” she said with a hesitant glance his way. “Then what do I do?”

“You ride with me.”

Her eyes jerked up to him and he looked huge over her. Ride with him? As in, on his horse?
No. No way
. That required still getting on a horse in the middle of a mountain, and it too, included Jack touching her. She didn’t touch Jack. She could not touch Jack. That was way too awkward to contemplate.

“I can’t do that.”

“It’s about all you can do. You know I can handle the horses. You can trust that much, huh?”

She nodded. Yes, she knew he could handle any and all horses. But with her on the same one too?

She stood up slowly and her legs shook while her stomach pitched. She stared at his hair rather than down or across the valley.

“How? There can’t be enough room.”

“I didn’t say it would be comfortable. I’m just saying it’ll get you down.”

She stared at the saddle. How could they fit? That thought kept her mind engaged rather than contemplating if she would panic once atop the horse and teetering above the valley.

“Where do I sit?”

“With most people, I’d have you hanging onto the back of me. You, however, are too afraid to even do that. So you’ll have to sit in front of me.”

“But the saddle horn is in the way.”

“Just be glad you’re a small girl,” he said, turning away from her and walking towards his horse. He grabbed the reins and led the horse towards her. She stepped back, almost stumbling in terror.

Jack let go of the reins and moved closer to her. Before she could realize his intentions, he reached out, grabbed her waist, and lifted her up. She exclaimed her surprise and instantly struggled out of sheer annoyance. He was manhandling her! She couldn’t believe it. Then, that quickly, he sat her on the horse. She opened her mouth in shock to be up there, then looked down, and almost tumbled off as wave after wave of dizziness overcame her. She groped for the saddle horn and squeezed it with all her strength as she slammed her eyes shut.

She was going to die.

Jack mounted the horse behind her. He swung a leg over the saddle and straddled the horse, perched on each stirrup. He one-handedly scooted her forward. Her crotch banged painfully into the saddle horn and she was forced to open her eyes. She grasped the small knot of the saddle horn as her body strained to get past it, feeling like a damn contortionist. Then the heat of Jack’s body was behind her and he sat half in the saddle, half on the back of it. The old westerns made it look romantic to ride in tandem. However, they didn’t show how much pain and discomfort it involved, which made it awkward and awful. And put her way too close to Jack.

His arms came around her and she jerked back in surprise, causing her head to smack into his chin.

“God damn it. Sit still,” he muttered right into her ear, his tone grumpy. His breath was warm over the side of her face and she froze in horror. She didn’t mean to do that to him. His head had to be ringing. She just hadn’t expected him to be all around her.