River's End (River's End Series, #1) (16 page)

“It was wonderful.”

“It’s not pretty, but it should run for you fine.”

“It’s wonderful.”

He nodded. Of course she was grateful for a little bit of control and freedom, and the ability to run to the store or wherever she chose. Being so far from civilization, she had to feel completely isolated and stuck.

He spent the day getting his chores and horse training finished before she got there. He was hers the rest of the day.

“I thought we’d start from the beginning. I’ll bring a horse out.”

She nodded eagerly. He quickly brought around Jenna, a ten-year-old mare, and tied her to a ring hung high on the barn wall. Erin stood off to the side, watching him intently. Her eyes moved from the horse, to him, and back to the horse.

“First rule, always let the horse know where you are. Gently put your hand along her body, and especially when you pass behind her. If she knows you are there, you won’t startle her, and there’s less chance you’ll get hurt.”

She nodded, her eyes intent on the horse’s butt as he passed behind it. He walked back and forth a few times.

“You want to try?”

She nodded and came forward, but suddenly seemed so terrified, she couldn’t even speak. “Actually, the very first thing, Erin, is to breathe. In and out, in and out. Don’t pass out.”

Her eyes shot up to his and she finally smiled at him. He noticed her chest rise and fall as she took in several deep breaths.

“Where do I start?” she finally asked.

He came nearer and pulled her hand from her side, putting it on the horse just behind the neck. The horse didn’t even twitch at the contact. But Erin did. He could feel the tension rising in her. She flinched, as if expecting the horse to buck or rear.

“Forget your terrible ride with Joey. This is how you should have been introduced to the horses. So we’ll start slowly, and work from there.”

“But what about the stalls?”

“You can’t do anything until you feel comfortable handling the horses. I’m going to teach you how to be, and how to ride. I can teach you, Erin, if you want to learn.”

She glanced at the horse, and then up at him. “I do. But that doesn’t get the work done.”

He sighed. “Erin, no offense, but you’re not that strong. You’re brother was a shitty asshole, but he had a strong back. I assigned him work he could handle. You’re not physically strong enough to do much of the work that needs to be done around here. And you’re also not experienced enough to handle the horses on your own. I have several people who come in here weekly and help me ride, train, and care for them. Before you can do that, you have a lot to learn.”

She frowned. “So my being here just makes more work for you? That’s not doing you any good. I wanted to help. To work off some of what I owe you.”

He shrugged. “I don’t mind.”

“What do you mean, ‘you don’t mind’?”

“I like doing anything with the horses. I don’t care what. So for a while, it’s helping you learn to handle them. It’s good for the horses too. They have to work however I tell them. Back to the basics. So actually, yeah, it’s doing some good. If you want to learn, that is.”

She nodded vigorously. “I do. I just don’t want to burden you anymore than I already have.”

He shrugged. “It just is what it is, Erin. I was there. We all know what happened and why you’re here.”

She looked at the horse as she asked him, “Why do you accept things so easily?”

“I’ve had to accept a lot worse than this,” he said, looking at her profile, then at the horse, becoming lost in his own memories. “I had to accept terrible things. So your situation, is not so tragic for me.”

“But you hated me.”

“No. I just didn’t trust you.”

“And you do now?” her gaze shot up to his face and he finally looked down at her. She was far too pretty for her or his own good. Her eyes were big, sad and vulnerable.
Save me,
kind of eyes. Jack shifted the weight on his feet, uncomfortable with his thoughts about her.

“I think you proved you weren’t here for reasons that had anything to do with the Rydells or the ranch. And I really don’t think you intended to end up stuck here.”

She shook her head no and pressed her lips together. “Thank you, Jack. You could have thrown me out.”

“No. Really. I couldn’t have. You’d have been walking down a dirt road a good ten miles from the nearest form of help. I, quite literally, couldn’t have thrown you out.”

She blushed, and glanced at her feet. Then she nodded. “You still went above and beyond what most people would have done, especially considering how Joey and you felt about me.”

He reached up and rubbed the horse’s flanks. Anything was better than trying to avoid what he wanted to do, which was stare into Erin’s eyes.

“So I’m getting bored with how wonderful I am. Do you want to do this or not?”

She nodded vigorously and gently laid her hand back on the horse. She looked up at him, her fear suddenly very real in her eyes as she took a first step, then another, until she eventually circled around the horse, all the while running her hand along the horse’s body.

When she got back to where he stood, she let go of the horse and let out a big breath with a huge smile. “I did it!”

He nodded and turned away before his proud smile seemed out of proportion with Erin Poletti’s relationship to him.

“So I guess it’s time you learned how to groom a horse.”

He spent the next while showing her how to rub the curry brush over the horse’s body, and brush the entire horse, her mane included. He watched her do the entire process. She was slow and clumsy at first. He soon discovered she did better when he walked away and found something else to do. She didn’t perform well under scrutiny. But she liked having him close. Just in case.

She came back each afternoon and worked with him and the horses until dinner. By the end of the first week, she had enough confidence to groom the horse and position the saddle blanket on the horse’s back. By the end of the second week, she could put a saddle over the horse’s back. It was hard for Jack not to step in and take the saddle from her. She was so short and weak in her arms, the heavy, cumbersome saddle looked like she would fall forward just carrying it. But she managed to wrestle it up over the horse, and beamed at herself as if she accomplished something truly important. He began to think she wasn’t just trying to pay her debt at the ranch, but actually enjoyed and looked forward to the work they did with the horses.

Week three: she could saddle the horse, cinch it, and wanted to learn how to lead the horse around. Jack soon had her walking the horse all over the ranch, the road, the pastures, and all the while, made her stop and start, walk fast, then slow, and kept showing her where the horse was to be with relation to her. He cringed whenever the horse’s feet got too close to hers. Last thing he needed was for her to break a toe. But eventually, she started to lead the horse, becoming much more aware of where it was, and where she was, and soon possessed a real command instead of the unnatural fear she began with.

Jack spent quite awhile showing her several different exercises she could do with the horse as ground work. One was merely standing in front of the horse and gently shaking the horse’s lead rope toward the horse indicating for the horse to step back. When Erin managed to get the horse to do as she commanded she almost started dancing around. Who knew she could actually command a horse to do something? Another “horse game” as Jack called them, was to start twirling the end of the horse’s lead rope whichever way she wanted the horse to start trotting. She eventually got the horse to circle around her in the desired direction. Jack was able to then make the horse stop and switch directions with barely the flick of the rope. She was just happy to get it doing what she commanded one way.

Finally she was able to get her horse to do all the games and she was able to tie it to the hitching post. All alone. Jack was saddling one of his horses for a ride. He leaned against the doorjamb as he watched her. She’d come a long way from the very first day.

“I think tomorrow, you’ll be ready to get on her.”

Erin turned around at his voice. “You mean get on the horse?”

He nodded. “I mean get on the horse.”

“I don’t think…”

“I’m the teacher, right? That’s why I do the thinking.”

She bit her lip and slowly nodded. “Okay.”

“It won’t be like your ride with Joey. I’ll hold the horse, and lead you. I won’t let you go, not tomorrow anyway. We’ll do it in the enclosed arena. You’ll see, as far as you’ve come, you’ll do just great.”

“You think I’ve come far?”

“Sure. You didn’t know that?”

She shook her head. “You don’t ever say.”

He didn’t? He watched her. He probably could have been a little more encouraging towards her. He stayed back and kept his distance. “You’re doing great, Erin. With the horses and overcoming your fear.”

Her face lit up and her smile broke through her conscious reserve with him as her eyes flashed. He stepped back. There were reasons for him to keep things distant between them. She was too pretty not to. She was too young, too far into his debt, and slept with his little brother. There was every reason to keep them separated.

“Thank you, Jack. I look forward to this all day. I hope it doesn’t take too much from your work.”

It did. It actually took a lot from his work. He didn’t tell her that. Or mention it to anyone else. He quickly did his leftover chores after Charlie was in bed, or cut corners on the others. He was uncomfortable whenever he considered why that was.

“Tomorrow then?”

She grinned, nodded, turned and left the barn. He watched her walk away and stared too long at her small butt in the blue jeans. The way her hips swayed in her heeled cowboy boots. She looked so different from the girl who first stood in his driveway, he had to shake himself to get his eyes off her ass.

“Dad?”

Jack glanced up when he heard Charlie calling him. He walked out of the barn and found Charlie. “Yeah?”

Charlie stood there, fidgeting, and hanging his head. “Don’t forget the Mother’s Day Tea is tomorrow at school.”

Damn
. He’d forgotten. Charlie looked miserable at the news. He glared down at the dust over their feet. Charlie was right; Jack couldn’t go to the all-female party, not again. Not with Charlie old enough now to know better.

There was one option. One he wasn’t comfortable with. But it could work.

“I suppose we could ask Erin to go with you.”

Charlie’s head jerked up, and a smile brightened his face. “Do you mean it, Dad? Would she do it?”

“I mean it, and yeah, she’ll do it,” Jack said, knowing Erin would do just about anything he suggested. That knowledge, however, made him slightly ill at ease. “I’ll go talk to her.”

Charlie grinned, then hugged him as he ran off with a “whoop!” Jack crossed the road and knocked on the trailer door.

“Jack?” Her eyes lit up with surprise as she opened the door wider.

He hadn’t been over there since the morning Chance left. “Can I come in?”

She looked at him with weariness in her eyes, but allowed him to enter. He walked in and glanced around. The trailer looked a lot better. She moved her stuff to the bedroom, and tidied what there was of the living space. He still couldn’t get over how her brother stuck her on the couch, or that this place was all she had in the world. He shifted, uneasy over how much power he really did have over her life.

“Did you want something?” she spoke from behind him and he turned around. The trailer was small and she was way too close. Her long black hair curled over her shoulders, and sprang around her headband.

“Uh, yeah, actually. You remember that Tea Charlie was crying about?”

“Of course.”

“Would you be willing to go with him?”

Her eyes rounded and her mouth opened in a giant O, but she finally nodded. “Of course. I’d be glad to.”

“He can’t have me going again. It’s not right. A woman should go.”

“I understand.”

“You’ll have to miss work because it’s at noon.”

She shook her head. “I’ll be there.”

He nodded. “Okay. Good. Thanks. I really appreciate you doing this.”

She let out a breathy laugh. “God, Jack, it doesn’t even begin to pay back what I owe you.”

He stuck his hands in his jean pockets. “Actually, when it comes to my kids, this isn’t nothing, it’s everything to me. So, yeah, I appreciate it.”

She smiled and turned to walk into her small kitchen. She reached over the stove and opened a cabinet, standing on her tiptoes while she rummaged around. He noticed her bare feet and painted pink toenails, and the way her shirt rode up her back an inch whenever she raised her arms. He commanded his eyes to stare only at the sink beyond her until she settled her feet flat on the floor again.

“I wanted to give you this.”

He looked down. She had money in her hands. Cash. Of course, no bank for Erin.

“For what?”

“For what? I don’t know. Everything. A down payment on what I owe you. Clothes, food, rent, gas. Take your pick.”