Shiver (7 page)

“Two burgers it is. Everything on them?” she asked.

I looked over at Lawrence, and we both nodded and thanked her. Once she left, a moment of awkward silence hung over us. I cleared my throat and wriggled in my seat, picking up my glass of wine to take a sip. Lawrence looked over at me with a knowing look and held up his beer to toast me.

“Here’s to new friends.”

I clinked his bottle and smiled in relief. Safe to say first dates were not my forte, especially when I was uncertain about whether I wanted to date the person in the first place. But I could be a pretty good friend.

We kicked back and started chatting about the horses, particularly their breeding and the hopes that Brooks Thoroughbred had for each individual one. Maybe I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised to hear that Ethan had talked up my training skills. I supposed it only benefitted him, but it was still nice to hear. I learned that Lawrence’s father owned and ran their family farm, and that Lawrence enjoyed the horses but had a dream to do something with them on his own eventually. I could understand living under the shadow of a family business, but I had to point out the opportunities he had compared to so many others.

Our burgers came and we dug in. I was starving after a long day of forgetting to eat, and I noticed Lawrence watching me a little wide-eyed as I polished off my food.

“Oh, did you think I was going to be one of those girls who nibble?” I asked while chomping on a fry.

He winced. “Maybe not nibble, but you aren’t exactly a big enough person to do what you just did.”

I smiled and pushed my plate away, grabbing my wine and sighing contentedly.

“So, what’s going on with you and Ethan?” he asked innocently.

I immediately choked on my wine, my eyes watering and burning as I swallowed in an effort to not shower our table with it. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I croaked.

“Right. I don’t want to be cliché, but he was a hair shy of mounting you and biting your neck right in front of me.”

“Oh. My. God. I can’t believe you just said that!” I laughed incredulously and threw a balled-up napkin at him, all the while thinking of Ethan’s teeth on my skin. “And I don’t think that’s a cliché I’ve ever heard.”

“I know. I said I didn’t want to be cliché. If I wanted to, I would have said he was about to pee on your leg. But hey, I work on a stud farm. I know horse breeding more than dogs anyway.” He smiled widely and leaned back in his chair.

Once I calmed myself down from laughter, I took a deep breath. “Trust me. There’s nothing going on. Nothing noteworthy anyway. I’ve known Ethan for a few years now. He gets moody is all.”

Lawrence looked at me quietly for a beat, brow raised, before smoothly moving to the topic of his family Christmas. He soon had me laughing uncontrollably at the antics of his four sisters and the whole loud family. They sounded crazy but loving, and it was something we had in common. Tina came back with the check, which he insisted on paying despite my claim that we weren’t on a date, and we parted ways with another much less awkward hug and cheek kiss.

Chapter 10

T
he next morning dawned cold, the skies covered in heavy, snow-filled clouds. We’d barely had any snow this winter, but the air had that feeling to it. However, with covered stalls and an indoor arena, a little weather wouldn’t stop us. Unfortunately.

I was in the tack room getting ready while sipping on my first cup of coffee. I heard the door slam as Ethan walked in. He eyed me cautiously and walked over to pour his own cup.

“How was your date?” he asked with his back to me.

“Great!” I said brightly. And possibly childishly. “He’s a really nice, funny guy. Very much a gentleman.”

I watched as Ethan’s jaw clenched in his effort to not be an asshole. Served him right.

“Great. Well. Let’s get to work. I want to meet back here at one, and we’ll start working with the babies.”

“Yes, boss.”

He nodded and walked out.

We exercised horses all morning, passing each other as we rode back and forth to the ring. It had started to snow, so we mostly just stretched the horses’ legs and gave them brief workouts. An indoor arena didn’t mean it was actually warm or pleasant for riding. I’d wrapped up my sets by one and was leaning back in the office chair, taking a five-second rest, when Ethan called out for me. Sighing a little, I got up and stretched. Riding wasn’t easy on my body at all, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever recover from having to take time off. I still felt stiff as I continued to get back into shape, and the weather wasn’t helping.

Ethan was waiting outside the first stall, leaning against the side with a saddle propped against his hip. He pushed off the wall as I approached.

“Are we waiting for Lawrence?” I asked.

“I’d assumed you’d talked last night.” He looked sideways at me. “He’s having his truck tuned up today and will come watch tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay. No we didn’t talk about it. But that’s easy. Do you want to…?” I gestured toward the stall.

“Show me how you do it.” He handed me the saddle and girth and pad. I looked down at the tack in my arms for a minute.

“You don’t want to dictate?” I asked, surprised.

“No, you’ve done this part more than I have. I want to see what you do and how you do it. It’s time for you to show me.” He smiled a little. It was the first smile I’d seen since these horses arrived, and I’d take it.

He started to walk into the stall with me, and I gestured for him to remain back. “No, wait. First I’ll do the pad and the saddle myself and work with the girth, turning them both directions. You stand outside for support if I need it. Then tomorrow, if we feel they’re ready for me to lie across them and get on, you come in. Okay?”

“Sounds good.”

I threw him a quick look over my shoulder before getting to the task at hand. The crop of horses consisted of six colts and four fillies. Typically, colts were a little easier to break just because they’re less sensitive. It didn’t mean they were any less smart, just not as reactive and hormonal. I empathized with the fillies. Anyway, all these horses had had basic groundwork done, meaning they’d been handled and led and groomed, et cetera. More or less domesticated. They were ready to begin the saddling and riding process.

We passed from stall to stall. I ran the saddle pad along the entirety of each horse’s body, from ears to toes, both sides. I used my body language and a rope to turn the horses in different directions, moving them away from pressure. And I spent time jumping up and down and basically flailing all around them like an idiot so that they learned not to be startled too easily. Then I placed the saddle on each horse’s back. It wasn’t heavy at all, but it had to feel funny. I moved them around with only the weight of the saddle before I attached the girth to one side and ran it under their bellies. This was where many of them were extremely sensitive. I flopped the girth around, tickling them and turning them this way and that before buckling it gently around them. I could get a good read on how each horse would be to ride just based on how they reacted to the girth slowly tightening. Many of them didn’t mind at all, whereas a couple of them hunched up their backs and scooted forward or bucked. None of them had any abnormal or unfounded reactions, and I was pretty comfortable about moving on with them over the coming weeks.

That first day was about feeling them out and getting to know them. I enjoyed getting to connect with the horses I rode and trained. It was only possible to a limited extent when they were with you for a few months or whenever you knew they’d be moving on. But there was always something to enjoy, even if it made me a big softie.

As I exited the last stall, Ethan took the saddle from me and latched the door. He’d been largely silent the past couple of hours, merely observing and listening to me explain myself to him or talk to the horses. After I passed the tack off, I bent over, dropping my head down toward my feet and letting my arms hang. I hadn’t even noticed the tension and tightness in my body until that moment, but the stretching felt so good. I rose back up to meet Ethan’s eyes.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. I just had no idea how tight I was.” I raised my arms over my head to keep stretching. “I’m gonna be a mess when I actually start riding these guys.”

“Yeah, we should probably figure a weekly massage into your salary for this.”

I raised a brow and smiled. “You’re so right. We should.” We stared at each other for a moment until I gave a little cough to break the tension and we walked side by side back to the tack room. Despite carrying all the gear, Ethan still held the door for me, allowing me to pass through first. My tired body appreciated the gesture. Well, I always appreciated it when a man held a door for a woman, but I was really feeling it then. We wordlessly tidied up the laundry and saddles before I struggled out of my boots and slid into my flip-flops. Charlie was right by my side, and I gave her a good head scratch as I gathered my things to walk out the door with a soft good-bye.

I got home and held my door for Charlie to go in front of me. It was almost dark already. I hated winter. I flipped on all the lights in my small house because I was stupidly scared of the dark. Charlie ambled over to her free-choice food bowl and started munching while I flopped on my couch and tried to decide how much energy I had left to shower and eat something myself. After a few minutes of wondering how dirty I really was, I realized that I did have to shower and not be that person.

I climbed upstairs, peeling my breeches off along with all my layers, leaving them in a pile at the bathroom door, and stepped into a rejuvenating, hot shower. By the time I was finished, I felt pretty good and went about making an actual dinner for myself. I was getting ingredients out for a salad when I heard my door open and shut.

“Are you decent?” I heard Steph call out.

I looked down at my tank top and yoga pants. “More or less.”

She walked around the corner holding a bottle of wine, and I realized there was another set of footsteps. A tall, handsome man stepped around her. He was wearing a dark suit with no tie, his blond hair artfully mussed. Quite honestly, his hair looked highlighted. Like a Ken doll.

I smiled over my surprise that Steph had brought the guy who must be Paul into my house when I was essentially in pajamas. Though why I was particularly surprised, I didn’t know.

He reached out to shake my hand, and I grasped it firmly, not before catching him glancing down at my braless top.

“Sorry to barge in on you. We were driving in the area, and Steph wanted to introduce us.”

I discreetly raised an eyebrow to Steph, and she just shrugged a little. “Oh, no problem,” I said with a smile as I disengaged my hand from his. “You must be Paul. I was just making some dinner. You guys want to stay?”

“Yeah. What are we having?” Steph nodded as she made herself at home, grabbing wineglasses and pouring.

“I was making a salad ’cause I’m lazy. But I can grill some chicken to go with it. Sound good?”

“Sounds great. I’ll finish the salad while you go put a bra on.” She grinned evilly at me.

I started to laugh, and Paul actually blushed a little.

“I was fully planning on discreetly running up to change. I’m sticking with my yoga pants though, and I refuse to wear shoes. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone?”

“Not at all,” Paul offered with a wave, taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves. “I came straight from work or else I’d be changed myself.”

I smiled and bolted up my tiny staircase. Figuring I didn’t have anyone to impress, I just pulled the straps of my top down, fastened a bra on, and pulled the straps back up. I scrunched my still-wet hair into a knot on top of my head and called it good. Jogging down the steps, I saw Steph in the kitchen and Paul sitting on the couch. It was completely silent aside from the sound of chopping veggies. Very un-Steph-like.

When she heard my footsteps, she called out, “Lawrence is coming too!”

I froze midstep. “What?”

“He texted your phone just now to see what you were doing. So I took the liberty of telling him we were having dinner and he should come. I texted your address, and he should be here any minute.” She turned and smiled. “Now we have a double date!”

“You are so weird. I can’t believe you invited someone you don’t even know to my house. And for the record, we aren’t dating. We pretty firmly friend-zoned each other last night.”

“Really? Why? You said he was cute.”

“Well, yeah, he is. But that doesn’t mean we have to date, you know.” I smirked at her and flicked my eyes to Paul, who was still sitting quietly on the couch, now flipping through an equestrian magazine with a furrowed brow. “And anyway, he zeroed in on something going on with Ethan and me pretty quick.”

“Seriously? How… and why?” She spun again and pointed her knife at me. “What are you not telling me?”

I reached forward and gently pried the knife out of her hand, just in case she got really mad when she learned that I’d been keeping something from her. “Well…” I nudged her out of the way and busied myself at the kitchen counter. “Remember that first day I went to work for Ethan and we had dinner?”

She nodded.

“We kind of ended up drinking a little, and I kind of ended up spending the night.”

“Like, on the couch, or naked in his bed?”

I cleared my throat, stalling. “The latter.”

“Oh my gosh!” she shrieked, startling Paul into dropping the magazine. We now had his full attention. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! I have so many questions.”

I started to laugh and buried my face in my hands. “Ugh. There’s really nothing to say. It was hot and amazing, and I tried to sneak away the next morning, but that didn’t really go as planned because I work for him and he made me talk about it before I was ready and more or less told me it was great but a mistake and should never have happened and it’ll never happen again.”

Dead silence.

“Wow,” is all she said.

“Yep.”

“So you slept with your boss?” Paul chimed in, looking a little incredulous at that fact.

I waved off his question. “Yeah, it’s totally normal around here. At least in the horse world. I’m not sure the same rules apply in your line of work. Tell me, Paul, what is it that you do?” I was pretty sure I’d smoothly changed the subject.

He smirked. “I’m in investment banking, working mainly with nonprofit groups. I went to school at George Washington, and I jumped at the chance when this job came up, even though I’ve never lived outside a city. Not many places are hiring people right out of college.”

“Yeah, I bet.” I didn’t really know since I’d never had a real job.

“Do you go to the same school as Steph?”

“Oh. No. I decided not to go to college. It’s not really my thing.”

“So you just… ride horses?”

Steph and I exchanged a look.

“Yeah. I get paid to take care of them, train them, exercise them.”

“Interesting.” He sounded more confused than interested.

“If you’re going to live around here, you should probably get used to the horse thing. You’re going to see a lot of it.”

A knock on my door ended what was quickly becoming an awkward conversation about my chosen lifestyle and profession. I took the opportunity to get away and opened the door for Lawrence. He was dressed casually in jeans and a jacket, which he unzipped as he walked in, giving me a peck on the cheek in greeting. He looked down at my attire.

“Uh, is it okay I came over? Your friend just invited me, and I didn’t have anything going on. But did you have some other plans?” He gestured at my bare feet.

“Very funny. Yes. I had plans to drink alone. But now you can keep me company with Steph’s date who has zero interest in horses and thinks I’m crazy.”

“You are kind of crazy.”

I whacked him in the chest. “Come in and save me.”

“I only save girls who’ll let me have sex with them.”

“Fine.” I laughed. “I’ll save myself. But at least you can entertain me.”

He shrugged. “It was worth a try.”

We walked into the kitchen and made the round of introductions. I noticed Steph eyeing Lawrence with more than a little interest as we all chatted, and I smiled inside. They’d be the perfect couple, in my mind, with their boisterous personalities. The more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea. If only Lawrence actually lived here.

The boys left to sit in the living room as I finished prepping dinner and heated up the stove, and Steph stayed behind to keep me company.

“Dude, Lawrence is hot.”

“I know.” I smiled at her.

“No. Seriously. How can you not be into him? I don’t get it.”

I groaned. “I don’t know. I wish I were, trust me. There’s just nothing there. I like him though. He’s really fun and easy to talk to. I see him becoming a really good friend.”

“Like, friends who see each other naked?”

“No!” I laughed. “Why do you always go to the naked?”

“I just think someone ought to have the opportunity to see him naked. That’s all.”

That made me burst out laughing. “Why not you? After you get rid of the city boy, that is.”

“Oh, he’s nice. Stop it.”

I nodded my head. “He’s perfectly nice. It’ll never work.”

“Hey!” She tried to kick me as I scurried back inside.

As I continued cooking and plating our dinner, I could hear Lawrence and Paul arguing the economics of horse racing and breeding. Lawrence was making extremely intelligent points, but I don’t think Paul would ever get the attraction. Steph was topping off everyone’s wine, ensuring we all had a pleasant buzz that would hopefully prevent any more serious discussions.

We sat down to eat, and Steph and Lawrence quickly took over the conversation. I listened, completely entertained, while Paul tried but didn’t seem particularly interested. From my vantage point, he would never be interested; therefore, Steph wouldn’t be either. You can’t be so completely passionate about something that your partner couldn’t care less about and have the relationship work.

I excused myself to start clearing plates and heard Steph inviting Lawrence to the New Year’s party. As my date.

“Hey!” I called from the kitchen. “Did you just ask him on a date for me?”