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Jase often got angry and took off. Gina had learned long ago to let him. He’d come back; he’d be himself again. Following him only made things worse.

She glanced at the six people on horses. As if following him was even an option.

“I’ll be ready in a minute,” she told them, then hurried to the barn.

Lady Belle was saddled and her pack in place, as was Teo’s. Weird. Nahua Springs insisted their guests saddle their own mounts and pack their own gear, not just because the ranch lacked the manpower to do it for them but also to make sure they could do it. Once they were on the trail, there’d be only guests, horses, and Gina. She couldn’t saddle every horse; she couldn’t pack every pack. Besides, why else were they here unless it was to learn how?

She checked her equipment. Even if Isaac or Jase had helped her out—and who else would have?—she still knew better than to get on a horse and ride into the wilderness without inspecting things.

Gina glanced over, thrilled to discover Teo examining his saddle and pack also. The more she knew of the man, the more impressed she became.

“You good?” she asked.

He lifted his gaze. When they’d stood in the sun his eyes had hovered between green and brown—the shade of drying moss or the new bark of a tree. Now, in the shadow of the barn, they had deepened almost to black—kind of eerie. Strange, since Teo struck her as one of the least eerie, most honest people she knew. Maybe the lenses in his glasses changed shade with the absence of or increase in light. That would explain it.

“I’m good.”

He led Spike into the yard, then swung onto the horse’s back with an easy, fluid movement that could only have come with practice, making Gina wonder—not for the first time—where he’d learned to ride.

Horses were expensive—both to rent and to own. Lessons cost money; heck, so did a dude ranch. So how could a schoolteacher afford enough horse time to ride so well?

Gina followed him outside, mounted Lady Belle, then urged her past the others to take the lead.

She’d have plenty of time to ask that question, and quite a few others, over the next few days.

She was looking forward to it.

CHAPTER 5

Matt had figured he’d find a burr under Spike’s saddle or the girth uncinched or some other cowboy trick that could have knocked Matt out of the group, if not into the hospital.

But there’d been nothing.

Of course a major injury to a guest would not only throw a wrench into the festivities but also put a crimp into their whole operation if someone was hurt badly enough.

Jase might be a lot of things—vulgar, macho, rude—but stupid wasn’t one of them.

Matt on the other hand …

“Moron,” he murmured. The man had warned him not to “eye-fuck” his girl. Yet Matt couldn’t seem to stop doing it. There was just something about Gina that mesmerized him.

His gaze strayed to the front, where she rode her horse with the ease of one born to it. With each step her mount took, the curve of Gina’s hip lifted and lowered, lifted and lowered as if she were riding something much different from a horse.

Matt groaned.

“What was that, Teo, honey?”

Amberleigh hadn’t strayed more than three yards ahead of or behind him all day. And so he wouldn’t get lonely, when she was ahead Ashleigh was behind, and vice versa. Matt was beginning to feel decidedly squished.

“Nothing,” he said. “Talking to myself.”

“Oh, my grandpappy did that.” She turned in her saddle, pulled down her Christian Dior sunglasses, and studied him. “You aren’t losin’ your little ole marbles now, are you? You can’t be that old.”

Matt didn’t bother to answer as Amberleigh—true to form—launched into a monologue on her grandpappy’s senility that neither asked for nor required a response.

They’d ridden through gorgeous country—plains dotted with just-sprung flowers, woods full of new leaves—heading inexorably for the distant hills.

The San Juan Mountains were part of the Rocky Mountains and had, once upon a time, been covered in prospectors. But ore of any type had long ago run out, and now they were covered in tourists.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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