“What’s so funny?”
“Your shirt. I got to say, it’s definitely you.”
“It was a gift from my younger sister.”
“Who’d have guessed you own jeans and a T-shirt?”
“You’d have lost that bet, huh?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Nothing in particular, why?”
Guilt stirred in him over his cavalier attitude the night he’d met McKenna. After five minutes with her, how could he have thought he could schmooze her into anything, even a dance? The woman possessed an iron will when she believed she was right. No one would ever pull anything over on her. When she’d met him, she didn’t care if he was Ginny’s grandson. She knew her job and wasn’t out to impress him. “Me, AJ, Ty, and Coop are always betting on something. I thought maybe Grace or Cassie had complained about it to you.”
“What’s that all about?” she asked.
“Heck if I can remember. It’s just something fun we’ve always done.” Or at least it had until they’d bet on him and McKenna. What would she think if she found out about the bet? Would she be pissed, or would she laugh it off? After all, he was the one who’d lost. Needing to move off this shaky ground, he said, “How come when you started this job you didn’t learn how to saddle a horse?”
“I thought about it, but we had Tyler and were busy. Then Ginny’s hip got worse…” McKenna’s words trailed off. “Will I have any problems lifting the saddle high enough to get it on the horse? I’ve got decent upper body strength, but I’m not sure.”
“Based on those buckets of ice I saw you toting at AJ and Grace’s party, you’ll do fine.”
He laid out the plan. “I’ll explain and show you what to do when I saddle Chance. Then you’ll saddle Misty.”
Once inside Chance’s stall, Zane greeted the horse and tried to slip on his halter, but the horse shook his head. “Sorry, pal. I forgot our deal. Treat first.” He pulled a carrot out of his back pocket for Chance.
“Shoot. I wish I had one for Misty,” McKenna said.
“Don’t worry. I brought two.”
After Chance finished his treat, Zane slipped on a halter, led him into the breezeway, explaining he preferred saddling a horse here or outside. That way if a horse got spooked, a person didn’t get slammed against a wall.
He pulled a brush from his other pocket and set to grooming Chance. “You got to get any dirt or grit off to keep it from irritating his skin. My granddad also said if you didn’t remove the loose hair, when the horse sweats it’ll shake, and you’ll take a tumble.”
An odd, uncomfortable look on her face, McKenna pulled her phone from her back pocket and started typing.
“What’re you doing?”
“Taking notes and videos.”
Zane shook his head. “Of course you are.”
“What’s wrong with that?” She frowned, clearly confused. “Since I have no intention of ending up in the dirt, or worse, a client doing so, I need to get this right. If I don’t write everything down, I’ll forget.”
Yup, detail oriented and determined to do everything to perfection. Heaven forbid she winged anything. “I bet the teachers loved you. Were you one of those brainy kids who ruined the curve for the rest of us?”
She shifted her weight back and forth. Then she dug her boot toe into the dirt. He’d obviously hit a nerve with his teasing.
“When I was in school, guys were intimidated by my intelligence. Pair that with being the new kid so often and high school wasn’t too fun. College was a little better, but not much.”
“Why do people do that? Think a person has to be one thing or the other?”
“What do you know about that?”
“You’d be surprised what people think about an attractive person. Look at you and your rule,” Zane said.
“Oh, please. You’re acting like being handsome is the huge drawback.”
