“Magnolia didn’t come out here to ride horses and get sunburned.”
“She didn’t?”
“No,” Nash confirms. But then he turns to me with a confused expression on his face. “Why did you come with me again?”
I open my mouth to come up with a valid reason, and really, the only thing I can say to explain it is, “Alexander.”
Neither Nash nor Max seem surprised by this.
“We’ll be gone all day, but there’s a home theater hereand a library, and you can take the car into town if you want,” Nash explains just as he yawns.
“But I can saddle a horse for her,” Max offers.
“Magnolia’s too smart to want to ride a horse all day.”
I narrow my eyes at his assumption. “Actually, I used to ride horses regularly.”
Once a month at a stable that offered group riding lessons when I was ten, but I don’t need to share that with Nash.
His eyes widen at that, and he nods. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“That’s right,” I mutter.
“I like her. She’s way better than your real fiancée was,” Max comments.
Nash snorts. “You never told me you didn’t like her.”
“You never asked.” Max grins. “Which is why I’m telling you I like Magnolia.”
Two things surprise me in the moment. One, the fact that Max knows we aren’t in a “real” relationship. So, why was Nash being so touchy? There’s no one here to impress, or play pretend for. Yet he’s still being affectionate.
The second surprise is when Nash shakes his head and says, “Magnolia’s a hundred times better. What the heck was I thinking?”
Max shrugs. “Everyone makes bad choices now and then. You just have to learn from them. Let’s go get those cows moved.”
“Let me put some pants on first, and then we’ll find some clothes for our trick-rider here.”
“That’s right,” I fire back. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”
I lied. I did not show anyone how it was done.
I cling to the pommel of the saddle as Sally—my horse for the day—faithfully delivers me over every hill, through every valley, across streams, past jackrabbits, and on an adventure.
Sally is the true hero of the day. Every time I squeak in surprise or accidentally tighten my legs, she just remains steady, plodding along after the cows that Nash and Max asked me to follow back to the corrals.
I don’t know anything about herding cattle, but luckily, Sally does, and she keeps them on the trail and delivers all of us safely back to the corral by noon.
The cattle go into the corral without a hitch. I don’t know if I should close the gate after them or wait and see if Nash and Max are coming. These cattle don’t seem very tame, so it would make sense to lock them in. But I’m not sure how to climb off this horse. And wonderful horse that she is, I don’t think even Sally is capable of locking the gate. In my moment of indecision, Nash crests the ridge, pushing a group of cows and calves ahead of him.
I pull gently on Sally’s reins, and she shifts us out of the line of sight of the cattle coming toward us. We walk to the shade as Nash comes closer.
It is wildly unfair that the man looks equally good in a suit as he does in a cowboy hat. He grins at me as he approaches. His teeth are extra white against his dusty, dirty face.
“You made it,” he calls as he pulls his horse to a stop and lets the cattle filter into the corral, where they see their friends ahead of them.
“Are we supposed to close the gate on them? Or wait for Max?”
He shakes his head and dismounts from his horse. “We’ll keep an eye out for him, but he might be a while. He gave you and me the easy groups. He’s out with his dogs, gathering the wild ones.”
