Page 12 of Paper Horses

With a snort, I said, “I’ll use any fucking language I want. Now answer the question.”

“I don’t ride.”

“The hell you don’t. We used to go riding all the time.”

A flash of emotion had her eyes dropping from mine.

“Well, I don’t anymore. I haven’t ridden…” She stopped, and my chest tightened at what I suspected she was going to say.

“Since when, Olivia?”

Her head snapped up. Proud and beautiful, she swiveled and sauntered away.

“Damn it,” I muttered, backing from the stall and closing it up.

I ran after her, grabbing her arm and turning her to me. Vulnerability sat in her features, and suddenly she was no longer the spoiled woman but the girl I’d fallen in love with. I wanted to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear, to ignore the screams from my mind that said I hated this woman for what she’d done to me.

Don’t do it, Hudson.

I gripped my fist and asked, “When, Olivia?”

She swallowed, her eyes shifting from me before they refocused and she said, “With you.”

I dropped her arm. The currents that the initial contact had sparked dimmed. She hadn’t ridden since she left me. She’d loved riding. It was a time when she’d seemed free, unburdened by things that haunted her. Her mother’s death had been one, but I’d always suspected there were more she never shared.

And I never pushed because she’d once told me I was her safe space, where she could forget everything else.

Sighing, I said, “You’ll remember once you get on.”

“But I can’t saddle her, Hudson. It’s been so long.”

“Like riding a bike,” I told her, but doubt was rife in her eyes.

“Shit,” I grumbled, looking back at the horses. She needed to see the property, the potential it still held so her brother would continue to fund it. That’s why she was here, to figure out operations and determine how much they would need to set aside before I could have the ranch back up to where it had been when I bought it. As much as I wanted to say screw it and turn the deal down now that I knew she was involved, I couldn’t. I had signed the papers, and the only other offer was from the neighboring ranch. People I suspected would only bulldoze the house and barn to use the pastures for grazing.

I scraped my hand through my hair. “Fine.” Damn, I couldn't believe I was contemplating this. “Stay here.”

The wind gusted, blowing her hair and causing her dress to rise. She tugged it down, and I stalked away, cursing myself as I saddled Honey. Once I had her ready, I led her out of the stall.

Climbing onto her, I put my hand down for Olivia.

“What?” she asked, her nose scrunching. “I’m not riding with you.

“Then saddle your horse. Make it fast. I’ve been up since four, and I’m starving.”

I urged Honey forward.

“Fine,” Olivia said, and I stopped my horse.

She came over with slow, prissy strides and put her hand up.

Looking down at it, I said, “No whining, no complaining, or I’ll leave you a few miles out and make you find your way back.”

Her lips pouted, and the urge to kiss them surged through me. She glanced at my hand before giving me a demanding look, emphasized by her impatient foot stomp.

“Agreed?” I asked.

“Yes.”