Page 39 of Out of Place

“Yeah, on the horses,” he clarifies.

I stand frozen for a second before my eyes go wide. “You want me to get on a horse?”

He chuckles. “Don’t tell me you’ve never ridden before.”

“Of course, I’ve never ridden before!” My voice gets high and screechy. Who in the world does he think I am?

“Well, now we’re definitely going. I’ll take the eggs to Dottie and let her know.”

He grabs for the basket, but I hold on tight to it.

“Give me the basket, Olivia.” I tug it back toward me, not letting go.

“What if I fall off?” I ask.

His free hand cups my cheek. “Olivia, I would never let anything happen to you.”

His touch and the tone of his voice somehow make me believe that. I finally let go of the basket and watch as he jogs it up to the main house. When he comes back, I’m still standing in the same spot. He ushers me onto the UTV he drove over here and takes us to the stables.

Bennett is inside doing something with the horses. He nods at Landon when we walk in.

“Hey man, I’ve got your horses ready to go out back,” Bennett tells him.

“Thanks. I’ll take care of ’em when we’re finished so you don’t have to hang around.”

Bennett nods and gives me a small smile before returning to his work. Bennett doesn’t seem as bothered by me. He’s fairly quiet and doesn’t talk much, at least when I’m around. Landon says that’s how he’s always been, though.

Landon leads me to where two large horses are tied to a post by the fenced-in circle they use for riding lessons. I’ve heard about the riding lessons, but I’m never usually near the stables and haven’t seen them in action.

“Alright, you’re going to be riding Sugar over here.” He leads me to the white horse, who I’m pretty sure is glaring at me. “She’s a sweet girl. We use her a lot for the children’s lessons. Put your hand right here and let her get to know you.” He shows me where to place my hand. Sugar does a little nudge toward me but doesn’t try to trample me, so that’s good, I guess.

Once she’s comfortable with me, Landon leads me to the saddle. I follow his directions to put one foot in the stirrup, and then he puts his hands on my hips and hoists me up. I was supposed to throw my leg over the horse but end up lying on my stomach on the saddle.

I hear Landon chuckle behind me. “This is not funny,” I spit out, attempting to get my leg over the saddle.

“It’s a little funny,” he says, the amusement heavy in his voice. He pushes my butt a little and helps shove my other leg over. I didn’t imagine that the first time he touched my butt would be to get me on a horse. Nope, that never crossed my mind.

“Good girl,” Landon says when I’m finally seated. I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or the horse, but I’m going to pretend it’s for me because the praise makes my pussy clench, and it’d be embarrassing if he was talking to the horse.

I watch as Landon unties the horse and hands me the reins. He unties his own horse, and his muscles flex as he easily pulls himself onto his saddle.

He gives me a quick rundown on the basics of riding. It seems easy enough, but when it’s time to go, I hesitate to give Sugar the little kick she needs to get started.

“Come on, sweetheart. You can do it,” Landon calls over his shoulder.

I give the horse a small kick, and she starts trotting to where Landon is waiting with his horse. I have a death grip on the reins, but when I look up and see the smile on Landon’s face, I relax a little.

“I’m doing it. I’m riding a fucking horse!” I yell. I’m not sure why I’m yelling since he’s right next to me, but I can’t help my excitement.

“I see that, sweetheart. You’re doing great. ” His smile is so genuine, like he’s actually proud of me. My eyes start to burn, but I swallow back the tears. It’s been a while since anyone has been proud of me for something, even if it’s as small as riding a horse.

We trot alongside each other through fields of grass. He takes me around the farm, showing me some parts I haven’t been to yet. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for weeks and have yet to see the entire farm. He shows me the pumpkin patch, where families from town come and pick out their pumpkins for Halloween. I think I might like to be here to experience that. I don’t tell Landon, but we never carved pumpkins when I was a kid.

We go around a small pond that I didn’t know existed and end up near a huge field of sunflowers. I gasp when I see it. I thought someone mentioned a sunflower crop, but I had no idea it was this big.

“This is amazing,” I say, looking around. The flowers are so tall and fully in bloom. They’re beautiful.

“I thought you’d like this. It’s one of my favorite places on the farm.” He climbs off his horse and ties the reins to a post nearby.