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I turned and headed toward a booth on the side of the room, where my keys and purse had been stashed for safe keeping. The crowd around us was beginning to disperse and I had a shift to work at the diner. Despite my dedication to the contest, my parents had yet to lift my summer punishment. They probably wouldn’t until I had a crown on my head.
“Why is that?” Lexi scrambled after me, Beth following behind. “I thought you guys were best friends. He’d probably love to teach you.”
I paused in front of the booth, glancing back at her. “Because.”
Riding lessons with Hunter might have seemed innocent on the surface, but after the kiss from last night, it was the last place I wanted to be.
She arched one eyebrow and crossed her arms. “Because you like him?”
I hissed and scanned the crowd around us. Hunter or one of the rodeo guys could’ve been nearby. It would’ve killed me to have him hear her say that—especially after the way he’d left me in that storage closet all alone. We weren’t a thing. Hunter obviously didn’t like me like that. All I could do was damage control at this point, and that meant keeping Lexi from getting any crazy ideas about us.
“No, because he’s got better things to do than babysit me on a horse.” I reached under the table to grab my things.
“That’s funny.” Beth leaned against the table in front of me, the right side of her mouth curling up. “Because when Lexi asked him after the fashion show ended, he said he’d be happy to. He’s expecting you at the Sweet Oak Ranch today at four.”
I froze, still leaning down for my stuff, my fingers curled tightly around my keys. “Hunter was here?”
Beth’s grin grew a little brighter. “Yep. He had to run, but he told us to say hi.”
My mouth went dry as I straightened my spine. Hunter had been here. He’d seen me rock the runway. But yet, he hadn’t stuck around. Hadn’t texted or called since last night. And now, he was going to teach me how to ride a horse. I was getting seriously mixed messages from him.
This never would’ve happened if we hadn’t kissed.
But as much as I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide until the whole thing blew over, I had goals. The biggest of them was to see Sarah defeated at her own game. If I was going to do that, I had to learn how to ride. And Hunter was my best bet.
“Okay, fine, I’ll practice with Hunter,” I told the girls, eyeing them both. “But only if you stop with the harassment. Hunter and I are just friends. Got that?”
They both made thumbs-up signs and grinned, but I wasn’t convinced my message got through to them.
It was a good thing I hadn’t told them about what happened in that storage room last night, or I’d never hear the end of it. If we were going to move on and have the best year ever, Hunter and I both had to forget about that kiss.
No matter how impossible that seemed.
Chapter Fourteen
The Sweet Oak Boys Ranch was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
A pristine white gravel road led to the sprawling ranch with a massive red barn, out buildings, and a large farmhouse. White picket fences ran along the driveway, holding in a dozen or so gorgeous sleek horses that tossed their heads and ran alongside as I drove my mom’s van toward the house. Hunter’s empty blue pickup was already there. I parked beside it and hopped out.
The air smelled like freshly turned dirt and green grass baking in the sunshine. I inhaled deeply, allowing the scent to calm my mind. The whole drive here, I’d been bugging about what to do when I saw Hunter again. Act like the kiss never happened? Address it head-on? I couldn’t be sure.
The ball was in Hunter’s court.
Except for the horses staring at me with wide, brown eyes, there was no one around. I made my way toward the massive barn, where I could hear an occasional shout or grumbling voice drifting through the wide-open door. Nerves pricked my stomach once again and all that calmness flew away like a mist on the breeze.
It wasn’t too late to back out.
To run away and avoid facing Hunter forever.
Shaking my head, I took another deep, cleansing breath. Running away wasn’t an option. I was tougher than that. So what if I’d initiated that kiss? So what if Hunter had run away after kissing me back and leaving me utterly confused? If I was going to put everything back together, I was going to have to build some armor for my heart. No time to back out. With that in mind, I marched up to the barn and peered inside.
Several long rows of horse stalls took up the majority of the barn. Hay and wood chips flew in the air as a bunch of boys—the trouble-makers, as Hunter had called them—shoveled out the stalls. These were the Oakies, as the rest of Rock Valley knew them. Fosters kids, juvenile delinquents, and kids who’d been sent here by their own families to turn them around. Kids at school liked to gossip about them, but mostly, they kept to themselves. I recognized a couple of them. Graham, of course, was looking surly as ever as he shoveled some manure into a wheelbarrow. Rhett, from the pie contest, was there, too. Along with a few others I remembered from Hunter’s party.
“What can we do for you, darling?” a low, haggard voice asked, making me jump.
I’d missed the man standing next to the door like a grumpy guard dog. He looked like he was in his late fifties, with dark and weathered skin, a stained flannel shirt, and massive hands that held tight to the end of a shovel. I gulped, feeling the weight of his questioning gaze.
“I’m looking for Hunter,” I said in a small voice.
