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‘I am.’ He rubbed his face. ‘I’m knackered, freezing cold and a bit fed up,’ he said, smiling up at her with tired eyes. ‘Sorry.’
‘Just as well I showed up, then. Think of it as a Christmas miracle.’
He shook his head. ‘I still can’t believe you’re riding a horse. I had no idea you could ride.’
‘I can’t. This is the result of a crash lesson from Natalie, coupled with praying that Bernard behaves himself. Thankfully, he seems pretty chilled.’ She stroked his matted mane. ‘Get on, then.’
Calvin’s eyes grew wide. ‘Can he take our combined weight?’
‘According to Natalie. But you’ll have to climb up – if I get down, I’ll never get on again. I had help getting this far.’
He looked at the crate. ‘We’ll never get the meat up there as well.’
‘Is the rope long enough to drag it behind us?’
‘Only one way to find out.’ Calvin pulled the crate towards him and stepped on it.
‘Before you climb up, can you turn Bernard around so he’s facing the right way? I don’t fancy attempting a seventeen-point turn with us up here and the meat crate down there. It has disaster written all over it.’
Calvin took the reins and steered Bernard around. ‘This is not how I saw this afternoon panning out.’
‘No…? Surreal is the new normal in my world.’
He smiled. ‘Tell me about it.’
Finally, they were facing the right direction.
She watched him balancing on the crate, before jumping up and landing across Bernard’s rump with a grunt.
The horse shifted his weight, as if to say, ‘Oi, mind what you’re doing back there!’
The sudden movement sent them both off balance and Kate had to grab the horse’s mane to stop herself falling off. ‘Sorry, Bernard. We’re amateurs. You deserve better, I know.’
‘Are you talking to a horse?’ Calvin swung his leg over Bernard’s back end. ‘Christ, this is hard.’
‘Now you know why I wanted to stay up here. And I’m not talking to Bernard, so much as acknowledging his discomfort. This can’t be fun for him.’
‘It’s not fun for me, either.’ His body bumped against hers as he shifted into position.
Speak for yourself, she thought. This was the closest she’d been to a man in a long while. Well, apart from yesterday’s sledging… and their kiss last Sunday, but she was trying not to think about that. Feeling the length of his body against hers was not entirely unpleasant.
Calvin adjusted the rope attached to the crate and snaked an arm around her waist. His face was next to hers, his warm breathtickling her cheek. It was a moment before he seemed to register the intimacy of their position. ‘Cosy,’ he said, clearing his throat.
‘Indeed.’ He was shivering and his hands were like ice. ‘Let’s hope we don’t land face down in the snow again.’ She felt him smile, and wanted nothing more than to cuddle him and warm him up. Thankfully, any romantic notions involving the two of them galloping off into the twilight were dampened by the sound of Bernard releasing a huge blast of gas. ‘Bernard! That’s hardly polite.’
Calvin laughed. ‘I think it might be payback for us overloading him.’
‘Well, you’ve made your point,’ she said, clicking her heels in an effort to get the horse moving. ‘Let’s go.’
It took a few attempts to persuade Bernard to move; he seemed to be sulking.
Calvin tugged on the rope as they slowly pulled away, dragging the meat crate behind them. ‘So this is the first time you’ve ridden a horse?’
‘Second. The first time didn’t go so well.’ She lifted her arm. ‘Slide your free hand inside my coat. Why didn’t you wear gloves?’
‘I don’t have any,’ he said, tucking his hand under her coat. ‘So what happened the first time? Did you fall off?’
‘Not quite.’ She ignored the flutter in her belly when his hand touched her midriff. ‘I’d just turned eleven, and Aunty Connie bought me a riding lesson for my birthday. I was plonked on top of a bored-looking pony called Trigger and led around a field for what felt like an eternity, before the instructor unclipped the lead and let me ride solo.’
