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7
Mike refused to sit at the front table and greet people as they arrived at Pony Power. In the end, Hunter had convinced Molly to let Britt and Gloria do it, as they actually worked directly with parents and their kids, and Mike had escaped to the training rings.
He hadn’t been able to set up any of the tables or coolers on them. He’d carried a bag of plastic cups in his good hand, and Hunt’s oldest son, Ryder, had set them all out.
Cord Behr and Mission Redbay still worked here, as did Matt and Boone Whettstein and Travis Thatcher. They’d taken all the horses out, and Mike had seen Gerty and her brother Walter helping with the animals too.
Keith, Matt’s son, worked at Pony Power right now too, and he’d been taking people on tours of the place for the past hour, as had Deacon, Mike’s cousin. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits except for him, but he couldn’t get himself to go back to the farmhouse where his parents were.
Uncle Gray and Aunt Elise would be there too, and they’d host a huge luncheon on the back deck and in the backyard once the event ended.
Mike left the training rings, where a couple of horses went round and round, and headed for the back paddock again. If he just kept walking, he’d get back to the cabin, and maybe then he wouldn’t feel so useless.
It’s only a few weeks until your surgery, he told himself. In the spiral where he currently existed, his next thought was,Yeah, and then you have months of recovery and physical therapy to get through.
He wasn’t going to be magically fixed in one day. The truth was, now that he knew he could have the surgery, he’d become impatient. He wanted it now, and then he wanted to be healed magically in one day too.
The stark reminder that such a thing wouldn’t happen, and while he hated that it hurt, that didn’t make it hurt less.
He arrived at the paddock, and the same black horse he’d walked beside earlier this week came to say hello. “Hey, Tenney,” he said to Gerty’s horse. “She’s busy this morning, but I’m sure she’ll be out here to ride you this afternoon.”
He wasn’t sure what Gerty’s plans were this afternoon. He hadn’t asked her out again since he’d taken her a brisket sandwich earlier in the week. He’d texted her a few times, and she’d texted back.
He’d gone into the office with Hunter yesterday, and while it hadn’t been terrible, it also hadn’t been Mike’s idea of a grand time. Everything in his life felt unsettled, and he didn’t want Gerty to be one of those things.
“Let me text her, okay?” He pulled out his phone and sent her a quick message.I know you’re working the event this morning, but then what? Do you want to go see a movie and get dinner with me?
He’d said she could set the pace. She could decide everything, and her response would tell him if she was ready to go out with him or not. Maybe it would be better to simply hang out around the farm. He could make lunch in his cabin, and they could eat there together on days he worked the farm.
He knew lots of people who had relationships without really dating. Mike had had a couple of those himself, but it wasn’t really what he wanted to do with Gerty. He wanted to take her out, get her away from the farm and their regular lives, and get to know her again.
I’m starting at Pony Power today, she replied.So I have to work this afternoon. But I’d love to go out tonight.
A smile filled his face and then his soul.I’ll see what’s playing.
Where’d you escape to?she asked, and he could just hear her teasing him.Probably somewhere with air conditioning.
He turned around and took a selfie of him and Tenney, the horse looking very unenthused, and sent the picture to Gerty. He didn’t get a response from her right away, and he didn’t know what job she’d ended up with for the event. Maybe she’d gotten called away to do something, and he turned back to her horse.
“We’re goin’ out tonight, and did you know she has to work this afternoon? I’m sure she’ll come see you though.”
Tenney nickered, and Mike grinned at him. He stroked his hand down the side of the horse’s neck, seeing and feeling why Gerty loved him so.
He called again, and Gerty said, “Oh, hush, you.”
Mike turned and found her sauntering toward him. Well, as much as a woman like Gerty could saunter. She didn’t just walk for fun. Everything she did, she did with a purpose, right down to walking.
She moved right into his left side and reached for her horse too. “Is he telling you secrets?”
Mike put his arm around her. “Nothing I haven’t told you already.”
“Mm, I don’t believe that.”
“It’s true.”
She looked at him, and she possessed a glow today he hadn’t noticed before. “You’re hiding back here.”
“Not really,” he said, though he sort of had been. “I just—didn’t want to be out front.”
