AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A lot,” Mike said. “What would you do if you had enough money to do anything in the world?”
Her eyebrows went up. “Anything in the world?”
He nodded and turned to the horses. Gerty seemed to only own jeans and tank tops, as today’s was brown with a star in the middle of it.
“I’d buy my own farm,” she said. “Where I could have as many horses as I wanted.”
He smiled. “That does sound like you.”
“I love horses,” she said. “And farming and ranching. I’ve always wanted to be a cowgirl and own my own horse ranch. So yeah. That’s what I’d do with it.”
“What sounds like me?” he asked.
She didn’t blurt out the first thing that came to her head, but a few seconds went by as she thought about it. “You’ve always wanted to fly, and you made that dream come true. Now? I’m not sure, Mikey. Maybe you should buy a restaurant like your daddy.”
He shook his head, though he smiled. “Nah, I don’t think I’m cut out for that.” And his father hadn’t bought the restaurant for himself, but for someone else. Not only that, but it had been funded through a special outreach program which his father had implemented at HMC. Hunter still ran the program, and Mike had known about it for years and years. He imagined he’d do it once he took over at the family company.
“You’ve always loved hiking,” she said. “The National Parks. The great outdoors.” She spread her arms wide, which her horses did not appreciate. Tenney nickered at her and Stella backed up a few feet. “Oh, you guys are such babies.” She grinned at her animals, and Mike swore they grinned back.
“Yeah,” he said. “The great outdoors.” The very beginnings of an idea percolated in his head, but he didn’t say anything else.
An alarm on Gerty’s phone went off, and she said, “All right, Mister, you’re coming with me.” She took his hand, and they turned around.
“I am?” But he already was. “Where are we going?”
“It’s time for me to talk to a group of people about horseback riding lessons, and that means my brother needs someone to help him with Denver.”
“Denver? He got the job of babysitting Denver?”
Gerty grinned at him. “Are you jealous of a fourteen-year-old?”
“Heck yes,” Mike said. “Molly almost made me work the front table, and now I find out I could’ve been babysitting a therapy dog who’s better behaved than half the people I know?” He shook his head as Gerty sent a peal of laughter into the sky. He liked the sound of that, and he couldn’t wait until their first real date that night.
* * *
Mike reachedfor a chip from the bowl that had just been placed in the middle of the table. “I love chips and salsa.”
Gerty grinned at him and let him scoop up a whole chip-full of the spicy variety in one of the bowls next to the chips. “I do too, but not that hot stuff.” She plucked a chip from the bowl as he put his entire one into his mouth.
She didn’t dunk hers in salsa at all, and Mike wasn’t that surprised. She’d never liked spicy food all that much, and he’d been surprised when she’d suggested this Mexican restaurant on the tail end of Main Street in Ivory Peaks.
He’d commented that he’d never been here before, and she’d told him that her daddy told her it was new in the past couple of years.
He chewed and swallowed and looked at her. “How long have you been back in town?”
“I came back the day I met you by the horses.” Something invisible slipped between them, but Mike felt it.
She wore a sundress tonight, the wide straps in blue and pink going over her strong shoulders and leaving enough skin for him to admire. She’d let her hair down, and it fell over her shoulders in soft waves.
“Have I told you how pretty you look?” he asked, adding a smile as he reached for another chip.
She rolled her eyes, but her smile widened. “You have.”
“Funny, I didn’t hear it from you.” He put his loaded chip in his mouth and looked at her with his eyebrows up.
Gerty had never been very free with compliments, and that hadn’t changed about her. It took effort for her to talk about how she felt, but once she started, she didn’t hold back.
“You look amazing tonight, Mike,” she said, her voice barely loud enough to make it past the mariachi music piping into the restaurant through speakers in the ceiling.
