AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Faye gestured at his feet. “You’re not wearing those.”
He lifted one sneaker then the next. “What? These are my running shoes.”
She lifted a brow.
“What’s wrong with wearing these?”
“Several things are wrong with wearing tennis shoes.” She sighed, placing her hand on her hip. “Do you know how much a horse weighs?”
“I don’t know, like five hundred pounds?”
“Try twice that. What do you think will happen to your little toes if the horse you’re working with steps on your feet?”
He frowned. Good, he wasn’t fighting her.
“On top of the possibility of getting stepped on, we ride with boots to protect our ankles and legs from getting pinched from the saddle. They also have safety heels to help when riding. You can’t just wear any boot, and you definitely can’t wear those.”
“Well, these are all I have. We’re going to have to use them until I can get myself a pair of real cowboy boots.”
Faye sighed. “Come with me. I’m sure we can find a ranch hand who has a spare pair. I’m not taking you out riding unless you have the right gear. The last thing I need is a lawsuit.”
He chuckled, but his grin fled his face when he noticed the sharp look she shot him. “I’m not going to sue you. That’s the last thing on my mind.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
Once Adam had the proper footwear, they headed back to the barn. She strode toward a wall that held various hats and helmets on it. “Now that you have the right shoes, we’ll move on to the next most important thing for staying safe. The first thing you should know about horse riding with me is that helmets are non-negotiable.” She pulled one from the wall and tossed it at him.
The helmet hit him in the chest and he let out an “oof.” Adam turned the helmet in his hands and then gave her a look of disbelief. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m deadly serious.”
Adam gestured toward the wall. “What about the cowboy hats? Can’t I use one of those?”
She crossed her arms, fighting the urge to smile at him. “Nope. You’re a beginner, and as such, you get the helmet.” Faye turned toward the aisle that ran down the center of two rows of stalls. “Okay, so you have the right shoes, the right headwear, and now we get to talk about the first rule. Stay alert.”
She stopped suddenly and turned to face him, only to have him collide with her. Faye stumbled back a step and her arms went flailing. Adam’s hand shot out and grabbed one of them, preventing her from making contact with the concrete flooring.
For the first time since she’d met him, Adam grinned at her like some kind of child. Only the smile he wore wasn’t as annoying as she thought it would be. It made her pulse flutter, and the warmth of his hand on her arm caused her nerves to do a little dance. She pushed him away, flustered with the way he was affecting her.
“I told you to stay alert,” she accused.
“To be fair, you didn’t say ‘stay alert because I’m going to stop in the middle of the walking path.’ If you had said that, maybe I would have been able to stop before we collided.”
Faye frowned at him. “Stay alert means stay alert. You’ll be handling a huge animal. One wrong move and you, the horse, or someone else will get hurt. Safety comes first no matter what. I won’t be responsible for someone acting like a numbskull.”
The grin melted from his face and his jaw clenched before he muttered, “Noted.”
“Good. Now, we’re going to saddle and harness the horse you’ll be riding today. We won’t go out on a trail or anything, but you can take a few rounds in the corral.”
He gave her a short nod.
Over the next several minutes, she hovered as she gave him orders. She pointed out how to put the saddle on and where to position it on the back of the horse. She made sure he buckled every strap so they were secure but not too tight. Once he was done, she did the exact same thing with her own horse, asking him what steps she would need to take next.
When they were both ready, she led her horse out of his stall and gestured for Adam to follow her. All that work had gone relatively quick considering he’d never done any of it before. Adam was a quick learner and he listened well. She couldn’t help but feel impressed. Most guys she’d interacted with seemed to have a hard time giving women the lead.
They made it to the corral and she tied her horse to the outside before she opened the gate and motioned for him to enter. Adam moved past her and waited in the center of the corral for further instruction—another choice she hadn’t expected him to make.
Faye closed the gate, secured it, then strode toward him. “As this is your first time, I’m going to hold the reins while you get into the saddle. We don’t want your horse to take off when you’ve got one foot in the stirrups. Don’t think you’d like being dragged along the ground much.”
