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“Are you kidding? I can barely make a sound when I try to whistle.”
Behind us, Calvin curses.
The dust cloud gets bigger, so I call out. “Emma!”
I can barely see her from where we are, but she puts two fingers in the corners of her mouth and lets out a sharp sound of her own. A second later, Luca and Lucy appear at a full gallop, and his voice barks some commands as he leans forward into the gallop and passes Emma’s group. Frankie, Butch, and Cassidy round the back of the herd first and pass us like the wind. Luca comes flying by next, and Jasper starts to stir beneath me. My heart echoes the hoofbeats and my hands start to shake, but I take a deep breath and pull back slightly on the reins, recalling how Luca taught me before. “Whoa. Steady. Whoa,” I say, somehow keeping my voice super calm.
But I’m curious too, so I nudge Jasper forward. When we crest the hill, the commotion becomes more apparent. A group of about a half-dozen cows have started to run toward a windmill off to the left, whereas the rest of the herd veers to the right.
The dogs work as a team on the left of the cows, turning their stampede, but the beastly cows are still in a good run. Butch nips at the front cow’s leg just as the group reaches a small ridge, and the cattle begin running along the ridge.
I’m holding my breath as Luca and Lucy reach the ridge too. It seems like they’ve made the first turn successfully. Lucy leaps up onto the ridge and then rears up. Luca holds on, leaning forward while her front hooves kick into open air. It’s a thing of beauty to watch, but I can’t tell why she bucked. Something spooked her. It all seems to happen in slow motion and then she twists as she comes down and Luca tumbles from her back. Lucy runs straight back toward us.
My mouth is hanging, and instinctively, I urge Jasper into a run. When we reach Luca, he’s just standing up and saying some not-so-nice things about that “wicked mare.”
He dusts off his jeans and looks over at the still running cows. “Come-bye!” he calls, and the dogs repeat the maneuver to push the cows into a turn again. “Steady,” he calls next, and Butch goes out front to slow the herd. They’re heading back in the direction of the larger herd now, so it seems the catastrophe is avoided.
I pull Jasper to a stop near Luca and look down at him from my perch. It seems the roles are reversed now, and I smirk at him. But I can’t hold in a laugh that comes bubbling up from my chest.
“Go ahead... laugh it up.”
Luca
Jack is by my sidebefore my ego has a chance to recover. I dig my fingers into my back, trying to detect any soreness from being bucked off of Lucy. But it seems my body is intact. Yep. Just my ego was hurt this time.
“I wish I had my phone out to record that,” Jack says, jumping off of Jasper, keeled over laughing. “It was like it happened in slow motion. You falling backwards. Through the air. A look on your face.”
I stare at Jack straight-faced as she continues to laugh. Me falling off a horse. The funniest thing she’s ever seen. I whistle to Lucy, who comes trotting back to me. No longer spooked by whatever caused her to buck me off of her.
“I’m sorry,” Jack says, finally composed. “It’s just, well, you seem to do everything perfectly out here. I enjoyed the fact that you are, in fact, human.”
The dogs follow us, surrounding the cows, who now come in our direction as well.
“You needed proof that I was human?” I look down at her as we both guide our horses by the reins.
Jack inhales sharply and then slowly lets her breath out. “I’ve been messing up since the day I arrived. That’s all I’m saying.”
My pride dissipates as I listen to Jack. Color flushes her face and, in that moment, I stop taking myself so seriously. Had the roles been reversed, I would have laughed too. Once I knew she wasn’t hurt.
“It probably was pretty funny,” I say, giving her a side grin.
“The way your arms flailed as you fell through the air.”
“Jack,” I say, leaning into her. “The entire fall was probably less than five seconds, but I had no less than a thousand thoughts go through my head in that period of time.”
Jack smiles, and I don’t say much else. Sometimes I feel like when she looks at me she can read my mind. And I don’t want her to know that all thousand thoughts that went through my head involved her.
Chapter Eight
Jack
My stomach feels like Idid an intense ab workout yesterday but really, it hurts from all the laughing I did at the sight of Luca and the cows.
“How are you and the team holding up?” Wyatt asks me as his horse catches up to mine at the back of the line.
“No one will admit it, but I think everyone is finding something they enjoy from this retreat.”
“That’s great,” Wyatt says. “I’ve been impressed with how everyone is stepping up in their own ways. Even you’re starting to look like a real cowgirl, Jack.”
