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“Took them?” she asked, her voice breaking a little, her eyes widening in alarm.
“No. Not take them, take them. Just, you know, I wanted to take them and go fly kites or something.”
“Both of them?”
“And you too if you want to come,” he said, wondering where the husky note in his voice had come from.
She trembled a bit, and he put a hand on her arm.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” But she took a deep breath, like she was trying to calm herself.
“Dakota, is there something up?”
“No. Why?”
“Because it seems like you’re trying to avoid me?”
“Maybe I am.” She lifted her shoulder. “Is that a problem?”
“I guess not. If that’s what you want. But it’s not what I want.”
He dropped his hand and moved back. He had wanted to move his fingers up her arm, her skin was just as soft as he remembered, and move closer. But he didn’t want to push her into something that she wasn’t ready for. And she obviously wasn’t ready for this.
“I have to go. I have, um, you know, things to do in the back.”
He grunted. She was obviously coming up with some kind of excuse to get away from him.
“You didn’t tell me if I could take the girls after school?”
“Sure.”
“I... I need to dig up kites in my mom’s basement. Maybe... Maybe we could go kite flying some other time, and I could take them for a horse ride this afternoon? Is that okay?”
“I’d like them to ride.” She seemed to regain her equilibrium as she moved away from him. “I’d really like for them to be able to spend more time with horses. I...” Her voice trailed off, and he wondered again if she was going to talk about Goldie.
He never mentioned what he’d done, and... That would be a gift. He spent a lot of his down payment that he was expecting to be able to buy a ranch with, to buy her horse. It would be a huge sacrifice to give the horse back to her.
But she didn’t have any place to keep it... He pushed the thought out of his head. Or maybe he tucked it away to think about some other time.
“All right then. Horses were a big part of your life. Mine too.”
“Are you still training?” she asked. And he considered that a win, that she was trying to have a conversation with him.
“Yeah. I have three right now I’m working with. One that is almost ready for me to put up for sale.”
“I’m sure you’re really good at that.”
“I hope so. I enjoy doing it.”
“Maybe I can find someone else to work in here, so you can spend more time with them.”
“No.” His word was spoken immediately. He didn’t want someone else to have this job. This was the only way he had an excuse to come see her.
But maybe coming to see her without an excuse was even better. Still, he would finish this job.
“You’re doing good work. I’m sure the money that I had allotted for this has almost run out.”
