It had been over a week since Teddy’s birthday, which ended with me having sex with my brother’s best friend at a bar where half the town was on the other side of the wall.
Luckily, the crowd at The Devil’s Boot that night was rougher and rowdier than usual, so no one noticed that Luke and I were gone for a while after he threw me over his shoulder and carried me to his office—except for Teddy, of course.
When I rejoined her at our table, her friends from the boutique, Madi and Emily, were starting to slur their words, so I wasn’t too worried about them. Teddy, on the other hand, I was worried about. I felt bad that I’d left her birthday celebration, even if I was manhandled out of there.
But Teddy wasn’t mad at all.
She was beaming.
The first thing she asked me was, “Where’d your lipstick go?” Followed by, “I can’t believe you got railed in a public place. I haven’t even done that.”
Luke came out of his office a few minutes later and brushed my hand as he walked back to the bar. His bartender—I think his name was Joe—gave him a stern expression.
Luke, on the other hand, tried to smooth down his dark hair and looked like he was holding back a smile.
God, he was so pretty.
That was the thought I had then, and it was the thought I had now as he came into view. I was walking down to the stables to take Maple out for a ride.
This past week or so, I’d gotten a lot more comfortable in the saddle. I’d been able to take Maple to a gallop the other day, and she was loving it.
Every time I got on a horse, my stomach still did a little flip. I didn’t know if my accident would ever leave me completely, but a few months ago, I thought I would never ride again.
This was so much better than that.
Riding was everything to me, and now that I could do it again, I could admit how much it had hurt when I thought I’d lost it forever.
I’d never felt pain like that before, and I never wanted to feel it again.
It was hard not to think about the improvement in my riding in relation to Brooks. Since I’d been home, the time I’d spent with him was my favorite time, especially over the past week. I spent a few nights at his house, because if anyone asked, I could easily write that off as being with Teddy, and we didn’t have to worry about my family wondering why his truck was around.
His house was a small two-bedroom bungalow in the hollow behind The Devil’s Boot. He told me he’d spent the past few years fixing it up, and I could tell how much effort he’d put into it. I hadn’t pegged Luke Brooks as a man who had more than one pillow, nice bedding, and a bed frame to boot. I told him as much, and he told me I needed to raise the bar.
He was full of surprises.
Just like the kitchen slow dance he surprised me with a few days ago.
We’d both had a long day, so when I went over there, I wasn’t expecting anything. I just wanted to be with him.
But when I walked in, he had already made dinner for us, and Luke Brooks knew his way around the kitchen.
When we were cleaning up, the small speaker he had in the living room started to play a slow Randy Travis song. He threw the towel he was using to dry dishes over his shoulder and grabbed my hand, pulling me to him. He put one hand on my waist, and used the other to intertwine our fingers.
We swayed together in the kitchen, and I could’ve stayed in that moment forever.
Later that night, we fell asleep on his couch watching my favorite, Sweet Home Alabama.
It was the small moments like those where I could see him clearly. Yes, he was absolutely a t-shirt mutilator, but he wasn’t arrogant, irresponsible, or careless. He was thoughtful and protective.
For someone who’d spent their entire life begging for attention from others, he really knew how to make me feel like I was the only person on the planet.
The Luke I’d gotten to know since I’d come home was the kind of man I could fall in love with. I was starting to think he was the only man I could fall in love with.
And that was scary as hell.
I watched as he dragged a rake through the corral, which meant he had already cleaned it out. His gray t-shirt was starting to stick to him, and his skin was glistening in the late summer sun. He stopped for a second to grab the bottom of his t-shirt and brought the fabric up to wipe his face.
Goddamn.
I walked up to the fence of the corral and draped my arms over the top of it.
“Good morning,” I said, announcing my presence. Luke brought his eyes to mine and started to walk toward me.
“Morning,” he responded after placing a quick kiss on my temple.
“I missed you last night,” I said honestly. He smirked at me, and I shoved his shoulder. “Shut up.”
“Sorry. I had to wake up earlier than usual, and I figured you’d been losing enough sleep this week as is.” The smirk on his face turned playful.
That was true.
It was kind of weird, being with him. It was like I couldn’t get enough. I liked sex, but I’d never had a particularly high sex drive until Luke. I was used to going long periods of time without sleeping with anyone. I never cared.
Obviously, the sex was great, but I think the thing that really did it for me was that Luke made me feel like he wanted me, and he didn’t keep it a secret. He made me feel desired, and even sultry, which was never a word I would’ve used to describe myself. I would use that word to describe Teddy, but not me.
I loved the way it felt.
“Why’d you have to wake up so early?”
“You’ll see. Are you up for a ride?” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Yes, but I need to do the stalls first, and I’ve got the boarding stables on my docket today.”
“All done.”
“That’s physically impossible at this time in the morning.”
Luke leaned over the rails and kissed me softly.
“It’s all done,” he said. I didn’t even want to know what time he had to get here to make that happen. Did he even go to sleep? “We’ll have to follow up on the boarding stables this afternoon, but everything that could be done this morning is done.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. So”—he kissed me again between his words—“ready for that ride?”
I nodded eagerly and started walking toward the stable. Luke mirrored me on the other side of the fence until he made his way out of the corral. We walked to the main stable door together.
When we made it to the doorway, I saw that both Friday and Maple were in the cross ties–groomed, saddled, and ready to go.
“Wow, you really have been busy.”
“They’ve only been here for a few minutes. I thought I had it timed perfectly to when you’d come down, but I didn’t take into consideration how often you snooze your alarm.”
I gave him another playful shove. “Shut up.”
“How can you grow up on a ranch and still not be able to wake up with an alarm?”
“I stay up late. I like the quiet.”
“I remember my quiet nights, but now I’ve got this woman ringing me dry and snoring afterwards.”
“I do not snore!”
“You do.” He flicked my nose. “But it’s cute. You sleep harder than anyone I’ve ever met.”
I wish I could’ve denied that, but it was true. I was a hard sleeper. It took me a while to actually go to sleep, but once I finally got there, I could not be moved. The apocalypse could hit, and I wouldn’t even have a chance to get away from the zombies because they’d get me in my sleep.
“Whatever,” I mumbled. I walked up to Maple, and she nuzzled into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her neck. Maple was an affectionate horse, and I loved her so much. She’d only been mine for the duration of my professional career, but it felt like a lifetime. Between her and Moonshine, I was convinced I had the best horses at Rebel Blue.
Brooks and I walked our horses out of the stables and mounted.
“Do you feel okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do.” And I did. My breathing was even and my head felt level. “Where are we headed?”
“Small arena.” The small arena was near the boarding stables. It was bigger than a corral, but smaller than the full-size arena that sat near the old Big House. I used the small arena a lot growing up, but I hadn’t been in there since I’d been back because it was on the ranch hands’ maintenance schedule.
Brooks and I both urged our horses forward, and we started to make our way through the ranch. It was a good thing this place was massive, because I didn’t need any questions about what I was doing riding through with Brooks.
After a few minutes, Luke took Friday up to a trot, and I followed with Maple.
Riding through Rebel Blue Ranch was one of the best feelings in the world. The mountain landscape was made of greens, browns, and yellows. Against the backdrop of the blue sky, it created something that felt so otherworldly. There was no other way to describe it.
When Luke and I were about a thousand yards away from the small arena, he pushed Friday to a gallop.
I followed without thinking.
As Maple was getting up to speed, I stood slightly in the stirrups, feeling the air move around my body.
For the first time in a long time, riding felt like the most natural thing in the world. I felt the steady rhythm of Maple’s hooves hitting the ground, her muscles working underneath mine, and my own hair whipping behind me.
Too soon, Friday and Luke started to slow, and I had to follow. We came to a stop outside the perimeter of the arena. We had approached this part of the ranch from the opposite side of when Wes brought me here a few weeks ago, so the old Big House was in the distance rather than front and center.
Unlike the big arena, this one wasn’t covered, only fenced. Inside the fence, I could see three shapes. They looked like…barrels. They were in the shape of a triangle.
I dismounted Maple and tied her to one of the fence posts. Brooks was right behind me with Friday.
I looked over at Brooks. “What’s going on?”
“It’s a regulation barrel course, Emmy. Three barrels, triangle pattern, spaced accurately.” He’d made a place for me to practice? “There’s less than two weeks until divisionals come to Meadowlark, and if you want to go out, you’re going to go out with a bang.”
“You made this? For me?” He looked at me like making this was the most obvious thing in the world for him to do. I had this funny feeling in my chest. No one had ever done anything like this for me before. I couldn’t believe it. “When did you do this?”
“Last night.”
“And you got here early this morning?”
He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck with one of his hands. He looked like he was blushing.
It was hard to breathe, but not because I was panicking. It was because this man had quite literally taken my breath away.
“You need to practice,” he said simply.
I looked at his makeshift course and imagined Maple and I speeding around the barrels in a cloverleaf pattern. I hadn’t done it in months.
Looking out at the course, I started to get nervous. Really fucking nervous. I didn’t know what I’d been thinking, deciding to ride in divisionals. I wouldn’t be ready. There was no way in hell.
“Emmy, sugar, talk to me,” Luke said, obviously catching on to the shift in my behavior. I couldn’t hide anything from him anymore. I thought it would frustrate me, but honestly, I almost felt relieved that I couldn’t just hide in my own head about this entire situation.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
“Honestly, I’d be more worried if you weren’t. You experienced the thing that every rider dreads, but you still got back on the horse,” he said.
I felt my hands start to shake, and Luke noticed immediately.
“Hey.” He stepped toward me. “You can do this, Emmy. We’re going to take it slow, but I know you can do this.”
“How do you know?”
He cupped my face in his hands. “You’re Clementine fuckin’ Ryder.” I laughed at that, and a single tear sneaked out of my eye. He caught it before it could fall, wiping it off my cheek. “Sugar, you deserve to go out on your own terms. Just because you got dusted, doesn’t mean you’re done.”
