Betting on Hope (16 page)

She pulled her hand away and gave him a a stiff smile. “I’ll try. I can’t promise I’ll be graceful or successful, but I will trust you on this and give it a try.”

Her answer didn’t satisfy him, but he figured if that was the best she could give him right now, that was what he’d have to take. But he wasn’t done with this.

He smiled and pushed a wayward strand of hair from her forehead. “I’m holding you to that. Now, come on, let’s saddle up.”

She turned to Stardust and froze.

“Just do like I taught you yesterday,” he urged her with patience.

“Okay. I will do this,” she said, practically gritting the words.

He didn’t say anything, just let her push herself.

He could see that though she was hesitant when she touched Stardust, as if still worried the horse would bolt or kick, she seemed to relax when he didn’t.

He grinned like a fool when she was done saddling her horse. “Good job.” He squeezed her shoulder and she turned to smile at him. Beamed, actually, and it kicked him in the head. He wasn’t so sure he had any brains left at the moment.

“That wasn’t so hard.” She spun back to Stardust and surveyed her handiwork. She tugged on the cinch, and then the saddle, making sure it was tight just like he’d taught her. “I really did it.”

The awe in her voice was unmistakable.

“Okay, now we’re ready to ride.” He needed to ride. To do something other than stand here looking at her.

She nodded. “I’ll try but again, I’m not making promises. So what do I do?”

With some effort, he forced his mind to think about the lesson. He showed her how to grab the saddle and where to place her foot in the stirrup. To demonstrate he took hold of the saddle horn, reins in his hands, placed his boot in the stirrup, and stood into the stirrup, pulling with his hands. For him it was second nature, requiring no thought, but a novice like Maggie watched every move he made with an intensity that had him smiling.

“See there, five seconds and you’re in.” He looked down at her from his seat in Stardust’s saddle. “You can do this.”

“Easy peasy,” she said, that brow crinkling with her frown. “For you.”

“Yup. And you too.” He swung his leg over the horse and stepped down beside her. Their arms brushed. “Your turn.”

She took a deep breath, hesitated, then grabbed the reins. He was standing close to her, to make sure she was okay, he told himself. But he sure was enjoying it more than he should have, especially when she reached for the saddle horn.

She was tall enough that it wasn’t a stretch for her to grab it. He held on to the reins to control Stardust if something should go wrong. Not that he expected it to, but he wasn’t taking any chances since unexpected things seemed to happen to Maggie all the time.

She placed her running shoe in the stirrup, and then, sucking in a breath, she lifted herself up and threw her leg over Stardust—or at least that was her intention. Somehow, he wasn’t exactly sure how, but she swung too hard and her foot that was already in the stirrup slipped and went through the stirrup up to her knee and she fell. Tru grabbed for her and caught her in his arms, as Stardust moved sideways—not sure what his rider was signaling him to do. Tru gripped Maggie with one arm while reaching for the reins with his other hand. Stardust was good, but Tru was taking no chances. If the horse decided to bolt with Maggie tangled up like she was she could be hurt—her leg could be broken . . . or worse.

“Whoa, fella,” Tru said, relieved when he had his grip firmly on the reins. Now to focus on Maggie.

She was hung over his arm like a sack of potatoes, helpless since one foot still rested on the saddle and one knee was hooked inside the stirrup. He looked down at her and caught her looking up at him with narrow eyes.

“So, I don’t know much, but I’m guessing this isn’t exactly good.”

By the time Tru got her disengaged from the stirrup, Maggie had started to feel like a complete disaster. How had she done that? Tru said she’d gotten overzealous with her leg swing, and on the next go-round, maybe a little more caution was in order. Of course she was trying to focus on helping herself get untangled, but she kept getting distracted by the feel of his arms wrapped securely around her. Oddly, she realized she wasn’t scared or worried that Stardust was going to run away with her. It had absolutely nothing to do with trusting the horse. She simply knew that while Tru held her, she was okay. That probably had something to do with watching him with his Pops the day before.

When her feet were finally planted on the ground again, she felt a little weak in the knees and had a hard time disengaging her fingers from their death grip on his shoulders—his very broad, firm shoulders.

“Are you okay?” he asked. He studied her with his hands planted on his hips—probably wondering how a woman her age could possibly have two left feet like she did. It was perplexing for Maggie herself, let alone anyone else.

“Oh, I’m fine. Just fine.” She waved off his question. “Thanks to you.”

“Good, then let’s try it again.”

She shot him a glare. “No way. Not after that. I think I’ll head home and answer some emails. Get my sea legs back under me.”

He chuckled. “We’re about a hundred and fifty miles from salt water.”

She scowled. “You know exactly what I’m saying.”

“And I think you should get back in the saddle.”

“I was never
in
the saddle.”

“Maggie, it was an easy mistake.” He reached to take her hand and she stepped back.

“Nope. Not tonight. See you in the morning.” She didn’t wait to argue, but headed for the exit instead. The cowboy had no clue that this was as much about getting away from him and catching her breath as it was about not getting on Stardust.

At the moment the horse was the least of her worries.

12

Maggie was in serious jeopardy of letting Tru past her guard.

“Wait up.”

His voice brought her to a halt before she reached her car. “You are not getting out of this that easy. We have a deadline, and if you quit that easy, then we are in trouble.”

She glared at him. He might be right, but at the moment she didn’t care. All she could think about right now was throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him.

Her face burned hot thinking about it, and she knew she was probably the color of an overripe plum. This cowboy loved-’em and left-’em faster than she could blink, and at the moment she didn’t care. “I don’t want to get on the horse right now.”

He crossed his arms and planted his boots wide and just studied her. “Why are you getting red?”

“I’m embarrassed. Wouldn’t you be?” True, but stretching it.

“Look, I get that you’re a little clumsy sometimes. But I’ve got to say that I’m a little surprised how easy you give up. Especially after I read your column.”

“You read my column?”

“Last week’s. It was my first, I have to admit. But, Maggie, you gave sound advice to that woman who asked whether to settle for the deadbeat dude she was dating or to move on. How did you put it? To ‘open your horizons in the hope of finding another man who will appreciate you.’ ” He grinned and Maggie’s insides turned all gooey.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I was smiling when I finished reading what you said. I also noted that you didn’t tell her to leave the deadbeat, but I’m pretty certain that after reading your words of encouragement, she and any other women out there who were settling would totally know that you were advocating moving.”

“I can’t believe you read it.” She really couldn’t.

“I was curious. Wanted to see what all of this is about.”

Maggie thought about the woman he was speaking of. “I hope she moved on,” she said, wistfully. “She deserved so much better.”

“Yes, she did. Now, let me ask you what you would tell someone who wrote in about how to handle being clumsy. Would you tell them it was okay to just give up?”

Maggie sighed. She had walked right into his trap. “No, I wouldn’t.”

He stepped back and waved toward the barn. “After you.”

Her nails dug into her palms and her feet resisted, but no matter how much she didn’t need to be around him at the moment, she didn’t have a choice. “Fine.” She hiked her chin and marched past him. He chuckled and fell into step behind her.

This bet was getting harder by the instant. Two months. She had to make it two months and not fall under the spell of the man she knew was a female magnet. The tabloids had said it was true. Why at the National Finals Rodeo last year there were reports that two women actually got into a catfight over him. There was a picture on the front page of the thing that showed them fighting and him walking away.

And there were other stories floating around out there too. Maybe not so wild, but they were out there about him churning through a slew of women. The man was movie star good-looking, and it was reported that he’d been asked to star in some romantic western movie too. And she completely understood why.

But that was all the more reason for her to stay back. She had had her share of heartache where men were concerned. Maybe it was because of her mixed-up childhood, who knew why, but the few times she’d dated—despite how careful she was—she’d picked real jerks. But she still held out hope that she was going to find a good man one day. Someday she wanted to fall in love. She wanted kids and lots of them and the man she planned to let father her babies would not come from a background with even a
hint
of womanizing.

Nope, her man, and he would be
her
man, would be everything a real man was supposed to be. He would not be on the cover of a national gossip rag next to two women fighting over him.

Or any of the other things she’d heard.

No matter how much that man’s touch or smile sent her insides to rioting and pulse to galloping.

“Okay, this time, easy with the leg. Nice and smooth, okay?”

Maggie gave him a where-would-you-like-me-to-kick-you look and then took a deep breath and reached for the saddle horn. She did as he’d shown her, but this time she was very careful with her long leg. He hid a smile as she gently swung it over Stardust’s back and she eased just as gently down into the saddle.

Her shoulders sagged in visible relief, but she shot him a scathing look that only made him want to chuckle more. She was a hardheaded woman and that was for certain. She was determined not to let him forget that he’d basically goaded her into getting back in the saddle.

So be it. He was a big boy. He could take it.

What he couldn’t have taken was if she’d fallen out of the saddle again and into his arms.

Nope, this was much better.

“That’s real good. Now, you just hang onto the saddle horn, hold your back straight, shoulders back, and settle into that seat. I’m going to lead you around the round pen.”

“Go for it. I’ll just hang around up here until you say I can go home.”

“Fine.” He shot her a don’t-push-your-luck glare and led Stardust toward the round pen. What, did she think she was the only one all of this was affecting?

He looked over his shoulder. Maggie moved in the seat well. She might not realize what she was doing, but she’d adapted to the feel of the horse and was riding pretty smoothly. Some folks would have been bouncing all over the place. She might not be as hard to teach as she believed.

“You’re sitting the horse good. You will do fine in the competition when we get to that point.” He’d almost let her wonder if she was doing good or not but decided telling her was the best thing. There was no need to stretch out this afternoon feud any longer if at all possible.

“I just got on the horse and I’m terrified. How can you possibly tell that?”

“Hey, give me some credit here. I can just tell.”

She gave a nervous laugh and he glanced over his shoulder to see the death grip she had on the horn.

“Relax, Maggie. Stop tensing up. I’ve got Stardust and he’s not going to go anywhere except in this circle I’m leading him in.”

He led the way around the circle pen, letting her get more comfortable with the feel of the horse. She struggled to relax and he knew she just needed time.