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I’d only lost half of the water this time.
Marianne huffed out a snort as her way of saying thank you before she dunked her snout into the bucket, pushing more water onto my shoes. I sighed, knowing damn well it was what she loved to do. I worked the muscles in my hands over and over, hoping to avoid any cramps later.
“You’re getting better with the bucket, Lottie,” Dana chuckled as she passed behind me, reins and a saddle hanging over her arms. “Only took you, what, five months?”
I shot her a playful scowl, my braid flying back over my shoulder. “I fucking hate this bucket.”
“I know, I know. It’s too narrow,” she parroted. “I thought you’d have gotten used to it by now.”
“Not when I spent my entire life using much wider ones.” I grabbed my everything-towel off the door of Marianne’s stall and wiped down the front of my overalls. Reaching up to my naked neck, I asked, “You haven’t seen a necklace lying around, have you?”
“Me?” Dana asked.
I leveled a glare at her. “No, I’m clearly asking Marianne. I’ve learned to understand her whinnies.”
Marianne huffed into her water, sending more of it splashing against my feet.
“I haven’t seen anything but I can keep my eye out,” Dana said. “What does it look like?”
“Silver chain with a little horseshoe on it. It was, uh… it was my mom’s.” A pang of guilt hit me as I said it out loud. Mom died years ago and it was the little things—like that necklace—that made me feel connected to her.
“I’ll let you know if I see it.” Dana nodded as she grabbed a brush off the wall, chucking it to me without warning. I was barely quick enough to catch it. “Marianne looks like she needs it.”
I looked back at the giant brown horse before me. Her dark blonde mane had already managed to get a couple of knots in it since I brushed it this morning. “How… ?” I mumbled, shaking my head in irritation as I slowly started to drag the brush through her hair. She hadn’t even left the stable yet.
Caring for Marianne had barely been enough to keep my mind from wandering. There was a particular name that had been burned into my skull for the last twenty-odd hours that wouldn’t seem to leave my head.
I’d known that sneaking into the wedding was a horrible idea. I’d heard that it was the wedding of two of Boulder’s biggest names, and my curiosity had gotten the better of me. I had no idea that I would run into one of the few men I imagined—perhaps hoped—would be there and end up being attracted to him.
I’d come to Oahu to get away from the Boulder scene, if only for a little while. My relationship with my ex had ended catastrophically, and when my father suggested taking some time for myself at a ranch that belonged to one of his friends, I’d hopped on a flight the next day. I hadn’t intended to meet someone from home, definitely not Hunter Harris.
But somehow it’d all fallen into my goddamn lap.
Knowing who he was, I’d found it hard to fall asleep the night before. I’d tossed and turned, his face in my mind, his knuckles on my skin, his hot breath against my ear. I dreaded to think how far I’d have gone with him if he hadn’t uttered his name, and the possibilities of that clouded my mind as I stroked at Marianne’s mane, detangling the little knots she’d managed to produce.
Every soft breath she made only deepened my thoughts. Would I have let him take me out there in the open? Had he even wanted to go that far? I’d heard rumors of his promiscuous and playboy nature, but surely fucking some random wedding crasher outside his friend’s reception wasn’t on his to-do list. Still, the way he’d towered over me as if he wanted to eat me alive…
“You can’t be in here!”
The sudden outburst from Dana made me jump, the brush falling from my hand and landing directly into Marianne’s stupid, narrow, water bucket.
“I—”
“This is private property,” Dana snapped, her pitchfork extended toward the door.
I poked my head around the corner of Marianne’s stall, curious which stray vacationer had stumbled upon the stable, and nearly lost my mind when I saw who it was. Short black hair, tanned skin, and stark green eyes took over my vision.
Hunter fucking Harris.
He stared directly at me, and I at him. Dana looked between the two of us, her fork lowering ever so slightly. “Do you know him?”
“That’s a hard question to answer?—”
“She crashed my friend’s wedding last night,” Hunter interrupted. His hands were stuffed in the pockets of his jeans, his stark white t-shirt nearly blinding in the dirt-covered stables.
Dana dropped the fork. “She did what?”
“Think I have something that belongs to you,” he continued, his chin lifting toward me in one quick motion. Stepping past Dana and steering clear of her horse, Abigail, he walked straight toward me as his hand slowly pulled from his pocket.
