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Skye glared at him as if he’d shared a state secret.
But Tia just laughed. ‘I almost peed myself the first time I ran a barrel. But you don’t have to worry; we won’t be doing anything fast today.’ She moved towards the back of the trailer unprompted. ‘Let’s get your horse unloaded and tacked up.’
‘I brought Kai too. I’m gonna tie him while you ladies get started, maybe pop out and pick up some burgers if you and George are interested?’
‘Thanks, TJ, but we have the kids coming over later.’
TJ turned to Skye. ‘Burger preference?’
‘However it comes is fine. Thanks.’
He stayed for long enough to help Skye tack up. But it was only when Tia had left to get her own mare ready that he asked, ‘You gonna be okay if I head out?’
Skye exhaled a long breath. ‘Yeah. She’s nice.’
‘All right. If you really don’t want me to watch, I’ll head back in an hour or so.’
She leaned against Smokey’s shoulder, as if she were drawing strength from that bond. ‘I don’t mind if you watch.’
‘I’ll come straight back then.’
Before he could take a step away, Skye walked into his chest. She wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a huge squeeze. ‘Thank you for this. I’m sorry for freaking out.’
The smell of her hair flooded his senses. The soft press of her small body short-circuited his brain, so that it took him a good three seconds to respond, to raise his arms and link them behind her. By the time he had, she was already stepping back, forcing him to let her go.
The gesture had thrown him. There was something intensely erotic about chasing a woman who didn’t quite yet understand the power she had. She was just as likely to seduce him deliberately as she was accidentally – but he figured he’d enjoy it either way.
‘Try to have fun,’ he said.
TJ left them there to get started, unhitched his trailer, and then headed out to pick up the food.
By the time he got back, thirty minutes later, darkness was settling. Under the covered, lit arena, the girls were both mounted on their horses. Tia, on her palomino mare, sat in the saddle at a standstill while she instructed Skye. ‘Good. Now push her back into that circle pattern and use your hands and your inside leg to keep her shape. Every time she surges and tries to break into a lope, you’re going to halt her completely and back her up. You’re the boss here, and Smokey needs to understand that.’
TJ climbed onto the piped arena fence and sat on the top rung to watch Skye do as she was told, her face pinched in concentration. She only had to back Smokey up once before the mare kept her pace at an even jog, instead of breaking into a faster gait.
Their form was good. If they hadn’t been a little too tight, Skye could have passed as someone who’d been riding her entire life. Her movements were small and precise, her control pristine.
‘Good. Now make your circle smaller.’
Skye adjusted her body, seamlessly turning Smokey into a tighter circle, and the moment she got it right, Tia called, ‘Now do it all again – this time, in the other direction!’
As Skye turned in the opposite direction and began working her circle again, Tia rode to where TJ was perched. He knew by the look they shared that she’d seen what he had.
Tia sat back in her saddle, said, ‘She could do it.’
He’d known it the first time he’d seen Skye ride – or, maybe, the first time he’d seen that flare of wild snarling behind the fear in her eyes. ‘I know it.’
‘She’d need to learn how to get out of her own head though.’
‘Yup.’
‘Poor girl’s sweating more than her horse.’
‘I think she’s had a rough time of it, and she’s afraid of screwing up,’ TJ explained. ‘She wants to be perfect.’
‘Yeah, but it might slow her down later. There’s no such thing as a perfect run, a perfect ride. You know that.’
‘I’m hoping that working with horses will cure her of the notion soon enough.’
