Chapter 7
Finn
J esus Christ.
Taking off my hat, I wipe the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand, watching the scene unfold in front of me. “How the hell are ya from Texas and can’t mount a horse?”
“Maybe because I’m not from— Ahh, crap! What’s he doing?”
I roll my eyes, digging the toe of my boot into the dirt. “ She is walkin’,” I deadpan. “Relax, would ya?”
Ash lets out a high-pitched laugh that sounds like it’s edging on hysteria as he wraps his arms around Chessy’s neck, practically laying on her. “Easy for you to say.”
“Christ, my four-year-old is better at this than you are,” I mutter under my breath. “Sit up properly and hold on to the reins. Ya look like you’re ’bout to take a nap on her.”
He doesn’t sit up or grab the reins.
He’s frozen in place, and I’m suddenly realizing what I thought was going to be a quick lesson in horseback riding is now going to turn into a full-day event, and the last inch of patience I had vanishes.
Next time, I’m making this a requirement for the job.
Fuck, even thinking that there will a “next time” has my eye twitching and my blood pressure rising.
“Do I really have to learn this?” Ash asks, the sweat along his brow glistening under the late morning Texas sun. “Surely, I can walk to where we need to go on the property.”
“Yes.” I fold my arms over my chest, stance wide as I rethink my decision to hire Ash. “It’s a basic skill everybody should know how to do. What if you find yourself stranded, and a horse is the only option?”
His eyes narrow as he asks, “In what situation would I be in where horseback was my only option?”
He sure asks a lot of fucking questions. In two long strides, I’m in front of Ash and Chessy. “Can you just stop with the questions and sit up?”
His head snaps to the side, widened gaze meeting mine, and it’s not until right now that I realize my hand is on the small of his back. I rip my hand away, like the touch burned me, but thankfully he listens, sliding into the proper position.
“Take the reins,” I tell him, handing them to him. “Now, wait here.”
“What?” he asks, panic in his tone. “Where are you going?”
“To get my horse.”
This ought to be interesting.
After I climb onto my mare, I set off in the direction of the walking trail. I go slow so Ash can keep up. He’s so tense, you’d think he was on the back of a gator or something. “You goin’ to be alright?” I ask him.
Huffing out a laugh that sounds more frantic than anything, Ash nods. “Yeah. Totally fine. I’m cool.”
“You sure? You’ve got the death grip on the reins.”
“Yeah, fine.” Another awkward laugh. “Just…talk to me.”
When I glance over at him, I don’t hide my scowl. “About what?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “But talking would probably take my mind off the fact that I’m riding on the back of a thousand-pound beast that could probably kill me if she wanted to.”
“Are you always this dramatic?”
“Is it really dramatic if it’s true?”
“It’s highly unlikely that Chessy would kill you,” I say, exhaling an exasperated breath.
“But you’re saying there’s a chance, though?”
“Sure, but I think there’s a much larger possibility that your piece of shit car would kill you before my horse would.”
Ash’s gaze snaps to mine once more, and it’s the first time since he got on Chessy that he hasn’t looked terrified. “Hey, don’t talk about my car like that! We’ve gotten through some tough times together.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” I mutter under my breath.
There’s a brief moment of silence, but it doesn’t last long before Ash asks, “How long has this place been in your family?”
“Several generations.”
“Do you enjoy what you do?”
“I suppose.”
“Do you just have the one sibling?”
“Yup.”
Ash chuckles. “Man of many words.”
I look at him out of the corner of my eye, lips pursed. He’s entirely too fucking chatty. After I take him along the trail and back to the barn, I show him how to put everything away. In all honesty, he probably won’t take the horses out all that often—Cassie rarely did—but like I told him before, it’s a helpful skill to have.
“Is Tucker coming home with us?” he asks as we head back to my truck.
I shake my head. “No, my dad’s taking him out to dinner with one of his buddies. He’ll drop him off later.”
“Seems like Tucker’s got a great relationship with his grandpa. That must be nice.”
“It is.” I nod as I start the ignition. Before I can leave, my phone buzzes, alerting me to a notification.
Violet: How’s it going? Ash settling in okay? You guys getting along?
Setting the phone in the cupholder, I decide to respond to that later.
“Are you guys all pretty close, then?” Ash asks, clearly intent on making small talk happen today.
“Yeah. I mean, we all work together daily, so it’s kind of hard not to be.”
“That’s really cool.”
Glancing over at him quickly, he’s wearing a goofy smile.
“Are you not close with your parents?”
Truth be told, I don’t know all that much about him and Violet’s parents, other than that they don’t live in town.
“Not really,” he offers. “We talk on the phone every so often, but I’ve never been close with them the way my sister is.
“Why not?” I ask.
Ash shrugs as I park in front of the house. “I don’t know. We don’t have much in common, I guess. It’s not like we have a bad relationship; we just aren’t as close as Violet and them are.”
I find myself wanting to ask more, though I’m not sure why. Deciding against it, I walk into the house, leaving Ash to follow as I kick off my boots and hang up my hat. “Was gonna grill some burgers for dinner. Want one?”
“Uh, sure. Can I do anything to help?”
“If you want to get some fries going in the air fryer, that’d be great.”
“I can do that,” he says, gaze holding mine for a little longer than comfortable before he walks over to the freezer. His fresh, clean scent wafts over to me as he passes by, and the smell makes my pulse speed up, which makes no sense.
There’s this thick, awkward tension in the air, and I wonder if Ash can feel it too. I chalk it up to not being used to him in the house yet. Other than the fact that he’s Violet’s brother, I don’t really know much about him, so naturally, it’s going to feel a bit weird until we get used to each other. It doesn’t help that Tuck is out of the house this evening. Having him here would probably make things feel less tense.
“Thanks for the riding lesson today,” Ash says once the food is finished and he’s handing me a plate to dish up. Like before, he holds eye contact with me, and something about it makes my heart race.
Giving him one of those obnoxious looks people make fun of southern folks for—the nod with the pinched lip smile—I drop my gaze to the burger on my plate as I load it up with toppings. “It was no problem.”
After that, all the awkward tension I thought I felt earlier seems to vanish as he launches into some strong opinion he has about pickles on burgers, but I tune him out as I dish up a serving of fries before taking a seat at the table.
Here we fucking go. He’s going to talk my ear off, isn’t he?
It’s going to be a long night.