Chapter 10 – Kaitlyn/Sunshine #2
“Do not tease me. I’m sitting a thousand feet up in the air on a wild animal right now,” I scolded him. “Consider me out of my comfort zone.”
“This might not be your comfort zone, but you look good.” I could not even dream of stopping the blush on my cheeks. “It’s in your blood. I’m guessing you’ll take to it like riding a bike.”
“I’ve never ridden a bike either,” I admitted.
Tag gaped at me.
“I like to be in control,” I said, defensively. Then dropped my voice a little lower and admitted. “Accept when I don’t.”
Tag said nothing, but our eyes connected, and it was…electric. The sun shone hotter over us and everything else – the pasture, Ethan and Carter, the swallows and grasshoppers – retreated. It was just Tag and heat and me.
“You coming?” Carter asked, and I blinked, jerking my gaze away from Tag.
“Gently nudge her hind quarters with your heels and she’ll go, ” Tag said quietly, giving me the direction I needed. “Gently pull up on the reins and she’ll stop.”
“What if she starts galloping at full speed?” I asked.
“She won’t,” he said.
“You promise?”
“Who are you asking? Me or the horse?” he laughed.
“Both,” I said, but I rubbed Shirley’s neck to let her know I really meant her .
“She’ll naturally want to follow Gus, so just go with it.”
“Which one’s Gus?”
Tag pointed over toward Carter. “That big boy.”
“Does everyone have their own horse here?”
“Of course. Seth keeps Margaret with him in a trailer when he travels. But she’s a professional.”
“Professional horse?”
Tag shook his head. “I better take you to the rodeo while you’re in town.”
The blush came back and I turned my face away, feeling something I never felt. Or at least hadn’t felt in a very long time – bashful. He made me feel young, but in a good way. Not the way I’d been young. The way young looked in movies.
“You coming with us?” I asked Tag.
He shook his head. “Got work to do, darlin. It will give you time to bond with your brothers.”
I looked over at Carter, riding his giant beast of a horse down a dirt trail that led out to the open valley. Shirley twitched beneath me, wanting to follow Carter’s horse.
“They probably won’t like me,” I said, and was annoyed by the doubt in my voice. What did I care if they liked me or not? And why was I talking to Tag about it?
“Then fuck’em. I like you. Here, put this on.” He pulled a baseball cap with the ranch’s logo on it from his back pocket.
“I’m not wearing something that says Swinging D on my forehead,” I told him.
“It’s just the name of the ranch, sweetheart. And it will keep you from burning that pretty nose of yours.”
I took the hat and fit it on my head, pulling my short ponytail out the hole in the back, the way I saw women do all the time. He had a point. The sun was barely up and already it was hot.
“You have something of mine,” I reminded him, without having to state the obvious.
“Oh, I know. We’ll have to make arrangements for when you might earn them back.”
“Earn them back?”
“Everything comes with a price, Sunshine,” he said, with a wicked smile.
“Enough chatter. We’re wasting daylight. Let’s move out,” Carter announced, with a wave of his arm forward.
Ethan rode up beside me on the other side of Tag. “He likes to think he’s in charge.”
“He’s not?”
“No, he is, but we must resist all the time. Keeps him on his toes.”
Ethan made a clicking sound and his horse stepped forward, giant shoulders twitching and shifting.
I didn’t try to replicate the sound, just did as Tag said and bumped my booted heels gently into Shirley’s hindquarters.
Just like Tag said she would, she stepped forward at her own glacial pace until she got right up behind Gus’s big swooshing tail.
“Look at you,” Ethan said, as he rode next to me. “You’re a real cowgirl, now.”
“God help me,” I muttered.
Two Hours Later
“Hold up,” Carter said. I didn’t even have to tug on Shirley’s reins. She stopped as soon as Gus stopped. My girl was clearly smitten. “Tag was right about the creek. She’s moving pretty fast.”
“Is there a way around it?” I asked.
I was actually enjoying the morning. Like…
really enjoying it. It was uncomfortable, my ass hurt and my fingers stung from holding onto the reins as tightly as I was.
Every time sweet Shirley stopped to eat grass, or have an enormous pee, I was scared she was about to go rogue.
But she never did. The sunshine felt good and the company was…
fun. I mean, fun if you liked conversations on herd growth and profits per acre.
Which, come to find out, I did.
Mostly, what I learned was how much they loved the Swinging D. How important every bit of this land was to them. To the animals they raised and the men they employed. This land was as much a part of the McGraws as their hair color and their stubborn jaw lines.
I understood better why they didn’t want to sell an inch of it.
I got it. I did. The land was amazing. I wouldn’t want to sell it either.
About twenty minutes into the ride, it occurred to me I hadn’t brought my phone. I couldn’t check emails. I couldn’t see any texts from my colleagues. It was possible the partners were blowing up my phone right now, looking for answers, and I was completely and utterly unreachable.
It was…freeing. Terrifying, but freeing.
“No,” Carter said. “Creek goes for miles in either direction. It’s a great water source, but when it’s this high, it’s uncrossable. We’ve been riding for a while, you must be ready to head back and stop listening to us blabbing at you.”
“It’s been…informative,” I said. “And nice. ”
Ethan chuckled. “Nice? Don’t think I’ve ever heard the SD described as nice.”
“I think she was talking about the company, brother” Carter said, with a smile.
“And she’s right. It’s been a real pleasure getting to know you, Sunshine.
You’ve been a good sport. You didn’t have to come home.
None of this,” Carter said, gesturing out onto the endless pastures coming to life with grass and wildflowers, birds and insects, “would have been your problem. But we made it your problem, and it’s real kind of you to try and help us. ”
“Speaking of,” Ethan said, as we ambled back around in the direction of the Lodge. “What is this crazy idea you had last night? You haven’t given us any details.”
They both pulled their horses up alongside Shirley, so I was flanked by the two men. I felt significantly smaller, but also strangely protected. They would never hurt me, they wouldn’t let me get hurt, either.
I’d never felt that before.
What if I’d known who all of them were in high school? What would it have been like to be the McGraw brothers’ sister?
I would not have gotten picked on as much. I probably would have even made a few friends. Who knows?
Of course, they probably wouldn’t have let me date Tag…
“Earth to Sunshine,” Carter said, snapping his fingers close to my face. “Hello? Fate of everything rests with your answer.”
“Don’t make her nervous,” Ethan admonished him.
“Gentlemen, I’ve dealt with billion-dollar transactions before. Trust me when I tell you I’m not nervous. When I tell you it’s a risk, it is, so you’ll have to trust me.”
“Trust you with what?” Carter asked .
“Everything,” I told them. “Tell me you trust me and I’ll tell you the plan.”
Their eyes met over me and I knew a silent sibling conversation when I saw one.
Bliss and Amity could communicate for hours without speaking a word.
“Harmony trusts her,” Ethan finally said.
“Harmony trusts everyone,” Carter frowned. “But it’s not like we have a choice. You and Harm. Me and the kids. Mac. Every last citizen of Last Hope Gulch, we all have to trust her. Okay, we’re in. Now, what’s this big idea?”
“I’m going to take a significant chunk of value out of the property in a short term loan and I’m going to invest it in crypto.”
The expected explosion, exploded.
“Fuck no.”
“Crypto? No.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“What even is crypto?”
“A mistake, is what it is.”
I smiled and gave Shirley a gentle tap with my heels to get her to move ahead of the boys, back to the paddock.
“Good,” I said over my shoulder. “I’m glad you trust me.”