Chapter Ten
Asher stood inside the Blackwell Stables, opposite Pride’s stall, and watched the colt pace in a tight circle.
Pride’s muscular frame was too tense and too taut, as if he was preparing not to jump out of the stall but instead bust right through the wall.
His ears twitched side to side, refusing to still.
His eyes were narrowed. And his tail swish was more like the snap of a whip.
Most of the Blackwell staff were crowded in the stables, including Joe and Joe’s second-in-command, Elliot James. One of the trainers approached the stall, his movements careful, his steps ginger.
Pride bared his teeth and slammed his back hoof against the stall door.
The powerful thud vibrated around the stall dividers.
The trainer retreated. Pride started up pacing again.
Edwina, their longtime stable hand from the filly horse barn, hummed softly and stepped up.
Another vicious kick followed. The sound thudded inside Asher.
He winced. Every time Pride reacted, Kelley edged closer to Asher.
Elliot took a turn, adding calming words to his approach. Pride pinned his ears back and shook his head as if to stop the grating sound. Once more the colt kicked the stall door. Then again.
Kelley’s hand found Asher’s instantly; her grip was tense, her posture stiff.
Elliot dropped back beside Joe and spoke quietly to him. The worried staff spoke to each other. Their murmurs only seemed to stir up the tension already thickening the air. Pride’s gaze widened until the whites of his eyes were revealed.
Pride wanted out. Yet, the colt was trapped. Nowhere to go to escape. Asher knew something about that. He knew how to run far and fast. And when he eventually did, he ran all the way to New York City.
Pride’s nostrils flared as if he scented the strain in the air. His tail whipped back and forth. The colt snorted, the sound distressed.
Kelley’s fingers tightened around Asher’s as if she was in pain, too. Worry pinched across her face.
Before the next trainer stepped forward, Asher said, his voice low and commanding, “Everyone out.” All eyes landed on Asher. He kept the warning in his words and added, “Now. Leave. Now.”
Joe said, “Asher, I don’t think…”
Asher cut him off. “Look at him. He can’t breathe with everyone hovering. He needs space.” The horse was hurting. The cowgirl beside Asher was hurting for the colt. Asher intended to make it stop. Immediately. He added, “I mean no disrespect. You all tried. Now let me try my way.”
“Pride responded to Asher when Asher first arrived.” Big E set his hand on Asher’s shoulder and said, “I’ll be outside. Holler if you need me.”
Asher gave him a small nod.
The staff all looked toward Joe. Finally, Joe motioned to the door and said, “Let’s give them some space.”
And then it was Asher, Kelley and Pride. The stable was quiet. The horses in the other stalls were still and silent as if waiting and watching.
Pride circled once more, then paused. One forceful shake of his head and the horse exhaled hard and finally stood in place. Asher held the colt’s gaze.
“I think he would feel better if he could run,” Kelley whispered. “That’s what he’s trained to do. It’s what he knows. All he really knows.”
Asher nodded. “Now we have to figure out how to get him out of here safely and to someplace he can run as he wants for as long as he wants.” His words were pitched low. “I can’t move him until he settles. It could be a while.”
“Then we wait,” Kelley said and kept her hand in his.
Asher slanted his gaze toward Kelley. “It could take him all night, given his spirit and stamina.”
“I don’t mind.” Kelley looked at Asher. Her grin was small and wry. “Besides, helping you and Pride gives me a very good excuse for not answering any wedding SOS texts or calls tonight.”
“Aren’t you obligated to answer as the maid of honor and sister of the bride?” Asher said, enjoying the spark flaring in her hazel eyes.
She chuckled. “I think I’ve more than earned a night off.”
Pride nickered.
Asher was not sure what made him happier. Knowing Kelley would be with him longer or the sound the colt made.
Kelley’s eyes widened and she leaned into Asher. “Tell me that was a good noise.”
“I think Pride wants you here, too.” So do I. Yet, Asher knew he should let her go. And he would. Just not yet. He kept their fingers linked and kept his attention on Pride. “I think Pride likes the sound of your voice or perhaps it’s your laugh.”
“No one has told me that before.” Kelley chuckled again; her amusement spilled out into a soft tinkling laugh. “In fact, I put Frannie and Laura-Beth to sleep whenever I read out loud, even now.”
Pride’s ears twitched and then held in place, alert and open.
Asher relaxed and said, “Well, I believe you have one admirer in that stall over there.” And one right beside you.
But I can’t confuse things. After all, when Asher’s emotions got involved, everything tended to go awry and everyone ended up hurt.
“I don’t think it’s me,” Kelley protested albeit half-heartedly as if she hoped it was true.
“Only one way to test it,” Asher said, gesturing to her. “You have to keep talking.”
“About what?” Kelley asked.
Anything. Everything. Asher wanted to know all about her.
He said, “I know you haven’t ridden in a while.
You don’t need to explain.” He included the last words when he felt her stiffen beside him.
He asked quickly, “But are you okay now? Because we’re going to have to get much closer to Pride to calm him and move him. ”
“I think talking is easing my own nerves.” She squeezed Asher’s hand and asked, “Still, you won’t leave my side, right?”
“I’m not leaving either of you,” Asher said, the promise in his words.
“Until Pride is someplace where he feels safe and calm.” And until you tell me to go.
And mark my words, cowgirl, you will. His heart was off-limits.
It had been for a while. There was no use denying he intended to keep it that way.
And she deserved a cowboy who would love her without limits.
Kelley moved slowly forward with Asher and said softly, “Frannie should be here. My little sister has got the natural sense for horses.”
“I was thinking the same,” Asher said. “Dylan was built for this, not me.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Kelley eyed him. Surprise crossed her face. “You grew up riding alongside your brothers. You are as talented as them.”
“That was a lifetime ago.” He had long since traded dust and denim for deadlines and dress shoes. It was not a move he regretted or even reconsidered. Until recently. Lately, he’d felt a pull for the trails he thought he left behind him.
“I know how that feels. When I look back it feels like some things were in a different lifetime,” Kelley said, still in that soft tone. “Sometimes I wish I could go back, if only for a day.”
“Any particular day you would choose?” He guided her closer to Pride’s stall.
The colt was quiet yet alert and diligently tracking their progress.
“Not a particular day, but rather a place.” The wistful tone in Kelley’s words caught his attention. Her face was upturned. A subtle contentment smoothed her expression. “It will come as no surprise to you that I had a garden of my own growing up.”
The joy in her expressive hazel eyes drew him in completely. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and pull her into him. Wrong time. Wrong place. And he was certainly the wrong cowboy for her. He asked, “Did you release your fireflies in your garden?”
“Of course.” Her laughter swirled through her words. “It was also the place where the garden gnomes played, and the fairies danced all night. I know this because the gnomes were never in the same place the next morning when I checked on them.”
He wanted to dance with her in that garden. Except he could only picture himself walking along city streets solo. He said, “I suspect you checked the garden every morning.”
“Like clockwork,” she admitted. “There were also stones moved. Doors open on the mini-houses. A new plant. Sometimes even butterflies and hummingbirds were fluttering around.”
“Sounds like quite the place,” Asher mused.
“It was enchanting,” Kelley said and sighed. “Do you know even when I found out that it was my grandparents rearranging the garden every night, it still didn’t lose its appeal. It meant even more, knowing they went out of their way for me.”
His cowgirl was enchanting. No way around that.
Kelley deserved a cowboy who would give more to her than to his career, and make her the priority.
But Asher’s relationship track record was mostly losses and not exactly the sort of stellar achievement worth betting a cowgirl’s heart on.
Asher released Kelley’s hand, albeit more reluctantly than he wanted to admit, then propped his arms gently on the stall door, working not to crowd Pride or Kelley.
“What about you?” Kelley asked, curiosity in her words. “What day would you go back to?”
“Any day spent with my brothers in our treehouse.” Asher welcomed the childhood flashback. “We built it with my dad and Joe out by the hay barn pasture. My brothers and I spent hours there and even camped out on more than one night.”
“A home away from home,” Kelley mused.
“It was everything.” Asher smiled. There were too many carefree summer days to recount. But the treehouse and his brothers were featured in all his favorite childhood adventures. “It was our hideout. The place where we shared our secrets and lived out our dreams.”
“Is the treehouse still there?” Kelley asked.
“I don’t know,” Asher admitted and slanted his gaze toward Kelley. “I haven’t looked for it.” Ah, but the feelings—the delight and thrill and pure fun of being with his brothers—was there inside him still. And surprisingly simple to recall even after so much time spent apart.
“Why not?” Her eyebrows pulled together.