Chapter 10 #2
She frowned, forehead furrowing as she tried to remember what he was talking about. Finally, it dawned on her. “First, that was our honeymoon, and I didn’t even want to leave the room, if you recall.”
“True.”
“Second, I mean … they are pretty scary at first. They’re just so big, but once you get on them it’s like … I dunno, magic.”
“I can’t argue with that, sweetheart.” His saddle creaked as he shifted so he could lean over and tug her ponytail playfully. “I’ve always loved everything about horses. Since the first day I got here, you couldn’t pry me away from them.”
She shot him a sideways glance. “Speaking of… how come you never told me about this place? About when you lived here before.”
He drew in a deep breath and his whole body seemed to tense up. “I-it was a lot to talk about, I guess. And it didn’t really seem relevant. I mean, when I moved to the city my whole life changed.”
There was more to it, she knew it. “Okay, but these people treat you like family. Not like someone who worked for them, but like you’re actually family. All you ever told me was that your parents were gone, and I didn’t want to bring up a painful subject but…”
His eyes focused on the spot between his mount’s ears, and they stayed there through a long silence.
Then, just when she was about to try again, the cowboy at the head of the pack gestured to turn them down a side trail.
They crossed a shallow stream, and went up a hill, before Carter was ready to talk.
“After my parents died I got dumped into the foster care system. I didn’t have any close relatives, a few cousins out in California, but no one who wanted me.
And being a foster kid sucks most of the time.
I guess there were a few good families, but I kept getting moved around.
Every time I started to settle in, my social worker would show up, and I’d have to shove all my stuff in a trash bag so I could move on to the next place. ”
It had to be painful for him to talk about, and she regretted bringing it up. What a sad life for a kid, she thought. “If you don’t want—”
“It’s okay, Allegra. I should probably have told you years ago. Anyway, long story short, I started getting in trouble. Small stuff first, and then bigger stuff. Eventually I ended up in court, and they were threatening to send me to juvie.” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.
“Wow, but you didn’t end up in juvie?” She couldn’t even picture it. Her husband was such a rule follower—if he hadn’t been, Pa might have walked in on something very different in that tack room.
“Not quite. There was this program for high-risk teens and the courts, at the time, were really invested in seeing if it helped. So, I got sent here with a bunch of other angry, lost kids.”
“So, you weren’t really an employee. You were a … prisoner?”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t say we were prisoners. There were no locks on the doors. We could leave any time … if we wanted to walk twenty miles and risk breaking probation. But yeah, when I first got here, I was technically sentenced to stay until I was eighteen.”
It was her turn to be quiet. She knew she should probably say something, but honestly, she was having trouble taking it all in.
After a few minutes of quiet, he continued. There was a lot more to the story. He told her how he’d struggled at first, like they all had. There had been fights, anger, even one attempt to run away. He explained how, over time, he’d started to find peace in the work.
By the time he was eighteen, he’d made a place for himself. The anger had washed away with the sweat, and he was practically a different person. “I asked if I could stay on, as a hand, and they thought it over and agreed with some conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“First, I had to get my GED and I did. It took a while because I’d missed, basically, half of high school with all the moving around.
Pa tutored me nights and weekends, and I got there eventually.
Oh, and I got paid the same as the other guys, but half of it had to go into a savings account, which they supervised until I left. ”
Her respect for the older couple went up a few notches. They’d gone out of their way to help Carter make a better life for himself. “It sounds like you had a good thing here.”
“I did.”
“I’m surprised you left,” she said cautiously.
He shot her a look she couldn’t decipher, and was about to say something, when another couple, Lydia and Brian, caught up with them.
They’d been keeping a slower pace as they talked, and a lot of the others had passed them up already.
Eventually they’d be at the end of the line, and she was fine with that.
Carter’s mouth closed, as they waited for them to pass. Only, instead of just moving up the line, they hung around and made small talk for a little while, much to Ally’s frustration.
“The riding part isn’t so bad,” Lydia explained. “But my thighs are already killing me. I’m going to be walking funny later, and not for a good reason.”
Allegra was dying to hear the rest of Carter’s story, but since Lydia was one of the women she’d started to bond with, she struggled to be polite.
It was an effort that involved a lot of fake smiles, and a promise to meet after dinner at the hot tub.
“A good soak will help your legs,” Allegra promised.
“You’re so right. If it wasn’t for the hot tub I would have given up by now and gone home,” Lydia said, laughing.
Brian snorted. “This whole thing was your idea in the first place!”
They started to bicker back and forth and stopped paying attention to anything else. After a few moments, Allegra exchanged looks with her husband, and without a word, they both slowed their mounts to let the other couple get ahead of them.
Once there was enough space that they wouldn’t be overheard, she said, “See, we’re already improving our silent communication skills.”
Carter laughed. “Apparently we just needed good enough motivation. Anyway, uh, where was I?”
“You were saying why you left,” she said, though that wasn’t entirely true. She’d just hoped that was what he was about to say.
“Ah, right. Well,” and then he stopped there for a long time, as if he wasn’t sure how to continue.
When he finally went on, the words came out in a rush.
“They wanted me to consider college. I didn’t want to.
I figured I’d be fine right here, but they said I should at least think about it, because I should know all my options. ”
That made sense to her, but she could tell by his tone that things had gone wrong. “You did go to college, so I’m guessing they got you to apply?”
He nodded, one short jerk of his head. His hands tightened on the reins, until she could see his knuckles whitening, so as much as she wanted to press him… she kept quiet until he was ready.
“I looked at a few schools, and they helped me apply for a bunch of scholarships. There were some dedicated to foster kids, orphans, and with their help … well, once I was accepted and my tuition was guaranteed … of course they pushed me to go.”
She hesitated and then, in a tentative voice, “That’s good, right?”
“Probably. I mean, as it turned out, yes. I got my degree. I met you. I started my own business. But at the time, I felt like they were pushing me out because they’d helped the poor orphan boy enough. I only saw it through the lens of someone who was used to…” He trailed off.
“Not being wanted?” She nudged her mount a little closer until their legs were touching. Her mare didn’t seem to mind, and Carter shot her a grateful look.
“Pretty much. Now, I’m wondering if I read the whole situation wrong. Something Pa said last night about expecting me to come back after school. I guess it doesn’t matter now,” he said, shrugging.
“It … feels like maybe it does matter though? I mean, there’s a difference between them doing things to give you the best life and doing them because they wanted you to go away.
That must…” She paused, trying to find the right words.
“Maybe it’s too late to affect your life, but it must make a difference in how you feel. ”
His lips flattened into a line, and after a second, he nodded. That was the end of the conversation for a while. But the silence was calm, with both of them thinking their own thoughts.
Since it wasn’t a working ride, there were no chores waiting for them at the far end, but the giant loop they’d taken had them in the saddle for a few hours before they straggled back to the barn.
It was the longest ride for all of them.
Lydia wasn’t the only one wincing and walking funny; pretty much every guest was complaining, except Carter.
Allegra had been told she had a good seat, and she didn’t seem to be having as much pain as some of the others, but her inner thighs felt like they had been sanded.
It was a feeling she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with, her husband did enjoy spanking more than just her ass.
But the denim rubbing the raw skin as she walked did give her a bowlegged hobble that had Carter trying, and failing, to hide a grin.
Pa seemed to be expecting the aches and pains. “You all did great today!” he said, as he waved them over. The ranch hands were moving around, taking the reins and leading the horses off to the barn. It was a nice surprise; since they’d arrived, it had been their task to take care of the mounts.
“I know you’re all sore, so we’ll take care of the chores tonight. You can have some free time. Maybe hit the sauna, take a nap, or use the hot tub. You’ve got two hours until dinner, so go enjoy yourself.”
Ally shot Carter a look. “The hot tub is big, but not that big. I bet there’s going to be a mad rush to get there. You in?”
He broke out in a wide smile. “Hell yeah, I am. Meet you there in five?” He took off at a sprint toward his bunkhouse, leaving her to scowl at his back when he showed no sign of pain or slowness at all.
“Freaking cowboy,” she muttered, hurrying as fast as her stiff legs could take her.