Chapter 23 #2
She stepped up onto the stool and then put her foot in the stirrup and swung her leg over, landing easily in the saddle, everything she did so fluid and graceful and easy. Adam weighed twice as much as her and suddenly felt like the biggest oaf on the planet.
“You want the stool?” Jem asked, looking at him.
“I mean….” A slip of embarrassment pulled through him as he looked over to Joey, who looked so regal sitting in the saddle.
She’d worn a deep purple coat that day with her trademark splashy scarf and hat.
His ears tingled with the cold, and he said, “Yeah, you better let me use the stool,” in a quick clip of a bark.
Jem grinned at him. “There’s no shame in using the stool, brother. Put your hand here.” He indicated the saddle horn. “You step up here, left foot in the stirrup, right leg over, and you’re in.”
Adam still had not found time to work out, but he had filled his house with things that required him to unbox, put together, move around, and he’d counted that as his exercise.
Please, dear God, he thought as he stepped up onto the stool. Don’t let me make a fool of myself in front of Joey.
He put his left foot in the stirrup as instructed, and pushed with his leg and pulled with his hands, and the next thing he knew, he sat in the saddle. He grunted, and Jem chuckled.
“Nice job, cowboy,” he said. He moved the stool out of the way and then walked in front of the horses to collect their reins. “You guys come on over here with me, and once we’re all saddled and ready, the horses will just all stick together.”
“Okay,” Adam said dubiously, but as the magnificent creature beneath him walked along with Jem, he looked over to Joey, a new glow starting inside him. “I’m riding a horse,” he said.
She grinned at him. “You’re riding a horse, cowboy.”
“You need a cowgirl hat,” he said.
“I used to have one when I was growing up.” She looked forward again, thoughtfully studying the horizon.
“I’m not really an outdoor person. I like stargazing and watching the sunrise and sunset, but otherwise, give me a good book and a heated blanket and a bean bag and I won’t bother you for days.
” She laughed, and Adam simply enjoyed the sound of it.
They joined the others who had their horses saddled already, with Boston and Mav waiting atop their horses, and Blaze, Trace, and Luke swinging up. The moment Jem arrived, he handed the reins to Joey and then to Adam. “You don’t really need to do anything. Just kind of hold ‘em loosely.”
“Okay, all right,” Adam said, and he watched as Jem catapulted himself onto his horse.
“We’re just following the trail over to Kassie’s,” he said. “She said she’d feed us breakfast, and Reggie’s got a horse he has to bring back to the ranch, so he’ll ride back with us.”
“Sounds good,” Blaze said. “Lead us out, Trace.”
Trace did so without complaint, and Luke moved his horse up by his brother as well. Adam wanted to fall to the back so that nobody could watch him, but Jem and Blaze refused to go after Mav and Boston, and Jem raised his eyebrows at Adam.
“How do I get it to move?” Adam asked.
“You get her to move,” Jem said, grinning. “By giving her a little nudge with your foot, and tellin’ her, ‘Come on. Let’s go.’”
Adam looked at Joey, and she looked at him, and they somehow had an unspoken pact to do it together. He looked forward, hoping and praying with all he had that he could get this animal to move.
He moved his right foot back, barely feeling the horse’s belly before he pulled his leg forward again, and said, “Come on. Let’s go.” The horse started to move in a slow, plodding way, but Adam had never felt such pride fill his chest.
“What’s her name?” he asked Jem.
“You’re on Cinnamon Toast,” Jem said from behind him. “Joey, you’re on Rainbow Bright.”
“Of course I am,” Joey said. “Rainbow is my favorite color.”
Adam tipped his head back and laughed. “Rainbow is not a color, Roo,” he said, and then the breath froze in his lungs.
He had never called Joey “Roo” before, and he could barely believe the nickname had come out of his mouth now. But it definitely had. She looked over to him too, her eyes blazing with something Adam couldn’t decipher.
He cleared his throat. “I thought your favorite color was pink.”
“Pink is part of any good rainbow,” she said.
“There’s actually not pink in a rainbow at all.”
Joey held his gaze for one more beat, and then rolled her eyes and looked at the horizon. “That’s why rainbow is a color,” she said. “Because it’s full of pink and purple and teal and gold.”
All the colors of her scarf, and Adam smiled and faced the horizon as well.
He did like being outside, even if it was a little bit chilly.
He drew in a deep breath of the good country air, and he felt everything in his life slow down and soften.
He needed that more than anything, and he sighed, letting the breath take with it any stress or worries or cares that he carried with him.
He didn’t need them today. He wasn’t working. There was no email to answer, no event to coordinate, no band practice to sit in on—just him and the big Teton Mountains in the distance, and the yawning sky above, and God.
He looked over to Joey and found her watching him. “What?” he asked.
“That was just a big sigh,” she said.
“I think I finally relaxed.” He smiled at her. “I’m not quite sure, because it’s such a foreign feeling.”
She grinned back. “For you, I bet it is.”
“It feels good.” He drew in another breath and released it without nearly as much tension or pressure.
Out here, he could hear better and think clearer.
He liked the gentle movement of the horse beneath him, this connection to another living thing.
He felt more connected to himself than ever, and he reached over to Joey.
She reached for him too, and her horse edged a little bit closer to his. He caught her fingers and squeezed. “We should do this every week.”
“We can,” Joey said. “The horses are always here, and Bryce won’t care.”
“I cannot saddle a horse,” Adam muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
Joey giggled. “Me either. Maybe Uncle Jem would meet us to make sure we don’t die.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the backs of her knuckles quickly, because he had to lean over to do it, and he felt like he might fall out of the saddle. A pinprick of panic moved through him, and then he straightened and everything righted.
Yes, today was about him learning how to relax, and the big Teton Mountains in the distance, and the wide sky overhead, and God.
And, as he ducked his cowboy hat to hide his smile, he thought: And Joey.
Today was definitely about Adam being with Joey.