Chapter 3 #2
Those blue eyes flickered over her, assessing.
‘You don’t look like one.’ Before Nina could make sense of the compliment, he passed her the handle on the scooper, stepped back.
‘Here. Pour it into her tray, and when she comes for it, don’t hesitate.
Stroke her neck. Firmly. Like you know what you’re doing and aren’t scared of anything. Breathe. Be confident. I’m right here.’
Nina didn’t question why she trusted that Maverick Hunt would never endanger her, and she didn’t waste time either. She poured the grain into the tray and held her breath as the horse blew a breath on her elbow.
‘Breathe.’
She exhaled loudly. ‘I keep forgetting.’
‘You’re doing great.’
Nina breathed deeply as the horse came closer, and the moment she lowered her head to eat, Nina reached out her hand and patted the matted coat.
The horse paused at the contact, but before she could snatch her hand back, Maverick said, ‘Don’t stop.’
And she didn’t. Nina kept moving, gliding her hand firmly down the horse’s neck while she ate. At one point she looked up and saw that Markus was watching. He gave her a thumbs up.
Maverick leaned one shoulder against the wall of the stall, watching the situation closely.
Nina felt his gaze, heavy on her skin. ‘Is this covered by that liability form I signed?’
He laughed, and the sound was lovely. Deep and rolling. The lines around his eyes and mouth deepened. ‘Yes. Though a fancy lawyer could make a solid case for reckless endangerment if anything were to happen.’
Nina smiled. And it was genuine this time. She felt it move upwards from her heart, which was momentarily at peace after a week of turmoil. ‘Worth it,’ she whispered.
They made a pretty picture, the tiny, dark-haired woman and the small, palomino horse with her white-blonde mane and tail, and Mav had to wonder if it was their contrasting colouring or because their eyes carried that same quiet devastation.
He heard her whispered ‘Worth it’ and though he didn’t say anything, he couldn’t help but internally agree with her.
He had seen her face the moment she had made contact, seen the relief and wonder and joy. Just as he saw the sadness creep in again now, when she looked down at the horse’s neck and saw the gouges that had been stripped from her.
Nina blinked rapidly and angled her face away, but not before Mav saw the glistening tears in her big, dark eyes.
As the father of a five-year-old, he was used to tears of all kinds, but these … These ones felt too personal. And he didn’t know what to say, other than, ‘She’s going to be fine.’ And even he didn’t know which he was talking about: the horse or the woman.
Nina nodded, but she didn’t reply. Only kept her face angled away from him as she continued to stroke the horse.
‘She needs a name,’ he said, trying to give her something else to hold on to. ‘You’re the first guest to make contact with her, so it seems only fair you choose it.’
She looked down at the horse’s neck. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah. Think on it. Let me know, and we’ll have her tags made for her halter and her stall door.’
‘I don’t need to think on it.’
Maverick only raised his eyebrows.
‘Barbie.’
Mav looked at the palomino horse, with her blonde mane and tail, decided, ‘Perfect.’ And he meant it. ‘My kid is going to get a kick out of that.’
But noticing that the food was nearly gone, he made space for Nina to pass and said, ‘Let’s give her some time to think about how nice that interaction was.’
Nina moved past him immediately and exited the stall. Maverick followed and slid the door closed behind him.
For the first time since she’d arrived, the mare – Barbie, he reminded himself – poked her head over the door. She didn’t stay long, simply looked around before receding back inside.
And when Mav turned and saw the glow in Nina’s eyes as she approached Markus, her quiet: ‘Did you see that?’ reaching his ears, he smiled.
‘Hell yes! I got the whole thing on camera!’ Markus slung one arm over Nina’s shoulders.
Mav saw the way she flinched at the contact before settling into the embrace, and he wondered if she was in pain or if she was scared – both, maybe?
‘You’re welcome to come back and see her anytime. I’ll introduce you to my head wrangler, Benji. Just make sure that one of us is with you before you go into her stall.’
Nina raised both her hands to her heart. Those eyes, already so big, widened. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah. Sure. She needs a lot of attention. We haven’t even been able to groom her properly yet, but today you got closer for longer than any of us have. And you’re smart – cautious. Gentle. If you want—’
She didn’t let him finish. ‘I do.’ She looked at where Barbie had receded back into her stall. ‘I want to help.’
‘It probably won’t be much more than spending time desensitizing her to humans for the first week. And not alone, given that liability issue you brought up. But between Benji and me, we’ll find the time to help you.’
‘Can I pet Barbie?’ This question was asked by June Morgan, who had been picked up by her dad so that she could see into the stall.
‘How about you pet the horse you’re going to ride?’ he asked, easily appeasing her.
‘Spirit?’
‘Yeah, you remembered.’
‘He’s mine.’
‘He’s the horse you’re going to ride,’ Mrs Morgan corrected.
Maverick turned to Markus and Nina. ‘You’re welcome to join the tour or wander around and discover things yourselves – seeing as though you signed your lives away already.’
‘We’ll wander around,’ Nina replied.
Markus only pointed his cell phone in Mav’s direction. ‘Photoshoot?’
‘Yes, to booking it. Text me the dates once you know them and I’ll coordinate with my sister. Maybe, to hiring horses and a few wranglers for the day, but I still have to see which staff might be interested once we have dates. And hell no, to me being one of them.’
Nina laughed. Her dark eyes lit up.
As Mav watched her face transform beneath the bruises, he saw it, that thing some people had. It wasn’t charm. Charm was too practised. Too rehearsed. It was pull. Magnetism. Like a horse kick to the gut when you were least expecting it.
Markus only narrowed his eyes at Mav and tapped his phone against his palm. ‘I don’t give up easily.’
‘And I’d rather ride naked through Nevada in the height of summer than be in a photoshoot,’ Mav countered. He wasn’t a model. He was a horseman.
‘Wait.’ Markus made a stopping gesture with one hand ‘Is that an option?’
Maverick only shook his head. But he took one last look at them standing side by side, Markus grinning outright, Nina quietly studying his face, gauging his reaction. ‘You two … You two are trouble.’
Markus laughed.
Nina smiled.
But what Mav couldn’t quite figure out as he walked back to the Morgans was that he hadn’t been joking.
Markus might have been a tornado in human form, but Nina Keller was more dangerous.
A man didn’t see her coming. She was quiet but devastating, her sad eyes drawing you in before that flash of a smile knocked you off your feet entirely.
Maverick tried not to think anything of it. He had eyes, he rationalized, and Nina Keller was a beautiful woman. Which made him want to look. She was hurt, which made him want to help. And Mav had never been one to turn his back on suffering.
Those were just facts.