Chapter 9 #2
“These are stirrups. Your feet sit in them, but you also use them to pull yourself up, so put your left foot on it and then use it to swing your right one over her.”
I reached for Poppy and placed my foot on the stirrup and did as Alex ordered putting my foot in and pulling myself up getting on Poppy. I held onto the reins, keeping myself up.
I bit my lip, looking down at what would be a very big drop. I watched as Alex got up onto his horse, and I reached for the reins, holding onto them tightly. They seemed like expensive leather and thankfully felt really nice to hold.
Alex pulled on the reins and trotted off in front of me.
I pursed my lips together. “Help me. My butt…” I mumbled, shaking my head.
“You know what to do Poppy.”
She neighed a little, making me laugh a little. I pulled on her reins. She started on trot, quickly catching up with Alex and his horse.
“Told you I’d help.” He laughed.
I shook my head. “You left.”
“You figured it out though.”
I rolled my eyes.
I guess he did have a point.
The horses trotted side by side through the field.
To say we were in autumn was hard to believe. Not all the leaves had fallen yet. They were a pretty orange colour. It smelt like a crisp autumn afternoon, there was a little breeze but thankfully not a cold chill.
The trotting of the horse was an interesting sensation. The jolting up and down and with one hard trot felt like I could fall any second, but that could have been the fact I was not confident.
Alex came to a stop near a lake. I looked out and saw that there were small ripples running throughout the water. A few ducks were swimming around in the lake.
I glanced over at Alex. “If you had to come back as an animal, what would it be?”
“A pigeon, because you’d be able to shit on people that annoy you,” he said.
I laughed.
It was a good answer.
“I would be a duck. No, actually, scratch that! A panda. Like pants are so cute and stupid and I have no idea how they survived. I watched a video where pandas just fall over and off everything and it’s fantastic, makes me smile whenever I see those videos.”
He climbed off his horse, making his way over to me and hold his arms out. I swung my leg around and grabbed onto him as he helped me down.
“It’s beautiful, Alex,” I whispered.
“I’ve never shown anyone this before,” he admitted. He pulled me over to the blanket and we sat down. He pulled out another blanket covering us. “If it gets too cold, let me know and we can head back inside.”
“So have you had Rocky and Poppy since they were babies? Foals, is that what they’re called?”
“Yes, they’re called foals. Poppy was born here. She’s part of a long line of horses we breed. Rocky was a rescue. He was a wild horse. They were getting ready to put him down.”
“What? Why? He’s a perfectly good horse.”
“He is now, but back then, he was in terrible shape. He wouldn’t trust anyone. He got abused before he became a rescue. One day, he managed to get out of his stable and Poppy was in the field.” He looked over at both of them.
Rocky was next to Poppy as she ate some grass, and I smiled a little.
“The rest was history.”
Alex opened up the basket and placed some containers out with two paper plates. “I just packed a little bit of everything.”
“Thanks Alex. I love it. This is amazing,” I told him. “Thank you for sharing your escape with me.”
He smiled, and I couldn’t help but smile at him.
Damn. The man that was capturing my attention was slowly worming his way into my life. That much so, I hadn’t even called work to explain why I didn’t turn up for my shift. I was surprised Cindy hadn’t left me a hundred voicemails of her swearing at me.
Anyway, Alex laid out the food on our plates.
I looked at him. “Tell me, what do you think the world has in store for us?”
“I don’t believe the world has anything in store for us.” He shrugged. “I don’t really think the world controls what we do, only we as people can do that.”
“You don’t believe in fate? That the universe has a plan for us all?” I asked curiously.
“No, I think we make our own decisions when we are born. Fate and the universe don’t make those decisions for us.
I ran into you that day because I was running away from responsibilities.
Then, I was a jerk to you. Fate had nothing to do with this.
My mother, on the other hand, is instrumental in a lot of things. ”
I couldn’t help but smile. I think that most mothers liked to meddle or stick their noses in things. I think it was a requirement of being a parent.
So with that thought I took a bite of the sandwich as we spoke about anything and everything random. I loved spending time with him.
He pulled me into his chest and began to play with my hair.
“What was your dream job when you were little?” I asked curiously.
“I wanted to be a firefighter and save people. Although, I don’t think I’m actually fit enough for that. What did you want to be?”
“An author.”
“Do you write?”
“I have written every now and then, but my drafts mostly stay as drafts. I don’t think that my writing is good enough,” I admitted with a shrug.
I looked up, and Alex was already looking at me. “What?”
His eyes flickered to my lips and then back to my eyes. “Nothing,” he said softly. “You should continue writing.”
I shook my head, and a strand of my hair fell in front of my face. Alex reached forward brushing it behind my ear, looking into his eyes he began to come closer as his eyes flickered to my lips once more.
A loud clap of thunder broke us apart.
We both looked up seeing a flash of lightning and like that the rain began to fall. Alex stood up, pulling me with him and leading me over to Poppy.
I climbed onto her pulling on her reins, and we were off. It didn’t take long to arrive back at the stables. I looked to see Alex who wasn’t too far behind me. I bit my lip, staring at the floor.
How did I get off the horse?
I brought my leg over, so both of them hung on the side and stepped down. I tumbled onto the floor as my foot got caught on the foot-hold.
“Melinda!”
I groaned as I rolled over a moment later Alex stood in front of me holding his hand out.
“Hi,” I said with a smile. “That was fun, let’s do it again.”
“I thought you were seriously hurt with how fast you fell off,” he said, helping me up.
I couldn’t help but wince as I put weight on my foot. “Okay, I take that back.”
He wrapped an arm around me. “Let’s get you inside, and we’ll take a look at that ankle.” He looked behind me. “Are you okay to sort the horses out for me?”
“Yes, sir.”
The rain was pouring heavily. I couldn’t help but feel I had slightly jinxed it with my thoughts of it being glad it hadn’t rained yet. We left the stable making our way to the house.
Just as we reached the stairs, I stopped. “Wait.”
“What?”
I placed my hands on his chest, pressing my lips to his. I felt him smile against my lips before he kissed me back, moving his lips in sync with mine. Not even the rain could pull us away from this moment. When I pulled away from him, he rested his forehead against mine.
“We should go inside,” I said.
He wrapped an arm around me as he picked me up.
“That wasn’t a signal for you to pick me up.”
He carried me inside ignoring my comment. “Hush, you would have still been out there hobbling in. It’s quicker if I carry you. Stop being stubborn, Ella.”
“You are not calling me, Ella, either,” I told him.
“Watch me” He winked. “Sit.”
“I’m wet.”
“I don’t care.”
I sat down doing as he said.
He sat in front of me, pulling my shoe and sock off. “Looks like it could just be a little sprain, but there’s no major damage.”
“That’s good.”
He stood up making his way upstairs and came back a few moments later with clothes in his hand. “The bathroom is through that door,” he said pointing to the door.
I stood up, making my way to the bathroom and ignoring the shooting pain in my foot. I stripped out of my wet clothes, putting on his clothes. I grabbed my wet clothes, leaving the bathroom. “Where should I put my clothes?”
“In the basket,” he said.
I did as he said, and he pulled me to sit down on the sofa. “Thanks for the loan.”
“You’re welcome. And of course the rain would ruin our date.” He shook his head.
“It was perfect,” I told him as I cuddled into him.
In that moment, it truly was perfect. Nothing could ruin our moment. I was falling hard for him. Although, the rain came, the date was perfect. The kisses and spending time together was amazing.
I looked up to the sleeping man on the bed and knew at that moment, I was going to jump in head first. He had broken down my walls, and over time, I was becoming attached to him and falling hard.