Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rylee had said no.
She’d said it out loud, in her own living room, to a man sitting on her floor with a paper plate balanced on his knee. And he’d said okay, and carried the dishes to the sink, and gone home.
Days later she was still turning it over like a stone in her pocket.
That was the trouble with Tate Dennison.
Alexander called and called, and every time she said no he heard not yet.
Roxy heard no and started negotiating. Tate had heard no and set it down where she could reach it if she wanted it, which was somehow worse, because it meant the only thing standing between Rylee and a horse was Rylee.
Did she want to go riding?
A little. The idea of getting back in the saddle after so long was alluring.
Did she want to go riding with Tate?
Okay, fine. She did want to go riding with Tate.
She just didn’t want to admit how much the idea thrilled her.
Tate was attractive, funny, and attentive.
He’d helped when he hadn’t needed to. And he gave her the space she’d desperately needed.
The more time she spent with him, the easier it was to remember why she’d adored him so thoroughly when they were kids.
“I’m going to marry you one day.”
She’d told him that when they were children and at the time she’d meant every word. She might not have ever been his best friend, but she could easily say he was her best friend even now. The people back home could hardly be considered friends. They were acquaintances at best and leeches at worst.
Rylee had never felt like she belonged in that world and she didn’t care what Roxy said.
Just because those people had wealth didn’t mean they didn’t want to use her for her money or connections.
There was a reason why people said the rich wanted to get richer.
And knowing there was nothing closer to the truth regarding those in her social circle made her sick.
She got as far as the phone twice. Both times she set it face down on the counter and went to find something to scrub.
Finally she pulled on her boots, walked out her back door, and took the trail.
She hadn’t walked it in daylight since she was ten. It was narrower than she remembered. The treehouse was still up there, listing a little to the left, and when the Dennison paddock came into view her heart was working harder than the walk accounted for.
Tate was out by the fence with a coil of rope over his shoulder and his hat pushed back, and he saw her before she’d settled on what she meant to say.
Dang, he looked good.
His black cowboy hat matched his black button-up. His boots were dusty and worn, as were his pants. He’d already been working outside today. He didn’t say a word. He set the rope down on the top rail and waited, which was the single most unhelpful thing he could have done.
“I changed my mind,” Rylee said.
“About?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You know about what.”
“I do.” One corner of his mouth moved. “I’d like to hear you say it, though, seeing as I’m not allowed to say it for you anymore.”
This was so not the time for her legs to go weak. If she followed through with what she’d walked all this way to ask for, she’d need extra mobility in those limbs.
“I’d like to go riding,” she said. “Please.”
“Well.” Tate lifted the rope off the rail and hung it on the post like a man who’d just been handed his whole afternoon. “Give me ten minutes.”
He hadn’t pushed. She kept circling that while he worked. Alexander pushed with a hand at the small of her back, steering. Roxy pushed with love and terms attached to it. Tate had asked her once, taken her no, and then gone home and left her alone with it. That was what had walked her up this road.
Patience or strategy, she couldn’t say. Climbing onto a horse had never only been about a horse. It was about the person she might have become if she’d never left.
She might have been dressed in leggings and a t-shirt, but she’d pulled on boots with the intention of checking out the barn. Just because she hadn’t scrounged up the courage to step foot in the dilapidated building alone didn’t mean she wouldn’t eventually.
He was not fast about it, either. Rylee stood at the rail while he brushed down two horses that hadn’t been expecting company, checked four hooves, and hauled out tack, and not once did he glance over to see whether she’d lost her nerve.
She could have walked home at any point. That, she suspected, was entirely deliberate.
Rylee drifted toward the horses. They lured her in better than anything ever could.
These weren’t horses she recognized from her childhood.
But then it had been fifteen years. Tate’s family might have retired their horses.
She half remembered Tate saying the horses belonged to his parents before he was born.
One was a warm chestnut with flecks of white on her rump. Her mane had white in it as well, but for the most part she was brown. The other was a dark gray, with one patch of contrast on its nose.
She lifted out her hand toward the nearest horse, letting it hover for a few moments before pressing her fingertips into the animal’s coat.
It leaned into her, dropping its head and nudging her at the same time.
Rylee gasped and glanced over her shoulder to find Tate smiling at her.
But there was something else in his eyes.
Something she wasn’t sure she wanted to dissect.
She’d seen that look before. It had been the same one her uncle had given her aunt when all he wanted to do was watch her.
Dipping her head, she murmured, “You were right.”
He chuckled, cupping a hand behind his ear. “What was that?”
She huffed. “You were right, Tate. I definitely don’t want to just watch.”
“Yeah, I know.” He moved toward her, took her hand, and led her to the horse’s side.
“This is Freckles. She’s Lydia’s horse and the sweetest thing you’ll ever meet.
She was trained to work with children in a therapeutic center.
But then that center closed down and we were lucky enough to purchase her. ”
She gestured toward the gray horse. “And this one?”
Tate ran his hands along the horse’s shoulder.
“This here is Stone. He’s new. His background wasn’t nearly as nice.
Jason worked with me to get him comfortable again with riding, and now he’s got his eye on a black rescue two counties over that’s meaner than Stone ever thought about being.
He’s doing better—less skittish when he’s out solo, but he needs more practice going in a group.
” He patted Stone reassuringly. “We’re going to see how well he can do with Freckles here.
He seems to like her more than the other horses.
” He held out a hand and once again, she stared at it before she placed her palm in his and allowed him to help her into the saddle.
Then he shoved his boot into one of Stone’s stirrups and swung onto his back.
The sun was partially covered by clouds. It made for a cooler day and her skin pebbled from the breeze that swirled around them. The first leg of their journey was completed in silence.
Rylee allowed her thoughts to drift to the last conversation she’d shared with Tate. His insistence that she could do something with the farm—something that would make her father proud. That conversation had struck her so deeply, she’d even brought it up with Roxy when she’d called to check on her.
Of course, that conversation had turned into Roxy asking Rylee if she was infatuated with “that boy from her childhood.” Rylee wasted a good part of the call assuring her aunt that there was nothing going on with Tate. He’d made no indication that he cared for her as anything more than a friend.
Just because he looked at her like he wanted to push her against the side of the barn and kiss her within an inch of her life didn’t mean that was their reality. If she was honest with herself, she’d admit that she was probably interpreting the way he looked at her all wrong.
“Tate?” His name tasted sweet on her tongue even though she was terrified about what she knew would follow.
So far, their ride was going famously. Stone was following the trail like a champ. He was also putting up with Tate’s firm hold on the reins while riding Freckles was more relaxed. Tate grunted.
“Do you really think I could do something with the farm?”
His head snapped in her direction. “Of course I do. I wouldn’t tell you otherwise.”
He didn’t look over when he said the rest of it. “You’re forgetting that I know you, Rylee. The girl who refused to be left behind when we were kids is still in there somewhere. She walked over here by herself this afternoon.”
She rolled her eyes. “You could be saying that to get me to stay so there’s no risk of losing the property to that developer.”
He grinned. “You got me.”
Why did that statement seem to slice right through her? Even though she could tell he was teasing her, she hated that it was rooted in truth. Everyone in town was on edge with the threat of their quiet lives being changed so irrevocably. “I went to college, you know.”
Tate really looked at her then. There was no way he knew where she was going with this, but he didn’t push her, and that helped.
Alexander was the opposite. He hated the uncomfortable silences.
He hated waiting. He wanted all the information right then and there so he could solve inevitable problems.
That wasn’t to say that Tate wasn’t capable of fixing problems. From how he’d taken charge with her barn, it was obvious taking care of others was his specialty. He had a talent for figuring out the next steps when all she felt was overwhelmed.
Perhaps that was why she wanted to talk to him about her next steps.
After the quiet went on too long, she sighed.
“I went into finance. My uncle was the CEO of a fortune five hundred company. He insisted that he didn’t want me to be dependent on anyone and that an education would help prevent that.
He was a firm believer that business and finance were fields that would serve me well. ”
When she looked over at Tate, she didn’t know what she expected to see, but it wasn’t the hard look he was sending the horizon.
He must have felt her attention on him because he turned to look at her then mumbled, “Sorry, I just don’t see you sitting behind a desk.
I guess that kind of degree does come with some level of security, but… ”
“Yeah,” she whispered, “you’re right. It’s not exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up.”
His lips twitched and she laughed despite herself. “So, what do you want to do when you grow up?” He lifted his brows and shot her a pointed look.
She blew out another breath. “Is it crazy that I can’t get what you said out of my head?
About continuing my family legacy?” Rylee gestured with a sweeping motion to the land surrounding them.
Tate’s property wasn’t as large as hers—just large enough to accommodate horses with some room to roam but that didn’t make it any less breathtaking.
“I know my dad would have loved to see me follow in his footsteps. I just… don’t know where to start. ”
A soft, reassuring smile spread over Tate’s face. “I think you should do what makes you happy. If that means starting a business, if that means becoming a CEO, or if that means farming—pick whichever one speaks to you most.”
“You make it sound so… simple.”
“It is simple, Ry-Ry. You don’t owe anyone anything. Not your uncle. Not your aunt. Not a single person from your past.” He said it with conviction. He was including himself in that statement but all she could think about was Alexander and the way he continued to demand her time.
She didn’t owe anyone anything.
Rylee lifted her focus to Tate and her heart stuttered.
There it was again. That look that made her shiver.
It started with a tingle but then that sensation overtook her whole body and she had to force herself to look away.
She couldn’t say it out loud, but in the back of her head, she had to admit that Tate had made a good point.