Grab your bag and say goodbye to Julia.”
She watched as her daughter darted away, reached a hand to push back her hair as she stared at the picture. Lexie had never even been around horses, let alone ridden one, but she’d been obsessed about them since she could say the word. Just like someone else she knew. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Lexie was more like her dad than she’d let herself believe.
“Mommy?”
She dropped to her knees, taking the bag from her daughter and zipping it up. “Yes, sweetheart.”
“Granddad says you used to ride horses. That you used to ride polo ponies.”
“Did he now?” She would kill him for even talking to Lexie about her riding. That was a part of her life she’d left behind. She’d never even been near a horse since Ben had left, and she’d long since given up any dreams of making a career out of the sport she’d loved since she was fourteen. The last horse she’d had...she didn’t even want to think about the accident.
“He said you were real good, too, until you fell off one day. Did it hurt?”
“And when was Granddad telling you all this?” she asked.
“Yesterday.”
Lexie skipped off toward the door, waiting for her, her hand outstretched.
“Can we go horse riding?” she asked.
“Maybe.”
“Why maybe?”
“I don’t know anyone who owns a horse.” It was a lie, but what else was she going to say?
“Could we get a horse, then?” Lexie asked.
“Get in the car.”
She closed the door after her and stood on the sidewalk for a few seconds, eyes closed, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. Once upon a time she would have done anything to spend her life around horses, but that was in the past, and that was exactly how she wanted to keep it. She had to tell Ben, she knew that, but she still didn’t want to go back.
BEN SMILED AT his granddad and walked over to the young colt. The animal’s nostrils were flared, body rigid as he approached him.
“Keep your hands down. Don’t touch him until he touches you first.”
Ben listened to him, and followed his instructions. More and more he was realizing that his grandfather’s instincts were always right. He’d argued with the trainers he worked with overseas until he was blue in the face, and he’d been tired of their old-fashioned attitudes. Some trainers liked to force horses into submission, but that wasn’t something they did at McFarlane Stables. Just because half the polo trainers out there thought they were crazy for practicing natural horsemanship didn’t mean he was going to change their approach. And it was one of the reasons he’d finally had enough of being overseas, one of the reasons he’d finally broken ties with the guys he’d loved working alongside for so long to come home.
“Good. Once he turns his head in, pat him and then move the rope over his neck.”
Ben did as he was told. The horse responded to him, moving quietly, but all hell broke loose once the rope was over.
“Keep hold, even if he goes right out to the end.”
A damp line of sweat graced his forehead, but he kept hold. This was the only rough part of the exercise and he hated it, but if he got it right this time, it wouldn’t need to be done again. Because animals and force were not two words he liked used in the same sentence.
The horse stopped bucking and rearing and came to a halt, eyeing him cautiously from a small distance.
“Good boy.” He said the words softly before approaching him again. “What a good fella.”
“Give him a pat and then put the halter on him,” his granddad called out.
Ben moved forward, smiling at the horse as he stood calmly. He gave him a scratch behind the ear and then lifted the halter, rubbing his sweet spots as he did so.
Nice and gentle, Ben reminded himself, reaching up and folding the leather strap over the horse’s nose and behind his pricked ears. The horse stood still, ears flickering as he listened to him, accepting what was happening.
Ben stood back and grinned. Working with his grandfather for just one morning was worth having come home for.
“Good job, son. Well done.”
He gave the horse one final pat and then opened up the gate out of the yard, letting him canter off over to the other young stock. Ben moved toward his granddad, pleased to see the smile on his weathered face.
“It’s in your blood, always has been, always will be.”
His granddad’s voice was strong and deep, but the slap he gave Ben on his shoulder wasn’t as powerful as it used to be; his gnarled, weathered hands failing him after years of hard work. Gus McFarlane was a strong man, the kind of man who was used to commanding attention when he wanted it, but he was deteriorating fast. There was something the old man wasn’t telling him, he just knew it.
“So have you been coping okay? On your own I mean?”
Gus used a cane, walking slowly over the grass. Mind as sharp as a tack, but the body just not keeping up. Guilt washed over Ben—he’d been so desperate to leave Australia and follow his own dreams, but now that he was back he was seriously regretting leaving his granddad for so long.
“You ever hear from the Stewart girl?”
Ben’s body went rigid. “Rebecca? Yeah, well, sort of. I mean, I went to see her when I got back.” He tried to sound nonchalant. “Yesterday, actually.”
“Great girl that one. You should have married her, you know that, right?”
Yeah, he knew. But Bec was...well, Bec. It was never that he hadn’t been attracted to her, or that he hadn’t wanted her, but he’d always known he could never give her enough and he still couldn’t. Settling down with a nice girl just hadn’t been part of his plan, what he’d imagined for himself, because he’d always been focused on what he wanted. And now that he didn’t have polo, he was at more of a loss about what he wanted from life than he’d ever been.
“She gave up returning my emails a long time ago, Granddad.” He wasn’t going to let Rebecca off the hook, not when he was getting the look from the old man. The fact their friendship had fallen by the wayside was as much her fault as it was his. “And we were only friends, you know that. Nothing more.” His granddad didn’t need to know they’d spent a night together, and that’s all it had been—one night, not a relationship.
“Great little rider, that one. Hard worker and a good seat in the saddle. Not to mention darn nice to look at.”
“Yup,” Ben agreed.
“Bring her out here sometime.
