mules.” He handed her his water flask and waited as she took a sip before handing it back. “Any questions?”
She looked him up and down. “You should use sunscreen.”
“I do.” He blinked at her.
“Your nose is red.” She leaned over and lightly touched it. “Stay right there.”
A second later she was slathering his nose and face in something that smelled like a bunch of roses.
“There, that’s better.” She recapped the lotion and put it back in her pocket.
“Thanks, Mom,” Ben quipped, surprising a laugh out of her as she picked up her reins.
“Trust me, Ben Miller, I have no motherly feelings toward you whatsoever.”
“Was it something I said?” Ben asked innocently.
“You have the body of a god, and you darn well know it,” she said severely. “I’d have to be dead not to appreciate it.”
“A god?” Ben echoed and patted his chest. “And it’s all natural and homegrown.”
“Like your beef?”
“You could say that.” Ben studied her. “You had a nose job, didn’t you?”
“Where did that come from?” she squeaked.
“Because we’re talking about appearances.” He paused. “You might as well admit it. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“I broke my nose and had to have it reset.” Silver sniffed. “While they were fixing it they might have altered it ‘slightly.’”
“Slightly?”
“Oh, come on, it’s such a minor thing to do!” Silver protested. “Lots of girls have it done. At least I didn’t do the boob thing.”
His attention dropped to her chest and he raised one eyebrow. “You sure about that?”
She grabbed his wrist, pulled off his glove, and pressed his hand to her chest. “Feel it! It’s one hundred percent natural!”
He went still, his gaze on his trapped hand, which was now full of warm, squeezable, female boob. His thumb rested right over her nipple, which was rapidly hardening.
“Uh . . . I . . .”
She hurriedly released his hand and threw his glove back at him. “Do you want to untie Bill from the back of my saddle if you’re going to take him down the slope?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that now.” He dismounted and untied the rope, glad that he was out of her view as the fit of his jeans grew way more uncomfortable. “You can start on down. I’ll be right behind you.”
* * *
Silver kept her gaze on the downward slope, which was way less regular than the previous route, with several switchback turns to avoid large boulders or landslides. Why had she put Ben’s hand on her boob? What on earth had she been thinking?
Again, it all came down to her inability to have a normal conversation with anyone. She just didn’t know how to do it. He must think she was insane. She should never have agreed to come on the trail ride. She’d been so shocked when her dad had agreed she could go by herself that she hadn’t thought things through. Being out here without her usual support team was making her look like an ass.
But if she wanted to break out of her light comedy, blond girl roles and appear in the gritty Western, she needed this kind of experience on her resume. She wanted to act, to show the world that she wasn’t just a pretty face, and was more than willing to take a huge pay cut to do the independent film if they’d have her.
Silver stared off over the valley. Had her father just been humoring her all along? Did he think that ten days stuck out here would be enough to make her give up her dreams and return to the kind of roles that had made her famous and her family rich? The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Maybe he’d told Ben Miller to make things as difficult as possible for her....
A shadow loomed over her and both she and Ladybug jumped a little to the side as a turkey vulture flew low over their heads. Silver banged her elbow on the protruding rock wall and muttered a curse as her mare righted herself.
“You okay?” Ben called out to her from behind.
“Yup.” She wasn’t in the mood to turn around and talk to him right now—what with the boob incident, and her gathering suspicions that Ben and her father were somehow in cahoots.
She focused her attention on the path ahead. It had taken way longer than she had anticipated getting down. She hadn’t reached the valley floor yet, and the sun was already overhead. She was so hot that rivulets of sweat were running down her back. When she was on solid ground, she would take off her fleece and leave just her T-shirt on. The thought of jumping into the creek with or without a naked Ben in it was really appealing.
She took the last angled corner and walked Ladybug out onto the sparse grass, turning in a circle to watch Ben complete the descent. Despite the fact that he was managing his horse and Bill and Ted, he still looked more competent than she ever would. He barely moved in the saddle yet was so in tune with Calder that it was like watching poetry in motion. He clicked to the mules, took the last turn with a dexterity that impressed her, and came down in a cloud of dust that briefly obscured him.
He pulled up beside her and silently offered her his water bottle. She showed him her own, and drank from that, still unwilling to share more than she had to with him.
He took off his Stetson and knocked the dust off it. “Jeez, it’s hot. Let’s find some shade, check the time, and have something to eat.”
She was more than willing to get out of the sun. When Ben suggested they pick up the pace and kicked his horse into a smooth sitting trot, she ended up bobbing along behind him like a demented whack-a-mole. She didn’t care. Gaining the shelter of the trees was such a welcome relief after the unforgiving glare of the sun. Ben had already stopped and was busy tying up the mules and his horse, his movements efficient with long practice. She dismounted and led Ladybug over to stand beside Calder.
“Give me five,” Ben said as he loosened Ladybug’s girth. “And I’ll get the fire started.”
“Fire?” Silver shuddered. “Like we need more heat?”
“We have to eat something.” He glanced over at her as he checked her horse, all business again. “And, until we reach the creek, we can’t catch any fish, so we’ll need to boil some water.”
The wall to the right of the wooded area was a mixture of crumbling red clay and rock through which a trickle of water made its way down to the valley floor.
Silver’s stomach gurgled as if to agree with him. “What can I do?” She was determined not to sit around and watch him work. If he and her dad thought she was a quitter, she would prove them wrong. This was part one of her independence campaign and nothing was going to stop her achieving her goals.
“Gather some wood for the fire while I set a bucket under the water to give to
