had had a brain hemorrhage a few weeks before she was due. The doctors had kept her alive until she gave birth to Faye. Then they took her off the machines that had been keeping her alive and she’d faded away. He’d asked them to wait a week after Faye’s birth because he hadn’t wanted his daughter’s birthday to also be the day she’d lost her mom.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry. Just distracted,” he said.
“It happens,” she said. She spoke with a distinctive Texan drawl. It was so different from Lucy’s Northwestern accent that he... Hell, he needed to stop thinking about her. He was getting away for a while, helping out a friend and having a ride to clear his head. He knew he should let that be enough.
“It does. Sorry, I’m really bad company right now. I thought...”
“Hey. You don’t have to entertain me. Whenever I’m in a bad place mentally—not saying you are—but when I am, I love to get out of the barn, take Montgomery here for a run. There’s no time to think about anything except the terrain and my horse—it clears away the cobwebs in my mind.”
He had just noticed how pretty her lips were. A shell-pink color. And when she smiled at him her entire face seemed to light up. “Just what I need. Let’s do this.”
“Well, before we get started I need to know what your horsemanship level is,” she said. “We’ll pick our route based on that.”
“Summer camp and college polo team,” he said. “I stopped playing about three years ago. I’m a pretty decent rider and keep a horse at a stable near my home. But haven’t been riding much since my daughter was born.”
“Sounds like you might be a bit rusty but you’ve got some skills,” she said. “I’ll start ya out easy and see how it goes.”
“I’m yours to command,” he said.
“Mine to command? Not sure I’ve ever had anything with two legs under my command.”
He threw his head back and laughed. She was funny, this one. He wasn’t sure if she’d meant that to be a come-on, but there was something sort of innocent about her so he guessed not. She was very different from Lucy, his late wife. That twinge he always experienced at the thought of her colored the moment.
“Let’s start with a ride,” he said.
She nodded. “There’s a mounting block over there if you need a leg up. I’ll let you go first.”
“Thanks,” he said, leading his horse to the block and mounting easily. He shifted around in the saddle until he was comfortable. The horse she had him on was easily controlled and led and seemed comfortable with him as a rider.
“So why are you here?” she asked as she mounted her own horse.
He told himself to look away but didn’t. Her jeans hugged the curve of her butt and as she climbed on the horse there was something very natural about how she moved. As she put both feet in the stirrups and sat up, he realized she looked more at home on horseback than she had talking to him.
“Ah, I’m here to investigate all the trouble that Maverick is causing. I’m really good at tracking someone’s cyber footprint.”
She shook her head and then gently brushed her heels against her horse and made a clicking sound. “I don’t even know what a cyber footprint is.”
He laughed a little at her comment. “Most people don’t think about it, but with smartphones and social media apps, we all are leaving a trail that can be followed.”
“That makes sense,” she said. “You ready for a run or do you just want to take it slow and steady?” she asked as they left the barn area and reached the open plains.
The land stretched out as far as he could see. It was October, so in Seattle it was rainy and growing colder, but the sun was shining down on them today in Texas and the weather was warm. He lifted his face to the sun, taking a deep breath. It was a good day to be alive.
As the thought crossed his mind, he remembered Lucy again and shook his head. He wasn’t going to cry for the wife he’d lost or the family that had been broken. Not now and not in front of this strong, sunny cowgirl.
“Run,” he said.
“Just the answer I was hoping for. Follow me. I’m going to start slow and then build. This part of the ranch is safe enough for a run.”
She took off and he sat there for a moment stuck in the past until she glanced over her shoulder, her long braid flying out to the side, and smiled at him.
“You coming?”
This ride was just the thing he needed to draw him out of the gloom of the past.
“Hell, yes.”
* * *
Riding had always been Amberley’s escape. But with Will riding by her side, she felt more fenced-in than free. Clay had asked everyone at the Flying E to make Will feel welcome and she tried to tell herself that was all she was doing now. He was just another guest, a city boy, at that. He was here temporarily. She didn’t like to think about her past or about the guy she’d fallen too hard and too quickly for. But there was something about Will that brought that all up.
Mostly, she realized it was superficial. They were both outsiders to her way of life. But where Sam Pascal had been looking for some sort of Western fantasy, it seemed to her that Will was looking...well, for a cyberbully but also for some sort of escape. There was a sadness that lingered in his eyes and when he thought no one was looking she could see that he was battling with his own demons.
Something she battled herself.
She heard him thundering along behind her and glanced over her shoulder. He sat in the saddle well and moved like he’d been born to ride. It was hard to keep him shoved in the city-slicker box when she saw him on horseback. She turned to face the field in front of them, taking a moment just to be glad for this sunny October day.
It was good to be alive.
The air had the nip of fall to it and the sky was so big it seemed to stretch forever. She slowed her horse and waited for Will to catch up to her.
He did in a moment and she glanced over to see a big smile on his face.
“I needed this.”
“Not bad for a city boy,” Amberley told him as they allowed their horses to walk and cool down after their run. “I’m sorry I was judgmental about your skills.”
Will couldn’t help but like his riding guide. She was blunt and honest and it was refreshing. At work everyone treated him like he was the walking wounded and, of course, at home his nanny only discussed Faye. Rightly so. But Amberley didn’t. She’d been treating him like a regular guy.
He hadn’t realized how much he needed to get away and be with people who didn’t know the personal details of his life. There was something freeing
