“Because you were going to get bed sores sitting on that sofa feeling sorry for yourself if I let you.”
“I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself.” Her skate hit the edge of the ice and she instinctively grabbed Kas’s arms for support. “I’m healing. Something you seem to forget or you wouldn’t have had this insane notion of me going ice skating. With one skate, no less. Who does this?”
He laughed and puffs of white mist escaped from his lips. “Me. And since you came anyway, you must have wanted to or else you’d still be in your pajamas on the sofa.”
“You gave me no choice. Remember? You were going to throw me over your shoulder.”
“I can still do that, you know, if you don’t behave.”
She was tempted. But wasn’t sure if she’d remain upright.
Kas slowly skated backwards and held her arms as she held his. Tabby’s heart hammered in her chest as they left the relative safety of the bench and then the snow bank that she hadn’t realized until now had given her some measure of comfort.
At first Kas moved slow. “Don’t look down. If you look down, you won’t enjoy how it looks when we get moving.”
“If I don’t look down at my feet, I’ll fall.”
“I won’t let you.”
They were just words. But she loved hearing them.
Kas began to skate faster. At first, it was just a quick push to help him move as he skated backwards. But when she didn’t protest, he continued and she felt the wind rushing past her until she had to lean forward to keep herself from falling over. She rested her cast up against the side of her skate, and quickly stumbled.
“Don’t tighten up. Just let your feet move. Don’t hold back,” he said. “I have you. Nothing is going to happen to you. I promise.”
His words sounded so nice. He spoke them quietly, but there was strength behind those words that matched his muscle. She could feel it beneath her fingers as she gripped his shoulders. And she liked that too. She had the urge to look down at her feet again, but she knew that it would be a mistake even knowing that Kas would catch her.
It felt as if the landscape moved around her instead of the two of them skating on a pond.
“Look. We’re doing a figure eight.” Kas smiled down at her. The tip of his nose was red from the cold, but the light in his eyes shown bright and warm. It was different than what he’d been like in her kitchen. But just as potent.
“Well, just sign me up for the Olympics then,” she teased.
“I knew you were an overachiever.”
“Now you’re complaining?”
“Never. I expect great things from you, Tabby Swanson.”
After a few minutes of silent skating, they fell into rhythm. The sun felt warm on her face despite the cold wind blowing across the pond. She was further warmed by the company of the man she was with.
She understood how he’d talked her into going skating with only one good foot to do it. It was him. She enjoyed being in his company. She realized now that she’d been waiting for Kas to come by the ranch, even though there was no reason for him to see her. Whatever business they could have had was now over.
Tabby was by no means a quitter. She’d picked herself up off the ground hundreds of times since her parents’ deaths. She’d been lost and she found herself again. She always found her way.
But since Levon’s accident, and then Tenterhook’s accident, she was having a hard time getting her footing again. She couldn’t get the significance of the horseshoe out of her mind and the idea that bad luck was following her. Levon was struck in the head with a thrown horseshoe that hit him in just the right spot to cause death. And then Tenterhook’s thrown shoe during competition couldn’t just be coincidence, right? She’d probably think so if not for the horseshoe over the crossbuck door being turned upside down, and all the problems Trip was having this season trying to breed the horses.
“You’re thinking too much,” Kas said, peering down at her with an intense stare. “That’s not allowed. Not here.”
“Since when are you in charge of the rules?”
“Since I said so.” His smile widened making his blue eyes even brighter beneath the blue Montana sky.
“I can see why you’re not a lawyer,” she said with a chuckle.
“You’d be a good one. A litigator. You love to argue.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t go to college. My parents had only been gone a few months. My refuge was Tenterhook. It helped being with him, working with him and learning to ride.”
“Good medicine?”
“Yeah. You must have gone to college, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you go for? Business?”
“Law.”
She laughed. “You did not.”
He chuckled with her as they made a turn. She was surprised how well she was keeping herself upright.
“Actually, I did think about law school. For about ten minutes. I went into engineering. But that didn’t work out so I ended up graduating with a sports management degree. I knew almost immediately I’d made a mistake. I didn’t want to want to be coach or a scout for the next rising star in sports. So I went into business. It’s not my favorite thing, but I’m good at it.”
“What’s your favorite thing?”
“Do you really want to know?”
She nodded.
In an instant, he let go of her arms and began to skate away toward the far edge of the pond. She glanced around and realized he left her somewhere in the middle of the frozen pond by herself with no one to hold onto and nothing to keep her secure. Panic filled her, and yet when she looked at Kas skating as fast as the wind, with his face lifted just so to the sky, it was enough to make her forget how vulnerable she was.
“You wanted to be a figure skater?” she asked, holding her arms out on both sides of
