I knew why Cassidy Mae was back in town. Not the precise reason, but I had a gut feeling that I wouldn’t be happy about it and I’d been right. She’d been hurt. Abused possibly. I’d seen it with my rescue horses time and time again. It gutted me to the core. My bright, cheery Cassidy was gone. In her place, this self-conscious, scared woman. Someone had broken my girl and I wanted to tear him to shreds.
Since the moment I saw her standing in my barn yesterday, I wanted her. It was like coming home all those years ago. Rea and Cass stood in the barn messing with the horses. The flashbacks were so familiar, yet so far away.
I wanted to chase her, to tell her everything I hadn’t when we were younger, but now wasn’t the right time. I hadn’t a clue why she was home, but the last thing I wanted to do was scare her off. I sat down on a hay bale and rubbed my hands down my face in frustration.
Cassidy Mae had always been a short-circuit to my brain and obviously nothing had changed. Her shoulder length black hair always reminded me of Selene, goddess of the moon. It was soft and shiny. Her emerald green eyes could cause a man to lose his breath and forget his words. And when she smiled it was like Hyperion looking down from the sky telling you better things were a comin’. It was a promise. My goddess had come home to me.
A rush of disgust hit me, I’d been thinking about her for years and here I was again, lusting over her. Lusting over her when it was clear that was the very last thing she needed.
The timing was shit, but the reality was this. She was home. She’d come home and I wasn’t letting her go again. Not this time. I wouldn’t rush her. Wouldn’t push her, but never again would I ever let her go. Someone had taken something from her. I could see it written plainly all over her face and I intended to work my way back into Cassidy Mae’s life far enough that she wouldn’t ever want to leave.
Every time she flinched it made me madder than a hornet. All I wanted to do was wrap her up in my arms and reassure her that no one would ever, ever hurt my sweet girl again. I wanted to keep her safe. Tell her she was mine and I would protect her. I’d waited years not knowing if I would ever have the chance to tell her how I felt and now she was here. Back in Moonshine Springs. Away from whatever she was running from at the moment and back in my life.
I wanted to swoop in and save her.
Take away her pain.
Make her feel like she was the most important person in my life. I wanted to convince her that it was always me, and from here on out it would only be me. She was mine and I was not letting her go. I’d never looked at another woman for anything other than meaningless sex. One thing I knew. I could wait just a little longer… She was going to be my forever, and I would be hers. I just had to get to her trust me first.
I felt renewed this morning waking up. I had a new purpose. Find out what had happened to my sweet girl and make her fall in love with me. I’d been up bright and early at the butt crack of dawn. My days were long and tiring, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I loved this ranch, these animals, my job. I’d hit the lottery.
Starting with feeding hay and grain, I’d then moved on to mucking stalls and turning out horses for the day. Rhett and Jameson had come down to help with the newer colt that had been dropped off for breaking.
Breaking.
A word I hated.
I’d never called it breaking a young horse to ride. To me, it was art. Horse and rider coming to terms with each other. Learning to communicate. Learning to trust. I’d seen many colts and fillies broken the hard way in my years on the farm and I promised myself I’d never use those tactics. They seemed inhumane. I wanted the horse to come to me willingly, to learn. To want to be taught. To want to be a part of this team we were creating.
I’d always used a monkey-see, monkey-do method with my old paint horse, Tucker. I wanted this colt to see how I treated Tucker and how he reacted to me. To show him that my horse didn’t fear what I asked of him. It’s a surefire way to make sure a young’un wants to follow in those footsteps. Once you’ve gotten that horses respect and trust only then can you move on to halter training.
This afternoon had been a success. The colt, Acer, as the owner had called him, had picked it up fairly quickly. Standing quietly, observing what I did with Tucker. Pretty soon, he’d been following us around the corral. I’d given him time to come to terms with what was going on. I didn’t force or rush him. I’d let Tucker show him that a horse-human team wasn’t a scary thing.
He took to the halter fairly quickly. Most colts were stubborn, never taking the halter for the first time. I had patience and I had waited. I spent time over the last several hours running my hand over him, brushing his face, and allowing him to sniff the halter. Adding in a sugar cube or two the whole time, letting him know what he was doing was good. Reassuring him. We
