He squeezed me tighter as he placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “Hey, hey….shh… it’s okay. You didn’t do a damn thing wrong. This is on him.” His arm trailed up my own as his fingers tipped my chin up so I was looking at his gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. “You are the bravest woman I know. And it was good getting out while you could.”
My tears kept falling, soaking into his shirt. I felt scared and I wanted to run so badly, but I remembered my promise to try.
Beau’s whispered words held me back, “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
“So, you told her everything did ya? Finally confessed you were in love with her, but now you aren’t sure if she is could ever give herself over to you and truly love again? Is that what I’m hearing?”
I looked over at Remington as he was helping me dig holes for fencing. We needed some new fencing at the back of the pasture so we’d been up early and at it. “That’s about the whole of it. I can tell she wants to be with me. But there’s also a part of her that’s scared to death to be tied to anyone again after what happened with that bastard. I don’t blame her. She’s damn brave to leave like she did. She’s been letting me in slowly, but other times she clams up and shuts down like I’d use her words against her.”
“Yeah, well that’s a woman for you. You make one mistake and it haunts you for the rest of your life, making you feel as confused as a field mouse in an ocean. One minute she likes me, the next she hates my guts again.” He jammed the shovel into the hole a little harder than last time.
“You thinkin’ bout Faith when you say that?”
Remington snorted and I knew that was more than likely a yes.
I didn’t know much about what had happened between Remington and Faith. I heard rumors, but I didn’t believe most of the things that spread through this small town. And he refused to talk about it.
I didn’t blame him. Rem was a proud man. We’d been best friends since high school and if he didn’t wanna talk ‘about something then he wasn’t going to.
“Can I ask something?”
“I suppose. No one else out here to ask.”
“Okay, smart ass. You’re not gonna tell me what happened, but if Faith decided to give you another chance would you take it?”
“Yeah, I would. Why’d you ask?”
“Because all you do is mope around and grouch at people. I miss my friend, man. You’d pick on us, but at least we’d know you’re okay. This person you’ve become. Standoffish. Rude. This ain’t you, man. This girl has got you so frazzled you don’t know what to do with yourself.”
“I know, Beau. I just don’t know what to do about her.”
I walked to the truck and then returned with two bottles of water, handing him one. “Well, here’s to women who drive us crazy and figuring out what they want.” He tipped his bottle and tapped mine.
Just as we were finishing up an hour later my eyes traveled the line of sight across the field to where Rem was looking. I noticed her immediately.
“Whatcha lookin’ for buddy?”
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head and getting back to packing up our things. Nothing indeed. My friend was head over heels in love and he had no clue.
We got the truck back to the barn and had unloaded the rest of our supplies. I needed to get working with Zeus and Acer. They were progressing about the same. I’d been able to put a saddle on both of them at this point. Next came more sensitization and groundwork before I could even think about getting on their backs.
For the last couple weeks, I’d desensitized them to ropes on their heads, feet, back, and butt. So now that we had a saddle on, I wanted to make sure they were still okay with all that before adding a plastic bag. The scariest thing a horse could come across is a plastic bag. So, if they aren’t afraid of it, then I felt comfortable that they’d be okay to ride.
I moved the plastic bag in front of me as I led Acer around the ring. I was building his courage before making him face the plastic bag. I was going to lead as he followed and I couldn’t help but think about how Cassidy Mae and I were kind of doing the same thing. I was leading her along and she was building confidence and trust following me.
We worked for a while just making sure he was completely okay with everything we’d gone over so far. I called Rhett over to give me a little help with the next part.
“Hey boss, whatcha need?”
“You wanna
