Beau was standing with the horse—he’d called her Sofie—holding the reins. His face broke out in a huge smile at the sight of her.
“I know. I look silly.”
“Not silly at all. You look . . .”
Alice waited for him to say something like goofy or ridiculous.
Beau shook his head and held out the reins. “Cute. Now come on over and climb up on Sofie.”
Cute? She didn’t know why that made her grin, but it did. She could feel it right there on her face. But it disappeared when she got next to Sofie. In fact, she broke out in a nervous sweat. She’d never been so close to such a large animal.
Beau took her hand and helped her rub the horse’s nose and neck. “Sofie, this is Allie. Allie, this is Sofie.”
“Hello,” Alice said.
“You’ve got nothing to be afraid of,” Beau said. “Sofie’s a sweetie, and I’ll be right here.”
He guided her foot into the stirrup and, with a bit of help from his big, warm hands on her waist, she was up on the horse in a jiffy. Way up on the horse. It felt much higher than she’d imagined, and she got a bit dizzy. “Oh, dear. This is a little scarier than I’d thought it would be.”
“You’re doing great,” Beau said. “Hold on to the saddle horn while I lead you around.”
Beau made a little sound with his tongue, and then he gently pulled on the reins and started walking. Alice couldn’t help it, she yelped—maybe it was a squeal—when Sofie started moving beneath her.
She felt clumsy and stiff, and she clenched the animal with her thighs while white-knuckling the saddle horn.
“Try to relax,” Beau said. “Loosen up your hips. Just sit up straight and hold your shoulders square, but let yourself go a little Elvis from the waist down.”
“Elvis?”
Beau stopped walking and Sofie came to a halt. “Like this,” he said, swaying his hips this way and that, doing a little pelvic thrust and bump and grind, all while wearing a huge grin. “Loosen up, Allie Cat.”
“I don’t think I could do that without hurting myself.”
“Oh, I bet it wouldn’t hurt at all. In fact, I bet it would feel real good.”
“That’s enough out of you, Beau Montgomery.”
With a laugh, Beau resumed leading Alice around. And she did somehow manage to relax a little and loosen up. By the time they’d circled the cabin three times, she was way less stiff. This was fun! Why hadn’t she ever ridden a horse before?
“I hate to be a party pooper,” Beau said when they came around to the porch. “But we’ve got some reading to do.”
Alice sighed. She was having such a good time.
“You know what?” Beau said. “There’s a real nice picnic area down by the dam. It’s a pretty little ride, and I think you’d enjoy it. How about next week, we do our lesson outside?”
She would enjoy that. And she knew for sure that Beau would. He was probably happiest when he was outdoors. “That is a wonderful idea. I like it!”
“It’s a date,” Beau said. “I mean, tutoring session. It’s not actually a date.”
“Of course.”
He came around and held out a hand. “Might I help you off your high horse, darlin’?”
Her heart was pounding. But was it because of the horse? Or because Beau had accidentally referred to their next tutoring session as a date while calling her darlin’?
Chapter
Twelve
Beau had a crick in his neck from glancing back at Alice, but he was afraid of arriving at the dam—they’d stuck to their plan to have this week’s tutoring session there—only to discover that she’d fallen off her horse at some point.
Although he wouldn’t really need his eyes for that. Just his ears. Because Alice seemed to turn into quite the chatterbox when she was nervous, and being on a horse really opened the floodgates.
She’d talked to the horse.
She’d talked to the birds.
She’d talked to the sky.
And she’d talked to Beau.
He couldn’t always make out what she was saying, but she didn’t seem to need any response or prompting. All you had to do to set Allie on autopilot was say, Hey, do you know what kind of tree that is?
She’d go straight into a lecture about invasive species and whatnot, and then Beau was free to think about whatever he wanted, which was the quick glimpse of red panties he’d seen while helping her onto her horse. She’d worn jeans this time, but since they had to ride through some brush to get to the dam, he’d suggested she slip back into the overalls she’d worn last week. He hadn’t peeked at her panties on purpose, but the overalls were huge and loose. He was quite a bit taller than she was, and when he’d looked down, well, there they were.
Lacy. Red. Tiny.
So tiny that they left quite a bit of curvy ass cheek exposed.
He’d looked away quickly, but the image was seared into his brain. And now he could pull it up whenever he wanted, like when Alice was blathering on about—he glanced over his shoulder and listened—deer ticks.
Lacy. Red. Tiny.
Did she always wear tiny little panties? Probably. Except for maybe when she wore none at all. Like maybe for dressy occasions when she didn’t want those pesky visible lines some women were all concerned about. He remembered her at the Boots and Ball Gowns library gala a couple of years ago. That dress had been skin-tight.
Light peachy color. Lots of sparkly beads. Only covered one shoulder. And this was way more detail than a cowboy should be able to recall about a ball gown.
Beau shook his head, but his brain hopped right back on the track. Maybe she didn’t wear panties when she slept. Or maybe she didn’t wear anything at all while she slept.
“Beau! Did you hear me?”
She probably
