Her head inclines toward me slightly, big round eye assessing me. I decide she likes me. I decide she’s smart.
These guys all think they’re tough and can outmuscle a horse, but they’re wrong.
I put my foot into the stirrup before pressing down, and she still doesn’t move.
“Red, don’t you fucking dare.”
I shake my head, but don’t look behind me at Cade. He’s only sort of my boss.
He doesn’t feel much like a boss lately. And I’m difficult to boss around at the best of times—ask my dickhead brother.
With one deep breath, I swing a leg over the filly’s narrow back, sinking gently into the saddle.
“Woman.”
I snort. Cade just womaned me. I want to laugh, but I can feel the horse’s back curled up beneath me.
She’s standing still—but not for long. She’s coiling all that energy to go straight up, so I open one rein wide, turning her head in toward my leg and give her a firm kick before she can bunch up any further.
Instantly, she’s hopping and kicking, but I squeeze my thighs and drop my heels, keeping her in a tight circle so she can’t explode.
“What a good baby,” I coo at her, even though she’s tossing herself around like a total fool. But not enough to loosen me off her. I refuse to fail in front of these guys. I especially refuse to fail in front of Cade.
He’ll be all annoying and I told you so about it and my ego honestly can’t handle that type of blow where he’s concerned.
I urge the filly forward, driving with my seat, to send that momentum ahead of us rather than up in the air. And in under a minute, she’s dropped the shenanigans and is cantering around the round pen.
It’s not pretty, but it’s not a bronc show either. I hear the hoots and hollers of the guys around me—the whistles and the “yeehaws”—but I keep her going, letting her tire herself out. Letting her run until she settles and drops her head.
It takes my all to not turn to Cade and stick my tongue out at him.
You’re twenty-five, you’re twenty-five, you’re twenty-five.
He turns me into an idiot. A bold, drooling, showboating idiot. He’s a challenge and look at me—I love a challenge.
Eventually the filly breaks to a trot, and then a walk, and I reach forward to run a hand up her sweaty neck.
“Not bad, city girl!” One of the guys calls out, and I peek up, grinning in his general direction, before hopping off.
“Better than any of you fuckin’ dress-up cowboys managed,” Cade bites out, seething from beneath his cowboy hat.
He looks pissed, and the flutter in my stomach at how imposing he is has me wishing he’d take some of that frustration out on me.
“I’m gonna ride like Willa when I grow up!” Luke has climbed up to the top panel of the fence and leans over, eyes glowing with excitement. “She made that filly her bitch!”
“Luke!” I say right as Cade barks, “Lucas Eaton.”
The little boy’s eyes widen as he drops off the fence, like he knows he’s stepped in it now. He takes off into the barn, tiny cowboy boots thumping against the dirt road, without a backward glance.
“You taught him that.” Cade points at me as I lead the filly over to one of the guys.
“Yeah?” I quirk a brow and head toward the man I started out not liking but who I now can’t stop thinking about.
Fantasizing about.
From my side of the fence, I lean close, dropping my voice. “I’m pretty sure of the two of us, you’re the one with the filthy mouth, Cade.”
His hand shoots between the metal panels, fingers hooking through my belt loop to hold me still. To keep me there, as he breathes down on to me. The whoosh of each exhale caresses my cheek. “You have no fuckin’ idea, Red.”
With one little tug on my jeans, he jostles me and then steps away, spinning one hand up above his shoulders and shouting at the guys. “Let’s go assholes. Break time is over. You’ve been shown up by a prissy city girl. Now prove to me I shouldn’t fire your useless asses.”
I snort. The man really has a poetic way with words.
As I scoot through the fence near the barn where I saw Luke run, one man exclaims toward my retreating form, “God fuckin’ damn. The view out here has never been so good.”
My lips quirk, and I turn to give him a wink, but with two easy steps Cade’s arm darts out and shoves him off the top of the fence where he’d been sitting. The cowboy lands on his knees with a loud bark of disbelieving laughter.