Tackling Summer (11 page)

“First, you want to get the cinch hooked around the belly just snug enough so the saddle doesn’t fall off. We’ll tighten more just before we get on. Then you secure the back cinch. It doesn’t have to be too tight. Now for the breast collar.” Chanel pulled a strap free from the saddle horn and stretched the piece of leather around the horse’s barrel chest and buckled it through a ring on the opposite side of the saddle. “And there you go. Now it’s your turn.”

She followed Maddox to Rosalind’s stall and watched as he approached the mare on the left side. He lifted the pad onto the mare’s back and glanced back at Chanel for reassurance on his placement. She nodded with encouragement, so he swung the saddle up. He was a quick study when he wanted to be, and he wasn’t resisting tonight. She only had to coach him when it came to fastening the breast collar, which drew her in close. Her senses were overwhelmed with the scent of leather and Maddox’s unique blend of detergent and warm male. His thick fingers were a bit clumsy working the tongue of the buckle through the hole in the strap, but he grinned in triumph once it was secure. That smile lit a blaze in Chanel’s stomach that almost knocked the air right out of her. With a sharp inhale, she stood and backed out of the stall.

“Nice work,” she mumbled as she started fumbling around on a hook, looking for a couple of bridles. “Now lead her out of here, and I’ll bring you a bridle.”

Without a word, Maddox pulled the end of the lead rope to release the slipknot tethering Rosalind to the manger and exited the barn. Finally locating her own bridle and an extra for Maddox, Chanel grabbed the roan, tucking his lead rope into her waistband. Her nerves were too raw for a lesson on bridling, so she slipped both bits into the horses’ mouths. She just wanted to get mounted and go for a ride. The rocking motion of a horse never failed to steady her.

“Before we get on, we need to tighten our cinches. We don’t want our saddles slipping around and dumping us on our butts.” Chanel tightened the girth around her gelding, nodding at Maddox to do the same.

 
He gave the strap a strong tug that made Rosalind fart and leap to the side. “Hold still!” Maddox hollered at the horse.

“Whoa! I think you overdid it there. She’s telling you it’s too tight.” Chanel stepped between Maddox and the mare.

“How do you know? I suppose you speak horse too.” His nostrils were flared, face red. This was not going to work until he settled down and conjured some patience.
 

Eyebrows drawn into a frown, Chanel shot him a look before loosening the cinch a couple of notches.
 

“Did my horse fart and jump around like I goosed him when I tightened his cinch? Now feel this.” Chanel took Maddox’s hand and guided it to the strap circling Rosalind’s belly. She knew she should have had him feel hers before turning him loose, but she’d been discombobulated at the moment. Her skin prickled as it touched Maddox’s, and he jerked his hand away like he felt it too.

Maddox forked his fingers through his hair. “Okay, the horse is dressed. Let’s ride. Isn’t that the point of all this?”

Chanel led Rosalind forward a few steps. “Don’t forget to lead your horse forward a bit to make sure it’s comfortable. Some of them will buck if things aren’t sitting right. Okay, get on. I’ll adjust your stirrups.” Chanel made a mental note to tell her father to designate this saddle as Maddox’s for the rest of the season. She didn’t want to go through these adjustments again. Forcing herself into autopilot, Chanel pretended she couldn’t feel the muscles through Maddox’s jeans as she moved his legs out of the way to set the stirrups to the proper length. He was just another dude at the stable where she worked during the school year.

 
“Can you stand in them?” Chanel asked taking a step back to study his legs.

He stood.

“Good. Now, think of the reins as your steering wheel. If you want to go right, press the left rein onto her neck, like this.” Chanel gathered the reins in her hand in front of the saddle horn and guided the horse from the ground. Just as the leather touched her neck, Rosalind began to turn her head. “If you want her to do more than look that way, you need to squeeze your legs to tell her to go.”

Maddox took the reins and squeezed. Rosalind walked in a slow circle.

“Now gently pull back on the reins and sit heavy in your saddle. That’s your brakes. Make sure to stop squeezing.”

Maddox did as she said, and the horse stopped.

“Great. Let me get on, and we’ll take a short ride in the meadow.”

Turning her back to him, Chanel swung onto the red horse. She swore she could feel Maddox undressing her with his eyes but told herself to stop daydreaming. Signaling her horse to move out, Chanel took deep breaths and focused on where they were headed.
 

A loud, “Whoa!” drew her attention back to her student. Chanel spun Pete around in time to see Rosalind trotting toward the barn door with Maddox bouncing helplessly on her back.

 
“Pull back on the reins and sit down!” Chanel called, but it was too late. Rosalind continued into the barn. Thankfully Maddox had the good sense to duck at the last minute so as not to smack his head on the doorframe.
 

Snickering to herself, Chanel cantered back to the barn and jumped off Pete. She found Rosalind in her stall, her face buried in the grain box, and Maddox sitting astride her cussing at the top of his lungs.

“Okay, calm down,” Chanel said when he took a breath. She led Pete into his stall and tied him to the rail. “I’m sorry, I put too much on you too soon.”

She strode into the stall with Rosalind and Maddox and tugged on the horse’s bridle. “Not cool, Ros.” Chanel backed the mare out of the stall and slipped the reins over her head so she could lead her. “You better duck,” she said to Maddox. “We’re going for a walk.”

“No. Way.” Maddox swung his leg over the saddle horn and made to jump down, but his left foot got hung up in the stirrup. He fell from Rosalind’s back and crashed onto the packed dirt barn floor, his foot still in the stirrup.

Rosalind turned her head and calmly stared at the man lying beside her.
 

Chanel gaped at him for a moment before collecting herself. She’d never seen anyone nose dive from a horse quite like that before. At a loss for the right words, she went for the wrong ones, “And that’s why we wear cowboy boots.”

CHAPTER NINE

Late Saturday afternoon found Maddox restless. His work done for the day, he prowled around the bunkhouse. There was no way he could spend another weekend sitting around this place. He hadn’t left the ranch since that trip to the grocery store, which reminded him, he needed to give Christine his list. He’d sweet-talked her into grabbing a few things for him when she made her weekly trip to town. It would tick Chanel off to know that, and for some sick reason it gave him a hint of satisfaction.
 

Jerry, when he was around, wasn’t much of a conversationalist, so they spent their evenings watching sports or NASCAR. Accustomed to having people around all the time, he was starting to feel like he was going crazy. Sometimes during the week he’d shoot the shit with David on the porch, but when the weekend came, the other man split for town to see his girlfriend. Fritz was nice, but Maddox had noticed he slipped away a lot when the day was done. He couldn’t figure out where the mustached man disappeared to—his truck never left the drive—and normally wouldn’t care, but he didn’t have much else to think about. Except Chanel. And thoughts of her just put him in a bad mood.

They’d tried one more riding lesson the night after he hit the dirt, but he’d walked out before attempting to mount the cranky mare. It seemed Chanel and the stupid horse were in cahoots. When he entered Rosalind’s stall, she’d pinned back her ears and took a snap at him with big yellow teeth. Chanel had let out one of those irritating snorts she always had when she thought something was especially funny, and he was done. He told her he didn’t care that Mitch expected him to help trail yearlings in a few weeks. They’d have to do it without him.
 

The sound of boots on the porch next door brought Maddox to the front window. He saw David disappearing into his own bunkhouse. Maybe he could bum a ride to town with him. He’d figure out how to get home on his own. Right now, all that mattered was getting
out.

***

“Why do you stay out here?” Maddox asked as David’s dented red pickup bumped over the slim track leading them toward the slightly more maintained main road. Maddox longed to sink into his Miata and tear down a smooth freeway.

David gave him a sideways glance, the corner of his mouth twitched up when he said, “Whaddya mean?”

Maddox tried to sit a little heavier in his seat, so he didn’t bounce so much. David drove faster than Mitch or Chanel, making the ride even rougher. “I don’t know. You don’t seem to love living out here, and you run to town as soon as you have some extra time.”

David was silent for a minute, chewing on a toothpick, one hand lazily draped on the steering wheel. Maddox started to think he wasn’t going to answer.

“For one, my girlfriend, Faith, is in town.”

“She never comes out to visit?” Maddox asked.

When they emerged out of the pines onto Haystack Road, the dipping sun blasted them in the face. In unison, they flipped down their visors.

“Sometimes you just need to get out of there,” David said. “You know what I mean.”

“Boy, do I.”

“And why I stick around. I’m a rancher. It’s what I do. My dad, Mitch’s older brother,” David looked over at Maddox like he was trying to make a point, “was half owner of the Double O. I’m sure you know he died when I was a kid. I gotta make sure the place keeps running.”

“Looks like Mitch has it under control.”

David flicked the toothpick out the window, shifted in his seat. “All of us kids have a stake in the place. I’m not leavin’ my land. Someday I’ll take my share and do things my way.”

Maddox couldn’t figure out how that would work and couldn’t imagine there being too many ways to run a ranch. You chase cows around and feed them. He assumed at some point you sold some because money had to come from somewhere. “Wouldn’t you all still be on top of each other? Why don’t you have Mitch pay you out for your share, and you set up shop somewhere else?”

The expression Maddox saw on David’s face, and the way the other man shook his head told him he didn’t get it. And Maddox would admit he didn’t, so he decided to talk about something else.

“How come you don’t hang out with your mom and sister more?” He’d been wondering about the cool treatment David gave his mother at branding camp. Everyone else in the family seemed to enjoy each other’s company.

“I didn’t know we were playing twenty questions tonight.”

Maddox conceded he sounded like a chick with his interrogation. He hadn’t had enough to occupy his mind lately. Usually, when he and David had a beer on the porch, they talked sports. That seemed to be it for common ground, but it worked.

“Sorry, man,” Maddox mumbled.

David tipped his white straw cowboy hat back on his head and rubbed his free hand over his face. “Things got complicated when Dad and Margo, that’s Chanel’s mom, died. I don’t know. Guess everybody forgot where they fit in around here.”

A liquid chill filled Maddox’s veins. Chanel’s mother was dead. That explained a lot about her. Shame for thinking the woman had run off quickly followed. And was David saying…?
 

“Mitch and your mom, they hooked up, didn’t they?”

David shot him a glare.

“Easy there. Honest question.” Maddox held his hands in front of him as if to ward off a blow.

“I don’t like to talk about it. Anyhow, I stay around to keep an eye on things. That’s how Dad would’ve wanted it. I go to town to see Faith. Someday, if I can ever figure out how to get out of the bunkhouse, I’ll marry her and bring her out.”

Nodding in response, Maddox held his tongue until they got to town. There was some sort of power struggle amongst the Ebers. He wondered if anyone was aware of it outside of David.

His phone started dinging as they hit the city limits: texts from Hollace, several girls, and a few other friends. Apparently, the news of his whereabouts had spread. Maddox was sure many of his teammates had relished in sharing it. He ran his thumb over the screen, debating over to whom he should reply. Having the phone in his hand again felt good. It was a comfort to be linked to the rest of the world. Despite that, he wasn’t overly excited to converse with most of these people. That was a weird feeling.

David pulled his truck into a parking spot beside the Leaning Camel Bar and Grill. A peeling sign depicted a dizzy looking camel propped up against a palm tree. It looked as out of place in Clifford’s Bend as Maddox felt.

 
“You need a lift home tomorrow?” David rested his forearm on the steering wheel.
 

“Nah, I’m good. I’ll figure something out,” Maddox said.
 

“I’ll be over at Faith’s until after dinner tomorrow. She’s on the corner of Liberty and First. Come on over if you need to.”

“Thanks,” Maddox said and slammed the truck door. He watched David rumble away. There was no doubt in his mind that Lila would be willing to drive him home at some point. He was hoping it would be tomorrow morning rather than later tonight. Looking down at his phone again, he dashed off a text to Hollace, informing him that he didn’t have cell service unless he was in town and very limited access to the Internet at the ranch. After spending entire days with Chanel, the last thing he wanted to do was go beg for an online fix at her house. Then he switched off the device. He didn’t want to be disturbed during his date with Lila.

He entered through the solid white door with the “No Minors” sign rather than through the nicer looking wood door with the window on the other end of the building that led to the family friendly restaurant. Lila was waiting for him at the bar with a half empty glass of beer. Her dark hair was curling seductively to her bra line. She gave him a bright smile when she saw him. Her eyes didn’t seem as tired tonight.