Read Online The One Place by Laurel Curtis - Free Book Online Page B

and ready to go.
    “Um, horses?”
    “Yep.”
    “Am I going to get any more explanation than that?”
    He just shrugged. “Figured this would be easiest and the most fun. We’re gonna need ‘em later at the Anderson place anyway.”
    “Weren’t you worried that I might not know how to ride?”
    “Nah. You don’t seem like you’re scared of much.”
    Well, he got that right. When it came to myself, I was never scared of much of anything.
    “Alright, well lucky for you, I can ride. It’s been awhile, but you never forget.” I had ridden quite a bit in Georgia where I grew up. Nothing intense, but we used to do trail rides and a little team sorting for fun.
    “Nope.”
    “Okay, who am I riding today?”
    Both of his eyebrows shot up, reminding me that I was talking to a male. Jesus.
    “What horse! Geez! Get your head out of the gutter!”
    He chuckled, took the reins of a bay quarter-horse, and pulled him over to me. He was pretty short and stocky with a white star on his face. “This is Hatch. He’s a gelding, he’s not too temperamental, and we had a talk about him bein’ real careful with you.”
    I stepped over to Hatch and held the back of my hand out for him to smell me (A horse gets to know you by smell.). As he got familiar with me I turned my hand over and rubbed it up and down the middle of his face. He leaned his face into my hand and seemed to savor the attention.
    “I think you and me are going to get along just fine, Hatch.” Tuck watched closely as I bonded with his horse. He looked like he liked what he was watching but snapped his face back to it’s mocking smirk and said, “Ok. If you girls are done gabbin’ we better get movin’.”
    I ignored him and kept murmuring to Hatch, “Don’t you listen to him buddy. He’s just a grumpy old man. If you’re a girl, you’re the most handsome girl I’ve ever seen.”
    I vaguely noted Tuck chuckling again as he grabbed my waist with both hands, picked me up, and set me up on Hatch’s back. I was startled by the abrupt movement but more so by how good it felt to have my waist wrapped up in Tuck’s hands. Not to mention, he lifted me like I weighed nothing. I wasn’t heavy, but I wasn’t a feather by any stretch of the imagination.
    I pulled myself together and settled myself in the saddle, taking the reins from Tuck and putting my feet in the stirrups. I was just finishing adjusting and got to watch as Tuck walked around my horse to the one next to me (Another gelding, this one sorrel in color with a blaze on his face), grabbed the saddle horn, and swung himself up into the saddle. Without using the stirrups or anything. God, that was hot. I did not tell him this. Instead, I did what I did best and teased him.
    “Show off.”
    The end of Tuck’s lips twitched and he said, “Only for you, darlin’.”
    Darling. Not even knowing what hit me, I subconsciously reacted to that word. I could hear Andrew’s voice running through my head. You’re going to learn your lesson one of these days, Darling.
    Noticing my unease, Tuck tried to calm me, “Relax, Babe. Hatch can feel you get tense and he’s gonna react to it.”
    I tried to calm myself and said quietly, “Please just don’t call me that.”
    Tuck immediately agreed because he could tell how much it had gotten to me. “No problem, Babe. I don’t ever wanna do anythin’ that’s gonna make you react like that.” He paused to look me over for a few seconds. “You ok?”
    “I’m fine,” I lied. Because I would be fine, I just never knew how well trained my body was to disliking that word. I guess people had used it with me before, but never another man.
    Ready to move on from this and have fun doing something different for the day, I made an effort to get us back on target. “So where are we headed?”
    Tuck took my cue and dropped it. We both picked up our reins, gave our horses a bump with our heals and moved out. “First thing we gotta do is go over to Mrs. Tanner’s