Read Online Unafraid (Beachwood Bay) by Melody Grace - Free Book Online

have horses without a little horseshit.” We’re moving through the livestock section, where ranchers and farmers have their best cattle on display. Kids cluster around a petting pen of baby goats and piglets, and up ahead, there’s a large sand ring getting raked out from the day’s rodeo events.
    I drift closer to the paddock. Someone is leading a horse out into the ring, slowly circling in the enclosure. The horse is a young, spirited chestnut: she pulls at the leading rope, and shies, ducking away, but the handler doesn’t seem deterred. His face is hidden by a baseball cap, and I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I watch the way he moves with the horse, walking steadily alongside and carefully unspooling the lead, until she relaxes and is trotting in a circle around him.
    I never spent much time with horses. Round here, it’s like a rite of passage for some girls, the way they fall in love with their ponies as a practice run for when they fall in love with boys. Me? I skipped straight to boys. But watching the handler sweet-talk this mare into submitting to him, I can’t help but be amazed by the strange communion between man and beast, like he’s talking a secret language with his words and movements only she can understand.
    Whatever he does, the mare seems to be trusting him. Then suddenly, a burst of music blares from a ride nearby.
    The horse shies away, dragging the handler forward. I gasp, but he quickly regains his footing. The horse rears up, neighing in distress. There’s a rush of activity near me, men moving into place to go open the paddock gates and get the animal under control, but the handler motions for them to wait.
    I expect him to back away from the danger, but instead he moves towards the skittish animal, palms open. The mare is showing the whites of her eyes, snorting and shifting, ready to bolt, but he walks slowly towards it, not slowing for a second. He murmurs words I can’t make out, soothing, certain, until finally the jittery animal calms, snorting and pawing at the ground.
    I let out the breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holding in.
    The handler laughs. “She’s a beauty alright,” he calls over to the men watching from the side of the ring. “I’ll take her.”
    “There you are.” Garrett circles back. “I wondered where you…” He sees something over my head and brightens. “Right on schedule.”
    “What is?” I bite off another huge tuft of candy and turn to see the handler hand off the mare and climb over the paddock fence in an easy motion. He pulls off his baseball cap, and for the first time, I see his face.
    Hunter.
    My heart leaps. I almost didn’t recognize him without his preppy clothes, but dressed down for the ranch like this in faded jeans and a sky-blue T-shirt, he looks rugged and manly. Drop-dead, panty-twistingly gorgeous.
    Fuck.
    I spin back to Garrett, who’s watching me with a smirk.
    “This is a set-up?” I cry. “What the hell?”
    Garrett leaps back, hands up in surrender. “You didn’t give the guy a chance.”
    “But I told you—”
    “That you like him! I thought I’d help you guys out.” Garrett at least has the decency to look apologetic, but I can’t tell if that’s because he’s sorry about his massive betrayal, or he’s worried I’m going to take my cotton candy and choke him half to death.
    “This is so not OK,” I growl, advancing. “I can’t believe you’d just go behind my back and—”
    “This is my fault.” Hunter’s voice comes, and then his hands are on my shoulders, holding me back from inflicting serious bodily harm on Garrett. “I asked him to get you here. I can be very persuasive, you know.”
    “You mean, annoying.”
    I wrench free from him and turn. My breath catches as I take him in, up close: the blue of his old T-shirt bringing out all the bright laughter in his eyes. I feel the shiver of anticipation and attraction rise up in me again, but I fight the pull and muster my best