Read Online Unlucky in Love by Maggie McGinnis - Free Book Online

stable, and she couldn’t rip her eyes away from the sight. The horse carried himself with a haughty step, tossing his head left and right as if to say the bridle wasn’t his choice, but he’d put up with it for Gunnar’s sake. Maybe he and Goldie were related.
    “Goldie in a mood?” he asked as he looped his horse’s reins over a fence rail.
    “Do horses have moods?” Lexi honestly didn’t know.
    “Oh, definitely.”
    “Then yes. I think she missed her morning coffee.”
    Gunnar reached for Goldie’s bridle and brought her face close to his. “Behave.” He spoke gently, but with an authority that she apparently responded to, because she finally held still. He nodded at Lexi, indicating the hanging strap with his chin. “Go ahead and finish up. I’ve got her.”
    Lexi reached under Goldie’s stomach, tensing when the horse stomped again. But she finally managed to grab hold of the leather and pull it through the buckle, tightening it to the best of her ability.
    There. Take that, bratty-pants.
    “Ready!” she said, hoping she was actually right—hoping she wasn’t about to end the morning landing on her nose.
    Gunnar pointed to her head. “Helmets are in the tack room. I’ll hold onto Goldie while you go find one that fits.”
    “Right. Of course.”
Duh.
    As she tried on helmets, she glanced out the window at the corral, then felt her hands freeze as Gunnar quickly unhooked Goldie’s saddle, settled it on her back, and pulled the straps tight.
    Apparently she was a complete hack at saddling. Excellent. This boded
really
well for the rest of the parts of this riding thing.
    She found a helmet that fit snugly, then waited for a few extra seconds to allow the heat in her cheeks to dissipate. She obviously wasn’t fooling Gunnar with her
of course I know what I’m doing here
act, and she had a feeling he was about to call her on it.
    But when she got back out to the corral, he stood in the same position she’d left him in, and he made no mention at all of her saddling job. Instead, he smiled, handed her the reins, and pointed to an overturned bucket in the middle of the corral.
    “Need a bucket?”
    Lexi looked at him, then the bucket, then Goldie. What in the world would she need a bucket for? Especially one that was upside down and empty?
    “Um, no. I’m good. Thank you.”
    He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t question her. “Okay, then. I was thinking we’d do a few rounds here in the corral before we head out to the trail. Just so you and Goldie can get a feel for each other.”
    “Okay. Sounds good.” She faked a confident smile until he turned toward the gate where he’d tied his horse, and then she swore internally as she realized just how far off the ground the stirrup was. She’d never been a gymnast, but even with abnormal flexibility, there wasn’t any way she was getting on this horse without an elevator.
    She looked around the corral, desperately wondering if there was anything she could use to give herself a boost.
    Then she spotted the bucket.
    Oh-h.
    Feeling flames lick her cheeks once again, she pulled Goldie to the middle of the corral and tried to circle her around to a position where she could actually step up on the bucket and mount. Gunnar must have known there was no way she could get on, but he hadn’t said anything—had just let her figure it out for herself while he pretended to be busy on the other side of his horse.
    Goldie apparently saw her efforts as another challenge to her authority, so every time Lexi turned her in a circle and positioned her perfectly next to the bucket, she’d stand stock-still until Lexi lifted her left foot to hoist herself up. Then she’d move—just enough. The insufferable horse was having a flipping field day here at Lexi’s expense. After she’d tried three times, missing the stirrup each time, Lexi was about to call mercy when finally,
finally
Goldie stood still as her foot hit the stirrup.
    Sure it wouldn’t last, Lexi