“Okay,” he said, his voice shaky. “That’s what I want to hear.”
“Let’s just trot a bit and then we’ll canter. Give him a little kick with your heel a bit farther back than you normally would, just on your right side. That’s how he knows to canter. Stay upright and move your hips with the motion. It will be like a smooth jog, and then we’ll race after that.”
His eyes shot open even wider.
“Relax, we’ll gallop a little while we have this nice open space,” I said, giving him a reassuring smile.
I let Dancer pick up the pace. I could see in my peripheral vision that Nate had done the same. “This is fun!” he shouted to me. “I want to run.”
“Let the reins out but stay firm. Tap him with both heels.”
Tequila was actually just following me but it was good that Nate was learning to give the proper commands. There was a fleeting moment when I looked over at him and saw joy on his face. I wanted that feeling and thought maybe I could allow myself a little of it once in a while.
I found it uncomfortable and distracting for Dancer to run while I was holding the fishing rods, so I slowed and then headed toward a familiar embankment that led down to the stream. We stopped at the top of the bank. Nate looked like he was having so much fun. He pulled a pair of dark sunglasses from the saddlebag and put them on while still wearing a huge smile.
“That was awesome,” he said. “It’s way hotter out here than I thought it would be.”
“Yeah, I should have grabbed you a hat.”
“What, like a cowboy hat?”
“No, a baseball cap.” I laughed. “This isn’t Texas, Nate.”
“Trish wears a cowboy hat.”
“She’s a rodeo queen.” I didn’t bother mentioning that Jake wore both baseball caps and cowboy hats and that it kind of depended on what he was doing. Just thinking back to him in his black Stetson on the night we met felt like a knife slicing through my heart.
“Weren’t you?”
“No, I’m from California,” I said simply and then began leading Dancer down the hill.
“Oh. I didn’t know. Wait, we’re taking the horses down that hill?”
“Four legs are better than two,” I yelled back to him.
“Good point,” he said as Tequila picked her way down the bank.
At the bottom, we let the horses drink from the stream before tying them up. Nate continuously ran his hand through his windblown hair. There was no product in his hair that morning like there was the day before. The loose, tousled strands gave his look a more youthful charm. I had never met a doctor who resembled a real, flawed person with insecurities, but more than that, I had never met a doctor who was so terribly good-looking and didn’t know it.
Without speaking, we drew our lines through the poles and dug around in the saddlebags for various things. We took our shoes off, rolled up our jeans, and stepped carefully over the pebbles to the edge of the stream water.
“So you’re from California? Which part?”
“The Central Valley.” I sat on a rock to tie my lure.
“Allow me.” Nate reached out. I handed over my line and lure.
His deft hands tied the lure on the line with speed and accuracy. “What kind of doctor are you?”
“I’m a heart surgeon,” he said, smirking. I smiled too, probably sharing the same thought as he tied up the heart-shaped lure.
“Well done.”
I cast my line into the deeper part of the stream and reeled it in slowly.
“Do you know how to fly-fish?” he asked.
“You have to be quiet, Nate, you’re going to scare the fish away. And yes, I know how.”
“Okay. I just thought maybe you could show me,” he said. “It’s been a while.”
He was adorable. I couldn’t help letting a smile touch my lips.
“Just hold the line with your index finger, turn the bail arm, pull back, and release the line at the peak of the pole’s arc. Aim for that deeper water there,” I said, gesturing toward where my line had landed.
He cast and immediately got a bite but lost it.
“You need to jerk back when you feel a sure tug, that’s how you set the hook,” I said to him.
“That’s right. It’s all coming back to me,” he said with a smile.
The carefree look Nate wore reminded me of a feeling I used to know but had been absent for so long. It was the first time in a long time that I wished for that feeling back.
CHAPTER 6
Hearts in Nature
Nathanial
At midday the score was Ava: six, me: zero. I love a woman who challenges me but Ava was beating me to a pulp, which I think was even more refreshing. The fish weren’t biting anymore so Ava handed me a sandwich from her saddlebag.
I opened the foil. “Peanut butter and jelly. I like it.”
Her smile was shy. “I don’t have much in my cabin.”