I shrugged again, my eyes misting. “Didn’t feel very brave. Just like I needed to breathe.”
“I’m sorry it’s been so hard for you.”
“I’m probably exaggerating,” I said automatically. “I mean, it’s not so bad. Other people have it worse. Paige has always been great, she never got spoiled like some people who get that kind of treatment. And my parents do love me, I know they do. It’s just…Paige is the daughter my mom always wanted, and I was the extra. And then I didn’t even do her the courtesy of being a back-up in case they lost the first one, I had to be my own person. All full of unsightly ambition and bad pop culture references and profanity and shit.”
He laughed softly and nudged his horse closer. He let go of my hand, but only to wrap his arm around my shoulder.
He didn’t say a word, and neither did I, and we didn’t have to. I had never felt such unspoken closeness, such intimacy before. In that moment, it didn’t matter that because of my work and my principles, we couldn’t really be together. In that moment, we were more together than I had ever been with another human being.
It was probably the most perfect moment of my life, which meant Hunter should have, by all established patterns, ruined it. But he didn’t.
My horse did instead.
Or rather the rabbit that darted out from between the bushes and spooked my horse did.
“Shit!” I shrieked as my mount unexpectedly bolted. “Ah fuck fuck shit!”
We’d been having a capital M Moment, dammit!
But as is probably already clear, my horse had absolutely no respect for emotional turnaround points, and kept running like a demon. I gave up trying to make it understand that the rabbit was not going to kill it, in favor of holding on for my life and making sure the mare didn’t run into a tree.
“Ally!”
It was Hunter, catching up to us as we came along the river, where my terrified, whinnying horse reared away from the water and began to run parallel to it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t completely forgotten the rabbit by now; she was so scared that it didn’t matter what had caused it, every new sight was a thing to be frightened of.
Hunter extended his hand, gripping his reins tightly with the other. “Jump to me!”
I took a few seconds out of my busy schedule of holding on for dear life to gape at him in disbelief. I shouted back, “Are you shitting me?”
“Trust me, Ally!”
And somehow, looking into those golden brown eyes, even across that yawning gap, even above those thundering hooves—
I did.
“Okay!” I scrambled onto my feet in an awkward crouch and braced myself, getting ready to jump.
And I think that, in a perfect world, I really might have actually made the leap right into Hunter’s arms.
But then my horse bucked.
I sailed through the air, everything seeming to slow down as though we were passing through water, a random thought seeming to take forever to reach completion: The stablehand had said this was the jewel of the crown, was that a secret horse whisperer phrase for oh God, oh God, bunnies, the scourge of the world?
And then, splash!
I sank beneath the water like a stone, automatically sucking in a breath that turned out to be completely water, before bobbing up again midcurrent, coughing muddy liquid and gasping at the cold. I was completely drenched. I didn’t seem to be hurt, but all my limbs felt like they’d been turned into rubber. I spat something out that I had accidentally swallowed—a tadpole.
At that point it was laugh or cry, so I laughed until the tears ran down my face.
“Ally!” Hunter’s panicked voice came from up and to the left. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, unable to stop laughing long enough to choke out more than: “Fine! Only bruised my dignity!”
Actually, I’d probably done more than that to it, but some people—I was thinking most prominently of my mother here—would claim that I murdered my dignity years ago, so I wasn’t too fussed about inflicting any post-mortem injuries.
Hunter slid from his horse’s back in one fluid motion, quickly tying the reins to the trees before sidling up to my own mount—now placidly chomping watercress in the shallows like the traitor she was— I was going to have words with Homer about his recommendation—and tied her up nearby as well.
The whole process didn’t take very long, but I savored every second of it. You see, a branch must have torn his shirt as he went barreling after me like a knight in shining armor, because a considerable swath of it was torn away. And as he leapt around so urgently, lots of very interesting…scenery…was on view.
Scenery that gave me certain…ideas.