Page 71 of Breaking All The Rules
“Ah…so you’ve found our very own culinary angel and her heavenly delights?”
“I have. And they have found my ass.”
Margaret laughed. “I hope this isn’t a weird thing to say considering we’ve only just met, but I think your ass is just right. And, by the way my son was checking it out as you rode around on Buffy, I’d say Austin does, too.”
It was weird, and a tide of heat rose in Bea’s cheeks, but as their eyes met, Margaret didn’t seem too self-conscious about it, and her gaze was open and friendly. Bea wondered if she was about to get the talk, but Margaret just gave Bea’s arm a little pat before turning her attention to what was happening in the middle of the arena, and Bea felt absurdly like crying.
How she could have done with some of Margaret Cooper’s brand of mothering when she was growing up. Austin was a lucky man.
“Oh, look, Jill’s saddling up.” She glanced at Bea. “She is utterly thrilling to watch. Just you wait and see.”
Bea cleared the thickness from her throat, turning her attention to the ring to discover Margaret was not wrong. The horse, whose name was Kong—unsurprisingly—was fast and amazingly agile, turning on a dime, and the control that Jill had over the beast was absolute. The horse may look as if he could stomp an entire city into the ground, but he was totally under Jill’s command. And if Bea had batted for the other team, she’d have a huge girl crush right now.
Hell, who was she kidding? She did have a huge girl crush…
Jill was very good. Also, clearly passionate about the sport and about horses. Not even Austin, who had joined them, his thigh a hairbreadth from her thigh, was enough to break her attention.
“She’s amazing,” Bea breathed out in a husky kind of rush as Kong rounded the barrels in a quickstep figure-eight pattern.
“How long did it take her to learn to do that?”
“Jill grew up on a ranch on the other side of Credence,” Margaret answered. “So she’s been riding a long time, but she’ll be the first to admit anybody can do it as long as they love horses, have the nerve, and practice.”
Bea laughed. She couldn’t even get a horse to move, and Jill was making her valiant steed turn tight and leap over jumps without putting a single foot wrong. She’d need more than practice. She’d need divine intervention. Maybe wings.
“Can you do that?” she asked Austin.
“No way. I’ve been thrown from a horse enough to make me far too chickenshit for that kind of stuff.”
He grinned at her, completely unconcerned that she might judge him as somehow less of a man for not wanting to try. But she didn’t. She actually liked that about him. A guy who didn’t need to prove himself to anyone, who was comfortable enough in his own skin to say no.
She nudged her thigh against his, and her breath hitched at the contact, which felt both electric and soothing at the same time.
After half an hour, Jill called it a day, slowing Kong to a stop and dismounting, sliding off the saddle like she was wearing chiffon instead of denim and landing on her feet light as a freaking fairy. Austin and his mother dismounted the rail, and Bea followed suit, taking care to leave some distance between her and Austin.
“That was amazing,” Bea gushed as Jill joined them.
Jill smiled. “Thanks. I get a kick out of it.”
“Do you miss being on the circuit?”
“Yes and no. Probably more before I married Clay. Think I’d find the traveling and the long separations from my man too hard.”
My man. Jill said those words with gusto. With pride and a certain amount of je ne sais quoi that left Bea in no doubt that Jill was utterly into Clay.
“And I love teaching.” She shrugged. “I’m good at it. Plus, it gives me an income, independence. I miss that most from being on the circuit, I think.”
Bea understood that. She’d been independent since she’d left college and scored her first-ever job straight out of the blocks at Jing-A-Ling after refusing the leg up from her father at the agency he worked for, determined to cut her own path. And the fact that she could quit her job and still support herself was not only enormously freeing but was also a source of pride.
“Finding what you love to do in life is a gift.” Bea had felt that about advertising. But since quitting, she’d discovered that sometimes what you loved could be bad for you. Toxic even.
“Yeah.” Jill nodded. “It is. Finding someone to love, even more so.”
Jill’s gaze met hers, but before Bea could parse if the comment was general or pointed, Austin jumped in.
“I’ll give you a hand to put the equipment back,” he said, turning away and heading for the arena.
“Nah, leave them,” Jill called after him. “I’m doing some training with one of the Watsons’ quarter horses tomorrow. No point putting them away just to pull them out again.”
