Page 6 of Last Chance Cowboy
“Anyway, it’s fine. You got what you wanted, and I’m unscathed.” Which was a strange way to put it, considering she felt like she had been skinned alive.
“Happy to see it,” Cody said.
“And happy to get your way,” Marlowe said.
“That’s fine. I just expect to be paid in steaks.”
“We can help you with that,” Walker said, walking over to one of the tables that were set up by the barbecue and handing her a plate. She went and stood by Cody, who was still grilling, and held her plate out, looking at him expectantly.
He did feel like an older brother in a lot of ways. Like an older brother she hadn’t had.
Cody was the type who had taken care of everyone and everything, always.
Maybe that was why she liked him so much. Maybe that was why she felt a kinship to him. Because even though her family had been smaller, her responsibility was not quite as great as his. She knew what it was like to feel like everyone’s well-being rested on her shoulders.
“We’re all going on a ride tomorrow,” Lila said, moving up beside her. “Do you want to come?”
Cara felt slightly uncomfortable. “Oh. I mean, I have the bakery.”
“I know,” she said. “But we were planning on going after hours.”
Cara still hadn’t ridden a horse. This brought her back to the baiting.
It didn’t help that she was a little bit afraid of horses. Just a little bit. They were really big, and once when she was a kid, she had gone to visit a farm for a field trip withher kindergarten class, and one of the horses had bitten her on the shoulder. She wasn’t sure why. It probably had something to do with the rowdy little boys who were acting up near her, or maybe it was because her coat was orange and she looked like a carrot. Either way, she had been bitten, and horses had not really been her favorite ever since.
She’d tried to… commune with a couple of the horses. She found them a little bit scary. Building herself up to let one suction a sugar cube off of her flat, open palm had been a feat of bravery. Actuallyridinga horse?
Ugh.
She wasn’t taking advantage of living in the country.
Wasn’t taking advantage of her new home in all the ways that she should.
Going home to her quiet house, where she had her books, TV, and crochet, felt like a reminder of the fact that she had essentially been living like a septuagenarian for the last few years. Because that’s what her mother was. And she had been taking care of her mother. Full-time, with no days off for a very long time.
Her hobbies and lifestyle had adapted.
That was normally fine. But right now it felt a little bit lame. Because they were all going riding, and she didn’t even know how to do it.
Marlowe had learned how. Marlowe had taken this move and really grabbed the bull by the horns. Or the cowboy by the horn, so to speak. Cara had… launched a successful business. It wasn’t nothing, but in terms of personal growth, it wasn’t really as much as she had been hoping for.
“I think I’m going to be busy.”
She wasn’t that thrilled with herself for that decision. Because it would be so much better to go with them. It would be so much more… It would be a bigger move. But they would have to take their time to teach her how to ride, it would cut into their trip. Maybe sometimes she would ask for help learning to ride. Maybe she would ask Walker. Because he was easy.
Or even Cody, because he was like the big brother that she’d never had.
But she didn’t need to go cramping their style.
She would just close the bakery like usual tomorrow, go back to her house, make a cup of tea, sit down with her crochet, and watch British murder shows.
That seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
“Okay,” Lila said, though she looked disappointed.
Cara knew that Lila really wanted to befriend her. It wasn’t that they weren’t friendly. It was just that Lila was prickly and brash, and liked to do outdoor activities, and Cara was not those things.
She also had minimal experience befriending people her own age. She’d spent many hours in the kitchen of her childhood home chatting with her mother’s friends who came to visit when her mother was too unwell to go out.
