Page 150 of Knot my First Rodeo

Good thing she's cute.

"What were you looking at?"

"Nothing."

I take a drink. "You’re good at a lot of things, Princess, but lying ain’t one of them."

"It was horse stuff."

I nod. "Ah."

The relief on her face lasts all of three seconds before she realizes I haven't looked away. I hide my smile behind my coffee cup.

"Anything else?"

She points at me. "You're being annoying."

The morning sun spills through the kitchen window, catching in her hair while she glares at me over the rim of her Full Throttle.

I set my coffee down.

"Get dressed."

Her eyebrows lift. "What?"

"We're goin' riding."

For a second, she just stares at me. "Just us?"

I shrug like it doesn't matter one way or the other.

It matters.

The smile that slowly spreads across her face tells me she knows it, too.

An hour later, we're crossing the north pasture beneath a sky so blue it almost hurts to look at. Bruce picks his way through the grass with the confidence of a horse that's traveled the same ground a thousand times. Captain’s to our right, carrying Autumn. Clint almost passed out, he got so excited when I told him Autumn was gonna ride his gelding.

I've spent most of my life looking at this view. Today it looks different, or maybe I'm different.

Autumn spends the first part of the ride focused on Captain, one hand wrapped around the saddle horn whenever the ground gets uneven. Every now and then, she glances down at him like she's still surprised a thousand-pound animal is trusting her to stay on his back.

"Doing okay over there?" I ask.

She shoots me a look. "Just like riding a motorcycle. This is just real horsepower."

I laugh.

As the ride goes on, she relaxes a little. Captain's steady as they come, and before long, she's looking around more than she's looking down. Every now and then, she points something out; a hawk circling overhead, a patch of wildflowers tucked against a fence line, a rabbit darting through the grass.

I find myself listening more than talking. Not because I don't have anything to say, but because I like hearing her. The sound of her voice has become one of those things I notice when it's missing.

The trail narrows as we head toward the creek. Sunlight flickers through the trees ahead of us, dancing across the water. Neither horse needs direction anymore. Bruce’s ears perk forward, and Captain immediately follows.

Autumn calls up to me, “Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"That's suspicious." She rolls her eyes, but the smile stays.