River's Escape (River's End Series, #2) (8 page)

“Hey, that your stuff?”

“Yes. Where is everyone?”

“They headed out in Shane’s truck. Had to grab some alcohol when I told them they weren’t hauling in cases of beer. We need meals for us and the horses more than they need to drink. They, however, chose to exchange some of their clothes for bottles of hard liquor, which they have to carry in their own packs.” He frowned as he hefted up her bag. Then, to her utter shock, he unzipped her bag and stuck his hands inside, shuffling them around in her stuff. She rushed forward and yanked it from him when she saw he was handling her underwear. And a giant bra. She hated her bras. What was he? A perverted voyeur?

“What are you doing?”

“Checking to make sure you packed the right stuff. You didn’t. I figured Jordan or Caleb weren’t smart enough to advise you on what to pack.”

“Hey, they are my brothers. Quit insulting them. And I packed just fine.”

“Am I wrong about them?”

She pursed her lips in dismay. No, he wasn’t, but she sensed he was probably including Shane in his comment. She finally shook her head.

“I know it’s mild temperature-wise and nice here, but we’ll be five thousand feet higher, up in the mountains. The nights get cold and so are the mornings. You need snow pants, and long underwear. A heavy coat, hat, gloves. Got all that?”

“Um, no.”

“Can I look through your bag now? I’d rather you brought what you needed, despite you being embarrassed that I saw your bra and underwear. Little secret, I already figured that you wore them.” Did he just make a joke with her?
Never.
No. Ian didn’t joke.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Were you trying to be funny?”

He gently took her bag back, replying, “I was trying to get you to overcome your bashfulness. Look, on this trip, there’s not so much privacy. You wanted to come. You’d better accept that right now, or stay here. And you don’t know what to expect, as you shouldn’t. But I do. So why don’t you listen to me?”

Bashful? What was he? Eighty years old? Who said bashful anymore? And she was not shy and mute… he was! Completely and totally refusing to talk. Now he was saying she had the problem?

But he did bring up a few good points.

She tossed the bag back to him and spun on her heel before stomping to her bedroom, embarrassed again. He followed her and filled the space as all men did. But this felt different than Drew, or her other loser boyfriends. She just was… more aware of him. Way too aware of him.

“Do you have snow pants?” She grabbed her black pair off the hanger and handed them to him silently. “Wool socks? Warm boots?”

“I packed those already.”

“Good. How about long underwear?”

She started compiling what he requested. He took out much of what she originally planned on taking. All her cute stuff… gone. The only garments left were warm, bulky clothes with just a few t-shirts and jeans. “Are you sure I need all of this?”

“Yup.” That was it.
Yup.
He added her ugliest boots. Waterproof and warm, she only wore them in the winter and when absolutely necessary. She never wore them in front of any people.

“Do you have a better coat than this?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s not warm enough. You can borrow one of mine. I have a couple in the trailer. You can try them on and see which one fits best.”

Why? Why did he always seem to think ahead and plan for her? Why, when no else did, did he? She turned away from him, feeling slightly annoyed, but also grateful. As they slid into the cab, she hooked the seat belt and stared out ahead. Silence descended between them as he drove down the road.

She had five days off! She was so excited, she nearly bounced on the seat. Not with quiet Ian, however. She would have maybe if he were Shane, as her fantasy dictated.

They pulled into the trailhead after the hour-long drive. It took a long time to get up the mountain to that spot even. The one-lane, dusty road was peppered with potholes. Ian had to crawl along slowly, in order to take it easy on the horses. The trailer bounced and jolted up the godforsaken road. Soon, all signs of human occupation vanished, and it was only Ponderosa pines and sagebrush filling the landscape. The mountains started to change from the rounded ones that were typical of the lower valley becoming more ridged and tall.

Once they pulled in and Ian turned off the truck, the silence grew unbearably thick. It was early still and not another soul seemed to be around. Ian got out without a word or even a look. The sun was just starting to climb and slanted in through the trees that surrounded the turnaround. An old corral made up of rough-hewn logs was set up at one of the clearing. Aspen trees shimmered and shook in the early morning breeze. It was cool, and smelled like mint and other sweet spices. In a word, it was lovely. She followed Ian as he unlocked the door on the tack room of the trailer and started throwing stuff out. The small room was stacked up almost to the ceiling. He finally brought out some ropes, which he threw to the ground. Picking one up, he indicated for Kailynn to do the same.

She followed him to the back of the trailer and her palms started to sweat. Maybe she’d overshot this. She wasn’t adept with horses and had only sat on a horse’s back a few times in her life. Despite working for Ian’s family for more than four years, she rarely ventured beyond the house. When the metal doors opened with a clank she saw the four horses all standing in there, tied to the sides of the trailer. She stepped back as a couple clomped their hooves down on the metal while grunting and neighing in protest. Their breaths steamed out like they were exhaling smoke.

She only wanted to come on the trip so she could be alone with Shane and figure out how to make some kind of move on him, and win his heart forever. She hadn’t really given much thought to handling the horses, or their gear, much less to riding them. Or even setting up the camp. She glanced at the start of the trail, which was barely visible under the thick cover of mountain forest. It looked foreboding and isolated, despite the fresh morning air and sun.

“Uh, I’m not very good with horses. Maybe we should wait for our brothers…”

Ian had already stepped inside and clipped the lead rope to the horse’s halter as he unclipped the rope that tethered the horse to the trailer. Glancing over his shoulder at her, he replied, “Just tell me what you don’t want to do. I can handle everything else. No sense in making all of them stay cooped up in here.” He patted the neck of the gray and black mare beside him.

Tugging the lead rope, Ian led the giant animal, which eagerly followed behind him. Kailynn’s heart felt like it lodged in her tonsils as she pictured those long, legs and sharp hooves trampling Ian. But nothing like that happened. They walked across the grass and he led the horse into the corral, where he unhooked the lead rope, closed the gate, and walked back.

Stepping back into the trailer, he had to adjust the metal gate for the next horse and said, “You could open and shut the gate as I bring the other one out. We’ll get the other two ready to be saddled.”

Yes, she could do that. She scurried off to stand beside the gate, pulling up on the latch and getting ready for Ian. She watched him closely for the next fifteen minutes as he unloaded each horse and calmly settled them. The last two were tied to the side of the trailer, where they stood facing forward, their tails flickering and their hooves stomping periodically.

He came up and made sure the gate was secure and stared at the two munching on grass. “Nothing about this stuff is fast. Or easy. Just say if you don’t like something. Okay? I can’t read your mind. None of it scares me, so I can’t possibly know if it scares you.”

“I-I’m a little out of my comfort zone.”

“Like Erin scared? Or just a little scared?” Erin had at first been terrified of horseback riding, almost to the point of hyperventilating.

“Like maybe, a degree below Erin.”

He nodded, his face still serious, like that meant something to him. Then he turned on his heeled boot and started back towards the trailer. After he entered the tack room, he came back out with a horse brush. “Can you curry them?”

She caught the coarse brush when he tossed it to her. She could certainly curry the horses, so she nodded and got started. After brushing the first one thoroughly, she sprayed some fly spray where Ian indicated before starting on the next one. Ian, meanwhile, was putting on a saddle blanket before he hauled out a saddle, which he hefted up in a few seconds flat. He started adjusting the cinch and breast strap, working swiftly. He worked much faster than she could brush the next one, and soon had the horse bridled and saddled. Taking the lead rope, he yanked on the knot so it freed the horse from the trailer and led it in a circle around him a few times.
What was he doing?
She didn’t know. Kailynn kept brushing, however, unsnarling all the tangles from the animal’s tail.

“Come over here and mount up.”

She glanced over the back end of the horse. “You mean now?”

“This is Tommy. I want you to ride him. Let’s have you get on his back and see how he feels. Plus, I need to adjust your stirrups.”

“Oh.” She stepped towards the brown gelding whose dark black mane and tail contrasted sharply with his chestnut coloring. She touched his warm body and scratched just behind his saddle. “Is he nice?”

Ian was messing with the saddle across from her. His smile was amused, but gentle. “Yes, he’s nice. I think he’s the best fit for you.”

She nodded as she stuck her foot into the stirrup and hauled herself up. There was no way to do it gracefully. It was awkward for her, offsetting her center of gravity and making her body parts feel like they were flopping around everywhere. She had little control to even try to make the effort somewhat more attractive. Once atop the horse’s back, she moved around and soon discovered the stirrups were much too short. Ian’s hand clamped onto her ankle and pulled her foot out before she could even tell him. He was instantly working the leather straps and buckles. He did them as fast as she could pour a cup of coffee.
Impressive.

“That fit?” he asked as she tucked her foot back in and stood up straight.

“Yes, thank you.”

He was already working on the other side when she thanked him. She wore cowboy boots, but they were mostly for fashion, and she felt her toes being pinched by them already.

He patted the horse’s rump when he was done and handed her the reins. “Do you remember how to handle them?”

She bit her lip while shaking her head. Ian patiently spent several minutes going over how to turn and stop, and when to use the heel of her boots to press into the horse’s sides. It wasn’t too complicated, just a lot of small things that kind of made her head swim, although she nodded as if she totally understood.

He waited for her to dismount before taking her horse to the far side of the trailer, where he tied it up. Next, he started saddling his own. A matter of minutes; that’s all it took. She offered to help, but knew he’d be ten times faster with her out of the way. She glanced at her watch. They’d been at it only a half hour already.

“Shouldn’t they be here to help?”

“You’d think.” Ian was pulling up hard on the cinch strap and tucking the excess leather length. “They don’t help much.”

“So you end up doing all the work?”

“Well, Shane has every right to take the horses up here. They’re his too. But if I don’t come along and do it right, they might do it all wrong and hurt themselves, or the horses.”

“Shane would really endanger the animals?”

She didn’t like the sound of that at all. Ian was already walking his mount around the trailer, moving it out of the way. Then he was heading towards the corral, obviously to grab another horse. “Not on purpose. I just don’t want to take a chance.”

She followed behind to command the gate as he caught another horse. It took five minutes because the last two began to run in circles around the corral. He finally cornered them into a small section of the corral that funneled them together. Grabbing the first horse’s halter, he clipped on the lead rope and nodded at her to open the gate. She performed her one lame job as best she could.

Roping the other, he tied them both up as he had the first two. “But if they’ve done this before, shouldn’t they know how much work there is to do?” Kailynn inquired.

He was already headed toward the tack room and she could barely keep up with him. “Yup. Most likely why they’re not here.”

She watched as he came back out with an odd-looking contraption of leather and straps. Kailynn wondered if it was some kind of medieval torture device or a sexual aid.

“What is that?”

“Pack saddle. Here, grab this,” he instructed her after he set the curious mechanism on the horse’s back. He deftly began smoothing out the different straps and tucking the horse’s tail through it. Clipping the front and cinching under the horse’s belly, Kailynn tried to help figure out the mess, while staying out of his way at the same time. Their shoulders bumped and their hands grazed each other, but she ignored the odd heat that filled her. It was just because Ian was so hard to read. She never knew at all where she stood with him. Was he annoyed she was there? And not someone who could actually lift and pull her own weight? Or had a clue what she was doing? He’d long ago shed his jacket and was clad only in jeans and a t-shirt, while she was still wearing her coat and gloves in the still cool, mountain, September morning.