Page 45 of Impossible Love

“I’ll be back with the horses.” Summer says. Then she saunters over to Cal, pulls back her elbow, and punches him in the upper arm. “Know-it-all! Of course she can ride!”

Bless Summer for believing me, but now I’ll have to find a time to apologize for deceiving her. Ugh.

Cal’s hand flies to the spot where Summer punched him. “You got a permit for that concealed weapon?”

“Fifteen years of putting in fence posts will do that to a girl.” She winks at me before she turns for the barn. Yet again, I admire her. She’s proud of her physical strength, proud that she’s been digging holes for fifteen years. Summer and I are as opposite as women can be, but in many ways, I wish I was more like her.

She’s strong enough to stand her ground with Cal.

Jasmine is looking up at me. I smile down at her, but all the while, I feel my throat close up. I think I have stage fright. Or at least what I imagine stage fright feels like, since I was never on stage. For the plays at my boarding school, I always volunteered for set design or lights before anyone could pick me for a role.

But now I’m center stage in a farce of my own making. I just said I can ride a horse, so I guess I better figure it out. In a hurry.

“Can you jump?”

Jasmine’s question is so simple, yet it sends fear slicing through me.

“Well sure,” I say, keeping a smile plastered on my face. “I can ride all kinds of ways. I can do the jump thing and the lunge-y thing and anything with a horse, really, I can do those.”

I’m not even sure that statement was English.

Cal chuckles behind me, and I turn to see him enjoying himself. He throws me a sexy half-smile, nearly blinding me. “Anything with a horse you can do those? Be careful, business lady. I might test you on that boast.”

“Fine. But if it neighs, I’m an expert.” What am I doing? I’m doubling down for some reason, digging my grave as expertly as Summer digs her fence posts.

Just then, Summer returns with a huge black-and-white beast of a horse that looks like it would eat me if I glanced at it from the wrong angle. She hands the reins to Cal. “What’s going on here?” She looks from me to Cal and back again. “Are you two… flirting?”

“No, we’re not, Summer.” Cal’s voice drops to a lower register, which I didn’t even think was possible.

“Good thing,” Summer says, resting her fists on her hips. “Because if that’s flirting, you two are really, really bad at it. Flirting is supposed to be, you know…” She looks down at Jasmine, who is hanging on her every word. “A prelude to something more.”

“What’s a pray lord?” Jasmine asks.

“Since when do you use that word?” Cal’s trying to change the subject.

“Hey, I get a day off every week, and I like to spend it on self-improvement.”

Summer’s walkie-talkie crackles. She removes it from her belt and pushes a button. “Yes, my liege?”

“We got a calf down.” It sounds like Special K. “Where are you?”

“At the barn with Cal, Pinkie, and Victoria.”

“You mean the skinny chick in too much makeup? Well, stop. I need you up on Glasgow Ridge.”

It’s more words than I’ve ever heard Cal’s baby brother string together. Unfortunately, they aren’t exactly flattering.

“Be right there.” Summer clips the walkie-talkie back on her belt and turns to Jasmine. “Sorry, kid. We’ll go for a ride another time.” She looks at me. “Ignore him. Women make him uncomfortable.”

Just then, a ranch hand arrives at Summer’s side with a second horse, an only slightly smaller light-colored horse with a white tail. She accepts the reins and immediately passes the leather strips to me. I have no idea how to hold them. “This is my horse, Trixie,” she says. “Since I gotta go, you can ride her. She’s a lot of fun.”

Summer hops onto one of the ranch’s ATVs and drives off, kicking up dust and dirt.

Jasmine grabs my free hand and gives it a tug. “I don’t think you’re skinny,” she assures me. “You have big boobs, that’s all. But they’re not too big for you to jump on Trixie, because she’s a very sprightly horse. She jumps real high.”

Ah. So this is how I die. Me and my big boobs soaring really high on Summer’s spritely horse, right before I plummet to the ground and break my neck.

“Jasmine!” It’s Finn walking out to the barn. “Come on, kid! We’ve got the book fair this afternoon. Let’s hit the road.”

---