Page 29 of Bronx

"Darn. I pictured myself galloping along, hair flying back and the wind in my face." Her talking caused her to start leaning. Archer instinctively slowed to a walk. "Oops, did I do that?" she asked.

"Like I said, he picks up cues. If he thinks his rider is off balance, he slows down."

She wriggled in the saddle again, and unexpectedly, or maybe predictably, it sent a rush of heat to my cock.

Archer circled around a few more times.

"I think he's tired," Layla said. "Should I climb down?"

"He's not tired. He's just thinking about his lunch. Me too. Are you hungry? There's a nice pond on the far side of the property. We could take a picnic."

"That sounds wonderful." Layla couldn't help but give Archer another pat on the neck. "How do I turn him off?"

I laughed. "Just say whoa and sit back."

"So whoa is a thing but not giddy up or tally ho? Whoa, big guy." Archer came to a stop and waited patiently like a gentleman for her to climb down.

I cleverly managed to be in the right spot when she dismounted and her legs wobbled. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close.

She peered up at me with shiny brown eyes. "Why do my legs feel like wet noodles?"

"It's like you've been stretching them for twenty straight minutes. It's sort of usual for inexperienced riders."

"I see and you seem to know exactly where to stand to catch me. I'm going to guess that I'm not the first girl you put on a horse and then conveniently caught afterwards."

"No, but you're definitely my favorite." I hugged her closer and felt her nearness through my entire body. She was like an ignition switch for every muscle. "I'm thinking we might take a nice big blanket to the picnic. I know a shady little spot that is entirely secluded."

She rubbed her fingers along the dark stubble growing on my chin. "I'm liking this picnic idea more and more."

23

The afternoon sun, while low in the sky with the change of seasons, still provided a nice layer of warmth over the grassy knoll adjacent to the pond. The crude tree swing, a long rope with two big knots, still hung off the massive branch of the sycamore growing from the bank of the pond. Each year, the nature fed pond shrank. Drought was drying up much of the west. There just never seemed to be an end to it.

Layla stood at the edge of the pond and stared out at the view. Several layers of small grassy hills framed the landscape around the ranch, but for the most part, the land was flat. On a clear day like today you could see all the way to the tops of houses in the nearby town.

"I'm so envious of your life here." Layla turned around. The day out with the horses had turned her skin a glowing bronze color. "We lived in a regular old house with two cranky neighbors on each side of us and a family with barking dogs behind us."

She sat down on the large blanket I'd laid out. I dug into my mom's picnic basket for the sandwiches we made. "Here you go, your ham and cheese hold the ham sandwich. I still say that means it's just a cheese sandwich, but then I'm no sandwich naming expert."

Layla took hold of her sandwich. "It's a running joke I used to have with my dad. He knew I hated sandwich meat, so he'd say, hey kid, gonna make you a ham and cheese hold the ham."

"I don't know much about your childhood, other than the part about you marrying your high school sweetheart." I handed her the iced tea she'd chosen from the elaborate array of cold drinks my mom had provided. She had stocked the refrigerator full enough for us to stay a month, a habit she'd gotten into whenever Kingston was staying the weekend.

Layla popped open the tea and took a few sips. The movement of her throat with each swallow had me temporarily mesmerized. Everything about her had me utterly captivated.

She blotted her mouth with her napkin. "Not too much to tell. My dad was a lumber supplier. Adam's dad was a contractor. That's how they became friends." She tilted her head side to side. "It's also how they stopped being friends. The price of lumber was going up and Adam's dad accused my dad of price gouging. Needless to say, both the business and social friendships ended. Which made our marriage a little awkward, feuding in-laws are never good for a relationship." She gazed off to the distance. It seemed she had found herself thinking about Bulldozer. "We used to fight about it until we both made a pact to not take sides. Our parents' business was their own. But holidays and birthdays had to be split up evenly."

"That must have sucked." I was somewhat regretting asking the question. It was always awkward when Bulldozer came up in the conversation, but maybe it was better that she felt she could talk about him in front of me.

"Anyhow, back to my childhood, pre-Rafferty," she said. "Like you, I had one sibling. Tina was six years older than me, and I thought the ground she walked on glowed. She, on the other hand, considered me the pesky little sister who would occasionally sneak in and try on her makeup." Layla raised her hand. "Guilty as charged. Anyhow, Tina was, and still is, gorgeous. She was popular and head cheerleader and prom queen, the whole shebang. Naturally, I was convinced that I too had to be all those things. My parents treated Tina as if she was this precious jewel dropped from the heavens. She could do no wrong. Almost all their energy went into making sure she had everything and had every opportunity to reach her fullest potential. Imagine their disappointment when she left college, Yale, no less, in her sophomore year to travel the country in a Volkswagen bus with, of all people, her psych professor. Back then, Everett was quite the cerebral hippie, wanting to explore the world to find out the true meaning of life. They live in New York now. He's back teaching and my sister is raising twin boys, Zach and Dylan. I stayed with them for a few months when I moved back east. My sister and I are much closer now that we're both adults. Although, she still won't allow me into her makeup case."

"And you turned to nursing because . . ."

"Because I had this really cool aunt, my mom's younger sister. Colleen. She was a nurse, and I have always thought she was amazing so the rest was easy. I haven't regretted it. Although, some days are harder than others." She picked up her sandwich. "So there you have it. Layla's life in a nutshell. Sort of. I left out the time I accidentally set the kitchen on fire with a dishtowel left on the stove, but from that point on, things were pretty normal and boring."

"Nothing boring about Layla Rafferty," I noted. We nibbled sandwiches for a few minutes and enjoyed the scenery. A squirrel had decided we weren't dangerous and climbed out of a tree to wiggle its nose back and forth in the picnic aromas. Several mourning doves made the same choice.

Layla noticed the arrival of our new friends. "Seems the longer we sit here, the more they trust us. Soon that little squirrel is going to venture onto this blanket and peer into the picnic basket."

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