Page 17 of Head Over Spurs

“She seems alright,” Riley offered nonchalantly. The truth was that this whole situation seemed better than he could have imagined. And it was taking constant effort to remind himself of why getting involved with her again would be an awful idea.

“Is there something going on with you two?”

“She only showed up on Saturday, nothing to tell there.” At least, nothing he would tell his sister and the little ears that sat between them at the moment, even if he was allowed to discuss their first meeting.

A skeptical hum escaped Piper’s thinly pressed lips. She had been able to see right through him since they were kids. “I can wait until you’re ready to tell me the truth about her. But what I can’t keep waiting on is for you to stop messing around with this injury. You heard the doctor, it’s a real possibility that you end up with another fracture.”

“I’m not a roughie anymore. It’s not going to happen again.”

Piper shook her head but didn’t say anything else on the subject. Instead, she crossed her arms and glared out the window. Wasn’t he supposed to be the younger sibling? “You look exactly like Paisley when you pout, Pipes,” he said with a quirk of his brow.

“Yeah, Mommy!”

“See.” He pointed to his niece who was now mimicking her. They all had the same blonde hair and blue-green eyes, though his hair was a darker shade. “Listen, I swear everything is fine.Besides, the doctor wouldn’t have let me walk out if there was a concern.”

Which is why I lied through my teeth, he added to himself. He just needed time for them to figure out a permanent plan. He couldn’t leave Jules alone while he received treatment. Once summer was up and a new set of hands were in place, then he’d go back to the doctor and figure everything out.

He parked beside the classic black muscle car that signified the presence of his temptress and stepped out of his truck, a creak sounding from the aged door as he closed it behind him. Depositing his hat atop his head, he strolled up to the stables to find them empty.

She wasn’t in any of the stalls. The tack room. The feed room. No Jules anywhere.

Wandering out to the nearest pasture next, he was greeted by silence—save for the occasional sweet call of a meadowlark. But off in the distance, he finally spotted her.

Crouched down in the tall blades, Jules seemed oblivious to her whisps of hair that curled upward in the breeze, dancing around her face. She was fully focused on whatever she was capturing with the lens she held before her. He hadn’t seen her camera since she arrived in Sterling Ridge, and a sensation similar to a shaken bottle of soda bubbled up in his chest. She seemed so natural out here like this. As if she was a part of the scenery, not simply a spectator.

Treading as lightly as he could, Riley crossed the field to her and knelt down at her shoulder. He pressed in close, those same whisps of hair tickling his lips as he murmured, “Hello.”

With a jolt, and something between a yelp and a curse, shelowered her camera and turned over her shoulder. “Oh my gosh, where did you come from?”

“Well, I parked next to you and then I went into the?—”

“Got it,” she deadpanned. But the corner of her lip twitched, fighting a smile.

When she didn’t pull back to put space between them, his pulse thrummed with satisfaction. He reached out and caught the wild strands of hair, pulling them back from her face and gently tucking them behind her ear.

“What are you capturing?” he asked, his eyes studying her trail of freckles crossing from cheek to cheek.

She handed her camera over in response, sitting back in the grass and draping her arms over her bent knees. “You can look, if you’d like.”

“I would.” He accepted the camera and sat back at her side. Clicking the viewing screen to life, Riley was greeted by the ranch, but in a whole new light.

The first scene highlighted the horses in the distance, just past the gradual slope before them. From her low angle, she’d captured them through the wild greenery of the meadow. As he scrolled, he moved backwards in time, seeing little snippets of everyday life at Hayes Ranch. And it was beautiful.

Grey’s cattle dog Pip chasing after him and Bullet in the morning light. A row of equine faces peering over the fence at the camera. A close up of the floral tooled saddle hanging in the tack room.

“These are amazing,” he said, almost to himself.

“I have some great subject matter here.”

He looked up and met her gaze. “I think it’s more than that. Why haven’t I seen you taking pictures this week?”

“We’ve been busy,” she shrugged. “But Brett and Grey ended up coming out to help this morning too. So, I had some free time. Turns out it takes three people to replace you.”

His smile hitched up at the compliment. Handing her camera back to her, Riley leaned back on his elbows and sighed. “I think we can make some time for this moving forward.”

Without warning, Jules lifted the camera, pointed right at him, and clicked her finger down. He watched curiously as she lowered it again and studied the image she just captured.

“I like when your smile gets a little crooked,” she murmured. “When you’re really relaxed.”

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