Page 46 of A Rancher's Vow
Trust, remember?
Right, easy to say, harder to do. Charity dipped her chin, then lifted her foot into his palms.
A moment later she was sitting upright on Beach’s back.
“Huh.” The fingers of her left hand were still tangled in his mane. Her right hand pressed to his neck, and was Beach mostly standing still under her straddle-wide legs. “I seem to have missed the moment of truth.”
“Because you, darling Tee, are a natural.” Dustin rested his hand on her thigh. “Mostly, though, you’re a dancer. Riding really is a lot like dancing in some ways.”
“Kelli said that I needed to let the horse lead.”
He laughed out loud, unlooping the rope from the post and draping it over Beach’s neck. “I guess my niece isn’t the only person I’ll get to hear ‘Kelli-isms’ from.” Dustin got up behind her—she had no idea how he did it, but one moment he was on the ground, and the next, he was behind her. “That’s enough for the lessons. Now you get to sit back and enjoy.”
He wrapped his arms around her, fingers over hers where she held Beach’s mane.
Charity leaned back against his chest. “We don’t need reins?”
“Nope. And obviously not a saddle, either. Good thing you were wearing jeans, though. Bareback on a horse isn’t much fun if you don’t have at least a layer of denim for protection.”
He took them out the dirt road to the south. The evening sunshine lit up the Waterton range with spectacular brightness. Patchwork Annie ran ahead of them, head up, tail raised, excitement clear in every quivering inch.
An idyllic picture from an advertising brochure.
“It’s pretty out here.” Charity peered up at the sky. “The mountains are in the wrong place, though.”
“For me too,” Dustin agreed. “But Crooked Creek is pretty, like you said, in her own way.” He paused, his cheek brushing hers, his five o’clock shadow a gentle scratch against her skin. “I might have grown up here if things had gone differently.”
“What? I didn’t know that.”
Dustin tilted their joint hands to the right, leaning that direction with his torso, and the horse eased to the side like magic.
He spoke again, his voice deep and quiet. “After the accident where my parents died. Uncle Frank was married back then. He and Auntie Heather demanded to take me and Ginny since we were still underage.”
“Oh, damn. I can’t see that idea going over well with your brothers. Especially Caleb.”
“No.” Dustin took a big breath and let it out slowly. “It’s hard. I don’t like the man, mostly because Uncle Frank bad-mouths Caleb, and I see red. But when Auntie Heather left Frank a few years back, Ginny and I got to talking. I didn’t know this before, but I guess Heather wanted kids but couldn't have them.”
Her heart ached. This was turning into a tangled mess. “Oh, no.”
“I had never thought about that before. That she wanted us, truly wanted us, so she could have a family.”
“But you already had a family with Caleb, your brothers, and Ginny.”
“And Dare. So, yes. Heather’s heart was in the right place but trying to break us apart was the wrong solution." His body shifted against hers gently as if he’d shrugged. “Things could have been different. They could have supported us and helped a lot in those early years, but it seemed they wanted all or nothing. Which meant they got nothing, and things went downhill from there. At least for me. Caleb is way more forgiving and tolerant than I am.”
“He’s a good man.” Even better than she’d known.
Charity considered her own family and how broken they were because of bad choices—deliberate bad choices. Neither of her parents had been strong and giving like Caleb had been. “I’m glad you’ve got your people.”
“Me too.” Dustin leaned back, pulling Charity with him.
Beach stopped walking, resting on the top of the ridge where they could see for miles in every direction. Annie returned to their side, peering up expectantly at Dustin, just in case he needed something.
Charity adjusted her gaze, slowly taking in the scenery. “Okay, I don’t have a fair comparison of Heart Falls, but this is epic. I think it’s seeing this view from horseback, but it’s breathtaking.”
“Everything is better on…” Dustin stopped. “Let me rephrase. Because I was about to utter absolute bullshit.”
Charity laughed, twisting toward him slightly. “You’re telling me those old romance novels I read where they’re having sex on a horse overstate the truth?”
