Page 21 of The Cowboy's Christmas
Chapter Five
Savannah lost trackof the number of times she’d had to remind herself not to stare—not while Quinn might catch her, anyway—but it was hard not to watch the man as he stepped aboard Deke’s gelding. Old Pete stood stone still during the mount, which he never did for Savannah. At sixteen hands, the ornery gelding was just tall enough to make it difficult for Savannah to get her foot into the stirrup and, without fail, regardless of how tightly she held the reins, or how quick she was to mount, he stepped sideways just enough to make her hop on one foot several times, following him, before attempting an off-balance mount. But with Quinn, the gelding cocked an ear and rolled an eye, but kept all four feet planted.
Men, equine and otherwise, were beginning to grate on her.
To be fair, it wasn’t Quinn’s fault that he was messing up the equilibrium of her life simply by being there, working with her, causing her to feel sensations and reactions she wasn’t ready for.
He was a godsend, for heaven’s sake. She needed to treat him as such.
Savannah’s mare, Rose, started to jig as she led the way across the driveway to the pasture gate, and realizing that her horse was reading the tension in her body, Savannah made a concerted effort to relax her legs and seat. The mare settled back into a walk as Quinn passed her to open the gate from horseback.
Was he was making a point about his abilities after she’d semi-insulted him by asking if he could ride, or just being a cowboy?
From the nonchalant way he waited for her to pass through before maneuvering Pete around to close it again, she went with cowboy. Mind-blowingly attractive cowboy.
And as he caught up with her, he gave her a quick look, which in turn caused that nerve-dancing thing again.
But it was just a look. She couldn’t fault it. All she could fault was her reaction to it, and doing that was becoming exhausting. Perhaps she could simply go with it? Enjoy the ride and stop feeling angst over something that wasn’t that big of a deal? It wasn’t like the man was aware of the effect he had on her.
Realistically, Quinn wasn’t going to be on the ranch for long. His truck parts would come in, Deke would mend as much as he would allow himself to, Quinn would leave, and then she and her uncle would resume their feeding system, in which they bundled up the little girls and took them along in the tractor. Life would go on.
Feeling better suddenly, she pointed across the pasture. “The cattle should be waiting for us at the tree line, about three miles as the crow flies.”
“Looking forward to meeting them,” Quinn said with a smile in his voice.
A smile she felt even without seeing it—and what was wrong with that?
“Are you okay?” Quinn asked, startling her.
She took a moment to make certain her voice wouldn’t squeak before saying, “Why do you ask?”
“I thought you might be worried about Deke and the girls.”
Relief flooded through her. She wasn’t an open book, as she’d feared.
“That will be a way of life for a few weeks,” she said before meeting his gray-green gaze head-on, telling herself that even though she had the feeling that she was freefalling into the unknown, she wasn’t. She had this. “But having help means one less worry. I appreciate it.”
He gave her a crooked smile before turning his attention to the snow-covered pasture. “Glad to help. Change is good.”
*
A Christmas treeparadise surrounded them as they rode to the mountain pasture where Savannah’s cattle were waiting to return to the ranch and easy eating. The snow was getting deeper and the air, permeated by the heavy scent of damp evergreen, was growing colder as they climbed, but Quinn barely noticed, fascinated by the number of nearly perfect trees nestled between outcroppings of granite.
“There’s a beauty,” he said, pointing out a fluffy Douglas fir.
“Nice tree,” Savannah agreed, a perplexed note to her voice, as if she were wondering why he would point out a tree to her. The dogs bounded through the next grove, following the tracks of a rabbit as they disappeared into a thicket, then re-emerged on the other side. Pepper was having the time of her life with her newfound buddies, to the point that Quinn was considering the possibility of getting another dog when he returned to Oregon.
“There’s another.” He pointed at a grand fir.
“Another what?” Savannah asked with a frown in her voice.
“Potential Christmas tree.”
“Ah.” She directed her gaze back between her horse’s ears, seemingly uninterested in his finds. Maybe she already had one staked out. Or maybe she didn’t like cutting trees, preferring to buy her tree from a lot.
“Thinning one out would give the others room to grow.”
“It would,” she replied in a noncommittal voice.
