Page 35 of Ocotillo Kisses
“She’s fast but they’re faster.”
She listened to him talk about the ranch as they rode up the path they’d ridden dozens, if not hundreds of times. She tried to find any joy in his tone as he talked about it, but she just heard weariness.
Okay, maybe she was reading into it, but that was what she heard. And it made her sad. She couldn’t think that he didn’t follow his dream because she left, though. He had the opportunity to take his basic sciences in San Angelo. She hadn’t taken away his dream. He’d surrendered it.
Chapter Fourteen
Conwas relieved, when they reached the rise, to see that Britt had remembered to bring bottled water and a snack. Many many times they’d come up here for picnics, and to be alone. He didn’t think his parents, or hers, had figured out why for a long time. After they had, they’d tried to send her sisters or his riding with them, but evading, or better, bribing them was easy enough, just so Con and Britt could have privacy.
He had come up here rarely since Britt left. At first the memories were too painful, and then because, well, because he found no joy in being up here without her.
He wondered if she was thinking about all the times they’d spread out a sleeping bag or blanket on the ground, until there had been a blanket-sized clearing in the brush. It was grown over now, but after tying up the horses, he spread the blanket carefully in another spot.
Britt plopped down on it completely unselfconsciously and tore open a bag of chips. He poured out some water in collapsible bowls for Daisy and Polka and set it on the ground for them to lap gratefully.
“That’s a good idea,” she said.
“I guess you don’t have any pets,” he said, stretching out beside her and suddenly wishing he’d brought a bigger blanket so they could have more space between them. He’d noticed last night when they’d been playing pool that she smelled different now, expensive. But right now, she smelled like sunshine and outdoors and horse, the way she used to. The temptation to lean over and breathe her in was overcome only with the discipline he’d forced himself to develop since Noelle left.
“No, no pets. Too busy for a dog, and it wouldn’t be fair to a cat to leave it alone as much as I would, though it would be nice to come home to someone.”
“So no boyfriend?”
She looked over at him. “Not now, no. It wouldn’t be fair to him, either.”
“Do you ever see yourself slowing down?”
“Maybe in a few years. Once I can start hiring more assistants, maybe. I think I’ll always want to keep a hand in the business, you know? I enjoy what I do.”
He wondered if she’d give herself a chance to enjoy a family, children, but that was probably none of his business.
She stretched her legs out in front of her, one hand behind her, bracing against the ground as she looked out in the distance. Why did she have to be so pretty? She still took his breath away, even more now than she had in the past. And that confidence was so damn appealing.
“I forget how lovely it is out here, especially up here. You can see for miles. I don’t remember ever being able to see mountains before, though.” She turned to him and smiled. “I guess we never really paid attention to that when we were up here.”
He squinted in the direction she had been looking. “You can’t see mountains from up here.” They were miles and miles away from any mountains, and even on the clearest day, he didn’t remember seeing them.
