Rock Solid

He relented, handing her the tack while he returned to Sally, who waited patiently. Hannah forgot the awkward encounter she’d been expecting and enjoyed the distraction.

She kept a firm hold on Zip, Sally on the other side with Brody. As she walked the thoroughbred, she let her shoulder gently bump up against his, like buddies walking along together. He seemed to like it.

She liked him, too, but she also couldn’t help but be aware of the power of the horse. He walked as though he was barely holding back from bolting. It was much the same feeling she got from Brody a lot of the time, especially now. Strung tight, needing to be let loose.

“Where did you get him? I can feel the energy practically coming off him in waves,” she commented as they walked out into the sunlight.

“Thoroughbred rescue. He has a very impressive racing pedigree, but he was too unmanageable, so they surrendered him to the rescue when they couldn’t sell him. I know the owner of the rescue, and she knew I had open stable space. They wanted me to keep a few of their horses for a while, but they weren’t being adopted, so I took them on permanently.”

Hannah smiled. “That was a very kind thing to do, Brody.”

And more like the man she’d known, too, she thought to herself.

“He’s a bit...touchy. I was working with him, but he might need a better hand than mine, clearly. Jed will probably do better with him.”

“Jed?”

“He helps with the farm, has ever since my grandparents lived here. He’s excellent with horses, and he’s been working with Zip a bit each day since I hurt my back.”

Hannah nodded as Brody opened the gate to the pasture. He led Sally in, but told Hannah to wait.

“Zip goes over in a separate section—he has to until he’s gelded anyway.”

“Ouch. Poor Zip,” she said with a comforting pat.

“We’re hoping it will calm him down some.”

“You don’t sound entirely convinced,” she commented as they walked to the next corral.

“Well, you know...I sort of like him as he is, but I also don’t want him hurting himself or anyone else. I’m waiting to see how he responds to more training, but if we’re going to geld him, I want to do it before he gets much older.”

Hannah nodded, led Zip into the smaller pasture next door to Sally’s and then walked back out with Brody, leaving the horses, her buffer, behind.

“Um, listen,” she began, taking a breath as they walked back to the barn. “I have to apologize for last night. I was...in a weird mood, and I guess the wine really lowered my inhibitions,” she said with an embarrassed laugh. “But thank you for, well, being so considerate.”

“I owe you an apology, not the other way around. I wish you’d told me about your situation.”

She smiled at him. “Talk about pot and kettle.”

He laughed. “Well, we’ll call it even. As long as you promise not to go wrestling alligators or sharks.”

She laughed ruefully. “That’s an easy promise to make.”

“You feel like a ride? The other two horses in the stable need some exercise. Zip and Sally had a ride yesterday, but Salty and Pepper—my parents’ horses—need some exercise. I’ll put Snow, the other rescue, out with Sally. She’s older and just likes wandering around the pasture. Then we could go out on the trails for a bit.”

Hannah knew she should say no. She should say goodbye while things were settled and agreeable.

Instead, she looked up into Brody’s face, admiring the laugh lines around his green eyes and the way the sun played off reddish highlights in his brown hair. She liked the angle of his chin and his nose, and she especially liked his mouth. She liked his hair longer, and less severely cut. It suited him.

He looked better today. More rested. Had she been imagining how bad off he’d seemed to her the day before? Maybe she’d made too much of it?

“I was planning to leave after we talked,” she finally said halfheartedly.

“You can still go, later.” His eyes dropped to her mouth as he said the words, making her shiver.

“That’s true,” she agreed, knowing she was rationalizing, but so what? It wasn’t as though she had to answer to anyone about how she spent her time. No schedule to keep. New Orleans would still be there.

Brody turned back toward the barn, motioning for her to join him. Hannah paused before she did so, enjoying studying his other assets as he walked ahead of her, a smile twitching at her lips.

She met his parents’ horses, who were older and so impossibly sweet that Hannah fell in love with them immediately. Salty was a female white draft horse, and Pepper a mostly black quarter horse.

Salty was immense, and gave Hannah pause for a second, but the mare was a gentle girl and didn’t mind at all being saddled. In fact, she seemed eager to go.

“We can head down through the trails on the back of the property—it’s a nice, easy ride, and cooler under the trees,” Brody said as he pulled himself up on Pepper.

“You’re okay to ride?” Hannah asked, thinking about his back.

“I’m fine, particularly on these two. When it comes to Zip, I probably can’t ride him for a while. I can’t risk screwing up—uh—you know, making my back worse than it is.”

He sounded disappointed, and Hannah didn’t find that surprising. Of course Brody would want to get back on the horse that put him in the hospital. Riding Zip was probably akin to riding in one of his race cars—and potentially as dangerous. But he also sounded as though he had been about to say something else and then changed his mind.

What was Brody afraid of messing up? Did he have some kind of new venture in the works?

They headed toward the tree line at the edge of the corrals where a path opened into woods that were almost like a fairy-tale setting. Moss draped from trees, and tall pines weaved in between those, all blocking the heat and layering the dirt with a soft path of detritus where the needles lay. Hannah felt as if they had been transported back in time to some ancient forest.

Sun danced through the trees, illuminating a thatch of wild orchids, purple thistle, pine lilies and other plant species that she didn’t recognize, but they were beautiful all the same. A few insects buzzed by, but there were far fewer mosquitoes than she would have expected, and she mentioned that to Brody.

“We sprayed last fall, which cuts them down in spring, but also, it’s better during the day. At night, especially midsummer, it can be rough.”

The horses seemed to know their way without direction as she and Brody rode side by side without saying too much except for noticing things along the path here and there. Brody shared a few family memories with her, a tree where he used to hide so he could jump down to scare Brandi, or a secret hollow where he’d hid boyhood treasures. He seemed more relaxed, and she was, too.

Time melted away, and eventually they reached a point where the path widened out around a pond that was deep green and covered in water lilies. Frogs were singing all around, their baritone croaks making her laugh.

“Mating call,” Brody said with a grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows, making her laugh.