Horse Play (Horse Play #1) (2 page)

He worked with me as often as I was able to make it out, without disrupting my college course load, until she was trained. I finished my four years of college, majoring in Business so I could one-day help run the ranch. It had been my dream for as long as I could remember.

While there was always a time and place in my life for a good old western saddle, I’d always been a fan of English riding. With that in mind, that was primarily how I started training my new horse. Within her first two years, Halley was green-broke and fairly trustworthy, but she still needed a lot of ground work before I could even think of jumping her.

By the time Halley and I had taken our first jump together, my grandfather had fallen ill, and he passed away one month later. In the two years since his death, I had been working with Tom, who had been the ranch’s head trainer for the last twenty years, and had once upon a time, competed on a professional level. He even helped me line up a sponsor a couple years ago, and I’d toured some of the pro competitions up until Halley got hurt.

My grandfather’s absence wasn’t forgotten, though. I was surrounded with his legacy. Hell, I lived in his three-bedroom house on the grounds while my father lived in the smaller guest cottage next door. Dad said he had no use for the main house and that I should have it. He said Grandpa would have wanted it that way. I had always been close with my grandparents, but working with him and Halley several times a week definitely brought us even closer. His death wasn’t just devastating to my father, but to me as well.

I walked with a hop in my step a few paces behind my dad with Halley at my side, her limp completely gone. As I went to lead her into the barn, I noticed my father lift an arm and wave to a man standing next to the Harley I had seen earlier. I had to wonder how Dad knew him and why he was here. Even from far away, I couldn’t help but admire the stranger. The way the sunlight made his brown hair glimmer in the sun, the strong angles to his jaw, not to mention his tall, muscular build …

Get a grip, Madison! He’s probably just stopping for directions. Not to mention, you’ve sworn off men, remember? Dane only just moved out a few weeks ago …

“You mean since I kicked him out,” I corrected myself out loud as I continued on my way into the barn to tether Halley. When I entered the locker room to grab my brushes and tack, I found Tom coming out of the viewing gallery on the other side.

“Hey, Madison. Did you find your dad?” he asked as he approached me to help me hoist my saddle out of the top locker.

I stepped back, tucking my blond hair behind my ear, and allowed him to carry it for me. “Oh, yeah. Everything is good. He said I could ride Halley today.”

He smirked. “Explains the gear.” We walked together until we reached Halley, and Tom set the saddle on the blanket rack outside her stall door. “Can I do anything else for you? Your dad said I should ask before I head to the feed store to pick up more grain.”

“Uh,” I said, dragging the word out as I thought of anything else that needed to be done. “Nope. Go ahead. I’ll take care of anything that comes up.”

“Cool. I’m going to take the truck, if that’s all right?”

I nodded as I grabbed my curry comb to begin grooming Halley. “That’s what it’s there for. Though, it’s been acting up, so just watch out for it, okay?”

“Has it?” Tom asked, sounding a little stunned. He was the one who kept the old thing running, and he was a pretty decent mechanic. “I’ll take a look at it when I get back.”

Tom left us then, and I stood with Halley in the empty barn. “Good ol’ Tom, hey, Hails?” I cooed to her as I ran the rubber comb over her body in circular motions. Her skin flicked beneath the comb, and she shook her head, rattling the halter.

Once I had finished with the first comb, I reached down into my tattered box for the hard-bristled brush and began flicking away the dust I had stirred up with the first. Halley’s posture relaxed and she rested her left hind leg as I continued to work. Grooming Halley was something I did every day. It was something that both of us truly enjoyed. I brought out the last brush. It was full of super-soft bristles and really made her shine. When I finished with her body, I moved to her face and laughed softly when I saw her eyes looking rather sleepy. She perked right up when I dropped the brush in the box and reached for her saddle pad.

Halley’s eyes widened as I walked back to her left side and slid the pad into place; she seemed to be just as excited about our long-overdue ride as I was. I then grabbed the sleek, black leather saddle and placed it on her back, dropping the girth over to her right side so I could grab it beneath her and fasten it.

Once it was on tight enough, I put a set of therapeutic boots on her. We’d bought them for her after the accident in hopes they’d help with her recovery. They were supposed to absorb some of the pressure and keep her from injuring herself any further. The vet highly recommended them if we ever wanted to use her as anything more than a broodmare in the future. When I reached for her bridle, I found myself growing more excited; it had been two long months since I had ridden her. I had been helping Tom train the other horses we had, but it just wasn’t the same. They weren’t mine … well, I guess
technically
they were. It was just different.

With the bridle on, I untethered Halley and took her to our outdoor arena. Chances were, Jillian was teaching a morning class inside anyway, and I wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous weather.

Once inside the arena, I closed the gate and mounted her. I sank into the supple leather saddle, and with a sigh, I was home. We walked around the arena for fifteen minutes to warm her up, and I counted the perfectly spaced beats of her gait.
One. Two. Three. Four.
She wasn’t favoring her leg, so I decided we would pick up into a trot.
One. Two. One. Two.
I rose on every other beat, and Halley flipped her head slightly and snorted with delight. When I felt she was ready, I nudged her forward into a steady lope.

As we cantered around the arena, I kept my seat in the saddle, keeping her going by pushing forward. When we hit the corner, I turned her so we could change direction. Her flying lead-change was seamless and she instantly flipped to the opposite lead. We moved smoothly around the low cross-rail that had been set up for last night’s beginner jumper class and continued on.

We made a few more laps around the arena, and as we approached the entry, I saw a man with a head of unruly brown hair watching us. I instantly recognized him as the man who had met with Dad a little while ago.

He leaned over the top rail of the fence, his posture relaxed and his right leg bent so his foot could rest on the bottom rung. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt that showed off his muscular physique. His right arm was tattooed starting at his wrist and disappearing beneath the sleeve of his shirt. I found it extremely sexy—which surprised me since I wasn’t really a fan of tattoos—and I kind of wanted to see more of it.

As Halley and I drew nearer, I took in the deep blue color of his eyes and the way they sparkled like sapphires in the sun. I was instantly mesmerized. Halley continued to lope around the arena, and when I caught the stranger’s gaze again I got lost in his eyes once more. There was something in the way he was watching me that made me smile, and he returned that smile with one that caused an unexpected flurry of butterflies to erupt in my belly. Completely distracted by his smirk, I hadn’t even realized that Halley was headed for the small cross-rail just off the trail until we were nearly upon it.

Instinctively, I leaned forward in preparation for her to take the jump, but as I did, Halley stopped … and I kept on going. The ground came up to meet me far too fast, and all I felt was pressure in my head as I landed hard on my back.

Chapter 2. Thrown

A
fter a few seconds, I opened my eyes and started to sit up. My entire body ached as I struggled to inhale deeply, and my head was spinning so fast, my vision blurred.

“Holy shit! Are you okay?” a deep voice called out to me. At first it sounded kind of hazy—like a dream. Everything soon became clear when I heard the disruption of the arena dirt and sensed a body next to me.

“Uh … yeah,” I groaned as I started to push myself up. The stranger slipped his left arm around me while I gripped his right hand with mine, and he helped me stand. I teetered slightly on wobbly legs, but his hand firmly gripped my waist as I struggled to keep my balance. As soon as I was on my feet, I looked around frantically for Halley, only to find her standing on the other side of the low fence looking at me like she was confused about what happened.

“Madison!” Dad’s panicked voice rang through the yard, and I looked up just in time to see him hop the fence with more ease than a fifty-three-year-old man should be capable of. “Kiddo, are you okay?”

With my body still in such close proximity to the stranger—
the beautiful, beautiful stranger
—I suddenly felt embarrassed. I pulled free of Mr. Blue-Eyes, pushing the stray hairs that had fallen from my ponytail off of my forehead and looked between my dad and the man who was looking at me like I was going to collapse any minute.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” I assured them both.

Dad breathed a sigh of relief before narrowing his eyes at me, and I shied away from his glare. I’d seen it before. I knew what was coming next. “What the hell were you thinking, Madison? I told you
light
training with Halley. She’s not ready for jumps! Are you trying to put her back out of commission?” he shouted.

“What? No, of course not! It … it was an accident,” I argued softly, not really relishing the fact that I was having my ass chewed out in front of a complete stranger.

“Wayne, I saw the whole thing,” Blue-Eyes said. “It looked as though the mare had just gone off track a bit. I don’t think … Madison—”

“Madi,” I interjected out of habit, preferring my nickname.

“My apologies. I don’t think Madi intended for this to happen.” He looked down at me with concern again. “Why weren’t you wearing the proper gear?”

Any gratitude I felt toward this man instantly fizzled as a frosty barrier slammed down in its place. He was just like any other man I’d ever known—a know-it-all who thinks they can tell me what to do.

Needless to say, I reacted angrily upon hearing his words. “Excuse me? And just who the hell are you?”

My dad shook his head before gesturing toward the brown-haired Adonis—
the jerky, brown-haired Adonis
—that was reprimanding me. Granted, I should have been wearing a helmet, but it wasn’t as though I had anticipated taking a jump … by myself. “I’m sorry. Madi, this is Jensen. Our new ranch hand. I just hired him this morning.”

I could feel my annoyance flare at my father for not consulting me on this. Yes, he was the boss, but this was also a partnership. Since when did he not run this sort of thing by me? I narrowed my eyes at this
Jensen
. “Can you ride?” I inquired snidely, eyeing him up and down, being careful to take note of his designer jeans. The tattoos didn’t exactly seem like something a ranch hand would spend their money on. Clearly he wasn’t farm material.

“Since I could walk, actually,” he replied confidently, crossing his arms across his chest in challenge. “My dad’s a vet, your vet, actually. He and my mother used to live in the country, and we’ve always been around horses. It was important I learn. In fact …” He let his words hang for a moment while a cocky smirk graced his stupid, delicious-looking lips. “Maybe I could teach you a few things.”

My mouth fell open in shock, and just as I was about to say something extremely unladylike, Dad laughed and clapped Jensen on the back. “Son, Madi’s been riding since she was a toddler. In fact, this is the first time I’ve seen her fall off her mount in years,” he said through his hysterics.

My rage suddenly spiked, and I crossed my arms defensively. “We don’t need a ranch hand,” I said pointedly. Mostly to my father, but also to Mr. Conceited. “We have Tom.”

“Madison, we’re getting busier, and Tom is already responsible for so much. We need someone else,” Dad tried reasoning.

“We have me.” I was mildly insulted.

My dad stepped into my line of sight as I continued to glare at this jerk that was coming onto
my
ranch and acting like he was King Shit of Turd Island. “Madison, you know how busy we get this time of year. People bringing their horses to be boarded for the winter? All the new rescues? What do you think we spent the entire spring and summer building the new barn for?”

I clenched my teeth and rolled my eyes as I exhaled an exasperated breath through my nose. “You’re right,” I told my father quietly. “Fine. He can stay. But he’s on probation.” After making my point, I turned on my heel and grabbed Halley’s reins before leading her for the exit.

“I’m hitting the trails. I’ll be back in a half hour.”

“Um, Madi?” Jensen called after me. “Don’t forget a helmet this time, okay?”

I held back a rage-fueled scream as I led Halley to the barn so I could grab my helmet. As infuriating as his belittling was, he was right; it probably wouldn’t have been good if I fell off and was knocked unconscious in the middle of nowhere—and let’s face it, if it were to happen to anyone, it’d be me.