Dreaming of His Pen Pal's Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,53
you don’t even have to sing.”
“That’s a good thing. We want the horse to stay calm and in good mood. If I start to sing, I can only see bad things happening.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“It’s that bad.”
They’d walked over to where Blakely was holding the horse behind the starting line and really not paying attention as she seemed to be communicating with Martin who still stood behind the yellow tape.
Blakely jerked her head around as Journee walked up.
“Thanks so much, sis. I really appreciate it. This is so much better than jogging.” Journee gave Dante an eye and kinda nodded her head like encouraging him to say something along similar lines.
He tried to think of something he could say that wouldn’t be a total lie. “I think this is probably going to be faster than jogging.” Unless he fell off and broke his other leg. Maybe he shouldn’t ride the horse at all, but then he’d be letting Journee down. He usually didn’t have this much trouble making up his mind, but he felt like he was wavering back and forth, because he truly was scared of horses.
Journee leaned toward him and looked up.
“Face your fear?” she said, low so that only he could hear as he leaned his head down.
“Did I say this was a phobia? I meant allergy. I’m deathly allergic to horses.”
“Nice try. I can get on first, if you’re good riding behind me.” She lifted her brows. “Or do you want to be in the front?”
“If I’m in the front that means I have to steer, right?”
“Steer. Yes. That’s what you have to do if you’re in front. Steer. Like a ship. Or a car. Only there’s no wheel. You’ve got reins.”
“Quit making fun of me. I didn’t make fun of you whenever you were trying to go up the chimney.”
“I didn’t say anything about steering when I went up the chimney.”
“Right. Got it. Some of us didn’t grow up in the country. What do you say whenever you’re going to steer a horse?”
“Can we talk about this later? Can’t we just get on the horse?”
“Ladies first.”
Journee nodded, giving him a worried glance, but she also seemed to be biting back a smile. She grabbed the mane, did something weird with her other hand too quickly for him to quite catch at all, and before he knew it, she jumped up, throwing her leg over, and was suddenly astride the horse.
“I’m sorry. But I don’t think there’s any way I’m going to be able to get on from the ground,” Dante said to no one in particular or to everyone. He wasn’t sure.
Journee’s lips pursed, and she and Blakely exchanged glances. Blakely checked her watch. “I don’t want to put pressure on anyone, but you guys are pretty much in last place right now. Even the grandparents are ahead of you.”
“It’s okay. I dealt with some claustrophobia on the chimneys, and that’s probably what got us behind.”
“No. I’ve been dragging my feet about the horse. How about you tell me what to do to get on.” Dante started walking toward the horse. He could do this. He’d done plenty of hard things in his life before.
Blakely and Journee exchanged another look before Journee patted the sleek neck and said, “If I walk the horse over to the table, do you mind climbing up on the table and slipping onto his back from there?”
Dante didn’t answer her but strode to the table. Hopefully, he got this over with before anybody could snap a picture, because this was definitely something his teammates would make fun of him for for pretty much the rest of his career. He could see this picture ending up both in the locker room and also on national TV.
Blakely didn’t hesitate. She rode the horse over behind him.
He felt like an idiot as he climbed up on the table, but he had to admit she was right—it made it a lot easier for him to slip onto the horse.
Maybe he was clutching Journee’s waist a little tighter than necessary, but he felt like he was gonna fall off at any second.
“Relax.”
“Tell the horse to Stop. Moving. And I will relax.”
“The point of having the horse is to have it move,” Journee said, explaining it almost like he was five and she were teaching him how to write the first letter of his name.
“Right. I knew that.” It just felt like he needed to catch his balance before it started moving more. “Go ahead.