Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,77

be ready for more line at all.

“How’s he doing today?” Rich asked as he climbed up on the bottom rung of the fence too. Midnight rounded the corner and saw him, tossed his head, and nickered. “Oh, all right,” Rich said with a laugh. “You don’t like the bit or the line. Too bad, bud.”

Too bad, indeed. Jess said nothing, sensing that Midnight simply needed to get his frustration out, and then he’d do what she wanted him to. She simply had to out-wait him, and no one had ever done that before.

“Time him,” she said to Rich. “We say nothing until he’s calm.”

Rich pressed a button on the side of his watch, and she and Rich stood side-by-side on the fence and watched Midnight Madness trot around and around and around. He’d toss his head every time he passed, and eventually, it was every other time. Then every third time. Then not at all.

He finally slowed to a walk, his head bobbing exactly where a horse’s head should, his breathing though his nose steady and strong.

“Time?” Jess asked quietly.

“Twenty-one minutes,” Rich said.

“Start it again,” Jess said. “I’m going to lead him.” She climbed the fence and got in the ring with Midnight. She stayed on the outer ring as he walked by, aware that he was watching her too. The second time around, she stepped in front of him and walked along his shoulder. He let her do that too, and Jess relaxed completely.

“There you go,” she said to the dark horse. “See? You and I are going to get along just fine.”

She kept him on the lead for several more times around, then she released it from the clasp that kept him on the circle she wanted him on, and she led him around the pen. Each time they went, she pulled him out another foot.

Eventually, they walked along the rail, Jess going whatever speed she wanted, and Midnight following her.

“Time?” she asked Rich, because it felt like a lot of it had passed. Jess was surprised she possessed the patience to work with a horse like Midnight, but then again, she’d always had more patience and love for horses than she did people.

Another flaw, she supposed.

“Forty-seven minutes,” he said. He deserved credit for standing there and watching all that time.

Jess smiled at him as she went around again. “One more time, okay, Midnight? Then you get to eat and drink, and I’ll even put you in the shady pasture.”

“You’re going to spoil him,” Rich called with a smile. “Then he’ll think he can act all fussy and then get the best grass.” He laughed as he stepped off the bottom rung. “I have to go drive the bus. See you tomorrow, Jess.”

“Bye,” she called to him, pausing at the gate that would leave the walking circle. Midnight did everything she asked of him, and she led him down the aisle in the row house to his stall, where he got brushed down for a good long while.

She gave him fresh water, and fresh hay, and a bowl full of cut up apples and carrots from one of the fridges they kept in the stable. “Don’t go tellin’ the others,” she said to him as she stroked his neck. “These treats are for the best horses, and they all want them.”

Jess made sure they all got them from time to time, too, because she wanted all her horses to think they were the best horse on the ranch. She stayed with Midnight Madness for a while longer than necessary, because she felt so much like him.

Too loud, and too impatient. Too big, and too rash with her decisions. She regretted cutting Dallas from her life, but she didn’t know how to let him back in. He hadn’t tried to come back into her life, and that kept her inside her own space too.

She took Midnight out to the pasture and walked back to the stables about the same time the kids started arriving for riding lessons.

“Jess!” a little girl called, and Jess turned to find Remmy running toward her.

A smile filled her face and her soul, and she crouched down to receive the girl into a hug. “Hey,” she said into Remmy’s neck. “How are you? What’s seven been like so far?”

Remmy straightened and looked right into Jess’s eyes. “So good, Jess. Dad got me a new bike, and I’ve been practicing on it every night. I can ride it so far now, and I never tip.”

“That’s great,”