“It happens all the time.” He rose to his feet. “There are a couple of picnic benches over here so we don’t need to unpack more than the lunch Mrs. Morgan made for us.”
“Great.” Silver managed to take a step and then another one and suddenly everything started working again. For the first time in her life she was glad of the strenuous workouts her personal trainer made her go through every day. “Can I help?”
He was doing something with her horse and spoke without turning around. “Sure. Look in Calder’s left saddlebag and grab the food while I check the table out.”
Silver approached the huge horse somewhat warily, but he paid no attention to her as she unbuckled the saddlebag, only to reveal a medical kit, three pairs of hand-knitted socks, and four pairs of black boxers. She hurriedly shut the flap and went around to the other left side where she found the packs of sandwiches and a flask of what she hoped was coffee.
She brought everything up to the table where Ben was sitting staring out at the ghost town and placed it in front of him.
“You do wear underwear.” The words fell out of her mouth before she considered their impact.
His head jerked up. “Were you checking?”
“No, I opened the wrong saddlebag.” Silver sat opposite him. “Although I would think that not wearing underwear when you are riding long distances could cause all kinds of issues.”
He studied her cautiously. “Yeah, I guess so. How are your calves now?”
“Much better, thanks.” She opened the container of food and her stomach growled. “Oh my God, my dietitian and trainer would kill me if they knew what I was just about to eat.”
“It’s just a sandwich.” Ben waited until she’d made her selection and then helped himself. “What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s white flour, full-fat mayonnaise, and salted chicken.” Silver studied the bread. “If I was going to be good, I’d just eat the chicken and lettuce.”
“Then it would be a salad and not a sandwich,” Ben commented as he poured them both some coffee. “Are you really not allowed to eat whatever you want?”
“If I want to continue to get film roles, then yes.”
He snorted and helped himself to his second sandwich. “I wouldn’t last five minutes.”
“You wouldn’t have to,” she pointed out. “Guys get away with a lot of things that girls can’t.”
“Double standards, right?” He chewed for a while. “My sister, Daisy, who works in tech, says it’s hard for her to be taken as seriously as her male colleagues.”
“Daisy, the one you watched my TV show with?”
“Yeah, my one and only sister.” His smile was fond. “For some reason she liked me looking after her the best, so I’d get my homework done while she watched her TV shows and Auntie Rae made dinner for the rest of us.”
“Do you have a big family?”
“There are six of us, so I suppose that’s a lot. I’m the second son. My older brother, Adam, basically runs the ranch—”
“Your older brother is Adam and you’re Benjamin?” She interrupted him. “Don’t tell me you have a Caleb next?”
“Nope, a Kaiden.” She grinned at him and his brow creased. “What’s so funny about that?”
She set down her sandwich and shook her head. “And then?”
“Danny and Evan.”
“Was your mom by any chance a Howard Keel fan?”
Ben frowned. “I’ve no idea. Why does it matter?”
“Have you ever seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“It’s a musical which came out in the fifties about seven brothers looking for seven brides. The boys are named alphabetically from the Bible, starting with Adam and Benjamin.”
She looked at him expectantly.
“I doubt there’s a Kaiden in the Bible,” Ben said. “What do these guys do?”
“Well, it’s all a bit politically incorrect these days because they decide to follow the advice of the Romans and steal their brides from the local town just like the Romans took the Sabine women.”
“That’s not good.” Ben paused to consider what she’d told him. “I can’t see us galloping down to Morgantown and kidnapping women somehow. Not that any of them would let us, since BB started those female-only self-defense classes. We’d probably get our asses kicked all the way back to the ranch.”
He finished his second sandwich while she still nibbled at her first.
“Did the women in the movie get away?”
“No, they end up falling in love with the brothers.”
Ben shook his head. “That’s whacked.”
“Stockholm syndrome at its finest.” She nodded. “But you should ask your mom