auditioning for a role in a Western next month,” Silver said. “I really want to get the part, and I thought this might help me get a sense of how it might have been back then.”
“So I heard.”
He shifted his booted feet, making his spurs jangle. Since their unexpected bonding over lunch he’d retreated back into the shortest sentences possible. But maybe they hadn’t bonded, and he’d just been polite listening to her chat away like a fool. That was his job after all.
She frowned. “My dad told you?”
“Yeah.” He started moving again, his gaze at the building at the end of the street. “Do you want to see the bank? The vault’s still there. I guess they couldn’t figure out how to remove something so heavy.”
“Sure.”
Seeing as her dad was super overprotective, she had to wonder what else he’d said to Ben. Had he warned him off? Silver smiled at her own arrogance. Maybe it was way simpler than that and Ben Miller simply wasn’t interested in getting to know her. She rarely got the opportunity to talk to someone outside her tight circle and she’d enjoyed talking to him and stupidly wanted him to like her back.
But how would she know if him liking her was genuine? Being around famous people could distort the most basic of interactions. She’d done her first commercial as a baby, and never had what could be considered a normal life. Maybe she wasn’t even capable of being liked for herself—maybe she didn’t know who she was after all.
“You okay?” Ben had halted in front of a brick building and was looking back at her.
“Yes, sorry, I was just thinking.”
“About this place as a movie set?”
“No, about my inability to know how to act like a normal person.”
He looked her up and down. “You’re doing okay.”
“Thanks.” She frowned at him. “Every time I start a conversation, you look at me as if I’m nuts.”
He took so long to answer that she’d almost given up hope.
“You’re... different than the people I normally take out on a trail ride.”
“In a good way or a bad way?” Silver advanced toward him.
“Neither. Just different.” He pointed in through the open doorway. “If you look right through the back you can just about see the open vault.”
Chapter Four
God, she was tired. The sun was setting, and there were no other lights around them as Ben finally called a halt. In the gathering darkness, she could just about hear the sound of running water and make out a copse of trees. For some reason, she’d been expecting a lot more than that.
She managed to dismount and just stood there holding Ladybug’s reins as Ben started to unload the mules.
“Where’s the backup staff?” Silver asked.
“The what?” Ben looked over at her, his face barely visible in the gloom.
“The people who set up the campsite.”
“That would be us.” He set two of the packs on the ground and started on the second mule. “Everything we need is in here. Which would you rather do first, start the campfire, or put up your tent?”
She slowly closed her mouth. “I was kind of expecting those things would be done for me.”
His teeth flashed white in the darkness. “If you want to eat and sleep safely tonight, then you might have to manage your expectations.”
He walked over and took Ladybug’s reins out of her unresisting fingers. “I’m going to release the horses and mules into the enclosure. Do you want to help?”
Aware that if he went away too far from her, she’d be alone in the dark, she nodded. “Sure.”
“Come on, then.”
She stumbled after him, leading Ladybug and Ted toward the dense group of trees. “Do we have food for them?”
He glanced back at her. “Nope, they’ll be having beans and singing Kumbaya with us around the fire.”
Silver took a moment to respond. “I hope they sing better than you do.”
Ben chuckled. “I’ve got hay, and if there’s not enough grass for them to graze on, I have alfalfa pellets, which we’ll also be eating if we don’t get our camp set up.”
He removed Calder’s saddle and placed it on the sturdy fence. Silver tried to do the same with Ladybug’s and staggered at the weight before she managed to right herself and just get it on the fence.
“Good job,” Ben said as he took off Calder’s saddle blanket and bridle, replacing it with a halter before he turned to the mules.
He spent a few minutes checking each animal over, picking up their feet