Take the Reins (A Cowboy's Promise #2) - Megan Squires Page 0,35

change. She would sneak back in and devour the sweet treat under the bleachers. Sure, there were all kinds of sugary options available at the rodeo concession stands, but Martina’s Ice Cream Shoppe was her favorite. They had mouth-watering seasonal flavors from a patriotic red, white, and blue sherbet for the fourth of July all the way to peppermint bark for the holiday season.

Tonight she’d splurged on the pumpkin caramel crunch—one of their premium fall flavors—and savored every bite. Well, every bite that made it into her mouth.

Seth knocked his shoulder into Josie’s, snapping her from her sugar-filled reverie. “I’m sorry. It’s obvious I’ve made you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not that. I’m just…I don’t know.” Josie shrugged. “I’m really awkward, Seth. And I don’t want you to feel like you have to pretend to be my boyfriend when it’s just the two of us. There’s no one here we need to convince right now.”

What she really needed, however, was to convince herself that this feeling currently nudging at her heart was just a manifestation of playing house. Of pretending to have an emotional connection with someone. She barely knew the man, for goodness sake. But looking at him right now, his strong and striking features emphasized in the cresting moonlight, his tender words crawling their way into spaces of her heart that she didn’t even know existed…she didn’t know how to separate reality from fiction in these areas.

The truth was, they were two grown adults who admittedly found each other attractive. That was allowed. But acting on that attraction? That was another animal altogether.

“I’m going to change the subject, but I don’t want you to think it’s because I regret what I said. I don’t.” Seth took another lick of his plain vanilla. “New subject: I talked to the people at my grandma’s facility and we’ve arranged a trip for them to visit the ranch next week.”

Yep. That would do it. Going from mounting attraction to grandmother talk. Josie could already feel the tension slipping from her shoulders.

“That’s great. What can I do to help?”

“We’ve got a couple new calves I think they’d like to see. Everyone loves a baby animal, right? But I was hoping you might be able to introduce them to the rescue horses. Show them what you’ve been doing and how you work with them. Maybe even tell them a little about horse shoeing and how you got into that profession. Stuff like that.”

“Sure. I can do that. Happy to.”

Gosh, it had been so long since she’d shod a horse. She honestly missed it. The work left her back aching, her hands lined with permanent creases of grease and dirt, and her muscles begging for the warmest bath she could draw, but there was satisfaction in readying a horse for its job. And the sound of a full set of shoes clomping across a gravel road was its own sort of music. A hoof beat felt so close to a heartbeat that Josie often sensed they were one and the same.

When she turned and her eyes found Seth’s, that heartbeat suddenly became a thundering stampede, trampling whatever hopes she had of keeping things platonic. There was a tension that tugged at his brow drawn tight over half-uncertain, half-expectant eyes. Josie wondered if she leaned over and kissed him right then, if he’d taste like the vanilla that met his lips earlier. A flush of awareness pulsed through her and she shook her head and body to keep it at bay.

It never occurred to her that playing pretend with Seth Ford might prove to be more dangerous than the horses she’d been hired to train.

13

Seth

“Git on, cows.” Tanner flapped his lanky arm at his side like a one-winged albatross. “Git!”

Seth galloped up behind the stubborn herd that bunched as one unit, refusing to move pastures. “Come on, now! Let’s move, cows!”

“I need you on this side, Seth!” With two heels dug into his horse’s flanks, Tanner jolted forward, nearly pitching out of his saddle. The cow and calf closest bolted for the open farm gate and several other groupings followed, but the majority remained stuck in place like their legs were trapped in quicksand. “Gotta help me funnel them this direction. You’re no good way over there. Need to put pressure on them from this side to get them to move on out. Help me out a little, would you?”

Seth knew exactly what he was doing and didn’t need his brother’s instruction. But Tanner had always been bossy. Not

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