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“I was ordered to wear my hair in a braid today. But I decided to do the braid I wanted, not what was expected of me.” Her nose tipped up into the air and he had to keep himself from barking out a laugh that might startle the horses.

“All I meant was, you’ll want your hair up so that it doesn’t get caught on anything, or whip into your face when you ride. It wasn’t an order. And I don’t care what kind of braid you do. Though, this one is very pretty. Did they teach you how to do that at dance school?”

The sideways glare she shot him had him smiling. He liked teasing her. It made a pretty pink flood her cheeks and the way her nostrils flared and eyes widened just took her from beautiful to stunning.

But he needed to back off a bit if he wanted to win her over.

“Yes, they taught me how to braid my hair like this at dance school,” she finally replied.

“Must have been challenging to do with only one real working arm. Well done.”

He was still learning Mieka’s tell, and although he didn’t really like to compare people to horses, and knew that most people preferred not to be compared to horses, he felt that he could apply a lot of his horse whispering skills to the skittish dancer. She was trying hard not to react to his praise, in fact, she was trying to appear insulted, but it wasn’t working. She responded to his ”well done” the way any person who thrived on praise did. Her chest puffed up, her mouth lifted into a smile and her eyes twinkled.

“You’re doing great. See how easy it is to ride when your shoulders aren’t kissing your ears and you’re not white-knuckling the pummel? It can actually be enjoyable.”

“How much further?” she asked, not responding to his second compliment even though he could see her visceral reaction to it and the way it made her beam.

“Another twenty minutes or so. We’ll just go to the closest one. They’re identical pre-fabs, so once you get a feel for the size and design of one, you can just buy in bulk for the other three.”

She nodded, then they rode in silence.

Nate itched to say or do something else that could help Mieka see how great life on a ranch could be, but at the moment, he was stymied. It would have to come naturally. He couldn’t over-plan things.

He did, however, plan to have her help tag and name the new goat kids that had been born over the last two days. Three of their nannies had birthed six kids between them and all babies were healthy, but currently nameless. They often waited for one of the teenage girls with a boarded horse to name the goats—which was why they had goats named Eleven, Geronimo, Kombucha, Craddock, Dustin, Hilda, Marley, Alfonse, Billy the Kid, Hashtag, Jolene, Barbara, Nancy and Karen (who was such a Karen). But he figured Mieka might enjoy helping to pick out the names since she’d done such a great job with Chance and Skipper.

They also had to brush the miniature horses, Sam and Frodo, and the pony, Magic. He didn’t want to lay on the work-load too thick to start, since mucking stalls and getting covered in chicken poop could turn her off ranch life. So he made sure to pick some fun chores to start.

Another twenty minutes of quiet riding in the morning sun, with the dew glistening on the leaves and tall blades of grass like little balls of glass, and the first cabin came into view on the river bend. They already had troughs and hitching posts outside of each cabin, so all he had to do was turn on the outside tap and fill the trough for the horses and donkey.

She helped him unload, which was mostly just wooden boards and planks to finish boarding up the bottom of the cabin to help with the insulation, as well as things like caulking for the window sills and extra grout for the tile in the bathroom. He didn’t have a ton left to do, but enough that they’d be at the cabin for at least an hour.

“Did you bring a notepad?” he asked, unloading the last of the supplies from Rubix who was happily nibbling on some nearby grass.

She held up her phone. “I’ll just dictate what I need into a note-taking app.”

“Smart.”

He opened the door into the cabin for her to walk in first.

“Oh wow!”

Oh wow good? Or oh wow bad?

“This is … cozy.”

He chuckled. “You mean small?”

“I mean, my cabin on the ship wasn’t much bigger than this. At least after I became dance captain. They were significantly smaller when I was just a regular dancer and forced to share with other dancers and entertainment crew. No windows in those bunks, either.” She shuddered. “A bit claustrophobic, honestly.” She was rambling, which was something he noticed she did when she was excited. Not that it bothered him. He actually found it cute and endearing. It was like her brain was overflowing with ideas and thoughts and she couldn’t get them out of her mouth fast enough. But he liked that she was excited about the cabins and talking a million-miles a minute. “And people are willing to pay over three hundred a night to stay in a shoebox?”

“It’s the experience. Getting away from civilization, connecting with nature. Plus, we’ve hired a killer designer who is going to decorate and furnish this place so it’s got everything our guests could possibly want.”

Her brows pinched. “But I thought you hired m—” He was lifting one brow at her and smirking. “Oh! I’m the killer designer you hired.”

“Smart and pretty.” He winked. “We will pay you.”

She wandered around the small cabin. It had three rooms total. A bedroom, or more accurately, a loft for a bedroom which sat over the living room, then there was the bathroom with a claw-foot tub and small stand-up shower on the lower level along with the living room and kitchen. There were windows in every room and the one in the living room was big and pointed directly at the river, the same with the window in the loft.

“Stunning view,” she said, wandering over to the big picture window and standing in front of it.