Page 44 of A Rancher's Vow

Shim:Jerk.

Dustin:To you? Always.

Laughing softly, Dustin shoved his phone in his back pocket and headed to the chow house. Some good food, a chance to finish the day with good friends, and an adventure with Charity. Then back to the trailer for the night with her—

Being banished to Crooked Creek was turning out to be an awesome thing after all.

9

Supper was delicious and the company great. Charity thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the group as they shared stories and teased each other about the small things that had happened as they’d worked with the animals over the course of the day.

Only once dessert was done, Dustin tugged her away from the girls. “Come on. You’re late for your riding lesson.”

Coralee and Amy both blinked.

Their reactions tickled Charity’s funny bone all over again. Maybe she shouldn’t have found it so amusing, but it really was a kick. “I should take pictures of people’s faces when they find out I don’t ride. It would make a great instruction manual for actors practicinghorroranddismay.”

“After a couple days you won’t be able to announce you don’t ride anymore, so that project is short-lived,” Dustin assured her. “Ladies, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night, Dustin. Night, Charity.” Amy waved them off. “You can have the horses. I’m off to soak in a tub with Epsom salts so I can move tomorrow.”

As Dustin led Charity toward the barn, Patchwork Annie came out from the group of dogs nesting together under an old willow tree. She stretched, back arching even as her tail wagged lazily in greeting.

Dustin stooped and petted her. “You should be smart and stay here and get some rest. You worked hard today. Good girl.”

Annie’s tail turned up the pace at his praise.

When Dustin stood and reached for Charity’s hand again, she hesitated. “You sure you want to do this tonight?”

He stopped. “Are you worried or scared? Because we don’t have to if it’s a problem.”

“It’s not that,” Charity assured him. “I am interested, I just don’t want to make you ride for longer when you’ll be in the saddle again tomorrow. Annie wasn’t the only one who worked hard today.”

With a quick nod, Dustin resumed his stroll, pulling her along with him. “Oh, I get it. You’re worried about Amy’s comment about soaking in the tub. That isn’t a problem for me, at least not today. I ride a lot at Silver Stone. Like, I mean alot. I rarely use the ATVs, so I’d guess I’m in the saddle for at least half of each day, probably more. The hands here at Crooked Creek don’t ride nearly as much except when there’s a task like branding.”

“Okay. But make sure you stop the day when you need to so you can get through tomorrow safe and rested.”

He squeezed her fingers and flashed her a smile. “You’re cute when you’re being all protective.”

She stuck out her tongue. He only grinned harder.

Charity glanced at their joined hands and decided she didn't want to say anything about not having an audience because she liked holding hands with him.

She had it bad. She’d just outright admit it to herself, if not to anyone else.

“Here we go.” Dustin stopped outside a stall with a large pale brown horse inside. Annie turned in a circle and curled up quietly against the barn wall.

Oh boy. This was really happening. “That’s not the horse you rode today.”

He looked impressed. “Good eye for a non-horse person. No, Midnightdoesneed to rest since he did most of the hard work. This is one of the older horses Adam plans to retire. He’ll head north with us when we leave to go live with the rest of our retirees. His name is Beach.”

“Is that a pun or something?” Charity watched as Dustin stroked the long length of the horse’s nose.

“Yup. Short for Son of a Beach. Not sure who named him. Caleb and Ashton would never let us get away with nonsense like that. It does mean when Fern asks what you did tonight, you can tell her you were somewhere on a Beach.”

Charity laughed. “Nice.”

“Want to say hello?” Dustin stepped to one side. “Put your hand on top of mine to start.”