Page 27 of Ace of Spades (Hidden Creek Ranch #1)

HAILEY

“You can ride on one of my horses?” I offer, the group of us rounding up our horses at the turnouts where we’d let them run around all day. Beau and Chelsea had grabbed Cooper and Barley from the stables before meeting us here, the two mounted bareback on their horses.

“Hell no. I mean, I love you and all, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I’ve seen your horses—they’re freaking crazy. They’re like, advanced. And I’m like, not advanced,” Dakota laughs.

“Well, why don’t you ride with your brother on Lark?”

“Ew, gross. We’d basically be forced to hug the entire way there.”

“Touché,” Weston agrees, pulling himself onto the black mare.

“I told you, she can ride with me on Odessa,” Chance says, leading the dappled grey mare up to the group. “Besides, she’s probably the most bomb-proof horse out here.”

“Okay fine,” Weston relents. “You can ride with Chance. But just for the record, I’m not a huge fan of this. You two are already rooming together, I don’t want either of you gettin’ any funny ideas. Rafe, are you sure she can’t ride with you?”

“No can do, Cisco’s already got a bad back as is. No offense, Kota—I just don’t want to put any more strain on him.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be the perfect gentleman,” Chance promises, giving Dakota a leg up onto his horse before climbing on behind her, his backpack full of beer clinking over the sounds of the crickets.

“You’d better be, that’s my little sister.”

“So Kota, if your brother grew up riding horses, why did you never learn to ride?” I ask, walking Vegas up against the fence to use it as a ladder. I throw my leg over him, his coat soft against the bare skin of my legs.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had ridden a horse bareback.

Come to think of it, I didn’t think I had since I was a child.

I stopped riding horses leisurely a long time ago, so focused on constantly training that I often forgot to have fun.

Right now, sitting atop him in a field at night without a saddle, in shorts and a bikini top, I felt more free than I had been in a while.

There was something about this place, and these people, that somehow brought me back to my roots, reminding me why I loved what I did.

I didn’t care about all of the fancy stuff when I was a kid, I just cared about the horses.

About how it felt to feel connected to something, and how they seemed to understand me more than my own parents did at times.

I breathed in the smell of the outdoors and the horsehair, the evening breeze brushing across my bare shoulders. This moment right here, right now, felt more like home than my home ever had.

“Well, most of the horses he was around were either client horses that he was training, or bucking horses, and there was no way I was getting on either of those. It’s not like I’m scared of them or anything, they’re just… a tad bit intimidating, is all.”

The group of us lead our horses out of the pasture, the sound of hooves muffled by the damp earth as we make our way down the trail, the seven of us riding side by side.

“And yet you live on a horse ranch,” I point out.

“Temporarily,” she says. “I’m starting as a registered nurse at the hospital in River Valley next year, so I’ll be getting my own apartment. I keep telling them that we need to get some of those mini cows, though. How cute would those be?”

“What use would we have with those?” Rafe asks.

“We’re literally about to be running a guest ranch, people would love them! Guarantee it would be a great selling point.”

“Right. Well I still think we oughta teach you how to ride one day, squirt,” Rafe tells her.

“We’ll bubble wrap you from head to toe if that makes you feel better,” Chance adds.

“You guys only want me to learn so I can warm up your horses for you at rodeos.”

“Not true,” Weston defends .

“Fine, I’ll try. But only if Hailey will teach me.”

“Excuse me, but you do realize that your brother is a professional horse trainer, right,” Weston states.

“Yeah, but you’re mean.”

“What are you talking about? I’m the most patient teacher ever, you’ve watched me teach the kids at the trailer park.”

“Yeah, but that’s because you’re not related to them, so you had to be nice.”

“I’ll teach you,” I tell her. “It can be our girl time.”

“In that case, count me in, too! I’ve been needing some girl time. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the time with Debbie and Rhonda, but they’re like having two moms around. I say the three of us bring the horses out to the creek one of these days and let loose,” Chelsea says.

“So how did you guys find this creek anyways? There are hundreds of acres out here, how did you come across it?”

“Well, somebody had a little too much to drink one night when we first started the ranch,” Rafe looks pointedly at Chance.

“Long story short, we all spent the entire night riding through the woods and rounding up the horses. We ended up finding most of them there. Unlike all of the other creeks on the property, this one wasn’t on any of the maps, so we decided to keep it a secret.

That’s why we call it the hidden creek.”

“So you really haven’t brought anybody else there?” I ask as we turn off of the trail and into the woods, the branches obscuring the moonlight as we merge into a single line to cut through the dense shrubbery. Rafe takes the lead, Weston putting himself at the back.

“Nope. ”

“Then how come you guys were okay with letting me in on it?”

“Because you’re one of us now, silly,” Dakota tells me, as if it were obvious. My heart warms, my chest tightening at the thought of being welcomed into this tight-knit group.

“I don’t even know how long I’m going to be staying,” I admit. As nice as it feels, I can’t let myself get too attached. This is just an escape, and I’ll have to go back to reality at some point, though the thought of leaving here makes my stomach turn sour.

“You’re planning on leaving?” she asks.

“I mean…I don’t know. Not anytime soon. But I can’t stay here forever. I just… I’ll have to go back to my real life eventually.”

The group falls silent, nothing but the sounds of our hooves and the brushes ruffling as we walk past.

“Well, just know you’re always welcome here as long as you’d like,” Dakota finally says.

We reach the creek, breaking through the trees into the clearing.

The light of the moon glints off of the running water, the stars fully visible at this time of night.

I slide off of Vegas, Chance getting off of Odessa before helping Dakota down as the rest of the group follow suit, all of us tying our horses wherever we can find with enough leeway to let them graze.

“Last one in is a wet chicken!” Chance yells, pulling his boots off and unbuttoning his jeans before pulling those down as well, leaving him in just his swim trunks as he runs down the bank and cannon-balls off of the ledge into the deeper water where the creek runs into the river .

“Not it!” Chelsea hollers, throwing her boots near the backpacks and taking off running as well, Beau hot on her heels as he catches up and throws her over his shoulder. Her scream echoes through the clearing as they follow Chance over the ledge.

Weston and Dakota run in next, shoving each other out of the way as they race to get to the water first. I look around for Rafe, only to find him a few yards away at a rope swing that I hadn’t noticed last time, taking a running start and flipping into the river.

“Hey Hails, grab me a beer before you come in, will you?” Chance yells from where he floats in the water.

I nod my head, walking to his backpack and pulling out a handful of them to pass out.

“Oh and don’t let me forget, Rhonda gave us some leftovers to bring you since you missed dinner! They should be in the backpack.”

My stomach rumbles at the mention of food, and I make sure to shoot a quick text to Rhonda to thank her for thinking of me. Setting my phone down on my shorts, I walk over to the ledge and toss down a few bottles, the guys catching them without a problem.

It’s a bit hard to see in the dark, but I can’t seem to spot Weston among the group, and I can’t help but wonder where he went off to.

“By the way, Hails—you’re last in the water. You know what that means?” Chance smiles up at me, a mischievous look on his face.

“What, that I’m a wet chicken? What does that even mean?” I ask .

“This,” Weston murmurs in my ear, somehow having snuck up behind me. I don’t have time to react as he wraps both arms around my middle, lifting me into the air as I let out a squeal. He throws both of us over the ledge, the cold enveloping us as we hit the water.

Our heads break the surface at the same time and I take a gulp of air, frantically latching onto Weston for dear life.

“You good, Sorrels?” he asks, laughing as he runs fingers through his dark hair, his free arm reaching out to help hold me up.

“You could’ve given me a warning!” I yell at him.

“What fun would that be?”

“I’m not a strong swimmer, and I hate being in water when I can’t see the bottom,” I admit. “Can we just go back to the shallow end where I can stand?”

“Scared of storms and bodies of water? Dang, Sorrels, we gotta toughen you up a little bit,” he teases, his breath hot on my ear as he pulls me into him.

“Weston,” I growl.

“Just hang on to me, I got you,” he says, his voice low and sultry, He pulls me up so that my legs wrap around his middle, his free arm treading water to keep us afloat, the other one wrapped around my waist as he gently rubs circles along my lower back.

“See? Now if any sea monsters come up from the depths to eat our toes, they’ll get to me first.”

I can’t help but chuckle, my face tucking into the crook of his neck, and I force myself to relax as we bob up and down in the water. Chance swims a beer over, opening it for me before handing it over .

“You know, you’ve gotta have some fears too,” I say. “Nobody is afraid of nothing.”

“Nope. I’m not scared of anything,” he tells me.