Page 33 of First Date: Divorce (Wyoming Marriage Association #1)

They’d been sent to change, then were to meet on the front porch of Marriage-Save for the drive to the stables with two other couples going riding.

Eric was the last of the group to arrive.

“You’re wearing a cowboy hat,” he said in surprise when he saw her.

She’d brought one because all her ball caps had law enforcement markings.

“So are you.” And he looked comfortable in it. A lot of non-natives didn’t, even the ones who desperately wanted to. That sparked a line they could follow for their roles. “Is wearing a cowboy hat your way of telling me you wouldn’t consider coming back to Illinois?”

“Is wearing a cowboy hat your way of telling me you’d consider moving to Wyoming?”

“No.”

“That’s my answer, too.”

The exchange had the other couples — one about their age, the other in their early fifties — side-eying them as a Marriage-Save employee ushered them into a van for the drive.

The silent drive.

K.D. spotted the sign for the Weston Ranch B&B as they turned in. She didn’t let herself look at Eric.

But he used the motion of the turn to let his thigh press up against hers, conveying assurance that the people here would not give away their charade.

At the barn, Cambria awaited them with several horses already saddled. Beside her was the gray-haired man K.D. saw the evening of her arrival in Shakespeare County. With a start she realized that was just over a week ago.

She had known Eric Larkin for a little over a week.

That didn’t seem possible.

It had to be the result of all the time they’d spent together and the intensity of their preparations. Talk about immersion therapy.

The man — introduced as Ted Weston — took charge of the other two couples, assisted by a teenage boy.

Cambria came over to them, saying, “I’ll take these folks.” In a low tone, she added, “I know Eric’s riding ability. How about you, K.D.? Experienced?”

“Yes. Started riding as a kid.” She looked at the glorious animals. “Never could afford my own, though.”

Cambria put K.D. on a gelding she said Eric usually rode and gave him a new mount, a young mare. “This way you’re each on an unfamiliar horse,” she said cheerfully as she swung up into her own saddle.

She led them single file on a path, then came alongside through a pasture with cows at a distance.

“We’ve learned to separate the couples. The other couples are raw beginners who’ll stay closer to the barn, so this worked out great. Either of you have anything you want me to relay to Cully?”

“No,” K.D. said.

“Yes.” Eric added to his answer, “Didn’t have an opportunity to tell you without being overheard—”

K.D. saw Cambria’s increased interest as she looked from Eric to her.

“—I got into Harvey’s system while you were in this morning’s solo session with Melody.

They had a chunk of money come in about two weeks ago.

I heard your favorite smiler’s voice coming down the hall and I had to go out the window — good thing they’re big and on the ground floor.

Also a good thing Lily wasn’t closer, because the window squeaked like crazy.

Anyway, didn’t have time to see if there were earlier ones that might form a pattern.

Possibly a loan. Equally possible a kickback from our favorite divorce lawyer.

It was a weird amount, so also equally possible it’s nothing.

Tried to get back in before we came here, but Melody shooed me away to the van. ”

Back to Cambria, he said, “Tell Cully to work it from his end. Can you remember a transaction number, Cambria?”

“No way am I risking that to my memory. Here.” She took her phone out of a pocket. “Type it in here and I’ll send it to Cully.”

He did that, rolling slightly with the walking motion of his horse.

“Great.” Cambria took the phone back and stowed it. “If it’s all right with you two, I’m peeling off and checking on another pasture. I’d never do that with a real couple from Marriage-Save — we’ve had some doozies — but I can see K.D. can ride and Eric won’t get in big trouble.”

They each muttered agreement.

“Follow this track to the gate. The next pasture’s empty and makes good cantering. This track keeps on through there and will take you to a stream and a nice spot to take a breather and water the horses. We can meet back here in forty-five minutes.”

Cambria waved as she left them.

“This is where you ride?” K.D. asked him.

“Yeah. Cambria’s been teaching me. Started with Cully dragging me away from working on the house. Brought me here to meet the Westons last fall. Cambria got me up on a horse for the first time in my life. I like it.”

She smiled at that simple conclusion.

“There’s something about it, isn’t there,” she said.

“Uh-huh. Like running changes your perspective, what you’re looking at, and shifts awareness of how your body functions in the world. Get up on a horse and it does the same. Changes your angle. On the world, on yourself.”

It was so much how she viewed running and riding she felt oddly vulnerable at that moment.

“How about a canter, cowboy?”

“You’re on.”

They signaled their horses at the same time and swooped across the open ground side by side until pulling up as they neared denser vegetation by the creek Cambria pointed out. After letting the horses drink, they walked along, following its path.

He gave her a slightly more detailed account of how he’d found the financial transaction on Harvey’s computer.

They discussed the implications if the organization of Marriage-Save fed client information to Gail Bledsoe.

Talked about possible individuals involved as an alternative.

Considered options of what else to explore while mitigating the chance of being seen.

Somewhere amid that, she realized the trouble was gone from his eyes.

Not subdued or hidden. Gone.

She almost asked him about it, but a kind of shyness held her back.

Or was it something else?

“Look at that view,” he invited, drawing to a stop on a rise looking across open land and the first fires of sunset.

“It reminds me of the painting over your fireplace.”

He smiled slowly. “Yes.”

Not a carryover from his marriage to Hilary. A visual reflection of his new life here in Wyoming.

They cantered a bit, then, without consultation, slowed to a walk once they neared Cambria, as if reluctant to have this time end.

*

The silence of the van ride back to Marriage-Save had a different feel — from all the couples.

Eric nodded off, his head tipped the opposite way, against the window, with his side and thigh pressed against hers.

Mimicking the other woman around her age, K.D. opened her phone. No messages. Idly, she scrolled through Kendra’s photos.

She stopped abruptly.

Not a kissing one.

The one Kendra took when Eric reached over to snag an extra forkful of chocolate cake from her plate.

It wasn’t sexy or intimate or anything that one friend wouldn’t do with another, so why did it stop her?

Because of her expression.

Smiling.

Okay, that was no big deal. A friend might smile at a friend stealing a forkful of cake. Especially cake that came in a distant second with her to the frosting. So…?

Not that kind of smile.

The smile of a woman attracted to a man. Strongly attracted.

She put the phone face down on her thigh to block its light. To block that photo. But she couldn’t block what rattled her.

Not what it looked like from the outside — the kissing and wedding and all of it — but what it felt like on the inside.

*

“How was your riding and cookout?” Melody asked at their post-return check-in.

“Great,” Eric said. “Felt good to get out like that.”

“K.D.?” Melody asked. “You seem pleased, as well.”

“We didn’t talk about ourselves. It was a relief.”

Melody looked a little taken aback, then covered it. “I’m glad you both enjoyed it.”

K.D. fought against the unity. She had to for the good of their goal. “It’s not real life. It’s playing at cowboys — the hats, the horses, the wide-open spaces. But my real life is far away. Would he move back to Illinois now that he’s settled into his Wyoming practice?”

“Have you considered moving here?” Before K.D. could say no, the counselor added, “Have you ever talked about trying a long-distance relationship, to give yourselves a chance to explore your possibilities for the future? There are hazards, of course, but—”

“Especially when the commute is from Wyoming to—” He paused long enough for K.D. to mentally fill in Montana . “—Illinois.”

She remembered Melody’s words in the hallway.

It’s like they’re drawn to each other, then ricochet away.

A Wyoming to Montana commuting relationship? What was she thinking?

Not about Marriage-Save and catching whoever served up prospects to the shady divorce lawyer.

Which was her job. Her hope for a career break.

“We couldn’t make it when we lived together in Illinois, much less that far apart.”

*

In bed, they hadn’t talked — whispered — other than wishing each other good night.

Maybe tired from the ride.

Maybe not.

Eric thought again that this counseling stuff took more out of you than you’d expect.

K.D. had been quiet long enough to have fallen asleep, but he was sure she hadn’t. When her voice came, it didn’t surprise him.

“Tomorrow’s our last chance to find out something.”

He reached across the space between them and found her hand so their fingers interlaced.