Page 8 of The Brave and the Reckless (Bravetown #1)

Renee’s mind for the park was unparalleled.

She knew each button on each costume, knew where every character was at any given time of day, and had the show choreographed down to the second.

Once Esra managed to run the distance to the count of eight, I jumped in to run the same distance in half the time.

“Okay, great. And then Noah is responsible for the horse part. He’ll hoist you up there,” Renee called from where she was watching on the front steps of the town hall. “Give it a go.”

I stepped up next to Tornado, rubbing his neck, and waited for Esra to follow. She kept two extra feet of distance between her and the horse. Any mild praise I’d afford her for running back and forth on command evaporated at the sight of her pinched lips and crossed arms.

The park offered horseback riding to its guests, so I’d put many bloody beginners on horses.

Esra was worse.

Esra was like the prim nanny or the third wife who got dragged along with the overeager kids and hated even the idea of sitting on a horse. I’d seen plenty of her type, too.

“This is Tornado,” I said in my calmest visitor-friendly voice.

“He’s big,” she grumbled. “His head is like… half of me.”

“Not quite, but yes, he’s big. Come here. Say hi.” I waved her forward and showed her how to pet his neck.

Esra stretched her hand out and Tornado immediately swung his head around to meet her halfway, more than happy to make a new friend.

Esra jumped back, clamping her hands against her chest. This was going to take a lot of work.

The horse sniffed at her, and each huff from his nostrils tightened the set of her shoulders.

“I’m not sitting on that.”

“Fine by me,” I said with a shrug.

“In the saddle, Esra,” Renee yelled over.

“Can we rehearse the other part first?” Esra called back. “Where he drags me from the bank. I feel like I can really channel my kicking and screaming resistance right now.”

“Get on the horse, kid.”

Esra huffed, shot a sideway glance at me, then propped her hands on her hips, rolled her shoulders back and jutted her chin into the air. She looked like she was posing for some superhero comic cover .

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Nothing.” She shook her head, then her limbs, and plastered on a stupid big smile that was all teeth and crinkles around her eyes. “It’s fine. Lift me up, cowboy.”

“It’s probably easier if I’m behind you.

Lindsey always made a show of kicking her legs, because you need to swing your leg high to get the skirt over the saddle.

” I stepped around behind her and pretended not to notice the ruffles along the seam of her leggings that ran right down her ass. “Ready?”

“For a little roughing-around? Always.”

“Oh, for god’s sake.” My hands dropped from where I’d been about to grip her waist. “Try to be serious for a few minutes, so you don’t get anyone hurt.”

“Up,” she commanded, arms stretched away from her sides like a damn cheerleader. At least she wasn’t running away from the horse.

“Yes, ma’am.” I grabbed her waist right over the thickly cushioned harness straps and lifted her up.

I immediately tracked my mistake. Lindsey had been slightly heavier, and I’d given Esra the same momentum up the horse.

She swung higher than I’d meant her to and landed harder in the saddle.

Eyes screwed shut, she let out a squeaky huff. “Shit. Sorry.”

“Are you?” she gasped and pried one eye open to look at me. “You won’t get rid of me that easily, you know?”

“That’s not …”

“Oh god.” She blinked and turned her head, tracking her new position in the saddle. Her hands flailed out by her sides.

“Hold on to the horn,” I said, and tapped the front of the saddle to point out the vaguely mushroom-shaped handle for her.

“Not the reins?”

“I’ll be taking the reins.”

“Right.”

I pulled on the straps with thick carabiners on each side of the saddle. “These are your buckles. They connect to your harness to keep you on the horse. I’ll buckle you in when I’m sitting behind you. You just hold on to the saddle and try not to fall until then, okay?”

Esra shook her head. “I want to get down.”

“Foot in the stirrup, here.”

“No, I don’t think that’s… This is too high.” Her voice jumped higher. “Can you get me down? I want to come down.”

“I’m trying to show you how to get down. Your foot goes here.” I pointed at the stirrup again.

Instead of listening to me, she started twisting in the saddle as if she was trying to dismount by sliding off her stomach.

This girl was trying to break her neck. I curled my fingers into the harness, trusting that she had it fixed and fitted to her measurements, and hauled her off the horse.

Even knowing what a lightweight she was, the way I could maneuver her body with a few straps was way too fucking effortless.

Definitely not a realization I should dwell on.

At least Esra’s scowl made that easy. As if I’d been the one doing something wrong.

“When I tell you to put your foot in the stirrup, you put your foot in the stirrup,” I grunted.

“Let go of me.” She pushed against my arms, and I released the harness I hadn’t realized I was still holding .

“You can’t fuck around like that. A horse isn’t some jungle gym.”

“Noah,” Renee intervened, placing a hand on my shoulder, “language.”

I hadn’t noticed her coming over.

“He should lift me off the horse,” Esra said to her without missing a beat, “when we get to the hideout. Ace should pull Annie off the horse instead of making her dismount. Makes more sense. Otherwise what’s stopping her from kicking him in the face when he’s standing next to the horse, and just riding off on her own with all the money he stole? ”

“His gun should be intimidating enough, no?” Renee asked, clicking into the show as if Esra hadn’t just risked her neck because she couldn’t even stay in the saddle for two minutes.

“Not with everyone choosing bear over man,” Esra said.

“What?”

“Most women would choose being trapped with a bear over being trapped with a man,” I supplied, not sure how to feel about the fact that I was actually tracking Esra’s train of thought.

“I’d rather take my chance kicking my kidnapper in the head and maybe getting shot,” Esra explained. “It’s better than a guaranteed kidnapping.”

I had to unclench my jaw, because her words mirrored a couple of comments we got online. “If Ace pulls Annie off the horse and into the hideout, she can still try to fight back physically instead of going just because he points a gun at her head,” I conceded.

“Fine. Fine.” Renee waved her hands around, clearly not quite following the bear argument, but not invested enough to start a discussion.

She must have seen the same comments about Annie being too passive though.

She had a better handle on our reputation on social media than me.

“Ace pulls Annie off the horse when he dismounts. We’ll save that for another day.

Let’s wrap it up for today. I expect both of you to be here at the same time tomorrow. ”

“Okey-dokey.”

“Sure,” I said.

“Here, take this.” Renee pulled a park pass from her pocket and handed it to Esra, who had somehow inched further and further away from Tornado.

“It’ll allow you to skip the queues and there’s a bunch of meal vouchers on it.

Your job this week is to get familiar with the park.

Ride the rides, try the snacks, meet the characters.

Guests will ask you a whole lot of questions when they meet Annie, so you better know this place like the back of your hand. ”

“You mean I get paid to ride roller coasters?” She perked up. “I can totally do that.”

“All right, head back the way we came in, so you’re out of sight before the park opens. You,” Renee pointed her finger at me, “walk with me.”

Esra turned the pass over in her fingers, whipping her phone out and taking a selfie with it. She’d fare much better as a visitor than as a character actress.

Falling into step beside me, Renee headed along toward the stables. She tapped away at her phone screen until we were about halfway, then her head whipped back up. With one glance back over her shoulder, she made sure we were out of earshot before hitting me with a tight-lipped frown.

“We both know that your stables aren’t ready for your horses yet, so they need my roof over their heads. And we both know that it would take me a whole lot of time that I don’t have if I had to replace you. So level with me. Can you lift her on and off the horse?”

“Yes, but—”

“Do you think you’ll be able to keep her in the saddle for five minutes?”

“Yes.”

“Without the characters, Bravetown is just a bunch of old buildings. Without Annie, Ace is just a thief. If I thought there was any chance we could survive without having Annie in our show, do you think I would have hired the first girl who fit the costumes? Annie has been a Bravetown staple since day one. I don’t need the two of you to get along.

I need a thirty-minute show, six days a week. ”

“Seriously? Nobody else fits the costume?”

“Not unless you want us to get sued by concerned parents who didn’t sign up for nip slips with every bounce on that horse.”

“Jesus, Renee.” I rolled my eyes at her. She wasn’t quite old enough to be my mother, but there was still something off about hearing her talk about nips . “What are you saying?”

“Suck it up.”

“Your pep talks are incredibly inspiring.”

“Noah, you don’t need inspiration. You need to be slapped across the back of the head with a reminder that this is the job you signed up for to pay for the job you actually want. You have a whole lot of people rooting for you, so suck it up and focus on the end goal. ”

Two more years. I had to cling to that. Two years wouldn’t get me quite to the finish line, but I’d have my family’s old ranch fixed up enough for me and the horses to move in.

“Fine,” I muttered, “but next summer, at least find an Annie Lou who isn’t afraid of horses.”

“She’ll be great. I have a feeling about this one.” Renee grinned and winked at me before breaking off and returning to the emails on her phone.

Yeah, I had a feeling, too. The foreboding kind.