Page 8 of This Time Around
Four
Cooper
“That’s my husband’s horse.”
Rebecca's voice startled me, not only in her surprise arrival but in the cold snappish tone.I dropped my hand from the horse I was trying to get acclimated with.
“Is it a problem I’m here?”
Something dark flashed in her already dark brown eyes as she stared at the horse, whose name I didn’t know.I’d been foolishly trying to coax it out of the horse like it would speak to me in a language I understood.
“I thought you told me to meet you here,” I said lamely when Rebecca was still rooted in spot barely inside the barn.Next to her, another beautiful horse pressed against her temple, almost as if it was comforting her.
“Stormy.”
She tugged on the horse’s reins and I contemplated the strange word she spoke.I didn’t know if she was talking about the beautiful gray horse she was leading to a stall or the jet black one in front of me.
Since it felt like a storm was brewing in the barn from whatever was going on in Rebecca's mind, she might have been thinking out loud.
I stepped away from the stalls to give her room, but there was no need.
She pulled open a sliding door and the horse with her walked right in.Rebecca followed the horse and slammed the door behind her.The walls came up so high only the top of her head was visible over them, but she made no effort to speak to me.
What the hell?The last thing I expected when I stepped foot into the barn earlier was to get my head bitten off and then ignored by a five-foot-two pretty little cowgirl.
I shook the unwelcome thought from my head.Yeah, she was pretty, but she was Max’s niece and I didn’t need to think about her that way.My head was still too screwed up with another woman.
“Rebecca?”I asked.“Is there something I can do to help?”
She pushed out of the stall with her horse’s saddle in her arms barely sparing me a glance.The quick flash of her narrowed eyes in my direction said enough.They swam with tears and the way she bit her lip, fighting back those tears stunned me.
What the hell?
Clearly, I was missing something, something important, but when she disappeared around a corner and slammed down the saddle, I figured I wasn’t going to be given a list of chores to do, and she would probably bite my hand off if I offered her comfort or company.
I swung around and headed out of the barn, staring at my boots.I needed something more substantial for working on a ranch.Mine were too damn fancy for this life, but they were all I had and I didn’t want to waste time shopping before I snuck out of L.A.
I headed back to the guesthouse and pulled up my internet browser on my laptop.Fortunately, the available Wi-Fi didn’t require a password.
Then I pulled up my email and found the address of where I was.
In less than an hour, I’d outfitted myself with boots I wouldn’t care got ruined and a few pairs of thick leather work gloves.
I stayedin my room until the sun had set, and by then I’d run out of shows to waste time watching on Netflix, streaming them from my laptop because the television in the guesthouse only got four stations and none of them were showing anything except local weather and news.I was losing my mind with boredom, and me and bored did not mix.
My mom always said I wasn’t happy unless I was moving, and it was true.I was a busy, active toddler, constantly jumping off furniture which escalated to a boy who played sports all year round and then transitioned to a high schooler who played sports all year round, sprinkled in with acting classes.Sports kept me busy growing up, kept me out of trouble surrounded with good friends, and taught me discipline and focus.
But acting was always in my veins, a pulsing need, an itch beneath my skin I couldn’t quell unless I was on stage or in front of cameras.Being someone else was fun and challenging.
Being alone with my thoughts was detrimental to my health.By the time night fell, that now familiar sensation of walls pressing in on me was making me claustrophobic, a needling headache digging in at my temples.
“Screw this,” I muttered and slammed my computer closed.I tugged on my boots and grabbed a sweater from the closet.Then I took off out of the house.
I needed air and space.If Max was wrong and his niece didn’t want help and refused to put me to work, I’d go insane.I needed movement and action.I needed the adrenaline rush of a challenge completed.I needed to work until my fingers ached and my back hurt and the only thought in my head was falling asleep in what looked like a surprisingly comfortable, king-sized bed so I wasn’t plagued with nightmares of Camilla, my marriage when I thought it was the best thing in my life, everything I’d lost since realizing it was all a sham, and most importantly, visions of her being bent over our damn kitchen counter.
I groaned, scrubbing my hands down my face and throwing my head back, staring at the sky.It’d been years since I’d been in a place where the stars were so vivid.Millions and millions of bright flashing lights filled the sky.
Continuing to glance at the sky as I walked, I surveyed the well-lit path with small solar lights pushed into the ground around the paved walkway that would take me either toward the front of Rebecca's house or the barn.I chose to head toward the barn, around the back of the house, but a strange noise grabbed my attention and my footsteps slowed.
