Page 23 of Never Left You
“Come on Abi,” Kyla drew out. “Rhett talks highly of him, so does Lachlan—”
“Doesn’t mean I have to tolerate him. I have two showings of the stables today and then a horse moving in this afternoon. You’re still picking up Stetson, right?” Abi emerged from the tackle closet, only to stop once her gaze hit mine.
Kyla turned, a smile on her face as soon as she figured out I was behind her. “Oh hey Cash,” she said.
I tipped my hat. “Mrs. Hartwell.”
Kyla let out a small chuckle. “You gonna help us clean up the stables?”
“It’s clean,” Abi said, zero emotion in her tone. “You’re busy anyway, right Cash?” She turned to me and for the first time since she asked about Carolyn, she made eye contact.
I looked at Abi raising an eyebrow, tempted to rub the back of my head where I could still feel the contact from the brush.
“Quinn’s here for another hour, then I’ll take her to PT.” I never once broke Abi’s eye contact. “I’ll be back tonight though, to make sure the horses are ok.”
“That’s Rhett’s job," Abi snapped, reminding me as much as she was reminding herself.
“Yeah, but I can help. Two showings today? For?” My attention went to Kyla, hoping she would be more talkative.
She nodded. “Boarding horses, right Abi?” She turned to Abi.
“Obviously,” Abi mumbled.
She locked eyes with me, boring into me as if to silently tell me to…what were the words she said so graciously yesterday? Fuck off?
I narrowed my gaze and gave her a slight smirk before turning back to Kyla. “I’ll get out of your hair.” I motioned towards the arena, taking a few steps back before finally turning my entire body.
“Abigail Acosta,” I heard Kyla whisper sharply. “What the hell has gotten into you?”
“PT isn’t working,” Quinn complained as we got to her hotel after her appointment. “Training isn’t working. Nothing is working, Cash.”
I shut the door to her hotel room, watching her stumble to the bed before plopping down head first onto the mattress. “Quinn, you’ve trained once and have had two appointments. It takes time.”
“It shouldn’t,” she groaned into the mattress, before turning her head to look at me. “Just pull me out of the running.”
“Do you think I’m going to let you give up?”
Violently moving her arms, she pushed herself up on the bed. “It’s going to take longer than ten weeks for this to heal. That’s already a huge chunk of time. I won’t be able to make it to the NFR like this,” she screamed—actually screamed—so loud that it echoed in the small room.
Narrowing my gaze, I folded my arms over my chest and glared at my client.
“Don’t look at me like that.” She lowered her voice, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, her face wincing as her leg bent a way she didn’t mean. A natural move that anyone would do and think nothing of it, but for Quinn…for me….that move would hurt like hell. She placed her palm on her leg and pressed.
“You’re not giving up on this. You’ve had two PT appointments and one training session with me. This is the beginning of a long journey, and if you give up now,” my voice was getting louder and louder with each word, just pulling the memory from my own experience. I gave up. I wouldn’t let her. I inhaled, steadying myself. “You’ll never get on a horse again.”
Quinn’s bottom lip quivered. “How…” she began before a small breath left her lungs. “How long did it take you to get back on a horse?”
“Longer than I’d like to admit.” I loosened my body, hoping not to come off as a father figure who was pissed. She had a dad back in Montana; she didn’t need her trainer coming down hard on her. “But you didn’t have as extensive an injury as I did.”
She gave a small nod. “It still counts.”
“It does. Any injury counts.” I sighed, sitting down next to her on the edge of the bed. There were parts of my life Quinn didn’t need to know. The extent of what happened in my accident was one of them. “It will work, you just have to keep getting back in the saddle.”
Quinn breathed a small chuckle.
“Don’t give up on me Quinn.” I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
Her gaze hit mine, eyes wet with tears that refused to fall. She was tough, but I could see little by little this was getting her. She was forcing herself not to break.
