“You want me to get their stalls cleaned out while you hold them?” he asked Josh when he was finished.
“Nah,” Josh said. “One of the boys will be along for that while they’re swimming.”
They walked together toward the big prefab metal building at the top of the hill. This was the showpiece ofJosh’s business, and Jensen had been wanting to see it for a while.
“Have you seen Ransom?” Josh asked unexpectedly, as they headed for the doors.
“Not yet,” Jensen told him, shaking his head. “But I want to.”
Josh nodded.
The cousins were close, and Jensen figured Josh knew what a big deal it was that his best friend wasn’t talking to him.
“I’m trying to figure out how to approach him,” he added. “It’s not easy.”
“He was always so protective of Willow,” Josh said as he pressed a button and the doors swung slowly open. “I figured it was because he saw himself as the man of the house and all that.”
“It’s understandable,” Jensen admitted. “I was an idiot not to realize he’d be upset that I encouraged her to join up.”
They stepped into the dim space with the horses. It was massive, even bigger than it looked from the outside. The ceiling was exposed and lined with skylights that were partly covered by snow. What light there was reflected in the dark water of the big, heated pool, dancing in the steam clinging to its surface.
“Ransom signed up himself, soon as he could,” Josh said, his voice echoing slightly in the big space. “So did you.”
“It’s different with Willow, I guess,” Jensen said.
“She had such an obvious crush on you,” Josh saidwith a smile, shaking his head. “He was probably afraid she would just blindly do whatever you said.”
“She was just trying things out on me,” Jensen said, shaking his head as well. “Since I was her brother’s friend, it was safe to bat her eyelashes at me, that’s all. It wasn’t a serious crush.”
“I don’t know about that,” Josh said.
Archer tugged at the lead, clearly eager for his swim, and the two men focused on swapping out leads for poles.
“Don’t let him dance around too much, if you can help it,” Josh said, nodding to Archer.
Jensen nodded, and stroked the horse’s back in long, slow sweeps, moving closer to discourage the animal from trying to prance too much. It worked, more or less.
Archer was a beautiful creature, all sleek muscle and absolutely quivering with unspent energy. It was hard to imagine a racehorse having to keep still for too long.
“He’ll work that off in the pool,” Josh said, as if he had read Jensen’s mind. “Wait until I get to the other side, and then bring him in.”
“Hang on, buddy,” Jensen told Archer as they watched Josh lead the mare down the ramp into the water.
Once she was in, Josh held out the pole that was attached to the mare’s harness and walked around the perimeter of the pool as the mare began to swim.
Archer seemed to know right away when it was his turn. He moved down the ramp, ears pricked up, posture playful as he stepped into the water.
A moment later, they were walking together. Jensen matched Josh’s pace, and there was something almost hypnotic about the sound of the horses’ rhythmic breathing echoing off the walls and ceiling, and the lapping and splashing of the water against the sides of the pool.
He found his mind returning to the conversation from earlier.
She had such an obvious crush on you…
Had he been the only one who hadn’t seen it? Even Ransom had made him promise. Would he have done that if it had really been nothing?
Jensen could still picture the way the light filtered through the trees in the backyard that afternoon as he and Ransom sat among the roots of the old sugar maple. Though Willow normally tagged along with them, Ransom had chased her off that day.
As they sat under the tree, he gazed at Jensen with a sudden intensity.
