"You can't pet them from there. Come a little closer." I gently pulled on her hand until she tiptoed to within a foot of the fence. "Good. Now just reach out your hand to touch Georgie's neck."
I patted him with my free hand, trying to show her Georgie wasn't a wild beast. He nuzzled my cheek.
Heidi almost smiled.
"Give it a try," I said. "He won't bite, I promise."
She moved closer, inches from the fence, and slowly raised a hand, stretching it out toward Georgie's neck. Her fingertips grazed him, but she pulled her hand away.
"It's okay," I said, "try again. Take all the time you need. You're not the first horse-o-phobe I've met. Ollie hadn't been super comfortable around horses—got kicked once on a pony ride at a county fair—but I talked him into letting me teach him how to ride. Not long after, we started going on trail rides whenever he visited me. If Ollie can get over the fear, so can you."
Heidi glanced at me, surprise in her eyes, but she quickly diverted her attention to Georgie. She touched her fingertips to his neck again, but this time, she moved her fingers in a faint petting motion. After a minute or two of that, she laid her palm on his neck and glided it up and down.
"Look, he's smiling," I said. "That means he likes you."
"How can you tell he's smiling?"
"Ludar lidar."
Her lips kinked into a slight smile. "Yeah, I remember your Ludar lidar. It told you Mara wasn't the right woman for Ollie."
"No system is perfect."
She kept petting Georgie, running her hands along the length of his neck, while she looked at me. "What is Ludar lidar, anyway? Doesn't sound very gypsy-ish."
"Lidar is like radar, except it uses lasers instead of microwaves. I just thought Ludar lidar sounded cooler than Ludar radar." I realized I was still holding her hand, but I didn't want to let go. She seemed to have forgotten her hand was still in mine, or maybe she knew but didn't care. "When I say I'm using my Ludar lidar, it just means that I have an intuition about something."
"I get it." Heidi skimmed her hands up to Georgie's ears to scratch behind them, which he loved, though I wasn't sure she knew she was doing that. "I might've been wrong about you, and I'm sorry."
"No need to apologize. I know I can come on kind of strong. It's my way."
"The Ludar way?"
I winked. "Wouldn't you love to find out?"
Heidi laughed, the sound soft and delicate. Georgie nuzzled her arm with his lips, and she laughed again. "He's a real sweetie."
"Yep. And I think he's smitten." I nodded over my shoulder. "Want to try petting Lenny too? Mara and Eve both say Lenny has a muzzle as soft as velvet."
Heidi moved sideways to get closer to Lenny, but she kept holding my hand. That meant she had to angle her other arm across me to pet the horse, but I didn't mind. I liked having her hand in mine. Heidi stroked Lenny's neck and scratched behind his ears.
"Look," she said, "his bottom lip is hanging down."
"Means he's relaxed and happy—and he likes you."
How could any male, human or beast, not like Heidi Mackenzie?
After a few more minutes of watching Heidi pet the horses, I decided she'd probably had enough immersion therapy for today. She just got here a few hours ago, so she must've been tired from the long ride in an RV. I had to let go of her hand to take the halters off Lenny and Georgie, and I didn't plan on trying to reclaim her hand while we walked back to the resort.
But Heidi slipped her palm into mine.
What happened to "no dating"? Holding hands felt like dating behavior to me, but I wouldn't complain about it.
Once we reached the lawn, Heidi and I went our separate ways. But before we did that, I stopped us at the edge of the lawn.
"Are you any less afraid of horses now?" I asked.
"Yeah, your idea helped. Thank you, Damian."