“Let me try to sort it out on my own. After Saturday, I won’t have to see him for a while. That should help.”
Gilly’s gaze roamed over my face. “You’re happy here, aren’t you?”
I really thought about it for a moment. My life was full of so many good things. Infinite gratitude. “There’s so much I love. So much that makes me happy. This gallery. My home. Addie, Ev, and Hadley. You. These mountains. Sometimes, I think the feel of this place is what fuels me.”
“The muse is a powerful thing. Don’t ignore that.”
I chuckled. “The muse is your number one, always.”
Her lips twitched. “What can I say? I’m an artist through and through.”
I looked around the space I had poured so much of myself into. I didn’t want to lose that. And as hard as my relationship was with Jax, I couldn’t imagine not seeing Kay and Gilly on a weekly basis. It was all a jumble of emotions. But I’d just have to find a way to live with that mess.
7
Boden
I leanedagainst the side of the round pen, Peaches sitting next to me as we watched Ramsey work. The bay mare followed him around the ring. He’d head in one direction for a while and then switch the opposite way. She behaved more like a dog than a horse, and it was night and day from yesterday.
Ramsey stopped, and the mare did the same. He moved to the fence and removed a halter from one of the posts. The horse quivered, no longer following. He halted, not moving forward or back.
I would’ve given anything to read minds at that moment. To know how Ramsey decided when to push forward, when to pull back, when to stop. The mare eyed him, the contraption in his hands, and pawed at the ground.
Ramsey stood his ground. Then he held out his hand free of the halter. The horse lifted her head, straining her neck but not yet moving her hooves.
Ramsey kept his hand extended in an open invitation. She took one step, her eyes going back and forth between the halter and his hand. Then another step. She waited there for a while. He still didn’t move.
Finally, the horse closed the distance. Ramsey stroked her face. He whispered things to her I couldn’t make out. As he petted her, he lifted the halter with his other hand. The movement was slow and steady, in clear view of the mare.
She quivered, and he halted again. They repeated the dance over and over until she finally allowed contact with the device. But Ramsey didn’t try to slip it onto her. He first gave her a good rub with it, moving it over her neck and back. Showing the horse what the nylon and metal buckles would feel like against her coat. That they wouldn’t cause her pain. Then, so slowly it was almost painful, Ramsey slipped the halter over her head.
After he buckled it in place, he gave her a good rubdown. Whispered more sweet nothings that I couldn’t make out. Just as I was about to ask him one of the millions of questions swirling in my mind, movement caught my attention.
Kai lifted his head, sniffing the air before taking off at a dead run towards a figure on the hill behind the round pen. The woman was close enough that I could just make out her features, her hair billowing behind her in the breeze as she sat, a horse grazing at her side.
“Uh, Ramsey?”
He looked at me in question.
I pointed to the rise. “Is your wolf-dog gonna eat her?”
Ramsey’s head snapped in the direction I’d indicated. His shoulders relaxed a fraction as he took the woman in. “No.”
The massive dog closed the distance to the woman.
“I thought you said he didn’t like people.”
“He doesn’t.”
The dog launched, and my heart jerked in my chest. I barely heard faint laughter caught on the breeze as the woman rolled with the creature. Ruffling his fur.
Ramsey lifted his gaze to me. “She’s the exception.”
Interesting. “Who is she?”
“No one you need to worry about.” His eyes hardened. “You don’t approach her.”
I held up both hands. “I wasn’t planning on it.”