He nodded, ducking between the fence rails. “That’s enough for today.”
“Okay, but could I ask you a few questions?”
Ramsey sighed.
“Look, the sooner I understand how you work, the sooner I’ll be out of here.” Except that wasn’t exactly true. Something about these mountains called to me. I’d slept like a rock again last night, even with my brother’s text message playing in my head before I dropped off. I might need to look into finding a second home here.
“Ask,” Ramsey said through gritted teeth.
Peaches trotted over to him and looked up with adoring eyes. Something in his demeanor softened a fraction, and he bent to scratch behind her ears.
“How do you know when it’s time to move on to the next step of training?”
Ramsey lowered himself to a bench that ran along one section of the fence. “There aren’t steps.”
“Okay…”
“It’s all a journey. The horse wants to go one way, you want to go the other, you have to find the path that belongs to both of you.”
I leaned against the fence. “That sounds more like poetry.”
Ramsey shrugged. “Maybe it is. It’s something we create together. To find it, you have to listen. You can’t listen if you’re making too much noise or looking in the wrong direction.”
Ramsey had stillness down to an art. How many times had I needed to move around the corral because I’d started to feel twitchy? I couldn’t count. That stillness would be at the center of the character I was creating. I knew that much.
I always looked for the hook with the person I was playing. The one thing I could root everything else in. This was it. “How do you keep so still for so long?”
His eyes flared a fraction. “It’s just something that’s been ingrained in me. Not something you can teach.” His lips twitched. “I guess you could do some of that meditation and yoga stuff they preach about in LA. Maybe that would help.”
“Don’t knock yoga.”
Ramsey shook his head as he stood. “Whatever gets your rocks off. I gotta get back to work.”
I’d noticed that he didn’t seem to have any help with tending to the horses, other than Lor stopping by occasionally. This phantom woman on the rise was the only other person I’d seen on the property at all.
“Wait, one other question.”
He stopped, turning back to me. “No, I won’t do sunrise yoga with you.”
I choked on a laugh. “Did you just make a joke?”
Ramsey scowled at me.
“Sorry. No jokes. I was wondering if you knew anything about the woman who manages the gallery in town. Her name is Laiken.”
I couldn’t help the pull to know more about her. Any little piece of information would be like gold. She was utterly fascinating. The conversation we’d had before I turned around had been one of my most honest in recent memory. The way she’d shifted from one moment to the next throughout our talk had me riveted. Open and transparent one moment. Locked up tight the next.
Ramsey’s scowl only deepened. “Do I look like the town gossip?”
“No, but I’m assuming you know the people who live here. I thought you might know her.”
“I don’t. If you want to run around chasing locals, fine. Just remember you can’t bring them back here.”
“I’m not chasing locals—”
Ramsey started towards the barn, waving me off. “I don’t have time for this.”
I snapped my mouth closed and glanced down at Peaches. “That went well.”