Straight From The Hip. Сьюзен Мэллери

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      “I don’t want this,” she said aloud. “Any of it.”

      Not being outside right now, not being at the ranch or being blind.

      “Why did it happen to me?”

      She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. Only that would take too much effort.

      She stumbled on something she couldn’t see, then caught herself. As she straightened, she heard a sound behind her. Fear tightened her chest, then she recognized the steady steps of a horse. She drew in a breath and stopped.

      “You’re probably feeling stupid about now,” Nick said casually.

      She raised her chin. “Not at all.”

      “Then more than your eyesight got damaged in that explosion. Are you finished making your point or do you want to keep walking? In another twenty minutes, your sunburn is going to blister. That’ll hurt.”

      “Is this your way of convincing me to accept your help?”

      “You don’t need convincing. I’ll give you this. You’re the first blind person I know who would willingly walk into the wilderness with no idea of where she was going. I can’t decide if that makes you brave or an idiot. I’ll get back to you on that.”

      “Don’t bother. I was fine.”

      “You were lucky. You could have fallen and cracked open your head or been bitten by a snake.”

      “I would have preferred a snake to you.”

      She heard him get off his saddle.

      “Now you’re just talking sweet to make me like you,” Nick said. “Here.”

      He handed her a bottle of water. She took it and un-screwed the top. The liquid was cool and sweet on her dry throat.

      “I wouldn’t drink too much of that all at once,” he told her.

      She ignored him and kept drinking. She finally stopped, took a step, then bent over and threw it all up. Her insides twisted, forcing her to retch and gag. She coughed and did her best to catch her breath.

      “Not the brightest bulb,” he murmured.

      “Shut up,” she said with a gasp.

      “Drink it slow and this time it’ll stay down.”

      Humiliation joined the heat of the sunburn. She sipped cautiously.

      “See?”

      He sounded smug, which made her want to hit him. But she’d already tried that and it hadn’t worked at all.

      “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you back.” He took her free hand and led her over to his horse. “I’ll get on and pull you up behind me.”

      “Or you could walk and I’ll ride.”

      “Do you think that will happen?”

      She saw blurry movement, then heard him settle in the saddle.

      “Give me the water,” he said.

      She passed it up to him, then found the stirrup with her hands and put her left foot in it. He grabbed her arm.

      “One, two, three.”

      On three, he pulled her as she pushed off the ground. For a second, there was an uncomfortable sensation of moving through nothing, then she settled behind his saddle, on the horse’s rump. He pressed her bottle of water into her hand.

      “Hang on,” he told her.

      “I’ll be fine.”

      “Do you have to argue about everything?”

      “Yes. It’s one of my best qualities.” As she spoke, she reached around his waist to hold on. If she didn’t, she would slide off and it was a long way to the ground.

      The horse moved forward.

      Sitting on the back of a horse was a lot different from sitting in a saddle. Instinctively Izzy held on with her thighs and tightened her grip on Nick’s waist. She rocked with the movement and found her nose pressed against his back.

      He was warm and his shirt still smelled like soap and fabric softener. Underneath that was the scent of male skin. Her fingers encountered nothing but muscles at his midsection. She might not know much about the guy, but based on how he’d swung her over his shoulder, and rode a horse, she would guess he worked out.

      Under other circumstances, and assuming she could see, he might be someone she found attractive. Not that it mattered anymore. Did the blind girl ever get the guy? Did it matter? She was hungry and tired and her skin burned from the sun. She just wanted to go home.

      Except she didn’t technically have a home anymore. Her quarters on the oil rig had disappeared in the explosion. When she was off work, she stayed with her sister Skye at Glory’s Gate, but Skye wasn’t there anymore. She’d moved in with her fiancé. And Izzy wasn’t comfortable living in the family house with just her dad, mostly because she didn’t think she actually belonged there.

      Thoughts for another day, she told herself.

      A large shape came into blurry view. She squinted, but that didn’t help.

      “We’re back?” she asked.

      “Yes. I’ll help you down.”

      “I’m good.”

      She held out the water until he took it, then pressed her hands between her thighs, on the back of the horse, swung her right leg around and lowered herself to the ground. She hit a couple of inches after she’d expected to but didn’t stumble.

      Nick dismounted and handed the horse to someone. She tried to see who it was, but couldn’t.

      “This way,” he said.

      Dinner, she thought longingly. She would kill for a meal. Or even act nice. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so hungry.

      But the building they approached didn’t look like the house. She couldn’t see the details but the shape was all wrong. He opened a door, then waited, maybe for her to go first. There was no way she was stepping into that pit of darkness.

      Seconds later he reached past her and flipped on lights. She saw a big bright room, but no details. Cautiously, she walked inside.

      The ceiling was a long distance up—she couldn’t say how far. The floor was hardwood. She saw shapes she didn’t recognize. The place was familiar, although she couldn’t say why.

      “Where are we?” she asked.

      “The gym. I heard you’re into rock climbing. I thought we’d take a few minutes before dinner so you can practice.”

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