The Long Road Home. Lynn Patrick

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СКАЧАТЬ Mia was saying to the young guy as Alyssa approached.

      “Hey, chill out. We’re just going on a trail ride this afternoon,” the guy told her, laughing. Then his smile seemed to freeze as he caught sight of Alyssa.

      “Hi.” Alyssa adjusted her sunglasses. She wished she’d had time to freshen her lipstick. She put her hand out for a shake. “I’m Alyssa.”

      “My sister,” added Mia with a disgust that Alyssa ignored.

      “Logan.” The cute guy took Alyssa’s hand then released it more quickly than she would like. “Sisters. Hey, uh, great...you can both go on the trail ride.”

      Alyssa posed carefully, hand on one hip, hoping her big city glamour would affect Logan. “I’m just here to hang out.”

      “We don’t really have a hang-out spot around here but you’re welcome to wait until we get back,” Logan told her before turning to Mia. “I think you’ll like Cloud, the Pinto. She’s got a sweet temperament, along with some spice.”

      Alyssa asked him, “You’re going on the trail ride, too?”

      “I’m leading the group.” Then he walked away to introduce Mia to the spotted horse nearby.

      Drat! Alyssa looked down at her beautiful boots. Guess she’d have to take the chance on getting them sweaty after all. “I’ve changed my mind. I need a horse, too.”

      She’d had riding lessons for a short time when she was Mia’s age, before she’d lost interest. She could look pretty good on the back of a horse if she wanted to.

      If that’s what she had to do to get next to a cute cowboy.

      * * *

      AT LEAST ALYSSA was enjoying something, Priscilla thought, hanging on to Gold Mine, the pretty Palomino Logan had saddled for her. She could let go of the tension she’d been feeling since the drive to her place from the airport. Her niece might be flirting with the young hand, but Alyssa was little more than a kid, and he was several years too old for her. Thankfully, she noted that Logan remained friendly but professional, nothing more.

      Also thankfully, Sam was nowhere around, so she didn’t have to worry about running into him, after all.

      “Aren’t you going to get on your horse, Aunt Priscilla?” Mia asked from atop a little Pinto mare named Cloud.

      “I’m just waiting until the last minute,” Priscilla hedged. “We’ll be in the saddle long enough as it is.”

      Besides, which, she’d only been riding a few times and not since she was a teenager. A far more experienced rider than she, Mia was already walking her mount around the corral adjacent to the barn, turning Cloud this way and that. A few other riders, strangers to Priscilla, were doing the same.

      When Alyssa asked Logan, “Aren’t you going to give me a leg up?” Priscilla whipped around to see what was going on.

      Logan gave her niece a friendly grin. “If you can’t get off the ground on your own, we do have a mounting block—”

      Alyssa made a sound of exasperation. “Never mind!” Then put a foot in the stirrup and bounced right up into the saddle.

      Logan looked at Priscilla. “Do you need help, ma’am?”

      Priscilla flushed. She couldn’t let her nieces outdo her. She placed her left foot into the stirrup and said, “I’ve got it.”

      “Okay.” Logan moved back, probably to get his own horse.

      The other riders were all looking at her. Waiting for her to mount Gold Mine. Hanging on to the reins and the horn on the saddle, Priscilla tried to hike herself up. But the saddle seemed to move and her stomach did a flip as she slammed back down on one foot.

      “C’mon!” Mia yelled. “You can do it!”

      Hands now sweating, face burning, Priscilla tried again and almost made it. Almost. On the third try, a strong pair of hands at her waist gave her a boost. The hands didn’t let go. They felt...too personal. Standing in one stirrup, she turned to ask Logan to let go. But Logan wasn’t hanging on to her. Sam was. Her eyes locked with his familiar gray ones, and her mouth gaped a bit as she got off balance again.

      Keeping her from falling back into his arms, Sam grinned at her. “Well, some things don’t change. You’re looking good, Prissy!”

      Hearing him call her by her high school nickname, Priscilla was struck nearly speechless. She’d hoped she would be prepared for this meeting, but she couldn’t keep from reacting to him. Yes, Sam was back in Sparrow Lake and still had the same effect on her. He’d been gorgeous as a youth and was equally gorgeous as a man, his handsome face tanned, his dark hair poking out from beneath his black Western hat to brush the collar of the work shirt that showed off some impressive muscles.

      She tore her gaze away from him, muttering, “I’m not very athletic.”

      “You’re on an easygoing horse, so you don’t have to worry.”

      It wasn’t really the horse she was worried about. Heart pounding, she threw her right leg over the saddle and plopped into it.

      “Not going to say a proper hello, Prissy?”

      She frowned at him. “Sure I’m going to say hello. Why wouldn’t I?”

      His grin widened. “Well?”

      “Hello, Sam. Nice to see you after all these years! And my name is Priscilla, not Prissy.” She looked around wildly, saw the others lining up behind Logan, who was opening the corral gate. “Gotta go or I’ll get left behind.”

      He grinned harder. “Right. Go.” He swatted her mare’s rump.

      Gold Mine jerked forward and moved to the end of the line. Priscilla thump-thump-thumped in the saddle and hung on to the horn. Several riders ahead of her, Mia looked back, grinned and gave her a thumbs-up.

      Just when Priscilla was regaining her breath, she realized she hadn’t left Sam behind, after all. He rode up next to her on a big dark bay so close she could see the small lines around his eyes. They gave his face a new maturity and added to his good looks, as did an air of world-weariness.

      Weary or wary?

      Priscilla wasn’t sure which.

      “A little tip about getting on a horse,” he said, his familiar if more mature whiskey-smooth voice making her stomach curl. “Hold on to the reins in your left hand, then grab the horse’s mane instead of the saddle horn. That way you don’t pull the saddle over.”

      Apparently the reason she’d had so much trouble getting up, Priscilla thought, as they followed Logan’s lead through a stand of trees. “Won’t that hurt the horse?”

      “Nope, no pain involved. No nerve endings.”

      “Oh.”

      “I wouldn’t have expected you to know that,” he assured her.

      “Same here. Last СКАЧАТЬ