He motioned toward the barn and corrals in the distance. "You make a lot of lists?" he asked as they began to walk.
She turned to look up at him, as if surprised by the question. "Yes. I never thought about it before, but I guess I do. Oh, I don't write them down, but I do keep mental lists in my head. Smells I like, foods I dislike, places that make me feel warm and places that make me feel cold and so on."
"Will Grady Gulch go on your places that make you cold or places that make you warm list?" he asked, more than a little bit fascinated by the workings of her mind.
"Definitely on the warm list. It's a wonderful small town where people seem to genuinely care about one another. You can feel the friendliness, the caring when you walk down the streets of Grady Gulch."
Not for men like me, he thought. Grady Gulch had definitely been a cold place for him since the night of the tragic accident that had forever changed his life.
"Aren't they beautiful." Lizzy danced two steps ahead of him as they approached the corral, where five horses grazed peacefully in the morning sun. She turned to look at him, her pretty features radiating excitement. "Which one am I going to ride?"
"That all depends on which one chooses you," he replied.
She looked up at him as if curious, and he couldn't help but notice the length of her long eyelashes, the delicate curve of her jawline. "Chooses me?"
He nodded. "My dad always believed that the relationship between a person and a horse was a sacred thing and that it was far more important for a horse to choose a person than a person to choose a horse." He stopped short of the corral fencing and motioned her forward. "Go on, just stand at the fence and we'll see what happens."
Even though she gave him a questioning glance, she not only walked up to the corral but also stood on the bottom rail of the fence, making him realize for the first time that she was probably not much taller than five foot three. Funny, anytime he'd thought of her over the past week, she'd been taller, much bigger in his mind.
"What now?" she asked as the horses pranced on the far side of the corral.
"Patience," he replied, deciding he definitely enjoyed the way her tight jeans cupped her rounded bottom.
"Not particularly my strong suit," she replied with a laugh.
He took a step closer to her. "But it's a must when you're dealing with animals."
He wished he would have had more patience that night. For just a moment Janice's face flashed in his head, a frozen frame of the last time he'd seen her. Her blue eyes had flashed with frustration, her mouth thinned with exquisite anger. If he'd just managed to find a little patience that night then maybe the end result would have been very different.
"Look, they're coming closer."
The vision of Janice in Daniel's head snapped away, and he was grateful for Lizzy's voice brimming with excitement to bring him back from the edge of his dark memories.
Lizzy appeared to vibrate with animation as the mares came closer to their side of the corral. As he watched her, felt the energy wafting from her and noticed the way her hair sparkled in the sunshine, he was determined that for the rest of the day he wouldn't let thoughts of Janice intrude.
For just this single day he'd allow himself the unusual indulgence of feeling something other than his own sorrow and guilt.
Today he was going to allow himself to enjoy a woman named Lizzy and for a little while remember what it was like to truly be alive.
* * *
Lizzy had a feeling Daniel was looking at her butt. Even though she was trying to stay focused on the magnificent animals in front of her, she was intensely aware of the magnificent man behind her. And she could swear as she looked at the horses she could feel the heat of his gaze on her behind.
She was just about to turn her head around to see if she was right when one of the horses broke away from the others and approached where she stood on the fence. The chestnut-colored horse held her ears forward, as if curious to hear whatever Lizzy might have to say.
"Hi, baby," Lizzy said softly. The horse had beautiful eyes and moved even closer, flaring her nostrils precariously close to Lizzy's face. Lizzy stood frozen, unsure what to do. The horse neighed softly.
"That's Molly, and it looks like she chose you," Daniel said as he stepped up beside Lizzy.
"What's she doing with her nose? It looks like she's trying to inhale me," Lizzy exclaimed.
Daniel gave a short, deep laugh. "She's taking in your scent. That's how horses identify each other." Molly neighed again as if to punctuate his sentence.
"So, what happens now?" Lizzy asked, ridiculously pleased that she'd been chosen at all. Also the short but sweet sound of Daniel's laughter tickled her.
"And now we're going to take Molly into the barn and you're going to do a little grooming on her. That will help build some trust between the two of you."
Lizzy watched as he opened the corral gate and grabbed a rope that was coiled on the post. It took him only a minute to get the horse out of the corral, and she followed after them as he led both the horse and her into the barn.
The barn was huge and held the wonderful country odors of hay and leather, of horse and grain, but Daniel's woodsy cologne and clean male scent had teased her since the moment she'd climbed into his truck.
He looked hotter than ever today in his jeans and a gunmetal-gray T-shirt that perfectly matched his eyes. He'd seemed tense when she'd first gotten into the truck, but she'd felt him relaxing with each mile they'd driven.
Now he appeared completely at ease, his features relaxed in a way she'd never seen before, and it only made him more attractive. "This is a currycomb," he said as he handed her a soft bristle brush. "You use it in a circular motion on her. Normally I don't groom them until after a ride, but Molly loves to be groomed, and if you do a little now it will assure her that you're a friend."
For the next few minutes she worked on the horse with Daniel instructing her. Although she tried to stay focused on the task at hand, it was impossible with Daniel so close to her. His body radiated an evocative heat, and several times he placed his hand over hers to show her how to move the brush, causing her heart to bump up its rhythm in response.
"Okay, let's saddle her up and we'll take a ride," he said. She was almost grateful to know that within minutes they'd be on two different horses and separated by enough space that she'd be able to take a full breath. Standing so close to the handsome man made her feel as if she wasn't getting enough oxygen.
It took another twenty minutes for him to saddle Molly and the black horse he was riding for the day, whose name was Dandy. "Are you nervous?" he asked when it was time to get on the horses. They stood just outside the barn with a gentle early June breeze that stirred his thick, slightly curly hair.
"A little," she admitted as she looked up at the back of the horse. "It looks like a long way down from the saddle to the ground."
"Molly is sweet as sugar and you won't have to do much but hang on to the reins or the saddle horn. If you've ever seen a Western movie then I'm sure you know how to get on a horse, but I'll stand right here in case you need some help."
There he was, standing so close to her she could smell the heady scent of him, felt as if she wasn't getting quite enough air to survive. She quickly placed her left foot in the stirrup and with a burst of adrenaline pulled herself up and over, using the saddle horn for leverage.
"You're a natural," Daniel said, obviously pleased by how easily she'd made it into the saddle, which creaked with an oddly comforting noise beneath her weight.
"Thanks," she replied and leaned forward to stroke Molly's neck and then grabbed the reins loosely in her hands. "Now, you be a nice girl and don't make any sudden moves."
Daniel laughed again, that low, deep rumble that Lizzy found amazingly wonderful. "You'll be just fine," he assured her as he easily mounted his horse. "Just relax and go with the movement of the horse."
As Dandy moved toward the open pasture in the distance, Molly followed right behind without Lizzy having to do anything. It took a few minutes for her to get accustomed to the motion of the horse, but she did as Daniel had told her and just relaxed to enjoy the ride.
The horses walked side by side at a leisurely pace, and for several minutes neither Daniel nor Lizzy spoke. Lizzy merely enjoyed the breeze on her face, the novelty of her first horseback ride and the beauty of the land that surrounded them.