"This is Lady," he tells me and touches her neck. “Let me help you get on the horse."
"Um," I say, looking at him when he walks up to me and puts his hand on my waist.
"You are going to put your foot in this." He points at the silver stirrup. “Then throw your other leg over."
"Okay,” I say, concentrating on the way his hands feel on me instead of what he’s saying. He picks me up without forcing himself. My foot goes into the stirrup, and I throw my other leg over. I sit on her, and she haws. “I’m sorry,” I say, and she doesn’t move.
"Be easy on her," Quinn tells Hope. “Don’t hurt her."
"She won’t hurt me," I defend her as I watch Quinn walk over to his horse, and he gets on her easily. His whole arm flexes even bigger than before, and I have to look away before I start gawking at him.
"Ready,” he says, and I just nod.
"We are going to go on a secret trail,” he says next to me as our horses walk side by side. I see Hope looking over at times and then turning her head to look forward.
He walks through the field into the trees, and when I look back, the trees slowly close around us. “So what are your plans?" he asks. "When you are free to leave here."
My heart speeds up when he asks me this. “I have no idea,” I say the truth. “I have nothing left of the inheritance." I look down, seeing Hope’s head go down also. “I have never been somewhere that I didn’t want to leave." Except now, I hear the words in my head. I don’t look over at him, and I also don’t tell him that staying here with him is tempting. "I guess this is as fresh of a start as I will ever get." We ride side by side. His hands never move from in front of him.
"If you could pick a place, what would it look like?" he asks, and I can see from my peripheral view that he is looking over at me.
"It would be where no one knows me," I answer honestly. “It would be where people would think I’m just someone else."
I look over at him. “Would you ever leave here?"
He shakes his head. “Nope, not for all the money in the world." He returns his focus ahead of him.
“Why?” I ask him.
“Well, for one, my family is here," he starts. “Second, my business is here. And third, this is where I want my kids to grow up. Running through the fields chasing their cousins. Going from house to house like a revolving door. Having someone have your back the whole time. I want all that for my kids."
"I’ve never had that,” I say, his words echoing in my ears. “The longest we stayed in one place was before Benjamin. It was for one whole year. I even made two friends." I smile, thinking back to the two girls who lived in the same building as me. "Rosalie even cooked dinner."
"What happened?" he asks, and I think about lying to him, but at this point, nothing he hears will have him think less of me.
"She had an affair with a married man," I start to say. “All was going well until the wife showed up at the door. It turns out, her father was like some big shot, and let’s just say we left very quickly.”
“That must have been hard,” he says, his voice soft.
"It was, but it was what it was, and nothing I could have done would have changed it." I learned that real fast. "Where are we going?" I ask, and then I stop talking when we come to an opening in the forest, and I hear the sound of water trickling.
I look at the creek ahead of me and then see a large rock in the middle of the clearing. “This is part of my grandparents’ land,” he says, stopping and getting down off his horse. “My aunt Kallie used to come here with my uncle Jacob when they were younger." He walks over to me, holding out his hand. I look at him and then the horse.
"I’m going to fall,” I say, not sure I can hold him with my one hand and then slide off.
"I won’t let you fall,” he says. “Trust me."
I look at his hand and then back in front of me. “I don’t want to fall,” I say.
I wait for him to use my fears against me. Wait for him to just yank me off the horse. But instead of all that, he says words that cut me to the core. "I promise you that as long as you’re with me, I will never ever make you fall.”