Hell, you couldn’t change the past.
As far as Hunter went? He would just keep on working the land. That was where he found his satisfaction.
Working the land. Working with horses.
People...
Hell, he had friends. He loved them. He loved his family. But as for deep connection...
He shrugged off the strange ghost of a feeling that overtook him.
Sometimes the river reminded him of his mother. Of nice afternoons spent fishing and the way she’d smiled when she looked out at the scene around them.
And he didn’t like being reminded of her.
So he did what he always did in that situation. And it wasn’t turn away from the water. Instead, he went for his fishing pole.
Because when he had a feeling he didn’t like, he liked to stand in defiance of it.
It was just how he did things.
So he stood out there until well after dark, the floodlight from his cabin providing all the light he needed.
And when he went to bed, he fell asleep right away because he never let himself hit the mattress until he was too exhausted to think.
CHAPTER THREE
“SO ARE WE going to start with the flirting lessons or what?”
Elsie looked up at Hunter, impatience rioting through her like a restless horse.
“No,” he said, sounding so uninterested it made her want to punch hm. “There’s work to be done, Elsie, I don’t have time to indulge you on the clock.”
“You’re not indulging me,” she said. “You said that you would help me. So I don’t see why we don’t incorporate it into the workday.”
She scampered around to the side of the horse and mounted quickly. Chester was docile, and Elsie didn’t have any further concerns about using him for therapy. He was incredibly responsive, and he could handle commands, and wasn’t spooked by much of anything. Including a rider who might not know what they were doing.
But still, they were doing exactly what had been outlined in the handbook that they’d been provided for this sort of thing. Which meant that they would do the amount of testing required, regardless of her personal feelings.
“One thing at a time,” he said.
Today they would be taking the horses out on some more challenging trails. Not because they were going to do it with their clients, but because it was good to get a read on how the horses reacted to new situations.
Hunter was on a more volatile animal, not one they would be using for therapy, by design. To see how Chester would react in a more uncertain situation.
And to see if Hunter would be able to take control if necessary.
“You’re such a pain in the butt,” she said. “You offered to teach me.”
“But not while I have work to do. Anyway, it could be argued that you’re the pain, Elsie.”
“Seems like a matter of perspective to me,” she said.
Hunter swung himself up onto his mount with ease. He seemed to do everything with ease. Never out of his element. And while Elsie was not out of her element when it came to horses, she was decidedly out of her element at the bar. And she wondered if it was just a side effect of being so much younger than most of the other people that had always been at Four Corners.
She and Alaina were the youngests of the four primary families. And they had banded together because of that. But there was a whole bunch of them right in their thirties, and they had each other. For flirting and dating and all of that. For friendship and support and collecting information on experiences. It was just different for Alaina and Elsie. They had each other, but they couldn’t learn a damned thing from each other.
“How did you learn to flirt?” she asked.
Hunter snorted and eased his horse forward. “Some things come natural.”
“I’m serious. And why does it seem like there’s an endless collection of women at the bar down in Pyrite Falls?”
“Because,” he said, “they’re buckle bunnies. And they come for the express purpose of hooking up with a cowboy, which they know they can find down at the bar.”
“Isn’t there some kind of cowgirl equivalent? Like...rhinestone chasers or something?”
He chuckled. “I’m sure there is,” he said. “But you probably wouldn’t like them. Because they’d probably just be city boys.”
“I wouldn’t care,” Elsie said, tossing her braid back over her shoulder. “It would give me something to do.”
“You don’t feel like you have enough to do? Because if so, I’m not a very good boss.”
“I didn’t realize you were my boss, Hunter.”
“Oh, I am,” he said.
“Whatever,” she responded. She shifted uneasily. They pushed through an open field, dotted with purple flowers, which gradually gave way to a worn-out path, which was easy at first, but began to narrow and climb the side of a hill.
Not really unlike where she and Alaina had chosen to ride yesterday. It was all easy stuff for Elsie.
“Why are you still here?”
“On this trail? Because you’re my boss and this is where we said we were going to ride. Or did you forget what we just talked about? You might be getting geriatric, Hunter.”
“I mean at Four Corners. You’re upset about the whole situation. You know you could move to a bigger place. Where people don’t know you. Where they don’t know Sawyer and Wolf, probably even more to the point. You could meet new people, new men...”
“I don’t want to leave,” she said.
The idea made her heart feel fluttery. Panicky. She didn’t like it particularly. It was like panic. And she didn’t like to feel that way.
She liked to feel in control. And she supposed that was half of what always being at Four Corners offered her. Control. Because it was familiar. And she felt familiar in it. It was a blessing and a curse.
“Well, to be honest,” she said, chewing her lip as she looked around at the scenery. There was a large ravine on the other side of the trail, and it looked out over an expansive piece of timber. Evergreen trees as far as she could see. “I thought about it. But... Then... You know, then Sawyer had June. And now Wolf and Violet are expecting. And we got started with this. And it feels like doing something. And I think maybe if I hadn’t had anything to do with myself in terms of work... My heart just isn’t in cattle ranching. It’s never going to be. But I’m interested in what’s happening at McCloud’s Landing. And I love it. I’m excited about it.” She shook her head. “I don’t know, Hunter. I try to picture life away from here, and it’s a big blank space. I know there are things out there, but I can’t really imagine them. I don’t know what life would be like away from everybody here. So it’s easy for me to make up situations that might be better. But anyway, the ranch hands are finally my age.”