Page 158 of Shattered Silence Duet

“Besides,” Gavin pitches in, “it’s safer. Tucker is experienced, he’ll make sure you don’t fall and stay safe in the saddle. Who knows what will happen if you go out on your own.” I’d have to leave this guy a huge tip for his help, because that seems to do the trick.

“If it’s safer, then I think we should do that. For safety,” she mumbles the last two words like she’s trying to convince herself.

Gavin winks at me as he pulls the white horse off to the side before returning to the brown and white one. “This beauty here is Pickles.”

“Pickles?” Mina asks with a giggle.

“Yes, unfortunately, that’s what happens when you let your four year old grandson name your horse,” he says in fake exasperation. I bet this guy loves his grandkids.

“Tucker, let me know if you need me to go over anything with you. If you head out the back here and through the field, you’ll find a small gate that’s open for you in the south-west corner. Go through that and you will see the start of the trail in front of you. Just follow it and it will loop back around to that gate. Cell signal is good out there and you have my number, so just call if you run into any trouble.”

“Thank you sir, I think we’ll be fine,” I tell him, giving him permission to leave so I can start my one-on-one time with her. He says goodbye and heads outside to one of the fields, so I turn to Mina.

“So, you ready?”

“Umm… I think so. What do I do?”

“Do you want me to lift you up, or do you want to try getting up on your own?”

She places a finger on her lips as she looks up at the large horse. “Am I supposed to put my foot in that stirrup?” she asks, pointing to it.

“Yeah, it’s a little high, huh?” I ask, realizing it’s as high as her shoulder. “Okay, turn to face Pickles and I’ll lift you up. You’ll want to lift your right leg over top of her so you can straddle her.

Placing my hands on her waist, I easily lift her onto the horse and she quickly grabs the saddle and gains her balance before smiling down at me proudly. “Good girl, slip your feet out of the stirrups though, I’ll need those.”

She does as I ask as I untie Pickles’ reins and quickly get mounted behind her. I don’t waste a second pulling her back against me so her back is flush with my front. “For safety,” I whisper, my hand landing on her stomach.

Her hands drop down to my thighs as she replies, “for safety.”

The trail is gorgeous, and at first, neither of us talk as we take in the beautiful colors of the fall leaves surrounding us. About forty minutes into our ride, she speaks.

“It’s beautiful out here. What made you choose this for our date?”

“Well, I wanted to share a little piece of myself with you, while giving you an experience that you’ve never had a chance to have before.”

“That’s… really sweet, Tucker. Have you ridden horses a lot?”

“Actually, I grew up on a farm.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, in Wyoming.”

“Did you always want to leave that life and become a PI?”

“No. I grew up the eldest of six. Three brothers and two sisters. We were always helping out on the farm. Farm life is busy, and there’s always something to do, our parents needed as many hands as they could get. And I didn’t mind helping, I even loved it for a while. But when I started high school, it was a bit further away than our elementary school had been, in a bigger town and I met a lot of new friends there. I started to see that there were other ways to live besides farm life.

“Don’t get me wrong, I respect what my parents do, running afarm, but the more I saw of the world, the more I started to question if that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. One of my friend’s dads was a detective and one day he came to talk to our class and I was so intrigued. The thought of solving a puzzle and catching the bad guys was thrilling.

“I told my parents I wanted to be a cop, and they told me I had to take over the farm. We fought about it for years, all through high school. My dad would always demand me home right after school and never gave me enough time to join any extra-curricular activities or even finish my homework. I swore he wanted me to do poorly in school so I’d have no hope of going to college. And it worked.

“When I turned eighteen, we had a huge fight. He told me I’d come crawling back when I realized chasing criminals won’t pay the bills. I told him I’d rather fail doing what I love than spend my life miserable, living up to his expectations. And that was the last time I ever spoke to him.”

“You haven’t seen or spoken to him since? What about your mom or your brothers and sisters?”

“I text with my siblings on occasion, and I write my mom letters to let her know I’m okay. She doesn’t write back, though.”

“I’m sorry Tucker, that must have been so hard to leave your family like that.”