Page 13 of October’s Cowboy Beau

Her phone stayed on my hands, but her eyes stayed on me. My neck went hot.

I gave her a few seconds. “Are you done pretending you’re not looking at me?”

Her gaze met mine. “I’m supposed to be looking at you.”

“My hands.”

“They’re attached to you.”

“That’s convenient.”

She tipped her head, and the smile she’d been fighting showed. “I never said I wasn’t looking.”

She raised her phone and went right back to filming while I stood there with a leather strap in one hand, trying to remember what I’d been doing before she opened her mouth.

Hank turned his head and nudged my shoulder.

“I know,” I muttered.

Caroline laughed. “Did your horse just tell you to get back to work?”

“Something like that.”

“At least someone around here is cooperative.”

I ran the strap through the buckle and checked it twice. I’d done this a thousand times.

Yesterday I’d noticed Caroline because she was standing in my space telling me what to do. This morning I didn’t have that excuse. She was here because I’d invited her, and I was watching her tuck loose hair behind her ear every time the wind picked up. That had nothing to do with the horses.

I switched to Gus before my brain traveled further down that path.

Caroline followed, keeping the phone down while I changed sides. “Tell me about them. For the video. Nothing fancy.”

I ran my hand down Gus’s shoulder before lifting the collar. She’d said the talking was up to me. I could’ve told her no. I’d had plenty of practice. That two-letter word was the one I tended to say most often. Instead, I did what she asked.

“Hank’s almost eighteen hands. Gus is a little under that. Both weigh around a ton.”

Her eyebrows went up. “Each?”

“Yep.”

She looked at Gus again. The top of her head came about halfway up his shoulder.

She raised the phone. “What else?”

“They work as a team. Been together six years.”

“What makes a good team?”

I adjusted the hames against Hank’s collar before I answered. “They need to trust each other. And whoever’s holding the lines.”

“Because you can’t make them do anything?”

“You can’t out-muscle two tons. You get clear about what you’re asking and don’t ask for something you don’t mean.”

Her phone lowered an inch.

“What?”