she’s not my friend, not really,” Amy answered softly, turning more toward Carey’s direction to keep their conversation private. “I only met her on the bus from the airport, and I just kind of latched onto her. She seems to know what she’s doing, so I just kind of tagged along. She’s very…”
“…Bossy? Cranky? Mean? Bitchy? Murdery?” Carey suggested.
“…Intense. And I don’t think ‘murdery’ is a real word.”
“Neither is ‘cow people,’ but that hasn’t stopped anyone. Oh, you have to finish eating, looks like we’re heading out soon. Thanks for letting me have lunch with you,” Carey said, before scraping the rest of his food up with his spoon.
“No problem. It was nice to have a calm, quiet conversation during a meal for once.” Amy smiled when Carey stood and offered her his hand, holding her steady and helping her up. He turned to offer his hand to Karen as well, but pulled his arm back as though she would bite when she looked at him with contempt and stood up on her own.
“Well, I’m open for quiet conversation at every meal. I’ll be sure to look for you at dinner. I’ll just have to follow the sounds of rabid snarling,” Carey promised as bent closer to Amy’s ear, jerking his head slightly toward where Karen stood behind him.
“Sounds great,” Amy said, smiling at him genuinely as he took her plate and stacked it with his own, then watched him walk back to the chuck wagon to return them. He gave her a small wave before heading off to where his horse was tethered.
“I didn’t realize you’d signed up for a single's cruise,” Karen said snidely as she passed. “I thought you were here to learn a little bit about being your own woman and taking care of yourself.”
Amy sighed and squared her shoulders before turning to face Karen. “I’m here to learn to make my own decisions, too, not to let other people dictate how I should behave. If I happen to have a seat beside someone while I eat, who treats me respectfully and with basic human manners, then that is no one else’s concern.” She tossed her curly hair over her shoulder and slapped her hat back on her head, marching confidently to follow the rest of the group to their horses.
What am I doing? Amy thought, shocked. I’ve never spoken to anyone like that before! My mother would have a fit if she’d heard me be so rude! And it was true. Only a week ago, Karen’s remark would have sent Amy to an empty stall in the nearest ladies' room, ready to dissolve in a snot-filled puddle of tears. Now, Amy dared her to criticize her again, her previous life and her mother be damned. No one was going to talk down to her, but that didn’t mean she had to turn into a witch like Karen to stand her ground. Maybe there was something to what she’d heard about these confidence-building trips…and to what she’d always heard about good-looking cowboys.
Karen watched her go, shaking her head in frustration at the way some women threw themselves at the nearest available human with a penis. But this was one time she wasn’t going to sit by and watch while some man took advantage of a clueless women who was only using half a brain. She stomped off after Carey, ready to give him a piece of her mind, and Amy’s mind, too, for that matter, as the girl clearly wasn’t able to do it herself.
Chapter Four
Unfortunately, no one told her horse that Amy had decided to become a new woman who wasn’t taking crap from people anymore. The animal was just as stubborn as before, even though she tried to speak to him soothingly while still being firm. It was almost as if the animal could smell and respond to Amy’s nervousness, as though being unsure of herself around the oversized creature was a tangible scent.
After taking a deep breath, she hoisted her booted foot up into the stirrup to lift herself into the saddle, only every time she started to put her weight on that leg, the horse would take one step forward. Amy would drop her weight back down on her standing leg in defeat, her boot still in her stirrup, and the horse would hold still once again.
But as soon as she took her weight off the ground and tried pulling herself up into the saddle, the stupid thing would walk again, moving forward and out from under Amy’s much-needed leverage. She spoke to the horse calmly and reassuringly but every time she inched off the ground, the dumb beast would take a step.
I went to college, you stupid horse! You’re not outsmarting me, she thought angrily, seething to herself in frustration. Moving hopefully too fast for the horse to notice, Amy took a leap as she pulled herself up, aiming herself forward this time so she would move with the horse. Feeling the shift in her weight, the animal stepped backward instead, throwing Amy off balance. When she tried putting her foot back on the ground, the level surface wasn’t where she thought it should be, causing her to lose her footing. In its confusion, the horse took off running, dragging Amy along by the foot that was still trapped and twisted within the stirrup.
“No! STOP!” Amy screamed, scrambling to reach for something to pull herself up but resorting, instead, to putting her arms over her face and head to protect them from the horse’s stomping hooves. The hard ground scratched painfully through the thin fabric of her shirt, and each rock seemed to embed itself deep in her muscles as she continued to be pulled along. “Someone, help!”
Carey heard Amy’s unmistakable voice as she called out in pain, and seeing her horse dragging her toward the herd, his heart nearly stopped. A stampeding horse in the middle of thousands of several-ton cows would get her killed for sure. He steered his horse in her direction and slapped at its neck with the hanging end of his leather reins, urging it on. Coming at her horse from the side, he let go of the reins and leaned toward it, grabbing hold of her reins and simultaneously catching one of her hands as he leaned dangerously close to the ground from where he sat in the saddle.
He sat upright and pulled Amy with him, throwing her in front of him on the saddle. The horses began to slow under Carey’s level-headed direction and, together, they worked her foot out of its snare. Amy’s horse began to mosey off as though the beast hadn’t just nearly killed its would-be rider, while Carey’s horse waited patiently for further instructions from its rider.
Carey held Amy in front of him tenderly, afraid to touch her back for fear that anything was torn or broken. She gave way to shaking now that she was safe and could process what happened. She looked up at Carey, willing herself not to cry, to be strong. He watched her face silently, struggling to process what exactly he had felt as he saw her pulled away. Was it fear for her? Of course, just like he would have felt for any member of the group being dragged into harm’s way. But it was something else, too, a feeling that he hadn’t done enough to protect her, that he was responsible for keeping her safe.
Of course I’m responsible for her, he tried to chastise himself. I’m a member of this ranch and she’s a paying customer. But he knew that wasn’t all that was behind it. It was more like he wanted to protect her…from everything.
“Are you okay?” he asked tentatively, watching her face for her reaction. She nodded quietly, too afraid to speak for fear that the floodgates would open and she would dissolve in an embarrassing flood of snotty tears. Other ranch hands and members of Amy’s group began to approach to check on her, but he waved them away behind her back to keep as few people as possible from watching her, in case she suddenly lost control.
“I think so,” she whimpered when she finally found her voice, taking deep breaths and fighting through the pain in her ribcage.
“Does anything feel broken?” he asked, not sure how she would know that yet as she seemed to be in some state of shock.
Amy forced herself to take an exaggerated breath to test out her ribs, wincing as the skin stretched slowly along her ribs. She let out the tiniest cry as she inflated her lungs to capacity, but shook her head when Carey looked alarmed. “I think I’m just really scraped up. I don’t think anything’s broken,” she answered, her voice shaking now that the possibility of what could have happened finally dawned on her.
Carey held her close to him, watching her carefully. He urged his horse forward in a slow walk heading toward the RV so Amy could be checked