Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 128313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
I smiled, and the force of it made my cheeks ache after today’s shoot. Jasper sucked in a quick breath as it did. “I love it. Everything about it is perfection.” Jasper nodded, and his body lost some of its tension. “It’s truly an honor to ride for y’all.” This time it was Jasper’s turn to smile. A little. A hint of a smile. It was barely there, but I caught it, regardless.
I eyed him with humor. “Watch out. I get real country when I’m tired.”
“Noted,” he said, dryly, but the ghost of his smile was still there.
The atmosphere in the car seemed lighter after we spoke. The tension had eased somehow. There were a million things I wanted to ask. But I’d only just gotten him to stop scowling at me, so I thought it best to tread carefully.
“I spoke to you at Silvercrest, you know,” I said, and Jasper turned to me in surprise, like he was trying to place it.
“You were training in an outdoor arena.” I fought the pang of pain that still filled my chest when I thought back to that day. “I had just arrived at Silvercrest from Texas. Literally. That day. Within the first ten minutes on its grounds, I saw you in a nearby arena, jumping Henry.”
Jasper frowned, clearly trying to recall it. I turned my body toward him. I was so tired, but I didn’t want Jasper to stop talking to me. The unease between us had finally ebbed, and it almost felt surreal to be here with him, in this car, just him and me talking. Younger me would have been screaming. “I don’t remember it. What did we talk about?” he asked.
Tucking a damp strand of my hair behind my ear, I said, “I’d never seen anyone ride English before. I wandered over to the arena and watched you jump.” I shook my head, still remembering the butterflies that accosted me, watching him sail over the spread fence with such regality. “I was mesmerized.” Jasper waited for me to continue. “You asked me if I’d jumped before. I told you I hadn’t, and you told Aunt Jeanie to teach me.”
“So you started riding quite late?” he said, a sliver of awe in his voice. Like he couldn’t believe I was a professional now after only starting in my early teens. Most people in our industry were brought up in the saddle and were competing as young children.
“I’ve always ridden. But I only knew western, Jasper. I was brought up on a cattle ranch.” Jasper’s eyes flared a little, and I allowed myself to entertain the thought that he was imagining me in my chaps and cowboy hat and nothing else.
No, Hallie. Don’t go there.
“Wait,” he said, eyes on the road ahead but tight, as though he was trying to recall something. “I think I might remember it,” he said, and my heart thudded faster in my chest. He looked over and caught my stare with his own. “It’s hazy. But I remember Jeanie introducing me to you. I think?” He blinked, like he couldn’t wrap his head around it. “The little cowgirl? That was you, huh?”
I lifted one of my feet, showing I was wearing my old Ariats. I tipped my pretend hat. “Nice to make your acquaintance, sir.”
My heart missed a beat the moment that “sir” left my mouth. But it confirmed something for me: The flash of heat I’d wondered if I’d misread in Jasper’s eyes earlier? I hadn’t. It was there now, blazing as he roved his gaze over my lifted leg and to my boots. I slowly lowered my leg back down, only for us to be plunged back into tense silence. This was torture.
The air between us felt awkward again now. But I wanted to tell him what that meeting had done for me. I went back and forth on whether to mention it, but I had to. People should know if they’ve had a positive influence on your life. “It was you, Jasper. You were the one who inspired me to jump.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down in his throat. He stayed silent. But I pushed harder when I said, “You inspired an entire generation to ride.”
A flicker of softness took over Jasper’s face, so handsome in that moment it made me breathless. But then, inch by inch, his face frosted over to his usual stoic expression, sucking up any warmth that had built between us. “Well, those days are gone now.”
His voice hardened, and I could tell by his rigid posture that the topic of his riding was off limits. So I backed off. The massage chair was lulling me to sleep, and I hated the tension that had built back between us, so I said, “But I have to confess that, as much as I admired you, it was Lord Henry who truly stole my heart.”