Romance: Cowboy Way of Love Read Free

experience.
A player’s going to play. A good guy’s going to stand up when it’s
time to stand up. And there’s no amount of hoping that’s going to
change one into the other.”
    “ Is everybody ready?”
Petunia shouted, from the end of the barn. “The photographer wants
us all down by the driveway to get the best light.”
    “ We’re coming,” Hunter
called back. He turned to Peony. “Are you ready to saddle
up?”
    “ Are you sure it’s going
to be all right?” she asked. Hunter could see that even though she
was trying to be brave, there was a little bit of fear in Peony’s
eyes.
    “ I promise,” he said. “My
girl won’t let you down.” He helped Peony into the saddle, and
manfully resisted the urge to feel her legs while he adjusted her
stirrups. Then he swung up into Wally’s saddle, and rode up close
to Peony. “Do you want me to take the reins and lead her, or do you
want to ride for yourself?”
    “ What do I need to do?”
she asked.
    Hunter quickly
demonstrated with Wally’s reins. “Do this to turn right, and this
to turn left.” The big roan moved gracefully beneath him. “When you
want to stop, pull back, gently, and say, “Whoa, honey.” LouLou’s
ears pricked up at the sound, and they both laughed. “She knows
that means stop. And we won’t be going that far, or that
fast.”
    “ I’ll give it a try then,”
Peony said. “If you’ll lead the way, we’ll follow.”
    “ Your wish is my command,”
Hunter said with a smile.
    While Peony’s first riding
lesson went smoothly, the photographer’s plans didn’t. Peony’s
sister Petunia had been on horseback enough to hold her own, but
Pansy and Primrose were clearly terrified. Poppy, on the other
hand, had been drinking all morning, and in her case, it was the
horse that was terrified. They’d put her on Snowball, a gentle
gelding who generally had a laid-back attitude, but by the time
Hunter and Peony arrived at the photoshoot, Snowball had his ears
back and his eyes were wide.
    After a few quick casual
shots, the photographer tried to get everyone to line up for some
staged photos. Simply getting the horses into a line proved to be
too much for Poppy. She pulled back too hard on Snowball’s reins.
The mild mannered horse sat down on his haunches, dumping the big
woman on the ground.
    There was a lot of
screaming. “That horse tried to kill me!” Poppy shrieked. “Did you
see him rearing up?”
    Her boyfriend, a quiet man
who never seemed to have much to say but perpetually had the flask
at the ready for his sweetheart, pulled Poppy to her feet and
started to lead her away. “I told you this whole horse thing was a
bad idea,” he said. “Come on in the house and I’ll make sure you’re
not all bruised up.”
    “ I better not be bruised
up,” Poppy announced to the world at large. “If there’s one mark on
me, I’m going to have that dangerous beast put down!”
    “ Well, that went well,”
Petunia said, after Poppy and her partner were out of earshot.
Everybody laughed, except the photographer.
    “ We’re going to have to
adjust some of what we had planned,” he said.
    “ Adjusting is what we do
in this family,” Petunia replied. “We’ll do what we can, and what
we can’t, we can’t.”
    Hunter saw Seth admiring
his wife to be in this moment, and smiled. The fact his little
brother could appreciate Petunia’s take-charge attitude was a good
sign of happy years to come, he was sure of it. Over the course of
the next hour, the remaining members of the wedding party lined up
in different poses while the photographer snapped pictures. During
this time, Peony was growing more and more comfortable on
LouLou.
    “ That’s a wrap,
everybody,” Petunia announced, when the photographer was finally
satisfied. “I think we’re going to take a pass on the trail ride
thing.” She cast a concerned glance at her mother, who was sitting
in the shade. “Mama’s getting tired.”
    “ Oh,” Peony said.