After the Rain by Renee Carlino

with the horse.
    “Why weren’t you at breakfast this morning?” he asked.
    “I normally eat in my cabin. And remember our agreement?”
    “What?”
    “No talking.”
    We walked slowly past the main house. Bea waved to us from the porch where she was knitting in her chair. Dancer picked up her pace a little as we rode toward the meadow above the stream. I could feel Nate and Tequila keeping pace behind us. I slowed Dancer and let Nate ride up beside me.
    Nate was holding the reins high, which was normal on a horse like Tequila who trotted naturally with a high-necked posture, but I was pretty sure he was holding the reins that way out of fear. “It’s actually more comfortable to gallop that horse than to trot.”
    “I’m comfortable,” he said.
    “I don’t want you to exhaust him. Go ahead and let him out a bit so you can see. Give him a little squeeze.”
    “I’m scared he won’t stop.”
    “You’re riding the horse. You’re controlling him. You wouldn’t put a car in neutral on a hill and just see what happens, would you?”
    He laughed. “No, I definitely wouldn’t do that, and the analogy is not helping me. This horse has a mind of its own.”
    “Not if you don’t let him have his way. If you want him to stop, pull back on the reins and say, ‘Whoa, horsy.’ ”
    “I have to say ‘horsy’?” He looked incredulous.
    “I’m kidding.”
    “Shit, I would be laughing right now but I’m terrified.” When he looked over at me I could see his eyes were wide.
    “Listen, Nate, Tequila won’t pass me on Dancer. He was trained that way.”
    “Okay,” he said, his voice shaky. “That’s what I want to hear.”
    “Let’s just trot a bit and then we’ll canter. Give him a little kick with your heel a bit farther back than you normally would, just on your right side. That’s how he knows to canter. Stay upright and move your hips with the motion. It will be like a smooth jog, and then we’ll race after that.”
    His eyes shot open even wider.
    “Relax, we’ll gallop a little while we have this nice open space,” I said, giving him a reassuring smile.
    I let Dancer pick up the pace. I could see in my peripheral vision that Nate had done the same. “This is fun!” he shouted to me. “I want to run.”
    “Let the reins out but stay firm. Tap him with both heels.”
    Tequila was actually just following me but it was good that Nate was learning to give the proper commands. There was a fleeting moment when I looked over at him and saw joy on his face. I wanted that feeling and thought maybe I could allow myself a little of it once in a while.
    I found it uncomfortable and distracting for Dancer to run while I was holding the fishing rods, so I slowed and then headed toward a familiar embankment that led down to the stream. We stopped at the top of the bank. Nate looked like he was having so much fun. He pulled a pair of dark sunglasses from the saddlebag and put them on while still wearing a huge smile.
    “That was awesome,” he said. “It’s way hotter out here than I thought it would be.”
    “Yeah, I should have grabbed you a hat.”
    “What, like a cowboy hat?”
    “No, a baseball cap.” I laughed. “This isn’t Texas, Nate.”
    “Trish wears a cowboy hat.”
    “She’s a rodeo queen.” I didn’t bother mentioning that Jake wore both baseball caps and cowboy hats and that it kind of depended on what he was doing. Just thinking back to him in his black Stetson on the night we met felt like a knife slicing through my heart.
    “Weren’t you?”
    “No, I’m from California,” I said simply and then began leading Dancer down the hill.
    “Oh. I didn’t know. Wait, we’re taking the horses down that hill?”
    “Four legs are better than two,” I yelled back to him.
    “Good point,” he said as Tequila picked her way down the bank.
    At the bottom, we let the horses drink from the stream before tying them up. Nate continuously ran his hand through his windblown hair.