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“Where’s your donkey?”

Nate tilted his head in question. “All you’ll find on this ranch are cows and horses.”

“But you said…” She bit her bottom lip, looking confused.

“I said what? That we own a donkey?” He remembered no such conversation. Was she losing it?

“Last Saturday at my house. You said you had horses for fun but you rode a donkey…” She paused, a small furrow between her pale brown eyebrows. “…or maybe it was a mule, for the real work. Aren’t a mule and a donkey the same thing?”

Nate couldn’t help himself. He laughed. Once he started he couldn’t stop. He looked at his grandfather and things got worse. Pop leaned on a fence post doubled over, one arm pressed against his belly and a fist against his mouth. His cheeks flared out, ruddy and misshapen below his shiny, balding head.

All around his feet riding tack lay scattered, as if he’d dropped everything the minute he’d heard Rainy’s comment. The strangled, chuffling sounds coming from his short, round body were a failed attempt to be polite.

Nate’s sour attitude vanished faster than tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant. Hands on his thighs, he bent forward, his whole body shaking with laughter.

Meanwhile, Rainy and her children stared in bewildered curiosity at the two chortling ranchers. Joshua and Will exchanged glances, each lifting his shoulders in a shrug.

When Nate could finally catch his breath, he took Rainy’s arm. “Come here. I want to show you something.”

Still chuckling, he led the way into a covered area at the side of the barn where all vehicles, tractors, mowers, etc. were parked.

“This,” he said, grinning as he approached an ATV with a small pickup bed on the back and a sturdy four-wheeler front. “Is the only Mule you’ll find on Crossroads Ranch.”

Emblazed across the vehicle’s front were the words Kawasaki Mule.

“Oh.” A becoming shade of pink neoned from Rainy’s pretty cheekbones. She touched three fingers to her lips, lifted blue-gray eyes to his and giggled. “Oops.”

Her cute reaction got him started laughing again. She joined him, laughing until she grabbed her side and said, “Stop. You’re making me hurt.”

By now, they were surrounded by the rest of the gang.

“Can we ride it?” one of the kids asked, awed by the camouflage green machine. Both boys had crawled inside and were investigating.

“Maybe sometime,” Nate said before he could think better of such a promise. “Not today. Today we ride horses. Come on. I’ll show you where the rest of the tack is kept.”

“Can we pick our own horse?” Joshua asked, pointing. “I like that brown one.”

“Champ’s a good pony. We’ll saddle him up.”

“I want the blue one,” Emma said, pointing toward a blue roan Appaloosa mare who grazed quietly outside the fence.

“Hold on there. We’re only saddling three horses today—Champ, Patches and Bud.” They were the oldest and most gentle.

“But there are seven of us,” Will protested. “Do we have to share?” He said the last word as though it tasted sour.

Nate nodded. “Today you learn inside the corral. Grandpop and I will stay on the ground and teach. Maybe another time we’ll all trail ride on separate horses.”

Another dumb comment on his part. If he kept talking, the Brady Bunch would be regulars around here.

The group looked a little despondent, but Nate wouldn’t budge on the issue of today’s ride. Not one of them knew anything about a horse. Before he’d take them outside the corral, they needed instruction.

Demonstrating the proper method of saddling a horse took a while. Except for Will, the kids were all too small to lift the saddles or tighten cinches on their own. With Pop’s help, Nate let the kids think they’d done the work. Saddling was the easy part. It was the riding that worried him.

“Okay, kids, go stand on the fence until I call your name.”

All four of the children broke into a run. Emma ran directly behind the horses. One of the animals startled and hopped forward. Katie screamed.

Nate thanked God on the spot that all of his horses were dead broke and unfazed by the racket. The fact that Bud had jumped was proof, though, that even the best trained animal could be unpredictable.

He handed a set of reins to Rainy and one to Pop, taking the last one for himself.

“Ever ridden a horse before?” he asked Rainy as they led the horses forward into the center of the lot.

“Well…”

Nate looked heavenward. “That’s a no.”

“We can learn,” she said, all chipper-like.

“Um-hum. Tell you what, I’ll use you to show the kids how this is done. Then Pop and I will lead you around until you get the hang of it.”

Which he figured would never happen.

“Sounds good.” She dusted her fingertips in that pretty way and approached the horse.

“Other side,” Nate said, hiding a smile.

“Does a horse know right from left?”

Was she serious? One look at her dancing eyes and he knew she was joking. “Most horses are trained to the right. Hear that, kids? Always approach a horse from the right. Never walk behind a horse where he can’t see you. It scares him. And since he’s a lot bigger than you, he might accidentally hurt you, not because he’s mad but because he’s scared.”

Rainy did as he instructed, going to the right side. As he helped her into the saddle, her sweet scent mingled with the more familiar smells of leather and warm horseflesh. Coconut. She smelled like coconut. Keeping one hand on the reins and the other on the back of the saddle, he stepped back. A man didn’t go around noticing how good a lady smelled if he wasn’t interested in her. Which he wasn’t. He couldn’t be.

“You okay up there?” he asked.

Leather squeaked and shifted as she adjusted her feet in the stirrups. “Great. This is awesome.”

At her delighted expression, Nate’s heart bumped and he had trouble looking away. “Be careful of those high heels.”

Concern creased her brow. “Will they hurt the horse?”

Nate’s nostrils flared with humor but he held in a laugh. “Champ doesn’t care what kind of boots you wear. For all I know he might even prefer fancy, furry lady shoes.” Actually, Nate was growing rather fond of them. “But heels that thin and long could get stuck in a strap or hung up in the stirrups.”

“Am I in danger?”

“You’re okay. I’ve got you covered.” He hoped it was true.

The kids set up a howl. “When’s our turn? I want to ride.”

Nate shook off his unwanted entrancement with the lady and refocused on the children. There were four of them, all too young and inexperienced to go unsupervised for even a minute. Hadn’t past experiences taught him anything about the dangers of kids and ranches?

“Hold on now. Miss Rainy and I are going to show you a few things first.”

He ran through the basics, emphasizing safety for both horse and rider. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate on the kids, he was abnormally conscious of Rainy watching him from her horseback perch. He couldn’t help wondering what she was thinking as she looked down. Was she watching to learn or because she liked what she saw?