Aria was going to burn in hell. That was pretty much what she thought about her future at the moment. Guilt was making her jumpy and crazy. Or maybe it was just making her feel that way. Was there really any difference? It was all bad. Right?

“Aria.”

“Ah!” She jumped a mile in the air and spun around. Pressing her palm to her chest, she turned and glared at Darren. “You scared the snot out of me!”

Darren’s eyes were gleaming with humor as he pointed to Aria and then pointed to Jaeger and Bella. “I think your riding instructor is a little jumpy today. We’d better all be on our best behavior.”

Bella was bouncing up and down in her little cowboy boots as if she were going to burst out of her very skin. She was looking at Aria as though she couldn’t wait one minute longer. “Can I go get Smokey, please?”

Aria bit her lip. She was lying to the little girl’s father. This was bad. How was she supposed to deal with this situation? Finally, Aria found a very unsatisfactory temporary fix. “Well, since Smokey is your uncle Darren’s horse, you’d better ask him to help you out. But how about if I take Jaeger and get him going so you and Uncle Darren can get Smokey ready?”

“Yes!” Bella clapped her hands. Then she gave her cousin a sideways look. “Sorry, Jaeger.”

“I don’t mind.” The little boy was already tagging along after Aria as she headed for the barn. “See you, Dad!”

Darren waved to his son. “I’m going to be watching you, big guy. I want to see some serious cowboy action!”

“Yeah!” Jaeger did a fist pump. Apparently, the two had thoroughly bonded in the tradition of males throughout the ages.

Aria tried to keep her mind on her young charge, but it was almost impossible not to notice Darren and Bella about halfway down the barn aisle where there was a private area for boarders to tack up away from the regular lesson students.

Jaeger was a quick study. In no time at all, he was confidently brushing Charlie’s legs and as far up the horse’s shoulders and haunches as he could reach. Aria helped him with the bits he couldn’t get to with the brush. Then Aria showed him how to clean out the horse’s feet. From down the aisle, she watched Bella doing this part all by herself.

The determined little girl would gently run her hand down Smokey’s leg and wait for the well-trained mare to shift her weight and pick up her foot. Then she gave a mighty heave and a struggle as she attempted to hold the foot and clean the yucky stuff from inside the shoe. Aria could not help but admire the sheer grit of that young girl and compare it to that of her father. The two were like peas in a pod.

When the kids were finally saddled up, Aria helped Jaeger to fit his helmet to his head and then handed him the reins. “Okay. Just lead him out to the riding ring, and we’ll work on mounting. All right?”

“Yes!” Jaeger said eagerly. “My dad is a cowboy. Did you know that?”

“Actually, I did.” Aria grinned down at Jaeger and chuckled. “I’ve known your daddy almost my whole life.”

“Really?” Jaeger looked mystified. “Did you know my mom?”

“I never met your mom.” And from what Aria had heard, she hadn’t been missing much. Of course, that was a little much for a five-year-old to grasp. “But I’m sure she’s a nice lady.”

Jaeger was talking a mile a minute to Charlie as he led the quiet gelding to the ring. Aria could not help but smile as she listened to the one-sided monologue about everything they were going to do today. Since there were no calves to round up in Aria’s riding ring, she hoped the poor kid would not be too disappointed.

“Thanks for this,” Darren said as he walked up behind her.

Aria tossed him an irritable glance. “You have no idea how bad you owe me.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning your brother was here less than twenty minutes before you got here. I was going nuts trying to decide how to get Laredo off the property before you arrived.” Aria pressed her lips together to stop herself from saying more. She didn’t want to tell Darren that she would have rather let Laredo stay. At this point, the only thing keeping her from ending the deal was watching Bella with Smokey.

Darren seemed to guess the direction of her thoughts. “Cal called me this morning. He said Laredo asked him for a few good horses because he’s going to do some working cow horse competitions this summer.”

“I can’t understand how a guy can enjoy himself so much on a horse and yet flat refuses to let his daughter have the same experience. It doesn’t make much sense at all.” Aria was grumbling because she wished Laredo would just be normal and support Bella’s desire to ride Smokey.

Darren shrugged. “It’s Laredo. That means he doesn’t have to make sense. He’s just himself.”

“I’m tired of everyone using that excuse,” Aria muttered. “Aren’t you?”

She left Darren standing at the rail and entered the ring. Trying her best to focus on Jaeger, Aria taught the little boy to mount up using the big mounting block. She adjusted the stirrups for his little legs. At five, the kid was almost too small for even her regular pony saddles.

“Okay, do you know how to steer?” Aria was pretty darned impressed with Jaeger’s demonstration. “That’s really good!”

“Bella showed me.” Jaeger was nodding emphatically. “She showed me in the car.”

“Well, Miss Bella is a very good teacher!” Aria said it loud enough for the little girl to hear the words from across the ring. Aria could see Bella beaming as she kept Smokey right on the rail.

“Okay, can you make Charlie follow Smokey?” Aria asked Jaeger. “I’m going to walk with you, but let’s try to get Charlie on the rail behind Smokey. Keep space between them though. There’s no reason to make them freak out and be nervous that someone else is going to accidentally bump them.”

Jaeger did exactly as Aria asked. Charlie got to the rail, and Aria paced beside him as both kids moseyed along at a nice slow pace. They went on like this for about another lap. Aria helped Jaeger figure out better ways to hold the reins, and he practiced making Charlie move toward the middle of the ring and then back.

Finally, Aria helped Jaeger to the center of the ring. Then she turned back to Bella. “Would you like to go faster?”

“Yes!” The little girl’s eager voice was filled with so much excitement it was practically vibrating.

“Go ahead,” Aria urged. “But keep your heels down and be careful!”

In seconds, Bella was trotting. She trotted two laps, and then she gave Smokey a kick and the pair started to lope. Aria felt like her chin was probably dragging on the ground. The kid looked fantastic! In fact, Aria turned her head and realized that there was a whole heck of a lot of similarity between father and daughter in the easy way they sat on the horse. It was absolutely uncanny.

Jaeger sighed. “Bella’s good. Isn’t she?”

“Yes, she’s really pretty darn awesome!” Aria agreed. Then she winked up at Jaeger. “But you’re going to be running circles around her in no time.”

“You really think so?”

“I do.” Aria waved Darren over. “How about you take Jaeger in and help him unsaddle. I trust that you can still remember to do something mundane like that. Right, Gym Teacher Man?”

Darren snorted. “We’ve got this. We Hernandez men are really good at cleaning up our messes. Right, Jaeger?”

“That’s what Maggie tells him all the time,” Jaeger informed Aria. “She says we Hernandez men are good at cleaning up because we’re so messy!”

Both Jaeger and Darren seemed to think this was an awesome joke. Aria left them to their male ramblings and headed toward the point at the rail where Bella had just stopped Smokey.

The girl was enthusiastically patting the mare’s neck and praising her up one side and down the other. She waved when she saw Aria walking toward her. Aria waved back. She was trying really hard not to like this kid so much. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really working.

There was something about a girl who truly enjoyed horses that called out to someone that used to be a little girl who really loved horses. Aria remembered what it was like to be that enthusiastic. She recalled the first time she had run a successful barrel pattern on her little horse Apple. It was like learning to fly.

“Isn’t Smokey great?” Bella bubbled over. In seconds, she was giving Aria a full recap of what she’d just done. “And then we just stopped, and she stopped right away like I didn’t even have to do anything at all but think that I wanted her to stop!”

“Sounds like you and Smokey have a pretty special friendship,” Aria told Bella warmly. “I’m glad you like to ride. It’s a lot of fun.”

“How long have you been riding?” Bella suddenly wanted to know.

“Oh, all my life, I think.” Aria tried to recall if she ever remembered not riding, but could not. “I’ve lived here at Clouds End Farm since I was born.”

“That is so cool,” Bella gasped. “I wish I had been born on a ranch.”

Aria opened her mouth and then snapped it shut. Finally, she realized that she had to say something. “Yeah. That would be cool.”

The truth was that Bella had been born at the Hernandez ranch like just about every other generation of the Hernandez family that had come before, with the exception of poor Jaeger of course. But apparently, Laredo didn’t share this stuff with his daughter.

“Do you and your daddy talk much?” Aria helped Bella dismount, and the two of them began walking Smokey back toward the barn. “I mean, about his ranch and what it was like growing up there?”

“No.” Bella swung her head back and forth. Her helmet was bright purple with flowers and stars. Aria could tell that the girl’s aunt, Jesse, had most definitely been helping out with her riding wardrobe. Then Bella puffed up both cheeks and blew out a big raspberry. “My daddy doesn’t talk about horses. He pretends he doesn’t like them.”

“Oh, he does?” Aria tried not to let this make her angry. “Well, that is pretty silly because I know for a fact that he likes horses a lot.”

“Yeah, but he wants me to be a dancer.” Bella rolled her eyes dramatically.

“Don’t you like dancing?” A lot of girls did. Aria certainly wouldn’t hold it against the kid.

“No!” Bella grunted. “I’m clumsy, and I look silly when I dance.”

Aria laughed. “I would have been really bad too. When your aunt Jesse and I were much younger, we tried to do cheerleading. Your gramma Avery wanted Jesse to try it, and she convinced me to do it with her.”

“Really?” Bella’s blue eyes grew round and wide with shock. “Aunt Jesse hates cheerleading!”

“Yes. We were awful,” Aria agreed. “It just wasn’t our thing. But we could rope and ride like regular cowgirls. So, that didn’t matter. This is our thing.”

“I want it to be my thing too.” Bella acted as though she were confessing a really grave sin. “But Daddy doesn’t want me to do it.”

“Then maybe we’ll just have to keep working on your daddy,” Aria told Bella. Somehow, she was going to help this little girl be the cowgirl that her stubborn Hernandez blood was telling her to be.