Chapter 4
The next day, she was hoping that Owen had forgotten about the riding lessons, but Owen showed up right after the lunch rush and headed straight for Joe who was behind the counter doing inventory. She watched from the kitchen wondering what they were talking about, but her curiosity didn’t last long, as soon as Joe was done talking to Owen, he came back into the kitchen, a huge smile on his face along with that look which always meant he was about to tease her about something.
“So, I hear you’ve signed up for riding lessons.” He said, then when she didn’t say anything he added, “I’ve been asked to cover the restaurant while you go play cowboy.”
Tabitha knew Joe too well not to see that he was suspicious that there was more to this than just riding lessons. “It wasn’t my idea.” She finally said, cursing inside when her face flamed at the thought of Owen holding her tightly in front of him on his horse the night before.
“Well, I think it’s an excellent idea, you work too hard. Go have some fun, I’ll cover for you for a couple of hours.” Joe said, trying to hide his smile.
“Somehow I don’t think this is going to be very fun.” Tabitha said, hoping she didn’t sound as eager as she felt to see Owen.
“Hmmm, if you say so. Now get out of here. Owen is waiting for you out front.” Joe said, giving her a push out the door, thrilled that his friend had finally found someone she was attracted to.
When Tabitha came through the door and saw Owen standing at the counter waiting for her, she was suddenly nervous. This was such a bad idea, but she’d agreed to a riding lesson and there was no getting out of it now that Owen had included Joe in his plans. Joe loved romance as much as anyone she knew, and something had clued him into the budding attraction between them. Her nerves had more to do with Owen than with the prospect of riding a horse, no matter how she looked at it, it was clear to her that Owen really was attracted to her, a fact that should have been exciting but instead was frightening.
But when Owen flashed her one of his rare smiles, all her nervousness vanished in a rush of desire so strong she could only stand there and stare at him. “Don’t tell me that you’re going to change your mind about the riding lessons, I’ll just launch into another lecture or I might be tempted to kiss you again right here.” He finally said, breaking the silence that had been hanging between them when their eyes met.
“No, I haven’t changed my mind. I just….” She couldn’t finish her sentence, not wanting him to know how attracted to him she was.
“I’m not taking any excuses. You might fall off, but I promise it won’t be that embarrassing.” Owen said, pulling her out the door.
This time when they approached his horse, Tabitha wasn’t quite as scared as she’d been the day before, and when Owen handed her a carrot and nodded for her to feed it to the horse she only hesitated a second before approaching the horse and holding out the carrot in her open palm. When the horse gently took the carrot out of her palm, his soft lips brushing her palm, she laughed and reached up to stroke his head.
Satisfied, Owen pulled her back to his side and lifted her up into the saddle, then swung up behind her. As they rode to the barn, Owen talked about horses and their intelligence, telling her stories about all the horses he’d ridden over the years, even the ones who weren’t quite as nice as they should be. By the time they reached the barn at the ranch he and his brothers ran, her nervousness had completely disappeared and was replaced by a feeling of trust, which had been Owen’s plan all along.
When they walked into the horse barn however, her nerves returned when all the horses turned their heads to look at them. Owen felt her hesitation and took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze, then led her to the back of the barn to the very last stall. “This is Rain, she’s one of my favorites. She’s not very fast, but she’d surefooted and gently, the perfect horse for you.”
When Tabitha put her hand up to the horse’s head, she rubbed it against Tabitha’s hand, and let out a big sigh. “See she likes you.” Owen said.
“How can you tell?” Tabitha asked, skeptically.
“Well, if she didn’t like you she would have pulled away.” He said, opening the gate to Rain’s stall and stepping inside.
He held out his hand and Tabitha followed him into the stall, feeling like it just wasn’t big enough for the three of them. When he reached behind him and grabbed what looked like a bunch of rope off a hook in the stall and handed it to Tabitha, she looked at it, then up at Owen not sure what he wanted her to do.
“This is the first step to saddling a horse.” He explained as he held the rope up and demonstrated putting it on Rain.
Tabitha groaned, “I thought that was a piece of rope. I really have no idea about horses.”
“That’s why we’re going to start with the basics first.” Owen said, handing her the lead and walking out of the stall.
Tabitha looked at the lead in her hand and then up at Rain, silently pleading with the horse to cooperate with her. She walked forward a few steps, surprised when Rain followed her, then followed Owen out into the yard and over to a fence where he was waiting. For the next few minutes Owen showed her all the different knots that could be used, making her try each one until she was proficient.
“Knots are important, but it’s also important that you know how to take care of your animal. The simplest thing can become a big problem if left alone.” He said, then reached down and picked up a bucket full of brushes, combs, and a few tools that she didn’t recognize. “Before you can ride, you need to learn to groom your horse.”
That first day they never even got to the saddle. Instead, they spent the entire lesson grooming Rain and talking about the most common problem horses developed. Tabitha walked away feeling more confident than she’d felt when they arrived at the barn earlier that day, and almost excited about getting onto the horse and riding. When Owen swung her up into the saddle to take her back to Cedar Ridge, she was more relaxed than she’d ever been, now thinking about what it would be like to ride on her own instead of being scared each time the horse took another step.
When they got back to the restaurant, he lifted her down from the saddle. “Tomorrow I’ll teach you how to saddle Rain, then maybe we can ride a little.” Then much to her embarrassment he kissed her, not one of the passionate kisses they’d shared in the past, but a kiss that left no doubt that he was claiming her in front of everyone.
Flynn and Joe had been watching from the front window, but quickly turned away when Tabitha walked through the door. Joe opened his mouth to tease her, but Flynn shook his head, and they let her go right by without a word. Flynn was overjoyed by what he’d just seen. Owen had been moping around for weeks, mourning the loss of the life he used to have. Now it looked like, not only was he moving on, but from what he’d seen, Tabitha might just be the perfect woman for him.
His brother had never liked change, and he was convinced that it was the only reason that he’d stayed with Sarah as long as he had. The fact that he’d never married her, even after all the years they’d been together, had long ago convinced him that Owen didn’t love her as much as he loved the stability that being with her had given him. The awful truth was that Sarah had never acted like a woman in love should have, instead of being happy with Owen as he was, she was constantly trying to change him.
When she wasn’t trying to change him, she was hounding him with plans for the wedding of her dreams, more concerned with the size of the wedding than the meaning behind it. He’d known for a long time that all she wanted was the money that came with the Montgomery name and she’d shown her true colors when she’d married Owen’s best friend, who conveniently owned the second largest ranch in the area. According to the gossip back home, she’d been spending money left and right, mostly on herself, even insisting that they needed a house in town.
Of course, he’d never told Owen about his feelings or shared the latest gossip, the less Owen was reminded of Sarah the better. It was time for his brother to move on, to embrace their new life in America, especially since not only would Jack be staying here, but he’d made up his mind to make this his home. He was sick and tired of being seen as the rich boy. Here, no one cared that he had literally billions of dollars to his name, they liked him for who he was not what he had.
Tabitha walked into the restaurant and straight through to the kitchen, unable to face Joe who she was sure had been watching through the front window. She hadn’t expected Owen to kiss her right then and there, and not only was she flustered by the kiss, she was confused by all this sudden attention from a man who had blown off their first kiss as a joke. The romance of the whole thing was clouding her judgement, of that she was sure, but she was also sure that she didn’t want it to stop.
Tabitha spent every afternoon for the next week taking riding lessons from Owen. They rode together on his horse to the barn and back every day. It was unnecessary, but Owen was unwilling to give up those few minutes when Tabitha was in his arms. By the end of the first week, it was clear that although she’d been scared initially, Tabitha would soon become a more than competent rider. If fact, once she mastered her fear of falling off and relaxed, the horses seemed to respond to her, and she to them.
Owen had been keeping her safely in the paddock, but it was time for them to venture out onto the trails. Tabitha was more than ready, the monotony of riding around and around the same little piece of ground becoming more tedious as the days passed. They agreed to take a break for the weekend, since it was Tabitha’s busiest time in the restaurant and she felt guilty leaving Joe alone to face the onslaught of customers who would come pouring in all day. But when Monday rolled around, she was bound and determined to get out on the trails around the ranch and test her skills.
When Owen dropped her off on Friday evening, he kissed her as usual, but something felt different. The connection they usually shared was there, but that day when he wanted to push things a bit farther, he just couldn’t seem bring himself to do it. It wasn’t the fact that they were standing on the porch of the restaurant that stopped him, it was something else, a feeling that there was suddenly a wall between them. Tabitha too felt something blocking their usual connection and was alarmed by the change, not sure what it meant. She’d been so sure that they were forming a bond, but deep inside she knew that it was only superficial and Owen’s hesitation was proof of that.
They’d been spending hours together every day, but the simple truth was that while they’d gotten to know each other better, it wasn’t a deep connection. Any time the subject of Owen’s home back in Australia came up, he changed the topic of conversation, steering them to safer topics. The old Tabitha would have been completely happy with this, but deep down she knew that what she shared with Owen could be so much more, and it came as a shock to discover that she wasn’t prepared to settle for anything less than all of him.
When she walked into the restaurant and slumped down next to Joe at the table where he was rolling silverware for the dinner rush, he knew that something was wrong. Normally, she went straight through to the kitchen with a silly grin on her face, but that smile was nowhere to be seen that day.
“Trouble in paradise?” Joe asked, hoping to tease what was bothering her out.
Tabitha sighed, “No not exactly. The riding lessons are going well, but….” She couldn’t exactly explain what was bothering her, so she just shrugged her shoulders.
Joe stayed silent giving her time to collect her thoughts, not sure how he could help since she really hadn’t explained herself. “Have you ever had something you wanted so close it was almost yours, but something keeps you from getting it?” Finally deciding to ask him.
“Is your Australian playing hard to get?”
“I don’t know if that’s what you’d call it, but he never wants to talk about himself or his home back in Australia. It’s like he’s only willing to let me get so close, then he backs off.”
“Do you think he’s hiding something, a wife or a girlfriend?” Joe was instantly on his guard, anyone who hurt Tabitha would have to deal with him.
“No, but he said something strange when we first met. I don’t think he meant to say it out loud but he did.” Tabitha said, then filled Joe in on their first meeting, including the kiss and the way Owen had acted afterward.
“It sounds to me like he’s on the rebound from a broken relationship.”
“I know, that’s what I thought too. I keep thinking that he’ll tell me about it but he just pushes me away which makes me wonder if he’s really over her.” Tabitha said, fighting back tears, “I don’t want to be his rebound relationship. He already means too much to me, but if we can’t move past this that’s all it’s going to be.”
Joe rubbed her back for a second. “I wish there was something magical I could say to fix this, but please promise me you’ll be careful. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Tabitha took a deep breath to steady herself, “I’ll be careful, but maybe it’s time to put an end to the riding lessons. The less time I spend with him the better, I suppose.” Then she gave Joe a big hug, glad to have someone to pour her heart out to.
Owen had been planning to head home for the weekend after he dropped Tabitha off. He needed some time alone to think about his life and the path it was taking. The hours that he’d been spending with Tabitha this week had worked a kind of magic on him, he rarely thought about Sarah or home anymore. Instead, during the time he wasn’t with her, he was thinking about her, trying to figure out this complicated woman who had been thrown into his life.
She was an intriguing mix of both innocence and wisdom, an incredible chef, and a strong woman, but at times she could be soft and vulnerable. He could no longer deny the fact that he was drawn to her in a way he’d never been drawn to Sarah, but he’d been fighting it for days, too afraid to change the course they were on to do anything more than kiss her each time he dropped her off. It was lame, another by-product of living his life resisting change, but he seemed powerless to stop himself from pulling away from her when he should have been running to her.
Suddenly, it seemed important that he turn around and talk to Tabitha, so he reigned in his horse and turned around. But when he got to the restaurant he could see her deep in conversation with Joe, her front of the house manager. Tabitha seemed to be upset about something and he had the urge to storm in and find out what, but just as he started to take a step inside, Tabitha pulled Joe into a big hug, stopping him in his tracts.
When the first surge of jealously came rushing though him, he was so startled by its intensity that he actually had to take a step back. The next wave wasn’t as powerful, but it still bit into him with a force that was painful. Unable to cope with such strong emotion, especially for a woman he barely knew, he stumbled back to his horse and swung into the saddle, digging in his heels until they were galloping through town at an unsafe speed.
It took only a fraction of the time it normally would have taken for him to reach the cabin he shared with his brother Flynn, who much to his disappointment was home. He was still reeling from the intense jealously he’d felt when he saw Tabitha hugging Joe, and the last thing he wanted to do was talk about it, but just as he feared, Flynn met him on the front porch, his face full of concern.
“What’s wrong?” He demanded as soon as Owen got close enough.
Owen pushed past him and through the door, with only a curt, “Nothing.” As he headed for his bedroom.
Flynn followed him, knowing that look on his brother’s face all too well. “Something has you all upset. Wouldn’t it just be easier to tell me now than make us go through all the usual questions until I figure it out?”
Owen knew that his brother wouldn’t leave him alone until he spilled his guts, but he wasn’t in the habit of confiding in anyone, let alone his brother. But he had a desperate need to talk about what he was feeling, creating even more turmoil in him since he’d never felt that way before now. Of course, before now, his life had been carefully laid out, and organized just the way he wanted it.
Instead of slamming the bedroom door in Flynn face as they both expected him to, he turned around and headed to the living room and the big chair where he always like to sit. It took Flynn a few minutes to understand that Owen was going to talk to him, but when he did, he quickly grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and joined his brother in the living room.
Knowing that it would be best to let Owen open the conversation, he sipped his beer and waited. “I don’t know what I’m doing.” Owen confessed.
Flynn waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. “What do you mean?”
Owen gave him a dirty look, “I can see you’re going to make me spell it out for you. I don’t know what I’m doing messing around with Tabitha. I really like her but something keeps holding me back.”
“You’ve been kissing her every day for a week, I don’t call that holding back.” Flynn said, trying to introduce some humor, but then quickly grew serious when Owen shot him another dirty look. “Okay, I get it, this isn’t the time for humor.”
“I saw her hugging Joe today and I about lost it. I could have easily gone through the front widow and choked him, it was crazy.” Owen admitted, his discomfort with the subject clear as he once again changed positions in the chair.
“Stop squirming around like a little kid and face facts, you’re falling for Tabitha. What man wouldn’t? She’s smart and successful, independent and totally herself. If you didn’t already have her I would have made a play myself.” Flynn said, not hiding the admiration in his voice.
Unable to control the wave of jealously that flared up at Flynn’s words, Owen was out of his chair and on top of Flynn in seconds, ready to punch him. Flynn had been expecting Owen’s reaction and was if fact pleased, so he didn’t even flinch when Owen’s fist almost connected with his nose.