Stick in the Mud Meets Spontaneity (Meet Your Match, book 3) by Rachael Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

horse that doesn’t like being confined in a corral. It has nothing to do with you.”
    “She’s not charging you.”
    “Only because I spent all of yesterday afternoon with her.” Colton tugged lightly on the lead rope, trying to encourage the horse to move forward again, but it wasn’t until Kajsa said, “You can do it, girl,” that she finally did.
    Colton could say all he wanted about wild horses, but Sam knew that horse had something against her. But what? Maybe horses really could sense fear and didn’t like cowards.
    “Is this part of the training process?” Sam asked.
    “Yeah,” answered Colton. “Right now she trusts me enough to let me inside the corral, but that’s it. I need her to stop running and come to me on her own—let me touch her.”
    “She won’t let you touch her?” Kajsa asked.
    “Haven’t really tried. She let me unhook her lead rope after I fed her a carrot, but that’s it. I don’t want to force a connection. When she’s ready, she’ll come.”
    Sam continued to watch the horse canter, feeling a little hypnotized herself. How long had Colton been at this? How was he not dying of boredom? Sam had only been here ten minutes and already needed a change of pace.
    “Kajsa, don’t you have work to do?” Colton cocked his head at her and smiled.
    “Five more minutes, please?”
    “Tell you what. Get all your chores done first thing every day, and I’ll let you help me train the mustang.”
    Eyes wide and excited, Kajsa leapt from the fence and raced toward the barn, not giving Colton a chance to rescind his offer.
    “I will be checking to make sure you do a good job,” Colton called after her.
    “I will,” was the last they heard before she disappeared inside.
    Colton pointed a gloved finger at Sam. “Now that is the proper way to motivate someone.”
    “Bribery?”
    “Incentives.”
    “In that case, what will be my ‘incentive’ for learning how to ride?” she said.
    “When you can take off on a horse without fear, feeling the wind on your face and the power beneath you, you’ll have your reward.”
    Colton slowed his movements, tugging lightly on the rope to encourage the mustang to stop. He spoke in a low voice as he cautiously approached the animal. “I’m going to remove this rope from your halter, if that’s okay.” Her head bobbed up and down, but she allowed him to unclip the rope before trotting to the other side of the corral, near a gate that led to the pasture containing the other horses. She nudged the gate with her long nose and Colton laughed.
    “Not yet. You have to show me you can trust me first.” He swung over the fence and was at Sam’s side a moment later, removing his work gloves.
    “You ready for—” He stopped and took a closer look at Sam then lifted the end of her ponytail and fingered the curls, sending a rippling sensation down her back. Sam steeled herself for what was to come. But instead of the expected snarky remark, he dropped her hair and looked into her eyes. “I can see you’re serious about that bucket list.”
    “I am,” she said, though she planned to replace Ride a bull with Win a stuffed giraffe at the county fair.
    “In that case, let’s get you on a horse.”
    He started for the barn, and Sam had to speed-walk to keep up. “Really? That’s it? No jokes about me looking like I’m trying to pass for NYU’s mascot?”
    “I’m pretty sure NYU already has a mascot.”
    They entered the barn, and strong odors of leather, hay, and manure permeated everything. Kajsa was scooping up hay with a pitchfork and transferring it to the last stall on the left, while a medium-sized chestnut horse occupied the first stall on the right.
    Colton grabbed a bridle hanging from a peg on the wall. “What do you think, Kaj? Will Samantha do all right with Nutmeg?”
    Kajsa rested her cheek against the handle of the pitchfork and considered the question. “Yeah, I think Nutmeg’s a good choice,” she said before returning