Boots Up (Port Ranch Book #1)

Chapter 10

MITCH

“Alright, Chimney. You be nice to me and I’ll be nice to you.”

I pull a carrot out of my back pocket and try to feed it to the gray and black horse that is supposedly “mine” that I have to learn to ride. I won’t admit it to Granger or Brian, but I’m kind of scared shitless about getting on a horse. They’re just huge and all it takes is them getting spooked and you’re on your ass or worse. Granger made me get up on him the other day and I lasted just a few seconds before Chimeny was spooked. Okay, maybe I was the one who was spooked. 

Chimney takes the carrot and chomps down on it. I reach up to pet him the way that I always see the other guys do it and he makes a loud ass noise and raises up on his back legs. I admit that I probably make a noise that is unbecoming of a guy of my stature and I back the hell away from his stable. Behind me, I hear giggling and I know exactly who it is.

“You okay there?” Brielle giggles.

“Are you laughing at me?”

She shrugs her shoulders, “Maybe just a little.”

“You’d be scared too if one of these monsters came at you.”

“Monsters?” she gasps. “Chimney isn’t a monster.” She walks past me and over to the stable, he leans forward into her hand and she wraps her arms around his large frame as the horse nuzzles into her.

“How’d you do that?”

Brielle looked over her shoulder at me, “Well the first thing is you can’t show fear.”

“I’m not scared,” I retort.

She looks over her shoulder again, but this time laughs, “You sure looked scared to me, and that screech, hmm sure sounds like somebody scared to me.”

“Watch it, Brie.”

“Come here.” She smiles and holds her hand out. I take her hand and walk towards her. She places my hand right on his head and hand over hand I run up and down his face. He makes a few noises, but at least he doesn’t jump this time.

“He’s a good boy. Aren’t you, Chimney?”

I watch and Brielle bends down and grabs a grain mixture from a bucket between the stables. If anybody asks I will lie that I’m checking her ass out right now, but fuck in those light denim jeans her ass looks fantastic.

“Give him some of these. Oats are his favorite. My dad makes this mix for the horses and Chimney loves it. “

“Oh yeah, let me try.” Sure enough, the horse eats right from my hand as she continues to run her hand down his body.

“He used to pretend to be sick so that Max would feed him more oats,” she laughed at the memory. “We ended up having to put him on a diet a few years ago.”

“Max?”

“Yeah, isn’t that why you’re over here with him? I catch Britt talking to him sometimes.”

I shake my head, “Your dad told Granger that he was who I was going to learn to ride on. We had a rough first lesson so I thought I’d try to get on his good side a bit.”

“That makes sense. Chimney was Max’s horse.”

We stand in silence as we take turns feeding the oat mixture and petting him. “Do you think he misses him?” I finally get enough courage to ask.

Brielle keeps rubbing him down with a coarse brush, “He’s doing better now. For the first month or so he was pretty depressed. Wouldn’t come out for the stable hands at all. The only way we could get him to come out was if Jace and Deacon came down.”