What I Like About You

Chapter 1-1

Chapter 1

Sebastian Donnelly shifted in the saddle, giving the chestnut mare a subtle nudge with his knee. After only a moment’s hesitation, Gingersnap switched directions, resuming her trot around the training ring.

“There’s a girl.”

Her ears swiveled back toward the sound of his crooning voice, so he kept up a low patter of one-sided conversation as they continued to circle. She was attentive to every touch, every signal, every shift of his weight, and it was immensely satisfying that she did it out of a desire to please him rather than out of fear.

She’d come a long way in the eight months since she’d been rescued. No one looking at her now would know she’d spent the last few years of her life subjected to profound neglect and abuse. She’d put on weight, so her ribs no longer showed through. The coat that had been dull and matted on her arrival now shone with a gleam. The mane and tail he’d spent weeks detangling, as he slowly, methodically earned her trust, fluttered with the breeze of her movement. He’d waited months before going near her with a saddle and bridle, and longer still before trying to ride her. She hadn’t been ready. But over the past few weeks, it had become clear that she’d had training before landing with the asshole who’d let her damn near starve to death. The sweet temperament he’d seen beneath the fear had emerged like daffodils in the spring, and Sebastian marveled that her spirit hadn’t been fully broken.

This was the joy and the miracle of the work he did. The work that had saved his own broken spirit.

A flash of movement at the rail caused a hitch in Ginger’s gait. Sebastian saw his stable girl climbing up so she could see better.

“She’s looking fantastic!” At fifteen, Ari was bright, eager, and utterly besotted with all things equine. She’d been trading stable labor for additional riding lessons since the spring, so she was a familiar part of Sebastian’s day.

“Coming along,” he agreed, slowing the mare to a walk.

“Can I ride her?”

Sebastian shot her a look. All of his rescues had an assortment of behavioral issues he’d been working on since they came to the farm, and many weren’t part of the group he used for lessons.

Ari folded her hands and put on her begging face. “Please? Just for a few minutes? I could stay on the lunge line.”

He considered it. She’d proven herself a capable rider, quick to take instruction or correction, and Ginger was turning out to be a gentle, responsive mount. It might be a good fit.

Even as he thought it, the mare tensed beneath him and began to dance. Her ears twitched in agitation. Then he heard what she had.

Thunder.

It rolled over the land, echoing off the mountains that cupped this little pocket of paradise. As Ginger gave a little buck and twist, sidestepping across the ring, Sebastian ignored Ari, switching his full attention to his mount.

“Easy. Easy. Settle.”

Tension crackled around her as he brought her in line. She quivered beneath him, nostrils flaring as he held her through another rumble of thunder. Her war between an instinct to flee and a desire to please him was evident in the way she tossed her head, eyes rolling. Storms were a huge trigger for her, and the only way to overcome that trigger was to keep pulling it, making her face it. Given their exceptionally dry autumn, there’d been limited opportunity to work on it, so he had to take the chances as they came.

For another twenty minutes, he battled her fear, taking the mare through her paces, despite the incoming storm. Ginger’s anxiety was a palpable thing, and Sebastian deliberately banked his own emotions, knowing she’d ultimately mirror him. He just had to remind her of that trust. When she hesitated, he coaxed her through. When she danced, he reminded her to follow his lead. And when the first fat drops of rain began to splatter, he relented, reining her in long enough to dismount. Stepping close, he laid a hand on her quivering neck. “It’s all right. You’re all right.”

Ginger held for him, though it was clear in every tense muscle that she still wanted to bolt. Stripping the saddle as quickly as possible, he heaved it over a rail and led her to the adjacent pasture. There, he removed the bridle and set her loose. As the next boom of thunder rolled, the mare took off at a run, kicking up her back legs and galloping a wide circle of the pasture as the other horses looked on. A few were already plodding toward the three-walled shelter to get out of the rain.

Ari came to join him, hood up and hands shoved into the pockets of her coat against the cold December wind. “Think she’ll ever get over her fear of storms?”

“Maybe someday. She’s got a long way to go.” He didn’t know what had happened to the mare to instill this abject panic, but he’d learned early on that keeping her in the barn was a non-starter. It was a damned miracle she hadn’t broken a leg in her terror the one time he’d tried. All in all, the entire herd did better when they weren’t confined.

Sebastian and Ari both stared after Ginger for another couple of minutes, waiting until she’d run off her first burst of anxiety. He couldn’t stop the worry or the guilt that niggled. Had he done enough? Should she be further along? It was fruitless speculation. The mare was where she was. There were only so many hours in the day, and the reality was that many of his were tied up with the riding school. It was a necessary evil—one he hoped would eventually make his rescue program self-sustaining. But that was a long way off. For now, that meant more time with students and less time one-on-one with his rescues. Slower progress was still progress.

“Help you clean up?” Ari asked.

“Appreciate it.” Sebastian hefted the saddle, while she grabbed the bridle, and they made their way to the barn. “You got a ride home?”

“Logan’s taking me. Are you sure it’s not a problem I won’t be around for the next few days?”

Her earnestness amused him. “It’s not every day your aunt gets married. It’s fine. Logan’s bringing in some extra help for dealing with the rest of the stock while he and Athena are away.”

The man himself showed up as they were stowing gear in the tack room. “Looks like we’re in for a gullywasher.”

“Yep,” Sebastian agreed. “Worst ought to be done before too late tonight, though.”

Logan slung an arm around his soon-to-be niece. “You about finished, kiddo?”

“I need to grab my backpack from the house.”

He jerked his head. “Go on and do that. I wanna try to get you home before the storm breaks.”

When he continued to linger after Ari had run off, Sebastian knew he had something on his mind.

“Something up?”

“Well, I actually wanted to ask a favor.”

“Is there something else you needed me to take care of, while you and Athena are gone on your honeymoon?”

“What? Oh, no. It’s about the wedding itself. My college friend Nick is one of my groomsmen, and he’s not gonna be able to make it. His dad just had a heart attack this morning.”

“That’s terrible.” What does that have to do with me?

“Yeah. It’s looking like he’s gonna be okay, but Nick doesn’t want to leave him, and anyway it puts us one man short on my side. I was hoping you’d be willing to be a stand-in groomsman.”

Sebastian blinked. “You want me to be in your wedding?

Logan’s mouth quirked up in a grin. “I know it’s last minute and there’s a monkey suit and all that. But I consider you a friend and it happens you’re about Nick’s build.”

Sebastian wasn’t exactly keen on getting up in the middle of all the wedding festivities. There was a reason he worked with horses instead of people. Still, he owed Logan a lot.

The man had taken on a handful of horses simply because there’d been a need and he’d had the space. With his hands already full from managing all the moving parts of his organic farm, he’d needed help. As a favor to their mutual friend, Porter, Logan had turned over the care of the horses to Sebastian, giving him a job, a home, and a new purpose—something that had been sorely lacking since he’d separated from the military. He’d fully supported Sebastian’s expanded equine rescue efforts, going so far as to delegate a solid chunk of acreage and the original barn at Maxwell Farms to that purpose. Over the past eleven months, and through the joint labor of fully restoring that barn to be a working stable, he’d become a friend. He’d stood for Sebastian through some seriously dark days, and Sebastian was humbled to be asked to stand up with him on one of his brightest.

“I’d be honored, man.”

He blew out a relieved breath. “You’re saving my ass.”

“Athena doesn’t strike me as the type to give a s**t whether the numbers are even or whatever.” The award-winning chef would probably only care about the food, so long as they were married by the end of the day.

“She’s not. My mama is. None of us want to deal with her fretting about what Emily Post etiquette thing isn’t being met.”

Clearly, Logan fell a very long way from that particular family tree.

“What do you need me to do?”

“The rehearsal is tomorrow at 4:30 up at the Methodist church. After that, we’ll all be headed back to the inn for the rehearsal dinner. I’ll see that you get the tux when you get there. Then it’s just showing up at one on Saturday to do pictures before the ceremony and hanging out through the wedding and the reception after. Once the final group pictures are taken, you’re free to bail.”

“I’d planned to be at the wedding and reception anyway.” He was a sucker for wedding cake, and rumor had it that Athena’s pastry chef from her former Chicago restaurant was making it.

“Great. I really appreciate it, man.” Logan offered his hand.

“No problem. Guess I’ll be seeing you at 4:30 tomorrow.”

As Logan headed up to the house to grab Ari and take her home, Sebastian rubbed a hand over his beard, noting it had gotten kind of scraggly. His horses didn’t give a s**t what he looked like, but he still had enough of his mama’s voice in his head telling him what was right and proper. Looked like he’d need to clean up like civilized folks.