Taking The Reins - Book 1 of The Rosewoods (teen romance)

So Much For That Day Off

“Brooklyn?”

I swung my eyes back to Brady’s face, embarrassed to be caught looking at someone else. “Sorry.”

“I wanted to talk to you about practice.”

“Okay,” I said, biting my lip, waiting for him to tell me he was going to cut me from the team. I’d improved over the week and had shaken off some of the cobwebs from not riding for a couple of years, but was still nowhere near as good as the other girls. There wasn’t much chance I would ever be.

I wondered what Dean Haywood would do if I got cut from the team; would I get sent back to the laundry? It almost sounded like an appealing option. Glancing over at the crowd of faculty standing together near the bar (watching over the punchbowl, Celia had pointed out) I saw the dean looking over the dance floor. It had to be a trick of the sweeping lights, but it seemed like she was looking right at me. I quickly returned my eyes to Brady, shaking my head. “Sorry,” I said again.

“You seem distracted,” he said, giving me one of his signature smirks.

It made my heart do a little flutter. “There’s a lot going on here. Remember, it’s my first dance at here. So much stimulation.”

“Right. Stimulation,” he said, pulling me a little closer. As he did, my arms edged up a bit over his shoulders, my bare skin sliding against his muscular neck. He was warm against me, making gooseflesh rise on my arms, making my breath catch.

His eyes were like pools of liquid amber, intense, deep.

“Brady, I…” I began, but couldn’t finish my sentence. I didn’t even know what to say. The whole experience was scrambling my brain.

“Tomorrow,” he said.

“What?”

“We should practice tomorrow.”

“Oh,” I breathed. It wasn’t what I’d expected him to say, but then again, I wasn’t at all sure what he was thinking.

“You’re coming along really well, but I think you’re still behind. We should keep up with the daily practices.”

I had been looking forward to a day off. My legs and butt were definitely looking forward to a day off, and quite frankly, the heels I was wearing were killing my already stretched and cramped calves.

My eyes filled with tears as I thought about losing my one chance at a rest. Not normally a crier, I was shocked, but figured the exhaustion was catching up with me. Fighting the tears, I took a deep breath and nodded.

“You okay?” he asked. He was so intuitive—something I was sure either came from being around horses so much or maybe was something he was born with that made him such an exceptional rider, though I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of seeing him in action.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m fine. I’m just a bit tired. It’s been a long week and I was sort of looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.” Many Rosewoods had their CSAs to catch up on over the weekend, but since mine had been fulfilled in the laundry through the week, I’d been granted a day off to do as I pleased. And what I pleased was sleeping in and then spending some quality time in the aquatic center’s whirlpool to ease my overworked body. Also, I had a mountain of homework to catch up on.

Brady smiled. “You can sleep in. I have my own training in the early morning. If you meet me at the stables by eleven, that will give us a solid couple of hours before we have to get out of the way for the afternoon leisure riders.”

I exhaled. “Okay. But as long as you promise me you’re not cutting your training short to help me. I do not want to be the reason Westwood’s favorite Olympian only gets a silver medal.”