12. Callan

12

Callan

S age’s SUV came up the driveway right on time, and as soon as the car was stopped, Avery was jumping out of the back.

“I’m here!” Avery announced as she closed her door.

Sage turned off the car, getting out herself. Her movements were slow as she pushed the door shut, following a few feet behind Avery as she approached me.

My brows pulled together when I noticed she was catering to one leg, her steps off balance. I set my water bottle in the dirt and closed the distance between us, reaching for her elbow before I could think better of it.

“Are you hurt?” I asked, my voice foreign even to my ears.

Her forehead creased. “It’s just my knee. The Tupperware is on the back seat with the pastries. ”

“What happened to your knee?” I ignored what she said about the baked goods and led her over to the bench by the arena, helping her sit down.

Avery had disappeared inside the barn, most likely to grab a halter and get ready for her lesson.

“I kind of…landed on them too hard? Concrete isn’t especially cushiony.”

I kneeled in front of her, eyeing her knee.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes locked on me.

I gently ran my fingers over her knee and she winced.

“What do you mean you ‘landed on them too hard?’”

“I wasn’t thinking when I went to look under my car,” she explained.

I looked up at her, bringing my hand back and dangling it over my thigh. “What’s wrong with your car?”

Her brow furrowed like she wasn’t sure why I was asking that. “Nothing’s wrong with my car.”

“Then why— I’m going to have my mom bring you some ice. I have to make sure Avery’s not opening every stall in the barn. And no more pastries,” I said, standing.

The look on her face made me instantly feel guilty. I didn’t want her to think she was being a burden, but the way I said it, it definitely came off that way.

“It’s okay, Sage. I’m fine with doing the lessons for free. Stay here and I’ll keep an eye on Avery. I just want to make sure she’s okay.” Now here I was, caring for the both of them.

“You don’t have to worry about the ice,” she said. I wondered if she was going to ignore my comment about the pastries that easily.

Her knee was very clearly swollen under her leggings, and I wasn’t going to do this lesson and ignore that.

“Let me help you,” I practically pleaded. “Please.”

Her eyes searched mine, like she thought I was going to strike at any moment and tell her to get off this ranch and never come back.

“Okay,” she said softly. “And I suppose I can stop with the sweets as payment.”

I gave a closed-lip smile. Good . She didn’t need more on her plate. “Stay here. My mom will be out in just a minute.” I pulled my phone out of my jeans and sent my mom a text, asking her to bring ice, water, and some pain meds as I headed inside the barn to find Avery.

I found her in the tack room looking at pictures on the bulletin board. Avery saw me come in and turned to face me. I couldn’t help but notice she was already holding the pink halter in her hand.

“Am I riding Red today?” she asked.

I nodded. “Want to help me get him?”

“Yes!” She slipped past me, heading down the aisle in the direction of Red’s stall like she’d been here a hundred times before. I followed, trying to clear my thoughts of Sage’s injury and focus on Avery, but it was proving difficult to get Sage out of my head.

My concern for her was just that—concern. I only wanted to make sure she was okay and not in pain. That was it.

At least, I hoped so.

***

Avery was working on keeping Red up against the fence around the arena, learning to use her leg pressure gently as she rode at a walk. She had about ten minutes left of her lesson, and Sage had watched the entire hour, an ice pack resting over her knee that she had elevated on the bench, her leg outstretched in front of her.

It was hard to keep my eyes off of her. I was constantly battling my brain to keep my focus on Avery and Red, when all it wanted to do was check on Sage.

Avery’s focus was on the horse underneath her, but while keeping Red to the wall, we were also working on keeping her eyes in front of her, not on the back of his head. It was the quietest I’d heard her since she’d begun her lessons here as she concentrated on all the moving parts.

“Is it alright if I use the restroom?” Sage asked, moving the ice pack off her knee.

I looked over to her as Avery rode on the other side of the arena. “There’s one in the barn. Right by the tack room. Do you need help?”

Does she need help going to the bathroom? Really, Callan?

She waved me off, standing from the bench. Her knee seemed stiff, but she was putting more weight on it, most likely thanks to the pain meds. “I’m not completely disabled.”

My hand moved out of habit to rub my arm. “Just shout my name if you need me.”

She walked away, a slight lift to her lips, and disappeared into the barn. I turned back to Avery, but a ringtone sounded from behind me, bringing my attention back to where Sage was sitting moments ago.

Her phone was out on the bench, the ringer sounding until the call presumably went to voicemail. Avery rounded the arena, ignoring the phone.

Not ten seconds later, the ringtone started again.

Whoever was calling her must need to get a hold of her to be calling back to back like that.

The call came through another two times before Sage made it back. Coincidentally, the phone didn’t ring again with her nearby, so I figured I should tell her.

“Someone was calling you,” I said to her as Avery worked on her stop with Red.

Sage reached over to her phone, glancing at the screen. Her lips thinned and then she turned the phone off, setting it face down on the bench again.

I guess whoever it was wasn’t important enough for her to call back at the moment.

“You ready to dismount, Avery?” I asked, looking at where she was stopped in the corner on Red .

“Can you help me down?”

I made my way over to her, my boots digging into the sand with each step. Reaching up, she dropped the reins and I hoisted her out of the saddle, helping her down.

Once both her feet were on the ground, I grabbed Red’s reins, handing them to her. “Let’s go take his saddle off and we can come back out.”

“Okay!” she replied, leading Red toward the gate to the arena.

I swung it open, following her out.

About fifteen minutes later, Red was untacked, brushed, and back in his stall. Avery ran out of the barn to her mom as I trailed behind her. Sage was still sitting on the bench, her fingers picking at the edge of the ice pack, but as Avery approached, she looked up.

“Did you see me, Mama?” Avery asked, though it was clear Sage had. I hadn’t missed Avery’s glances at her mother to make sure she was watching all the little milestones.

“I did, Aves. You looked so good.”

“Am I getting better?”

Sage looked up to me where I stood at the end of the bench with my arms crossed. “I think you should ask your instructor that. I don’t know a thing about horses,” Sage admitted.

“Maybe you can learn, too,” Avery said to her.

Sage’s eyes widened slightly. “I think all the learning should be for you right now. Maybe one day I will.” But she didn’t seem very convincing .

My attention caught on my mom striding over to us from the house. Sage followed my line of sight and stood, grabbing the ice pack off the bench.

“How’s the knee feeling?” my mom asked her.

“A lot better, thank you.” Sage held the now-melted ice pack out to my mom and she took it.

“Alternate between heat and ice and it should heal just fine. But to make today easier on you, I’m going to insist you stay for dinner.”

Sage’s brows pulled together. “Dinner? I can’t do that, I don’t want to impose—”

My mom waved her off. “Nonsense. It takes the stress of feeding this growing girl off your hands for the night. Please.”

Sage glanced over her shoulder at me, then back at my mom. “Okay. Thank you.”

My mom put a hand on Avery’s shoulder. “Why don’t you come get cleaned up in the house?”

Avery angled her head back to look at her. “Can I have a snack?”

“Of course. I have something I think you’ll love.” My mom bent down, whispering something in Avery’s ear that made a smile light up her face.

They headed in the direction of the house and Sage turned to me, apology written all over her face. “Are you okay with us staying?”

I dropped my arms to my sides. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. It’s your family and we’re just clients…”

I shook my head, not really sure what to say. I’d never had a student and their mother stay for dinner at my parents’ house, but Sage didn’t feel like all my other clients.

“You’ll just have to excuse my siblings. They’re a bit…unhinged, sometimes.” Of all the nights for my mother to invite Sage and Avery to stay for dinner, it had to be the night that all my siblings would be here. Well, minus my younger brother, Beckham. He was competing in the circuit for bronc riding and didn’t make it home very often in the summer, opting to stay with friends or at hotels for most of the season.

“I’ve handled your siblings just fine at the cafe,” she pointed out.

“Not slightly buzzed and around family. Some of their comments—”

“Callan, it’ll be okay.”

She was reassuring me about dinner with my family.

I almost had to take a step back from the awe that slammed into me. The tightening of my chest had to be my imagination. For the first time, though, the tightness wasn’t a bad thing.

Sage was making my heart swell.

My siblings weren’t really people to apologize about, but a bit of a forewarning about them was helpful sometimes. Especially when it came to a few of them in particular.

I just had to hope that everyone was on their best behavior tonight.