They ate in silence as they both took in their surroundings. Molly had to admit that she was starting to appreciate the land that surrounded Pleasanton and their ranch. She literally in a million years never thought she'd hear herself say that.
"Do you have time to be doing this?" she asked after almost an hour had gone by. If he worked at the ranch, he probably had chores to attend to.
"Uh huh," he replied simply. "But maybe I should think 'bout gettin' back," he conceded after a few minutes. His father was probably waiting for him to work the horses this afternoon. And Beth would want to catch up with him after school. She liked going over her homework with him. "Ye done?" he asked as he got up.
Molly had been picking at a small piece of bread in her hand. "Uh huh," she repeated, now chucking the bread a little way away for the birds to eat. She brushed off her hands as she got up and he put the chairs away. She watched him untie Maximus and straighten the saddle a bit more.
"Probably best if ye go first," Jake told her, dreading how long this would take. "Take a firm hold of this," he showed her as he tapped the horn of the saddle. "May I?" he asked, indicating he wanted to touch or hold her leg. "Lift 'n put yer foot in here," he said after she nodded and took hold of her calf once she'd started lifting her leg up and guided her foot into the stirrup, trying not to let his fingers linger too much. "Ah'ite, yer in. Now, use yer arms to pull yerself up on the saddle 'n yer leg to push up. Then swing yer other leg up 'n over," he instructed.
"Just like that huh?" Molly said with a nervous giggle. She took a deep breath when he nodded and tried to do as instructed. She could tell immediately this was going to be a lot harder than they made it seem in movies. He'd been right, she had very little strength in her arms, but she could tell that her abs were holding their own after all her gym classes back in Phoenix. At least that was one thing she could take pride in.
Jake stifled a chuckle, and not very well, when she ended up almost hanging upside down with her foot still stuck in the stirrup. He caught her before she really did end up falling and righted her again. "Yer arms 'n legs need to work together," he said, a little unhelpfully.
She'd gathered as much but putting it into practice wasn't as easy as saying it. "Okay, here I go again," she breathed deeply and tried again. She made it a little higher this time but still ended up almost hanging off the saddle.
He shook his head as he righted her again, thinking 'what the hell have I let myself in for?'
"Push off with yer standin' leg," Jake said, already sounding a little impatient.
"I'm tryin'," she told him, sounding almost as impatient.
"Try harder," he responded strictly, reminding her of the promise she'd made to listen to what he told her. She huffed a little as she tried pulling herself up again, with more focus on her standing leg. Again, she got a little closer but nowhere near where she'd be able to get her leg over Maximus's back. "Fahn," he conceded, much too impatient to let her get this on her own. "Ye hold on with yer arms. Ah'm gonna lift ye up high enough for ye to swing yer leg over. On the count of three," he gave her very little time to prepare herself as he took hold of her hips. "One…"
He's holding on to my hips, oh my god.
"Two."
He smells good.
"One."
Oh for god's sake, Molly, concentrate!
Jake lifted her up before she could think anything else. "Lift yer leg up," he told her, which she did and almost got it all the way over. At the last second, one of his hands left her hip to push her leg over further, resting on the back of her thigh for a brief second. That was all he would allow himself to do. "Yer seriously gonna have to work on that," he said, sounding more than a little annoyed. "Take yer foot out 'n lean forward," he instructed her now, which she quickly did to not annoy him any further. Before she could object, he leaned round her to get hold of the horn, put his foot in the stirrup and lifted himself behind her in pretty much one smooth move.
"As easy as that huh?" Molly paraphrased her earlier question, which got a small smile out of him this time.
"Well, we can't all have been ridin' since we was five, I suppose," Jake responded a little teasingly as both of his arms went around her to hold onto the reins.