Harvest Moon (Virgin River #15)(45)

Gabe Tahoma had only to say, “Good job, Courtney! You’re getting the hang of it!” to make her feel like Miss America.

Just a couple of weeks into November brought a slight change in her appearance. Lief had taken her to buy boots and jeans. She then needed shirts, down vests, gloves and a new jacket. He threw in a hat for good measure. Courtney gave up the black nail polish and total noir leggings, ankle boots, skirts and tight tops. She found she liked wearing jeans and boots to school. Not many of the girls dressed in that cowgirl way. They were a little less country and more into fashions they saw on internet fashion sites. Courtney found their more middle class–trendy couture far less intimidating than that Rodeo Drive stuff she’d been up against in L.A, which was a comfort.

And she was letting the color fade and grow out of her hair.

“Ach! I hate my hair!” she complained to Lief as he drove her to school one morning.

“Really?” he asked, apparently completely confused. “What in the world could you possibly hate about it?”

“It doesn’t know what color it is! Letting color grow out is worse than anything! It’s torture!”

“I see,” he said. “Anything I can do to help with that?”

“Yes! I need a haircut! Is there anyone within a thousand miles who could give me a decent haircut?”

“Undoubtedly,” he said tiredly. “I’ll ask around.”

Next thing she knew, she was sitting in Annie Jensen’s shop in Fortuna with Annie herself caving in to not only a cut but a color that might wend her back to where she started before the pitch-black and hot pink began. She blew Courtney’s hair dry into a nice, sleek, smooth and more grown-up style.

“I’m sure that’s not exactly what you’re after, Courtney,” Annie said. “But I’m willing to keep trying.”

“It’s kinda…nice,” Courtney said, running a hand over her hair.

“I hope it’s okay…”

A couple of days later when she was at her lesson, Gabe said, “Whoa, Courtney, that’s a new look for you. The hair. You’re getting almost hot.”

Her hand went to her hair and she blushed.

“Now, don’t flirt with me,” he said, laughing. “I have a girlfriend.”

“I know that,” she said. But of course she hadn’t known about the girlfriend. What she did know was that she had an impossible crush on him, and she absolutely knew he would never really notice her.

But he liked the way she looked. That made her feel beyond good.

There were a few things that, slowly but surely, she began to admit to Jerry Powell. Not because he was any good as a counselor or therapist, but because she was pretty sure he was even more capable of keeping her secrets than Amber was. So when he said, “Are you building some muscle there, Courtney? Or is it just the different clothes that make it look that way?” she didn’t snark back.

“I might be,” she said carefully. “I can’t really tell, except my muscles are all sore! All of them. Even my toe muscles are sore. And when I complained, Lilly said it was kind of amazing how many muscles you could use riding. Then she flexed her thigh and told me to punch it—it was like a rock! She said that right now I was likely building muscle, but one day I’d probably use riding to keep my weight down and my body toned.”

“Does it feel good?” Jerry asked.

“To build muscle? No—it hurts!”

“No,” he laughed. “Riding. Is riding fun?”

“Well…the riding part, sort of. A lot of it isn’t such fun…”

“Like?”

“Like it’s going to take me four more inches taller and twenty pounds heavier before I can get that saddle on by myself. But meanwhile, if Lilly is busy doing something else, sometimes Gabe helps. And watching Gabe put on a saddle…” She rolled her eyes heavenward.

“I take it Gabe is handsome?”

“They named handsome after Gabe!”

Jerry chuckled. “Are we thinking about naming boyfriend after him, as well?” he asked.

“I wish. He’s eighteen, in college and has a girlfriend. But,” she added, blushing slightly, “he said I was kind of cute.”

Jerry lifted a brow. “Is that a fact? Did that feel good to hear?”

“Now what do you think?” she asked him. “Of course, even though it doesn’t really mean anything…”

“It could mean he thinks you’re kind of cute…”

“Yeah, in a little girl way. We went on a short trail ride, a bunch of beginners. Lilly, Annie and Gabe took us, except all the other beginners were little girls like in fifth and sixth grade, and I’m in high school but look like I’m in sixth grade!”

“Well, what did your mom look like? Was she a small woman?”

“Sort of. Not too small, but she was thin. Not skinny—just thin. But she looked like a woman!”

“Are you worried about that?” he asked her. “About looking like a woman?”

“I’d settle for looking like a freshman!”

“You know that you’re not the only teenager who comes here for counseling, right?” Jerry asked her. “You know that’s my specialty, right?”