Echoes From The Past (Women of Character)

by Grace Brannigan

  Christie backed toward the door and pulled the handle but the door did not move. She pulled harder, refusing to believe she was locked in the stall.

  Was it stuck? Christie gripped the metal bars on the upper portion of the door and angled her head so she could see the latch on the outside of the door. It looked like it was partially caught. She tried jiggling the door but it held fast.

  Christie told herself to remain calm but an old familiar heaviness settled in her chest. As she paced, she reminded herself not to scare the colt. She chewed her lips, standing near the door and peering out into the aisle. Someone would come very soon. She thought of the sing-song verse she and Ellen had recited as children when hiding from their father. You can’t come in and I won’t go out. You can’t come in because I locked you out.

  "Hello, anybody out there! Garrett, Ally, anybody." Christie put her back against the stall wall. Being slightly claustrophobic didn’t help but she could handle this. Christie ran her hand soothingly down the colt’s neck. "Now I feel like a real dolt, locking myself in here with you." She thought she heard someone and moved once more over to the chest high metal grill. "Garrett?"

  Footsteps. "Christie? Are you down here already?" Garrett’s voice.

  Christie took a deep breath. "Yes, it’s me. I’m stuck in this stall."

  Garrett stopped outside the stall, then reached forward to lift the latch. "How the hell did you manage to lock yourself in there?"

  She stepped out of the stall and smiled shakily. "I feel kind of foolish saying I don’t really know." She must have looked a bit shaken, because Garrett’s warm hands touched her shoulders.

  "It’s okay," he said. Christie noticed now that his hair was disheveled and his shirt hung open, liked he’d jumped quickly out of bed. Following her relief, Christie became aware of new senses kicking in. She felt the heat of his body so close to her own, his warm musky scent in her nostrils. "I have a slight case of claustrophobia," she confessed, staring over his shoulder.

  "It’s a good thing I saw the lights on. Why were you in there?"

  Christie tried to focus, but she couldn’t help but think how rough and sexy he looked, a dark shadow along his unshaven jaw. "The door closed and somehow the latch fell into place."

  He rubbed her arms. "The stalls are on rollers and will glide closed, but the latches don’t lock by themselves."

  "I couldn’t get out."

  He looked at her with concern. "Your face is white. I thought I heard something outside this morning, that’s why I came out so early."

  Christie looked at the door latch. "I heard a banging noise and came downstairs. The colt was laying half on his back with his feet against the wall. He couldn’t get up. I was afraid he’d hurt himself so I pulled him over. I didn’t realize until too late what had happened with the door."

  "He was cast," Garrett muttered, his eyes never leaving her face.

  "Cast?"

  "When a horse gets down too close to a wall and can't get up." She saw his glance slip over her, stopping at her untied boots. Self-conscious now, she pulled up her nightshirt’s sagging neckline, stuffed the tails into her jeans and pushed the tangle of hair away from her face.

  "I rushed down here when I heard the noise," she mumbled.

  Garrett looked at the horse in the stall. "Do you know who this little guy is?" he asked.

  "Ally calls him Houdini. She said when he was a weanling he managed to get out of any fence you put him in."

  Garrett's mouth curved upwards. "That's his nickname. His registered name is Aspiration. He's one of my most promising colts for next year’s season. Who knows, maybe even the Derby."

  Christie looked at the horse, the sturdy legs, muscled chest and wide, intelligent forehead. "He's a beauty." She rubbed her palms over her face. "The Derby, huh? That must be why you have sign-in sheets and I’ve even seen surveillance cameras outside."

  "You have to be careful in this business."

  Christie looked down at her boots uncertainly then hooked her arm around a saddletree built into the wall. "With all this security, I’m kind of surprised that you hired me."

  "Gut instinct," Garrett said with a lopsided grin. "I wouldn't let you in here if I thought you were a threat. I appreciate what you did for Houdini, but next time come and get me or Sam."

  Christie lifted her shoulders in a careless shrug. "I was afraid he’d be hurt worse if I left him."

  "You might have been kicked or he could have fallen on you. Don’t take a chance like that again." His voice bordered on a reprimand.

  Christie bent to tie her shoelaces. "It seemed the right thing to do," she said defensively, tying her other bootlace. She felt a draft of air across her chest. Looking down, she realized her nightshirt had gaped forward, exposing her breasts.

  She looked up. Garrett’s glance lifted from her chest and the impact of those light colored eyes made Christie feel incredibly warm. How easy, she thought, to claim this was love. Love didn’t make your heart pound and your lungs hurt for lack of air. It was merely infatuation.

  His hands, hard on her arms, pulled her up. The heat of his mouth seared her, engulfing her, his tongue slipping inside as long arms pulled her into him. Infatuation or not Christie admitted she wanted this, to be close to Garrett. She went without a thought for the consequences. Some moments were not meant to be questioned, they were just to be lived.

  Chapter Eleven

  Christie burned where Garrett touched her. She was hot inside and out, her stomach muscles contracting. She craved this closeness and wound her arms around his neck, enjoying the strength of his body pressed to hers. Each time they kissed felt more shattering. Thoughts jumped crazily in her head. She did not want to stop Garrett. Her emotions were riding high, making the secrets of her past seem surmountable.

  Garrett's big hands framed her face, held her as he pressed against her. There was no doubt in Christie’s mind as to the extent of his desire, not with the evidence between them.

  "This is crazy," he muttered, burying his face against her neck and holding her to him.

  She pressed her lips to his skin with greedy insistence, inhaling the earthy essence of the man. The tendrils of hair at the back of his head were damp under her fingers and he smelled fresh as if he had come from a shower. Again and again Christie wound her fingers through those light colored strands, his murmur of appreciation making the wanting inside curl tighter with tension.

  She moved her fingers over his back, aware of the strength and bulk of him, yet the gentleness with which he held her. She placed her mouth against his, taking his lips as if it was her right. She didn't want to think. She needed to feel, experience and lose herself in the moment and the man. She didn’t mind burning, if it was with Garrett. "I’ve never known anyone like you, Garrett." She heard her own words, and she was reminded of her past, the memories that were never far away. She had been engaged, but her feelings back then were nothing compared to this.

  Garrett eased away from her and her body felt cold where moments before his heat had burned it. She ached with the withdrawal and tried to hold her body stiffly but in truth she felt shaky.

  Curiously, she looked at her hand as it lay against his chest, the matt of hair visible beneath the open buttons. She flattened her palm against the bulge of muscle there. It felt like an experiment, touching him, watching his reaction, the contracting of his muscles beneath her fingers. Christie noted the faint flush on his cheeks, his eyes hard and searching, telling her without words he was not a man to be trifled with.

  She stroked his chest with a fingertip. Garrett gave an audible groan. To Christie, it was a beautiful sound but she knew she was dancing closer to that emotional quagmire.

  "Christie, stop."

  She pressed two fingers against his beautiful mouth. "I know you’re going to say this isn’t right but please don't. I can't deny the way I feel. I know you were my sister’s husband but at moments like this, it doesn’t seem to matter."

  She stepp
ed back, knowing she probably looked a mess. She gathered her hair into her hands and pushed it off her shoulders.

  "Neither one of us is thinking straight about this," he said in a clipped voice. "Soon, you’ll go back to your own life. From what you’ve told me, Christie, you’re used to more than this two-bit town. Like Judith, you wouldn’t be satisfied staying in a place like this."

  He sounded like he knew what she wanted and her own uncertainty made her feel shortchanged. "And what is it that you want Garrett?" she cried softly, unable to keep the words from spilling out.

  The intensity of his focus speared through her. "What any man wants. To be successful."

  "You are," she whispered.

  "To share my life with someone special. I used to think that wasn’t a big order. The older you get, the more you realize everything you don’t know."

  Christie bowed her head and knew deep inside she wanted to be that someone special. She wanted to believe in forever and ever, but it wasn’t something she had ever seen. She and Judith shared the same background, and Judith had bailed out in the end.

  "I wish I knew if a forever kind of happiness really exists. I do have faith you’ll find who you’re looking for, Garrett. This thing between us is easily explained away as mutual attraction." She smiled sadly. "Maybe even in some small way I remind you of Judith. Maybe you’re trying to finish where you and she left off."

  Garrett watched her grimly. "That’s ludicrous. Judith and I finished anything that was between us. Believe me, by the time she left, there was only Hannah between us."

  His words disturbed her greatly. Even though she had never really known her sister, she still felt hurt by the words.

  "How sad and confused Judith must have felt." She turned and walked quickly down the barn aisle, her chest heaving, her hair in a wild tumble down her back.

  "Dammit, Christie!" He sounded angry, but he didn’t follow her.

  She was crazy to think about wanting this man. Crazy to hope she could have him and be happy. She cared about him as a man; as Hannah’s father, the caring adult he'd shown himself to be.

  She had never felt more gloriously alive, yet the feeling was tempered with sadness. How could she think of being involved with anyone? Her life was in a state of upheaval. She had virtually abandoned her life to take on a mission that Darrell had called crazy. She clenched her fists. It was terrible what guilt could drive a person to do.

  Christie gulped, a cold wave engulfing her. Each time she got close to Garrett she was blindsided, letting herself lose sight of why she was really here. Did this man have the power to make her forget everything, including the pain of the past?

  Christie shook her head. She was living in a fool’s paradise if she thought there was a man alive who could do that. It was something she had to overcome on her own.

  ###

  Garrett watched Christie walk away, admiring the swing of slim hips, recalling the angry flash of her eyes. Ruefully, he acknowledged she made him want to go up in a blaze. She'd saved one of his most valuable horses from harm, and he'd just about given her hell. Didn't she understand he didn't want her to get hurt? Dammit, he cared about her! Whatever was there between them felt too damned strong to ignore.

  He stared at Christie's slim back, the long legs. With sudden decision, he took a step after her. Hadn't her actions indicated she wanted him as much as he wanted her? Maybe he should say the hell with it and follow her up to her apartment. They could spend all day together in bed and then maybe the night as well ...

  "Hey, Boss." Ally's voice stopped Garrett cold as she pushed the barn door open behind him. "What's going on?"

  Biting back an expletive, Garrett buttoned his shirt while Ally grinned at him. "One of the colts had some trouble but Christie got him straightened out." He looked at his watch, then took a closer look at Ally. Something looked out of place but he couldn’t put his finger on it. "Everything okay with you? You’re here early this morning."

  Ally entered the barn.

  "Me? Right as rain," she said breezily. "On the other hand, you and Christie ..." He ignored her sly grin. "Maybe I should have waited a while to come inside. That’s probably why Sam was loitering outside, acting like he was busy." She flipped her hand and indicated the door. "I can leave again, you know."

  Garrett gave Ally a narrowed eyed glance and began filling the grain buckets. Did everyone know he had feelings for Christie? He stopped what he was doing for a moment. Did it matter?

  He ran a quick hand through his hair, then resumed filling the buckets with grain. After a moment Ally joined him and began to measure out grain and supplements.

  "By the way," she said casually, "I saw Randy at Myrt’s coffee shop earlier. He said he might swing by today."

  "This morning? I thought he was doing undercover work all week?"

  "He’s trying out the nine-to-five shift. Can you imagine Randy in a nine-to-five job?" Ally’s amusement seemed at odds with the seriousness in her eyes.

  "Maybe, but who knows?" Garrett lifted a brow. "Maybe he’s ready to settle into a regular routine."

  Ally hefted a bucket of grain and tossed him a look of disbelief. "Yeah, and pink rabbits fly. See you later, Boss."

  Garrett smiled, and finally realized what was different about Ally. Her flannel shirt was crooked and the entire shirt was two button holes off. No big deal, he thought, unless you were the neat and precise Ally with never a button out of place. Interesting. He just hoped his brother was serious this time.

  Garrett gave the stairs to Christie’s apartment one last look and wondered if it would have been such a big mistake to have followed her. Luckily or not, the moment had passed. Sanity was once more firmly in place.

  ###

  Later that evening Christie heard footsteps on the stairs leading to her apartment. She looked up from the T-shirts she was folding. Albert, lapping up a small bowl of water, scooted outside just as Randy came to stand in her open doorway. Wearing a big grin, he knocked on the wood trim. "Hey, Christie, are you busy?"

  "Hi, Randy." With a smile, she indicated the pile of clean clothes. "Nothing important. What’s going on?"

  "I stopped to pick up Hannah -- we’re going to a movie tonight. I brought some homemade ice cream. Have you ever had it? It’s nothing like what you buy in the store."

  Christie was intrigued by the idea. "Never tried it, but I’d love to."

  He stepped back. "Come on down, I put it in Garrett’s freezer."

  "Oh, okay. Is your brother around?" She asked casually. She hadn’t seen him since early that morning. She’d done her best to detour around him all day, hoping to let some of the heat settle down between them.

  "He’s at the house. I told him I was inviting you. By the way, you haven’t seen Ally, have you?"

  "Not since she left at five." Christie smiled at him. "I think she likes you."

  Behind Randy’s smile lurked a tinge of anxiety. "Sometimes it’s hard to tell."

  Christie pressed her lips together, then moved forward to stand in front of Randy. "She does, but she’s been hurt bad."

  He looked surprised. "What do you know about it?"

  Christie shrugged. "Not much, really. Just that the guy she was married to had an eye for the ladies."

  Randy leaned back against the doorframe and rested his head against the wood. "I’m still trying to convince her I’m not him."

  Christie just looked at him sympathetically.

  He straightened. "I won’t deny I like women, but deep down I’m just like any other guy. I want to settle with one woman."

  "You don’t have to convince me," she said gently.

  "Right. Listen, I have to run but maybe I’ll see you later."

  "I appreciate you thinking of me. I’ll be down as soon as I finish folding. Have fun at the movies!" she called out as he hurried down the stairs.

  Christie put her folded laundry away ten minutes later and as she left the barn she wondered if Garrett minded Randy inviting her for
ice cream.

  The kitchen light was on in the house. Opening the door, she came face to face with Garrett. His hair was dark and slicked back and the fresh scent of soap clung to him. Christie’s cheeks heated as she remembered their earlier encounter and the sexual energy that had snapped between them. "Hi Garrett."

  "I was just coming to see if Randy invited you over. I can’t eat all that ice cream by myself," he joked, touching his midsection. Christie’s glance was drawn to his flat stomach and lingered there. "I have to be careful. I have a tendency to go crazy on sweets."

  Relaxing, amused, Christie said, "Welcome to the club."

  He held the door open and she ducked under his arm. "Nothing going on tonight?" he asked.

  She smiled slightly. "Nope. Right now my social life is quiet, though Ally and Buddy have promised me a night on the town this weekend. I’m kind of looking forward to it."

  "Buddy’s taken a liking to you."

  "He’s a nice guy. I’ve been helping him with a research paper."

  "You’re a jack of all trades, aren’t you?"

  She shrugged. "I have a lot of interests. One thing I wanted to mention is I feel like I’m making some headway with Hannah."

  "I agree. Just go slow."

  She lifted a brow, studying him closely. "You look worried. I’d never hurt her."

  "Not intentionally. But I think you're a woman who’s had some tough breaks."

  "Who hasn’t? You know Judith did, and you’ve had your problems." Knowing this could get too serious, she said jokingly, "What’s your solution?"

  "Maybe you need something to make you forget what’s haunting you."

  A tight lump formed in her throat. "Sounds like you're suggesting an affair."

  "Sorry, that was out of line," he said awkwardly.

  Christie met his eyes directly. "I admire honesty, so don’t apologize. But you did catch me by surprise."

  "Not everyone appreciates plain speaking," he said gruffly, pulling open cabinet doors. "Since we’re on the subject of plain speaking, I’ve been wondering if you can stay longer than we planned. The doctor’s reassessed the break to Kim’s ankle. Looks like the cast won’t be off for an additional three weeks."