Ride a Dark Horse

by Laura Moore

  Caleb expelled a slow breath. “Well, Bessie. What do you want me to say? Cassie’s a beautiful woman. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t attracted to her, because I am.” Thompson nodded her head, like an elementary schoolteacher encouraging a reluctant child. “Well, then, what are you going to do about it?”

  Caleb coughed, glad there wasn’t coffee in his mouth or it would have splattered all over his shirt front. Sure was ballsy of her, discussing his intentions toward Cassie as calmly as if she were discussing the weather. Caleb would have given anything to see the look on Cassie’s face if she knew just how seriously her housekeeper took the job of tending to Cassie’s happiness.

  Do about it? I know what I’d like to do about it, but right now that’s pretty much in the realm of fantasy.

  He sighed heavily. “Look, Bessie, I’m divorced, and my divorce left me pretty cynical about all this happily-ever-after stuff. From what I know of Cassie, she’s just that sort of girl. Innocent and sweet.” Caleb raised his eyes to Bessie’s shrewd gaze. “I may want to make love with her but there’s no way I’m about to promise her all the rest. One marriage was definitely enough for me.” Caleb figured that if Thompson wasn’t going to be shy about sticking her nose into other peoples’ private lives, then she shouldn’t be shocked by what he said. If she didn’t like the answers he gave her, too bad.

  Thompson looked at him silently, her expression inscrutable. Finally, she spoke, smiling wryly. “I suppose that’s what I get for being nosy. But I won’t apologize, because Cassie’s exactly as you said: sheltered, sweet, and innocent. She’s also a fine, caring person, and she’s suffered a great deal. Not a lot of people could have taken on the responsibility for two infants like she did.” She shook her head sadly remembering the cloud of sorrow that had hung over the Miller house after the accident. Pushing away the memories, a glint of humor returned to her eyes as she spoke again. “I can tell you, though, that I like your honesty a whole lot more than that so-and-so of a fiancé’s saccharine words and empty promises.”

  Caleb grinned, irrationally glad Thompson had disliked Cassie’s ex-fiancé. “A real creep, huh?”

  Thompson nodded. “Spoiled and selfish. He had so much given to him: money looks, education, you name it. He seemed to think the world was his for the taking. But when the moment came for him to give of himself . . . Well, Cassie’s better off without him. But he let her down when she needed his support the most.” Thompson paused and gave him a wide smile. “That’s why I think she needs a good-looking devil like you in her life.”

  “Uh, Bessie, exactly what are you implying?” Caleb had the embarrassing suspicion that he was being looked over like one of the studs at Five Oaks. He didn’t like the feeling one bit.

  “Cassie needs to be shaken up a bit, made to remember she’s made of flesh and blood. She’s been living in a cocoon these past five years. Time she should have spent loving and laughing with a man at her side. The way I see it, you’re enticing enough to get her realizing she has needs.”

  “What makes you think that I might not hurt Cassie as badly as her fiancé did? What makes you think I won’t leave her with a broken heart, too?”

  A thoughtful look came over the older woman’s face as she chose her next words. She wondered how Caleb would react to the idea of Cassie belonging to another man. She hoped that Caleb’s apparent indifference to commitment might be just a defensive reflex.

  “Well, of course, if you’re fool enough to let a woman like Cassie get away, that’s your business. Even though she may lack experience, I’m betting that emotionally, Cassie’s grown up a lot since her engagement to Brad Gibson. I think she’ll be strong enough to understand that there are plenty of other men who don’t consider commitment a four-letter word. You’d end up being just a very pleasant wake-up call for a fine woman.”

  “Damn, Bessie,” Caleb exploded, insulted by Thompson’s lethally frank description. The image of himself as some kind of sexual warmup so another man could step in and experience the delights of Cassie’s body was repellent. Infuriating. “What kind of talk is this? You make Machiavelli seem like a really fuzzy, warm kind of guy. You could have probably given him lessons. And what makes you think I’m going to let myself get involved with Cassie in any way after this?”

  Bessie concealed a smile at the frustrated edge to his voice. Oh, Caleb, she thought, from what I observed in the Sawyers’ kitchen yesterday, I don’t think you’re going to be able to help yourself. You’ve got the look of a man who’s closing in on his woman, watching her every move.

  “You’re right, of course, a man with your experience of women and commitment should stay away from a girl like Cassie, but unfortunately I’m just a hopeless romantic. I see two young, handsome people, and I automatically want to try to get them together.” She gave an innocent smile that didn’t fool Caleb for a minute. “I guess it’s the matchmaker instinct,” she concluded with a dramatic sigh and then brightened, as if another thought had just occurred to her. “Of course now that Cassie’s showing again, I’m sure she’ll meet lots of nice men who’ll want to take her out. Then you can stick to women who aren’t interested in commitment, in sharing.”

  Alex Miller was in a piss-poor mood. He and Cassie had returned from their morning run to find Caleb Wells comfortably ensconced at the kitchen table with Jamie and Sophie seated on either side of him. The twins happily spooning up fruit loops and chattering away, while Thompson hovered nearby, a pot of her delicious coffee at the ready.

  Jealousy stemming from an irrational fear that he would be displaced in the twins’ hearts by a virtual stranger, swept over him and left him consumed with an intense need to plow his fist into Caleb Wells’s face. He hated, too, the hungry look that had entered Wells’s eye as he had taken in Cassie’s clinging, sweaty T-shirt and the running shorts that showed off her sleekly muscled legs. Long legs, shiny now with the sweat that covered them.

  Never mind that he, Alex, would have responded in precisely the same way if a woman as beautiful as Cassie had entered the room, dressed in clothes that revealed as much as they covered. But Cassie was his kid sister, damn it!

  Alex doubted whether warning Wells away from Cassie would have any effect. He smiled grimly to himself, his mood improving fractionally as an alternative solution occurred to him. It would be infinitely more effective, as well as deeply deeply satisfying, if he just went and pounded the daylights out of him.

  Cassie entered Hot Lips’s stall, and brought her out to the nearest cross ties. In the days since Caleb’s diagnosis, he had diligently followed through with the laser therapy and Cassie had restricted the mare to stall rest. It was clear however that the lack of exercise was making Hot Lips even more excitable and high-strung than ever. Cassie fretted about what would happen once Hot Lips finally healed and was taken out. Would she go into high gear, flip out, and reinjure her leg, perhaps hurting herself worse?

  Crooning softly to the radio as she curried her mare’s burnished chestnut coat, Cassie’s mind raced as she checked off changes in diet that might help Hot Lips in her recovery—rationing her grain, increasing the amount of hay in her stall, and adding a nutritional feed supplement to make sure Hot Lips received an adequate supply of vitamins and minerals while she was healing. But her mind drew a frustrating blank when she tried to design a safe exercise program following Hot Lips’s recovery. She hoped that Caleb and Hank might be able to help with a viable plan.

  Cassie groomed her mare until her coat gleamed in the soft light of the barn’s interior and then inspected each of her hooves, cleaning them with a hoof pick and examining each one for any cracking or sign of disease. Looking down at the hoof supported in the palm of her hand, Cassie wondered whether using magnetic pads on the soles of Hot Lips’s hooves might help. Another question to ask Caleb when she saw him. Cassie shook her head, annoyed at how often thoughts of Caleb intruded.

  She led Hot Lips back into the stall and fished out an apple treat from the pocket of her
beige breeches, which she dropped into the feed bucket. The mare immediately brushed her head against Cassie’s torso as she followed the scent of the treat. Impatient, she pushed her nose against the rubber bottom of the bucket and rooted delicately. A quiet chomping mingled with the other barn noises as Cassie gave the horse an affectionate pat and left the stall.

  Cassie had arranged her schedule so that she’d ride Orion before lunch. She wanted to be fresh for the stallion and knew that working with him demanded her clearest thinking and quickest reactions. She’d been alternating workouts with the stallion, mixing in jumping with flat work, progressively asking more and more of Orion as he came to know her better. Cassie was thrilled by the promise the stallion showed. He had great athletic ability courage, and intelligence. What remained to be seen was whether he had it—the fierce competitive drive to be the best. That’s what made the champions, whether they were racehorses such as Man o’ War or Secretariat, or jumpers such as Idle Dice, Abdullah, Galoubet, or Big Ben. If Cassie could bring that quality out in Orion, what a time they would have together! And Five Oaks would have a stud whose get people would be eager to pay for.

  “I brushed Orion off for you, Cassie. He’d gotten muddy from his turn out in the field this morning. Now he’s all pretty for you.”

  “Thanks, Raff.” Cassie smiled in gratitude as she neared the barn manager. “With all my family here, and my brother leaving tomorrow it’s great not to have to face an enormous muddy stallion! I hope it didn’t take too much of your time.”

  “Oh, no, Cassie, no problem. You know those other riders, they never groomed Orion or any of the horses they worked with. Maybe that’s why Orion likes you. You take care of him, not just hop on his back and boss him around.”

  “Maybe so, Raffael.” Cassie smiled, secretly pleased by the idea that the stallion might recognize the time she took in grooming him, rubbing him down, massaging him. But even if he didn’t appreciate it, Cassie thought, she herself derived immense pleasure from the simple, repetitive acts involved in caring for horses. She wouldn’t trade her profession for any in the world.

  Raffael moved past Cassie with Kenyon, Orion’s sire, leading the older horse outside to the stallion’s pastures. Cassie approached Orion’s stall and peered in. Orion was standing quietly with the donkey, Barney dozing at his side. The donkey’s large ears were cocked to the side, a wide, fuzzy V. The contrast between the shaggy, spindly legged donkey and the sleek, massive stallion, was absurd, causing Cassie to laugh softly. Orion raised his head slightly at the sound and as Cassie moved to the metal bars of his upper stall door, he came over his large, flared nostrils blowing warm against the knuckles of her hand.

  “Hey big guy, you ready for a little work? We’re going to have to look extra good this morning because Alex will be watching. I want to show him what a great horse you are. And who knows,” her voice dropped, whispering confidentially into the horse’s ear, “maybe Caleb will be around, too.”

  Cassie turned away and went to the tack room to grab her saddle, saddle pad, and Orion’s girth and bridle. She set them beside the cross ties and brought the stallion out. Raffael had done a fine job grooming Orion—not a speck of dust showed on his dark bay coat—but Cassie nevertheless took a soft brush and ran it over the satiny coat, wanting the stallion to sparkle in the spring sunshine.

  Finally ready, she led the stallion out into the brilliant sun. It was a glorious day. For the first time the warmth of the air and the blue of the sky promised bright flowers, green grass, and T-shirts without sweaters. It was the kind of weather that made Cassie want to shout with happiness, swing her arms in the air and do a jig, grateful to Mother Nature that the warm weather had finally arrived and winter was banished once more. Instead, she pulled the stallion walking beside her to a halt and turned her head to nuzzle his neck. Her arms wrapped around the front of his chest, she gave the horse a hug, squeezing him tight with happiness.

  “Getting mighty familiar with my horse, aren’t you Slim?” Caleb’s voice came from behind her, laced with amusement at the sight of Cassie hugging the big stallion as if he were a cuddly kitten.

  Embarrassed as she was, Cassie managed nonetheless to reply casually as if she hadn’t been caught looking like a complete mush head, a sentimental dolt. “It’s such a beautiful day. I always get excited when the warm weather comes.” She shrugged her shoulders and added a bit defen-sively, “Spring fever. I just wanted to share it with Orion.”

  Damn, she was adorable. Caleb thought of telling her that any time she wanted to reach out and touch someone, to share her pleasure in the joys of spring, he’d be happy to stand in. She could be as effusive as she wished. But he decided he’d save this topic for when they could be guaranteed some privacy. He’d seen Alex Miller and the twins in the distance and knew they’d probably be showing up any minute.

  Thinking of Alex Miller Caleb’s jaw tightened. The sooner he headed back to New York, the better. The guy really ticked him off. On account of him, he’d almost refused Bessie’s suggestion that he, Hank, and Melissa join the Millers and her for a celebratory dinner that evening. The twins had gotten so excited at the prospect of guests at their new home that Caleb hadn’t the heart to let them down. And perverse bastard that he was, the irritation in Alex Miller’s icy blue eyes at Thompson’s impromptu invitation had clinched the decision. Hell, he’d just eat Bessie’s fine cooking and feast his eyes on Cassie . . . and let Alex Miller stew.

  “So what have you got scheduled for Orion today Slim?” Caleb inquired, steering his thoughts back to more professional ground.

  “I was going to work on angled approaches and distances for jumps. Hank got a shipment of brand new fences that I thought I’d show him, too. We don’t want him spooking at any of the wilder fences he’ll be seeing at the shows.”

  Caleb nodded. Inexperienced horses often had enormous problems when they confronted some of the zanier concoctions course directors designed for jumping classes. Shying and refusing a jump were fairly common occurrences at shows where the sight of plastic pink flamingos clustered around the edge of a water jump scared the willies out of the greener horses. Even a smart horse like Orion might have second thoughts about certain types of fences.

  “That should be fun.”

  Cassie grinned, her good spirits heightened by the beauty of the day, by the chance to stand near Caleb and drink in the sight of him. Just talking to him like this caused her heart to pound loudly in her ribcage, making her feel that much more alive. Would she ever get used to his effect on her?

  “I’m sure he’ll do fine with these jumps. You know sometimes it’s not even the jumps that rattle them, but something they see peripherally, like a plastic garbage bag flying through the air on a windy day or someone’s umbrella opening suddenly.”

  “Well, if you want, I can root some stuff out from the back of my truck and start tossing it around. See whether that gets a rise out of him.”

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” Cassie replied dryly.

  “Chicken.”

  “You betcha.” Cassie laughed, delighted to hear his teasing banter once more. “I don’t want Orion to dump me because of a greasy paper plate you got at some delicatessen last month! If Orion’s going to freak, I’d like to think it was over something a little less disgusting than what you’ve got in the back of that truck.”

  “That bad, huh?” His eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned good-humoredly.

  “Definitely needs a trip to Tidy Car.”

  “Haven’t you heard that clean cars show a lack of character?”

  “Well yours looks like something out of Animal House. ”

  “One of my favorites. A classic.” His smile spread, his white teeth even and strong.

  God, Cassie thought, unnerved at how Caleb’s smile made her insides melt and turned her knees to putty. Please don’t let me fall in a boneless heap at his feet.

  With a heroic effort, Cassie scrunched up her face, feigning disgust at his cinemat
ic preferences. “Figures,” she said, ending the conversation by leading the stallion away before she revealed just how easily Caleb affected her.

  The little group stood watching Cassie school Orion in the large exercise ring. Hank looked at the different faces of Alex Miller the twins, Melissa, and Caleb. We should start putting announcements in the paper giving the hours Cassie’s going to be riding and charge admission, Hank thought to himself. That would bring in a tidy sum. She really was a treat to watch. It was also astounding how quiet the twins could be, one minute as chaotic as two force-ten gales, the next, standing still as stones, their eyes following their mother as she maneuvered the horse around the ring, concentrating on her riding with a seriousness that belied their young age. The breeder in him couldn’t help wondering, was this a case of nature or nurture? Was Cassie’s ability with horses a genetic trait shared by other members of her family? Or was it Cassie’s intense love for horses that had transmitted itself to the twins, so that they too, were little equine professionals at the ripe age of five?

  Hank looked over at Caleb, who stood next to Melissa, his dark head occasionally nodding at some comment she made, unwilling to engage in any deeper conversation while he watched Cassie work his stallion. Caleb watched her with the intensity of a hawk, his eyes never leaving her slim, athletic form.

  Poor guy, thought Hank sympathetically. Caleb had managed to surprise Hank and Melissa. It was clear as daylight Cassie and Caleb were attracted to each other but were equally hesitant to act on it. That Cassie should be wary came as no big surprise to him. For Caleb, however it was a first in a long, long time. Hank couldn’t even recall when last Caleb had bothered to wait once a woman revealed her interest in him. That meant Caleb must have recognized Cassie was different. If she’d been like the other women Caleb had known, she’d already be in his bed every night.

  From the tension sizzling between the two of them that happy event had yet to take place. Hank wondered whether Caleb instinctively understood that getting involved with Cassie would require a level of commitment that he might not even have shared with Pamela. That was a lot for someone like Caleb to come to terms with. Well, Hank sighed to himself, one thing was sure: It was going to be a heck of an interesting summer watching these two circle around each other.