by James, Sandy
What kind of future could they possibly have?
Katie hadn’t even entertained the idea of waiting, not that he could blame her. It dawned on him exactly what he had been asking and the message he’d given her. He’d made it pretty clear the money was more important. God, Remington. That was cold. She had every right to refuse him. Hell, she probably should have hauled off and let him have it with both barrels.
Seth leaned his shoulder against the wall, watching Katie flit from stall to stall checking water buckets. He wondered at the changes that had occurred in his life. How the hell had he allowed himself to love a horse? The great and wealthy Seth Remington, practically in tears over losing a damn horse! Good God, what would his friends say?
What friends? The Boys’ Club? There wasn’t a single member who knew anything about true friendship. All they cared about was partying hard and using people as a means to their own selfish ends. He knew they’d react with pure disdain. After all, he’d been a charter member.
Friendship meant being there when a friend needed you most, just like Katie had been there for Brian and Samantha. Seth still couldn’t believe she was going to keep paying Chris’s salary. He’d seen her books because he’d done most of her computer work for her. The financial situation had improved since the stable had been doing well at the track, but Katie wasn’t wealthy by any stretch. She was barely solvent. Her generosity was foolhardy, but he loved her for it all the same.
“I love her for it,” he whispered.
Seth suddenly realized that against any kind of common sense, he had fallen in love. Against any kind of logic, against all odds, he’d fallen in love with Katie Murphy. Desperately and passionately in love with her.
So what exactly do you plan to do about it, Remington?
Every fiber of Seth’s being screamed at him to go to her, to pick her up and carry her to her bed. His body was already responding to the thought of touching Katie again, to the memory of what they had shared. She even made him forget the pain of losing Monterey Jack.
Twice he’d risked everything for her. From the time he’d been old enough to know about sex, his father had instilled in Seth the need for a Remington to be extraordinarily careful. Women would use him if he wasn’t vigilant. They’d try to get pregnant just to get their greedy little hands on a chunk of the Remington fortune.
Seth had always practiced the safest sex. Yet when it came to Katie, the notion of contraception hadn’t so much as crossed his mind. In fact, he was deeply hurt to think a child couldn’t possibly come from the times they made love. His heart ached, yearned for Katie and the red-headed boy they would never have together.
A baby! Since when did a playboy like Seth Remington ever care about something as insipid as raising a family?
All he ever cared about was money. And then Katie came into his life. He was risking his father’s hard-earned wealth for her, and for that moment of time, it seemed worth every single penny.
Pushing himself away from the wall, Seth took long, fast strides to catch her. Katie stood next to Miss Daisy, gently patting the mare’s neck. Seth grabbed Katie’s hand and pulled her out of the stall.
After he latched the door, he looked down into her inquisitive green eyes, and Seth wanted to drown in them. He wanted to forget where he ended and be where she began. He cupped her face with his palms and pressed a rough, deep kiss to her lips then invaded her sweet mouth with his tongue. When he finally pulled away, he could see both passion and concern in her eyes. “Seth, we can’t—”
“Is that all you ever say? Maybe I need to be a little more... persuasive.” With an enormous grin, Seth backed up a step, balled his hands into loose fists, and hit his chest as he grunted his best caveman imitation. “Seth need woman.”
Katie laughed. “You’re nuts.”
He grabbed for her. She ducked under his arm and swerved out of his reach. He hit his chest again and added a frustrated growl. “No. Woman do what Seth say. Man boss.” He continued grunting, stalking her up the aisle as Katie laughed and backed cautiously away.
“Stop it!” she shrieked with a giggle in her voice. But Seth continued to pursue her, pausing every few feet to pound his chest and grunt for effect. He finally backed her into a shower stall. There would be no more retreat.
Seth bent down, picked her up, and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of feed. She squealed and laughed. “Put me down. Come on, Seth. Put me down.”
He knew she didn’t really mean it. “Come, woman. Seth make woman happy. Seth take woman to bed.” He grunted as she giggled and slapped her palms on his back.
He walked out of the wash stall and came face to face with Chris.
“Seth! Put me down.” Katie said with another laugh. Seth bent over to set her back on her feet and spun her around so she could see they had a visitor.
“Sorry. Looks like I’m... interrupting you guys,” Chris said with an enormous grin and a wink. “I just came by to get some of my stuff.”
Katie appeared horrified, and Seth could tell she was desperately trying to come up with a way to cover the damage. As if she could.
“We were just... just... finishing up so I could take Seth back to the dorm.”
Oh, yeah. He’s going to buy that one, Boss.
Chris chuckled. “I know what you were doing. It’s not my business—”
“No!” She clutched at Chris’s arm. “You don’t know anything. Chris, you need to forget this. Please,” Katie pleaded.
“What’s the big deal? So you guys like each other. So what?” Chris asked in obvious confusion.
Katie grabbed her truck keys from her pocket and handed them at Seth. “Go home. Just come back tomorrow and we’ll get chores done before we go see Brian.” When Seth didn’t move, she stomped her foot. “Go!” He nodded and made his way out of the barn.
Katie stared at Chris for a moment, but all she could think about was how to make the last few minutes rewind so she could fix this mess. If Chris let news of her relationship with Seth slip to the wrong person, it could cost Seth his fortune.
No fraternization, Katie. Remember?
“What exactly is going on?” he finally asked. “Shit, Katie. I was joking when I asked if he was on work release from the prison. He’s not—”
“No, Chris. It’s nothing like that, but you’ve got to trust me here.” She squeezed his arm, hoping to impress the seriousness of the situation. “Nothing, I repeat, nothing is going on between Seth and me. Please just believe that and let it go. It’s really important.”
Gathering his eyebrows into one thick line, he jerked his arm away. “Katie, you know I don’t gossip. I won’t tell anyone. But it hurts that you won’t tell me what’s up with him. You used to call him ‘Crash,’ but now he’s always ‘Seth.’”
He stared at the floor as if trying to gather his thoughts, and Katie’s heart began to pound like a jackhammer in her chest. How could she protect Seth now? How could she protect his fortune if other people found out they’d slept together?
Chris finally looked back at Katie, and she was taken aback by the brotherly concern mirrored in his eyes. “I didn’t pry when he got here, and I didn’t drill you with questions, but I know something is up with this guy. What’d you mean the night Brian got hurt when you asked if Seth had to be in your barn?”
Katie weighed the potential danger posed by Chris being kept in the dark and inadvertently letting something slip versus a small violation of the confidentiality clause. The scale came down heavily on the side of friendship. “Let’s go in my office. I’ll tell you what I can, but you’ve got to swear to keep it secret.”
“Cross my heart.”
She had no choice but to trust him.
Chapter 22
Seth tossed and turned on his small and uncomfortable dormitory bed for the majority of the night. Besides the sultry weather making it entirely too hot for him to sleep, his mind could find absolutely no peace.
The stories his father had hammered into h
is head from the time he’d been a child echoed through his mind. Seth’s grandfather had built the business from the ground up by tinkering with electronics before they were such a dominant part of everyday life. Sterling became one of the pioneers in the manufacturing of dependable computers people could afford, and his foresight earned his company more money than many third world countries claimed as their entire gross national product.
And what exactly have I done with my life? “Not a damn thing.”
Remington Computers was supposed to be Seth’s legacy to pass down to future generations, and he’d thrown it all away because he’d been attracted to a pretty girl.
His father had always encouraged him to make a name for himself. Seth was sure once the news got out he’d slept with Katie, no one would ever forget the name “Seth Remington.” After all, he would forevermore be the man who screwed away his fortune. Literally. He would surely be the butt of jokes for years to come.
Seth tried to find some comfort by telling himself Katie would take care of the problem. She would talk to Chris and get him to keep their secret. She would surely smooth it all over.
With a grunt of disgust, he rolled over, kicked off the sheet, and tried to find a more comfortable spot. He was hiding behind her skirts. So much for being my own man.
By the time the first rays of the sunrise began to shine through the dirty window of his cramped room, Seth had found very little rest.
He retrieved some clean clothes and slammed the dresser shut. Then he got dressed and drove to the farm, dreading to hear what Katie would have to report.
When Seth walked into the barn, she was already feeding the horses. Several of them nickered and stomped their feet, waiting for their turn.
Seth went to grab an armload of hay and began to follow Katie and her wheelbarrow full of sweet grain. He pitched a flake into each stall.
“What did Chris say?” he finally found the courage to ask, not entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.
“He’ll be fine. I told him enough that he knows not to talk about... anything.”
“Honest?”
“No, Seth. I’m lying to you. Chris is working for the National Enquirer. You’re the next front page story.”
“Smart ass,” Seth said, feeling his tension finally beginning to ease. “You know what the will said.”
“No one is gonna know. No one will take your money away.”
“Depends on whether you think I seduced you or not. That’s what the Old Man said. I couldn’t seduce you.”
Katie chuckled. “We’ll just call it spontaneous combustion and forget about it. Okay?”
A curt nod was his reply, but Seth knew forgetting making love to Katie was an impossibility.
They hit the road to Indianapolis less than thirty minutes later.
Neither was really in the mood to rehash their precarious situation, so they made idle chit-chat and listened to one of Katie’s albums while Seth complained about her selection of music.
“Look at this,” he said as he flipped through her stack of CDs. “Barry Manilow and Billy Joel. Is that all you listen to?” He stopped and held up a CD case. “Oh, wait. Here’s a new one. Who the hell is Michael Bubbles?”
“It’s pronounced Boo-blay, you dingbat. Michael Bublé. He happens to sing some of my favorite songs.”
“Will you sing one for me on Monday?”
Katie shook her head. “I’m not going back to The Place until Brian and Sam can go, too. And I sure as hell won’t sing for you.”
“Why not? You didn’t have any problem singing some Carly Simon for me,” Seth said with a wink and a laugh.
Katie furrowed her brow. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”
“Never. Hey, don’t miss that turn off if we’re going downtown,” Seth cautioned as he continued to inventory her music. “You need to take better care of these. They’re all scratched up.”
“Yeah. I wear them out. That Barry Manilow CD,” Katie said, pointing to the case Seth held, “is the third one I’ve had of the same album.”
“One of these days, I’ll introduce you to some real music. Ever heard Metallica?”
“I can’t play stuff like that,” she replied with a chuckle. “It spooks the horses.”
* * * *
Once inside the hospital, Katie and Seth discovered Brian had been moved to a new room. They made the long trek to a new wing of the enormous campus to locate him.
“I hope his room has a VCR like the last one did. Otherwise, I wasted my time hauling these along.” Seth nodded toward the sack of video tapes he held.
As Katie was disparaging ever finding Brian’s room, they turned the corner and she caught sight of Samantha talking to one of the nurses. Katie waved and Sam returned the gesture. Sam said a few more things to the nurse before walking down the hall to greet them.
Katie gave her friend a hug. “How’s he doing?”
“It’s awful!” Sam complained. Katie shot her a worried look. “Sorry, it’s not what you think. He’s just so damn stubborn about everything. He won’t let anyone help him, and all he does is bitch about going home.” She nodded toward the sack Seth was totting. “What have you got in there?”
“I brought some race tapes. I was hoping Brian could offer the rookie some tips,” Seth replied.
“Maybe you can get him out of his sour mood. He lives to drive, but he won’t be able to for probably six months or more. Maybe he can be your mentor.” Sam gave him an enormous smile. “I heard you did a snap job on Spun Gold. Joe Perry says he’ll let you qualify all his two-year-olds.”
“Yeah. I’m getting a lot of qualifiers. But I really want to...”
Katie easily followed his train of thought and decided to quickly derail the ridiculous idea she knew he was proposing. “No. No way! You’re not driving in a race. You can’t even get your P license unless the officials waive the six-month rule, and you’ll be long gone by—” She suddenly stopped the flow of information. Watch your mouth, Kathleen.
“Come on,” Sam said to Katie. The stern glare Sam shot Katie’s direction declared the time of the inquisition had at long last arrived. “Let’s drop Wonderboy here off with Brian, and then we can go get a cup of coffee in the cafeteria.”
Brian seemed to cheer up considerably when Seth produced the cache of videotapes, and in only a few minutes, the two men were deeply engrossed in watching Brian’s glory days and discussing racing strategy.
Samantha and Katie slipped out the door and meandered down several winding corridors before they finally arrived at the cafeteria. After acquiring some coffee, the women sat down at a small table.
Katie shifted her cup in her hands as she waited anxiously for Sam to broach the subject of Seth. She knew from the look in Sam’s eye that the woman had a million questions on her mind. The confidentiality agreement chafed Katie again, and she wasn’t sure how she could honor it any longer—especially when she so desperately needed to share her burdens with her best friend.
“So are you ever gonna tell me what’s going on between you two?” Sam finally asked.
“It’s complicated.” Katie continued to stare at her cup.
“Bullshit. Just open your mouth and tell me about this guy.”
“I... I can’t.” Katie could feel the flush spreading over her cheeks.
Samantha leaned in studying Katie’s face. Her eyes suddenly flew wide. “Oh, my God! You slept with him, didn’t you?”
Katie had never been able to hide much from Sam, and it wasn’t surprising she already knew.
“At least tell me he was better than Mike.”
Katie couldn’t stop a laugh at the notion Mike might even be in the same league as Seth. “Loads better.” Her face felt like it had caught fire. “God, Sam, this is embarrassing.”
“For pity’s sake, why? It’s not like we haven’t always shared stuff.” Sam leaned into the table and lowered her voice. “How about I tell you one of the reasons Brian’s pissed off i
s because we’ll have to wait a long time to have sex again?”
“I kind of figured,” Katie replied. “How are you feeling? Getting enough rest?”
“Too much. Not much to do all day around here except watch TV and eat.” Sam lifted the hem of her shirt to expose the small tummy that had begun to show the child she was expecting. “Look at this. I’m gonna be in maternity clothes soon.”
“I think you look wonderful. I envy you.” Katie glanced away.
“I’m sorry, Katie. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” Sometimes Katie thought Sam could read her mind. “Besides, your doctor didn’t say it was hopeless, did he?”
Katie shook her head but scoffed at the notion anything in her life would ever come easy. She was a Murphy after all. “No, he didn’t. Highly unlikely, but not entirely hopeless. Not like that’s a lot to hang my hat on.”
They sipped their coffee quietly for a few moments.
“So when are you gonna tell me about Seth Remington?” Sam asked with a mischievous smirk.
Katie slapped her palms on the table. “You know! Oh, my God, you know! How? Who... who told you?”
Sam’s eyes were full of impish laughter. “I told you, there’s nothing to do here except eat and watch TV. Brian was flipping through the channels and found some late night gossip show. The Tattler, I think. And there was Seth’s face on the screen. The stupid show is offering a huge reward for anyone who can locate him. Brian thought we should call, but I wouldn’t let him.” She chuckled and waved her hand as if to push aside the notion. “He was teasing anyway. I think he actually likes the guy.”
Katie swallowed hard, trying to get a grip on her spinning thoughts. “What else did they say?”
“He disappeared after his dad’s funeral, and no one has seen him since. No wonder. Who in the hell would expect to find a guy with that much money living in Indiana and shoveling horse shit? He doesn’t look the same either. He’s really tan now, and his hair is a bunch shorter. The only reason we caught it was the name. How common is ‘Seth’? How’d he end up with you?”
