The Horse Trainer, The Buyer & The Bride (Country Brides & Cowboy Boots)

by Erica Penrod

  Lucas walked over as she got out of the truck. Viv didn’t know why, but she waited for Amanda by the tailgate. Together they met him next to a metal hitching post. There wasn’t any manure or any other visible evidence that horses had been tied there to be saddled. Looking around, she noticed the grounds were immaculate: nothing was out of place. There had to be a hidden full-time army of employees just to clean up.

  Viv continued to survey the facility, aware that she didn’t know places like this existed even in her dreams. As an enthusiastic equestrian lover, this was her idea of heaven. Rows of stalls that had one side in the barn and one side out, filled with the finest horses, stretched for as far as she could see, providing a profoundly spiritual experience. Their coats shone in the sunlight, their hooves all the perfect length with new shoes glinting. Amazed that Lucas wasn’t baptized by immersion into loving horses—these surroundings baffled her. Not to mention his DNA. From what she understood about Lucas’s late father, he was passionate about the sport of cutting and equally enthralled with breeding and bloodlines.

  Lucas grinned at Vivien. His sharp, dark blue eyes intensified as he watched her. Caught off guard and unable to interpret his gaze, Viv reached up and smoothed her ponytail while goose bumps covered her skin. She felt like she was under a microscope. What was his deal? Lucas had never looked at her like that before—at least, not that she’d noticed. Maybe he was trying to determine whether or not she’d decided to live here.

  “Hi, Mom,” he said, barely making eye contact.

  Or maybe he was acting strange because of Amanda. If he had mommy issues, the last thing on Viv’s to-do list was to get involved between a spoiled rich brat and his Barbie-doll mom.

  “So, are you going to show me around?” she asked Lucas. There was no reason to visit crazy town when a barn of horses waited for her to discover it.

  “Of course,” he said, like she’d pulled him from another place in his mind.

  “Which way first?” she asked. Not waiting for an answer, she walked towards the myriad of horses.

  Lucas and Amanda caught up with her. “I guess we’ll start here,” he said. There was an edge to his voice. He wasn’t good at follow the leader.

  She stopped at a dapple-grey mare in the first stall. “Wow,” she said, as she reached over to stroke the top of the horse’s mane. “She’s beautiful.”

  “She is,” Lucas said as he stood beside her. “And she’s won a lot of money.”

  “She’s got the right build,” Viv said.

  “I’m glad you think so,” Lucas said. “Because she’s mother to the gelding I want you to train.”

  Viv’s heart jumped like she’d won the lottery. To be able to train these highbred horses was what she’d always wanted, but she still didn’t understand why Lucas wanted her. She was an unknown in the cutting world, and she knew she was good, but Lucas had never seen her work. Why did Lucas trust her for the job? Her father didn’t. When he brought home Ace, she’d been naïve enough to think her chance had come; she’d never been more wrong.

  She bit her lip, shook her head, and buried that pain beneath the possibility of what she could do with Lucas’s horse. She hadn’t even seen him yet, but if the horse had even half his mother’s breeding, Viv was in for the time of her life.

  Forgetting her uneasiness and Lucas’s strange watchful behavior, she moved down to the next stall and the sorrel filly inside. She could spend the day here, just studying the different horseflesh.

  “What’s this all about?” Amanda asked her son. “You never mentioned anything about Vivien coming to train for you.” She leaned against the rail and folded her arms. Viv didn’t recognize the serious tone to her voice.

  “I’m a grown man,” he said. His left eyebrow rose, like he couldn’t believe she’d ask such a thing.

  “I understand that. But you’re still my son, and these are my horses.”

  “All but one,” Lucas clarified.

  Viv stirred the dirt below with the tip of her boot, looking anywhere other than at Lucas and Amanda.

  “Even then, you’ve never shown any interest in him. Why now?” Amanda asked.

  Viv looked up at Lucas from the corner of her eye, anticipating his response.

  “I made the decision to hire Viv long before I knew about you and her father, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “I’m not worried about anything,” Amanda said with a soft voice, like she had closed the door to an argumentative room. “I’m glad to see you take an interest. Your dad would be thrilled.”

  Compelled by Amanda’s calm, Viv studied her new stepmother. Was she really that nice?

  Lucas appeared to be looking for a fight, and that made Viv want to run. Too much personal conversation had her itching to run, but her interest in Lucas’s gelding kept her boots stuck to the ground.

  “I’m sure he would,” Lucas said. “But you know the old saying: A day late and a dollar short.”

  Perplexed by the man next to her, she’d never considered Lucas Royal as anything other than an entitled playboy, but he bruised just like everyone else. Today, she’d witness the pain in his eyes and realized he disguised his hurt by a masquerade of bravado and expensive clothes.

  Amanda reached up and touched her son’s shoulder. If his words bothered her, she didn’t show it. “It’s never too late. I’m sure he’s watching over you right now,” she said.

  Lucas dropped his shoulders. “Spare me all the guardian angel crap.”

  He wanted his mother to think he didn’t care. That much was obvious to Viv, but the way his mouth softened and his eyes faded into a cloudy blue, she knew he was feeling more than he’d ever admit.

  Amanda brushed at her bangs. “Anyway,” she said to Lucas before she looked to Viv. “I’m glad you’ll be working together.”

  Before Viv knew what was happening, Amanda wrapped her in a hug. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said.

  Viv stood there like a pitchfork caught in a frozen water trough.

  “Easy, Mom,” Lucas said, an easy smile returning to his face. “Can’t you see she’s about to bolt and run?”

  Amanda let go, while Viv scowled at Lucas.

  “I’ll see you later,” Amanda said, and kissed her son on the cheek before he could refuse her.

  Now it was Viv’s turn to grin. She half expected this grown man to reach up and wipe away his mother’s display of affection. There was a pale lip print on his face. Viv extended her hand to dab off the evidence, but when her fingers touched his face, he recoiled like he’d been slapped.

  “Jeez,” Viv said, jamming her hands in her pockets. “I was just trying to wipe the gloss off.”

  “Sorry,” Lucas said. A similar expression to the one she saw earlier when his father was mentioned covered his face.

  “It’s not your color,” she said with a half smile.

  “No,” he said. “I usually prefer something a little darker.” He reached up and scrubbed at his cheek.

  There was an awkward fog around them. Viv didn’t want to ask about his peculiar behavior, and he obviously wasn’t about to volunteer an explanation.

  “How about you show me this horse you’ve been bragging about.” Viv requested. Like a summer breeze, she hoped a change in direction would clear the air between them. “Let’s see if he’s everything you say he is?” she challenged.

  “Oh, he is,” Lucas said. Once again, confidence colored his eyes into the deep blue she was accustomed to. “This way,” he said, and began walking.

  Viv trailed behind. Up until a couple nights ago, Viv wasn’t sure that Lucas even knew her name, but he’d sought her out to train his horse. A sickening feeling dropped in her stomach. Her dad had to be right: Lucas only hired her to get even with his mom. She stopped, while her head buzzed with all the ramifications of that possibility. Her stupidity and naivety that led to believing he wanted her for her competence with horses must’ve been hilarious to them all. She should’ve known that Lucas Roya
l had never wanted anything to do with her, not professionally and certainly not personally—she’d seen the way he jumped when she tried to touch his cheek. Stepbrother or not, she wasn’t about to be the flag in their tug-of-war.

  “Hey!” she called out.

  Lucas stopped and turned around. His smile faded when he saw her face.

  “I quit,” she said, before she changed her mind. She spun in her tracks and hustled to the truck before he could see her cry.

  Chapter 7

  Lucas made decisions with his head and not his heart, but there was nothing mindful about the way he chased after Viv. She slammed her truck door just as he reached her. He pounded on the window with a fist full of confusion. Anger at himself for caring so much pumped through his blood.

  “What the heck are you doing?” he demanded as she slowly rolled the window down. His infuriation quickly morphed into a steady flow of apprehension as he saw her dampened cheeks.

  She bit her trembling lip and shook her head. But she didn’t look at him.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. He gripped his hands into fists to keep from reaching out to her.

  She didn’t say anything, and he didn’t know what to do. He knew she was fighting to keep herself together.

  “Did something happen?” he said, racking his brain to figure out what he missed.

  She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her shoulder and took a couple deep breaths.

  “Viv, what’s going on?” he asked again. He ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t understand. I thought you were excited about seeing the horse.”

  Her face bent towards him, but she stared somewhere in the distance.

  “Viv,” he said. This time he wasn’t strong enough to stop himself from touching her. His world wouldn’t revolve unless he could fix whatever had gone so wrong in hers. Touching her arm, he tried to conceal his anguish when he felt her shudder beneath his fingers.

  Just then her hazel eyes emerged into a fierce green. Lucas pulled his hand away.

  “Why did you hire me?” she asked as she gripped the steering wheel.

  “Because you’re good with horses. Especially cutting horses.”

  She chewed on the corner of her lip as she tried to look right through him.

  “When?” she asked.

  He furrowed his brow. “When, what?”

  “When did you decide to hire me? Was it before or after you found out about our parents?”

  “That’s what this is about?” he asked, taking a step back. “Does it even matter?”

  A blue thunderbolt flashed in her green eyes. “Yeah. Of course it does.”

  Lucas put his thumbs in his front pockets and looked down at the ground. “It doesn’t. You’re not going to believe me …” He looked up at her. “… no matter what I say.” Knowing she saw him as at the very least an acquaintance, and at the very most a stepbrother, made his blood boil.

  “Try me,” she said.

  “I came back to this town, to this place—” He threw a hand in the air as he cussed under his breath. “—because I wanted you—”

  Crap.

  He cleared his throat. “I mean, I know what kind of horse I have, and I did my homework.” He paused while a sin of omission left a black mark on his heart. Viv didn’t need to know he wanted a way to get to her. “And I wanted you to train him.”

  She leaned back in the seat. “You didn’t answer the question,” she said.

  “I intended to hire you before I knew anything about our parents.”

  She nodded, but her eyes were still grenade green.

  He tipped his chin towards her. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter,” he said as he backed up even farther. Lucas wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of leaving him … first. “Bye, Viv,” he said as he raised his hand before he turned around and walked away.

  * * *

  Boone’s phone vibrated. He leaned the pitchfork against the rail, wiped his brow, and took off his leather gloves before he reached into his pocket. For a moment, he thought about tossing the miserable thing into the pile of manure. He’d hoped he wouldn’t have service in the outskirts of this tiny Utah town, and as he contemplated pushing the ignore button, he knew he couldn’t. Too much was on the line. Private flashed across the caller ID, reminding him of what was at stake.

  “Hello,” he said.

  The familiar voice of a stranger greeted him. They’d met in person once and spoken numerous times, but if Boone were to pass him on the street, he wasn’t sure he’d recognize the man who seemed to control his life.

  “Has there been any contact?” the deep voice asked, a thick Texas accent dragging out his words.

  “None,” Boone answered.

  “Let’s keep it that way.”

  “Yes sir,” Boone said, as if there was anything he could do about any of this.

  “I’ll be in touch.”

  The dial tone rang in his ears, while nausea washed over his body. He lifted his hat, wiped his brow, and then took a deep breath. Grateful for the days full of hard work to take his mind off the reality of why he was in Utah, he put the phone back in his pocket and pulled on his gloves.

  There was no one else to blame. He’d willingly walked into the spider’s web, and now he had to find a way out.

  * * *

  What just happened? Lucas kept walking, beyond the fence line and into a thick patch of oak brush where the sun didn’t meet the ground and the earth stayed moist from constant shadow. Ducking into the cover, he sought his childhood refuge and took a seat on a log he’d dragged in there fifteen years ago.

  With his head in his hands, he ran his fingers through his hair. What was he doing? He didn’t need Vivien McIntyre. Back in Texas, he could have his pick of any trainer he wanted for the right price.

  Something was happening to him, something he couldn’t explain, but after a few years on his own, he felt an ache in his bones, a pain in his chest that wouldn’t ease up. No matter how many pretty girls he dated or how much money he spent, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to return to Utah.

  “Lucas?”

  He startled from his thoughts. Vivien?

  “Are you in here?” He heard her voice and watched the leaves rustle as she pushed them aside.

  The sun snuck through as she stepped in, just as bold as brass. Lucas blinked while a halo of light wrapped around her unruly curls. He felt the blood rush through his body, a mixture of excitement and apprehension making his heart beat faster. What did she want?

  “This is pretty cool,” she said, seemingly unaware she was trespassing.

  Heat climbed his face as he stood up. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “How did you find me?”

  “I followed you,” she said, matter-of-factly.

  “I thought you left,” he said, and squared his shoulders, hoping she saw a man and not the boy she found in the trees.

  “I did,” she said, still inspecting her surroundings. “But then I stopped. Luckily, you’re kind of a slow walker …” She grinned as she sat down on the log.

  “I didn’t invite you,” he said, sitting next to her. How was he supposed to figure anything out when she was this close? Her wild scent reminded him of flowers with a hint of leather and horses. She was the real deal in her denim jeans and scuffed-up boots, and as she scooted him over with her hips, he knew he’d never meet another woman like her.

  “I know,” she said as she got comfortable. “But I don’t care.”

  Part of him wanted to push her off the log; the other wanted her to stay close.

  “I wanted to apologize,” she said, picking at a piece of chipped bark. “I know we don’t know each other, and this thing with our parents has got me acting like a crazy person. And I don’t know why you hired me for sure, and right now, I don’t even care—”

  “I told you—”

  “I said I don’t care, because this is my chance, and I’m a fool if I don’t take it.” She looked into his eyes. “That is, if the
job’s still mine.”

  He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Of course it is.”

  “Good.” She bumped him with her shoulder. “Because if you said no to your little sister, I’d tell your mom.”

  Closing his eyes, her words shattered through his head like little pieces of glass, cutting out the possibility of the future he’d imagined.

  “Very funny,” he said as he stared down at the gold ring that had belonged to his father; it was engraved with the Royal family crest. Standing up, his head cleared and he remembered who he was: a man who got anything he wanted. Smiling, he offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet. He wanted Vivien McIntyre, and if he had to, he’d use any means at his disposal to have her.

  Chapter 8

  Viv pulled through the drive, a million thoughts running through her mind. Like fireflies in the night, she had a hard time catching any of them. Nerves and excitement bubbled in the same pot as anxious apprehension, and she didn’t know which was about to be served first. Lucas had her seeing stars, or better yet, she could hear her name being called at the Fort Worth Futurity, the Super Bowl of cutting.

  Earlier today, when she finally got the chance to see Lucas’s horse, Moon By Knight, she knew he was something special. She’d waited her whole life to work with a horse like this. Tears filled her eyes as she ran her hands down the back of the black horse. She ducked down and picked up the horse’s feet, hoping to hide her emotions from her new employer, but when she stood back up and saw the look on Lucas’s face, she laughed; she wasn’t the only fool there today.

  After seeing the grounds at the Royals’ ranch, she made her mind up about where to train, and when she told Lucas, his eyes lit up. The Royal ranch was the obvious choice. Those eyes dimmed when she said she wanted to stay at her place and make the short drive. She wasn’t ready to leave everything behind—not just yet. Call it pathetic or just plain stupid, she couldn’t walk away from the only place she’d ever known as home. The loose ends left by her father would strangle her if she didn’t find a way to tie things up. There didn’t need to be a pretty bow on the top, but she couldn’t leave things undone … and there was Jameson.