by Laura Moore
Six heads shook in solemn reply.
She smiled as she ducked down to grab Doc’s girth and buckle it.
This was going to be a really good group. All the kids in it were happy to be there—not a one pushed into taking lessons by an overambitious parent. But even in this eager lot, Hayley stood out. Since walking into the pony barn with Jenny Ferris, the two of them looking adorable in their jodhpurs and paddock boots and with their riding helmets tucked under their sweatered arms, Hayley had been following Jade’s instructions to a T.
It was pretty neat—in fact, what she’d dreamed of when opening the riding program—to spot the passion of a horse lover in a little girl and to know that Jade would be fostering it. Though this was her goal for all the kids in the program, Jade admitted that seeing the telltale spark in Hayley’s eyes was extra-special after sharing the previous night with Rob.
The prospect of being in a relationship continued to unnerve and unsettle her. But this, nurturing a love for these special animals, was something she could offer Hayley. In doing so, she would be giving something to Rob, his only daughter’s happiness inextricably linked to his own.
The weather was cool, but Jade far preferred to teach outdoors. They’d be riding inside and under banks of artificial lights soon enough. Once all six ponies and kids were down at the ring, she instructed them on the proper mounting technique (allowing for a little boost to the fanny to help the smaller kids pull themselves into the saddle). Stirrups were adjusted so the bottoms of the irons hit at the anklebone. Next she discussed the reins, so that everyone understood how long they should be. Yanking on ponies’ delicate mouths was not allowed. With their eyes up, heels down, backs straight, and knees tucked into the saddle roll, the kids nudged their ponies onto the rail.
With greater and lesser degrees of success.
Little Samantha Nicholls, astride Hopscotch, was going nowhere fast. Poor Hopscotch probably couldn’t even feel the six-year-old’s legs urging him forward.
Jade pressed her lips together to keep her laughter inside. Samantha was too cute.
“Remember how I showed you to soften your hands on the reins, Sam? That’s what you need to do here when you ask Hopscotch to move forward. Give him a little harder of a kick with the heel of your boot—it won’t hurt him, I promise—and a loud cluck too.” She made the sound out of the side of her mouth to encourage the chestnut gelding, and fortunately their combined efforts did the trick. Hopscotch obligingly ambled over to the rail to walk behind Archer, who was being ridden by Mack Reynolds. “There you go, Sam. Good job.”
Tucking her hands into the pockets of her vest, Jade leaned against the wooden painted wall jump and scanned the six ponies. “Now, all of you need to remember to keep a safe distance between your ponies. No horse or pony likes to have a nose stuck in its tail. Hayley, as you and Sweet Virginia are leading right now, you don’t have to worry about that, but you should know that she sometimes likes to get a bit too close, especially if she’s behind Dickens. They’re sweethearts.”
Before the kids began peppering her with questions about whether Ginny and Dickens would marry, she said, “You all are sitting pretty well in the saddle. Let’s see how you do dropping your stirrups while your ponies are walking. You’re going to have to keep your legs squeezing the saddle while you do this. All right, ease your toes out of the irons and let your legs drop. No need to tighten your hands on the reins, Jenny. Did you see how Maggie tossed her head? It’s because you were pulling on the bit. We want to have gentle hands. That’s right, now she’s happy again. Her ears are pricked forward. Okay, kids, now comes the hard part. You’re going to slide your legs up and put your feet back in the stirrups just by feel. No looking down and no bending over to adjust them. And you want to position the bottom of the stirrup just under the balls of your feet. It takes a lot of concentration, so I want all of you to take a minute and think about how your legs are going to move up the saddle a couple of inches and how your feet are going to find the stirrups, all without moving your hands or wiggling your bodies. Riding is about doing things very smoothly. That’s what we’re practicing here.” She paused, giving them time to prepare. “Ready? Okay, then, let’s see what you’ve got.…”
Rob arrived at Rosewood and made his way to the outdoor ring, where, one of the stable hands had told him, Jade was teaching her lesson. A couple of parents were already standing by the rail and, spotting him, waved a hand in welcome. He cut across the cropped grass to join them.
“Hayley’s doing really well, Rob,” Maryanne Ferris whispered.
Rob’s gaze swept over the line of ponies and stopped at Hayley’s fuchsia sweater. She was leaning over the reddish-gold pony’s neck, her left arm stretched out, trying to touch its ear. He had no idea why Jade was having Hayley and the other kids do that, but since all he cared about was that Hayley wasn’t lying in the dirt with a broken neck, he figured he might as well accept Maryanne’s assessment.
“And how about Jenny?”
“She’ll be in bed by eight,” she predicted happily. “Jade’s doing a great job. They’re working so hard.”
Again, Rob had to take Maryanne’s word for it. Then Hayley was rounding the corner and he saw the fierce concentration stamped on her face.
“Hi,” he mouthed.
Her brown eyes connected with his and she flashed an ear-to-ear smile. Then her gaze snapped back to stare between the pony’s ears. Whether his daughter was riding well or not might be debatable. That she was having the time of her life was not.
The lesson lasted another ten minutes, and by the end Rob thought that Hayley, too, would probably be in bed by eight o’clock. He hadn’t realized how many things a rider had to pay attention to at the walk and trot. Riding involved some serious multitasking.
Jade called the kids into the middle of the ring so that they could line up in front of her and dismount. Not even now, with the lesson nearly over, did she glance over to where the parents were grouped. Her focus was complete.
In the quiet of the afternoon, it was easy to hear her calm instructions. “Before you drop your stirrups, I’d like you all to sit tall in the saddle with your tummies in, eyes up, heels down, and your hands quiet over the pommel of the saddle. Very good. This is how you want to present yourself and your pony when you are called into the middle of the show ring, and some of you may want to enter a horse show one day.”
Easy to predict what one of tonight’s topics of conversations at the dinner table would be. Rob already knew he wouldn’t offer a token resistance when Hayley announced her latest ambition of entering a horse show. With another kid he might worry about the potential for spoiling, but Hayley would work her fanny off to achieve her goal and would learn a lot in the process.
Jade had gone over to adjust the angle of Samantha Nicholls’s lower leg—he guessed the little girl must be Samantha, because Joy Nicholls was watching them fixedly. Just then one of the grooms and Ned Connelly, silver-haired but moving with the vitality of a man twenty-five years younger, ducked between the wooden rails and stepped into the ring. They walked up to stand in front of the line of ponies. When Jade stepped back, she said something and the two men fanned out so that they all were within easy reach of the bridles.
Jade spoke again and loudly enough for him to hear. “In a dismount, you need to move as smoothly as possible so your pony doesn’t get nudged and think it’s being told to walk. Hayley, can you bring Sweet Virginia forward? I’m going to have you demonstrate for the others so they can see what they need to do. Is that okay with you?”
Hayley’s black riding helmet seesawed as she nodded.
“Good. Now, a dismount is basically the opposite of how you mount a horse. You all are smart, so you’ll get the hang of it quick as a wink, but, just as with mounting a horse, it’s important to dismount correctly.
“Hayley, first you need to drop your stirrups and let your feet simply dangle. Next, you’re going to take the reins in your left hand and place t
hem near the pommel as you swing your right leg over the cantle. As your right leg reaches the left, you need to shift your right hand to the cantle—the back of the saddle. Terrific. Did you see how Hayley did that, guys, and how now she’s sort of lying with her tummy on the saddle? All she has left to do is slide gently to the ground. Go ahead, Hayley.”
When Hayley nailed her landing like a gymnast coming off the apparatus, Rob grinned. It was all he could do not to shout, “Way to go!”
But if he had, he might have drowned out Jade’s words, which right now carried so much weight for his daughter.
“Well done, kiddo. A top-notch demonstration. Now, can you slip the reins over Sweet Virginia’s head while Ned, Tito, and I watch the others take their turns?” As she passed Hayley, Jade gave her a pat on the helmet.
The warmth that unfurled in Rob’s chest as he watched Jade with his daughter ought to have surprised him. A mere month ago he’d scoffed at the notion that he might ever feel this way for a woman again. That the woman in question would be Jade Radcliffe was even more inconceivable.
He’d obviously gotten a lot smarter since school had opened.
And a hell of a lot luckier.
The ponies had been untacked and gone over with a soft brush before being led back into their stalls, the tack had been neatly stowed away on the saddle trees and bridle hooks (a lesson in tack cleaning would come next week), and parents and kids were reunited with lots of excited exclamations and quizzing regarding the whereabouts of backpacks and sweaters and jackets.
Listening, Jade made a mental note to install a lost-and-found box in the club room for kids prone to having their belongings go missing.
She was pleased with the afternoon’s lesson. The ponies had performed impeccably; the kids’ behavior was downright sterling. And she hadn’t even gotten frazzled when Rob had showed up. She knew the riding lessons wouldn’t always go this smoothly, but starting off on the right foot and hoof made Jade hopeful.
Waiting beside the pony barn’s wide doors as parents herded their kids in the direction of the parking lot, she stretched surreptitiously. Exhilarated as she was by the adrenaline high of having taught a good class, she was also a little tired and a great deal hungry. Once she finished riding Cosmo, Carmen, and Valentine, she was going to raid her freezer. She seemed to remember that Jordan had stashed a frozen mac and cheese in there.
“Thank you for the lesson, Miss Radcliffe.”
Hayley looked pretty adorable standing in front of her. She’d taken her helmet off and was swinging it by the chin strap so that it knocked against her jodhpurclad legs. Her black hair, the exact same shade as Rob’s, was matted against her head.
“You’re welcome, Hayley. So where’s your dad?” She hoped the question came out casually enough. She didn’t want Hayley to suspect that she’d been keeping an eye out for Rob. He’d been considerate to keep his distance, but then he’d disappeared.
“He’ll be right back. He said he had to get something from the car.”
“Oh.” It alarmed her how her stomach fluttered in anticipation at the thought of him standing close to her again. Much better not to think of it, then. “You did a really nice job on Ginny, Hayley.”
“She was so great. She’s the nicest pony I’ve ever ridden. And I like Hopscotch too. I gave him part of my apple, ’cause my dad sliced it into pieces for me.”
“I’m sure Hopscotch loved his treat. I’m glad you like him. You know my niece Olivia? She picked him out for me.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean she got to ride him and help you decide whether to buy him?”
“Yup. I had her, Kate, and Max try out Hopscotch, Sweet Virginia, Maggie, and Dickens. They were pretty good judges, don’t you think?”
Hayley nodded in wide-eyed wonder. “That must have been so much fun.”
“Since you’ll be taking lessons twice a week, you’ll get to try the other ponies out too. You’ll have to tell me if Hopscotch is as great as Ginny.”
“He will be.”
Jade already knew Hayley well enough to sense that would be the case. Hayley was fiercely loyal once she made an attachment.
The sound of crunching gravel had Jade turning her head. She blinked at the approaching vision. With the sun angled low behind him, Rob’s tall, strong body was outlined in fiery gold. He looked … well, godlike. Of course, it was merely an optical trick, making the fact that Jade’s heart had begun bumping madly against her chest all the more embarrassing.
Was this how Margot and Jordan saw Travis and Owen—awash in gold and disturbingly special—when the men were doing nothing more than walking in the afternoon sunlight? Was this why her sisters sometimes seemed so loopy, because they were battling hallucinations?
A smile was playing over the lips that she’d kissed last night. “Hi.”
If possible, her heart bumped and thumped even more erratically. There was no reason to behave as if that two-letter word had never been addressed to her, or as if she’d never been spoken to in a deep, smiling voice. That way led to madness. Or love. And then perhaps to a mad love. And that she could link Rob Cooper with those words was enough to freak her out. Jade gave a quick hard shake of her head to empty it of any further treacherous and downright crazy ideas.
“No? You don’t want this?” Rob asked. Jade belatedly registered the paper bag he was holding out to her. “I kinda thought you would. It’s a pumpkin cream-cheese muffin from Braverman’s. My sister, Emma, told me it’s your favorite.” He jiggled the bag.
“You got a muffin for me?” It didn’t even bother her that her voice came out as an astonished squeak. Or that she was easy, won over by a melt-in-your-mouth muffin. At the moment, not even a box in Tiffany’s distinctive shade of robin’s-egg blue could have competed with the unadulterated delight the Braverman’s logo printed on the white paper bag produced.
“A token of our appreciation,” he said, passing the bag to her.
Maybe it hadn’t been an illusion; maybe Rob was kind of a god if he knew enough to bring her a pumpkin cream-cheese muffin after a long day.
“Thank you, Hayley, thank you …”
“Rob,” he supplied, laughter threading his voice at her obvious reluctance to address him by his first name in front of Hayley. “Hayley, you must have worked up an appetite with that terrific riding. I bought you a muffin too. It’s in the backseat, kiddo, along with a carton of milk.”
She was off like a shot, calling, “Bye, Miss Radcliffe. See ya tomorrow at school,” as she flew around the barn in the direction of the parking lot.
He stepped closer. “Hey, I thought of you today. A lot.”
Her heart would not quit slamming against her chest. How could it, when he said things like that so simply and straightforwardly?
“I guess you crossed my mind a couple of times too. Of course, my day was probably quite a bit busier than yours, as I was helping the kitchen staff cook apple fritters, making apple graphs, and reading and correcting journal entries about the trip to the orchard. Eugene was the star of many stories, but you came in a close second.”
She’d spent a fair amount of her day worrying about how Eugene was faring. Ted Guerra hadn’t heard anything from the Harrisons or their lawyer, which meant that Christy had probably struck out in getting the ER doctors to say Jade had failed to treat Eugene properly for his bee stings. But Eugene’s absence from school bothered Jade. He’d have really liked working on the apple graphs. She would call the Harrisons again later to see how he was doing, not that she expected them to pick up if they had caller ID.
“A busy day indeed. I’m glad I warranted even a passing thought.” When Rob smiled crookedly like that, he had the cutest dimple. “Am I going to see you this weekend? Hayley’s been invited to Posey’s house for a sleepover Saturday.”
“To Posey’s? That’s nice.” She was having trouble concentrating.
The dimple deepened. Were dimples supposed to be sexy? “Say you’ll see me Saturday night, Jade.”
“I—yes.”
“Good.” He exhaled a pent-up breath and laughed. “You had me in a state of suspense there.” Then his hand was cupping the back of her neck and he was kissing her with enough heat to make her head spin like a top. Drawing back, he gazed at her as if he liked what he saw, which only made her dizzier.
“Gotta go. It’s a school night, you know. I’ll be thinking of you.” He kissed her again. Quickly, fiercely, and when their lips parted, she could only be grateful she was leaning against the barn door’s frame. Her knees had turned to jelly. The rest of her was equally useless; the bag with the muffin nearly dropped to the gravel from her fingers. And for the life of her she couldn’t stop staring up at Rob’s handsome face.
“I assume this means you and Jade have patched things up,” Margot said. Her sister’s amused tone performed a miracle. Jade regained her senses. She straightened as if her back had suddenly been fused with an iron rod.
Rob’s reaction was far more relaxed. He stepped back, letting his hand slip from Jade’s neck. “Yeah, she’s decided to forgive me.”
Margot offered him a wide smile, one of the ones she reserved for people she liked. “I’m so glad to hear that.”
He nodded easily in reply before shifting his attention back to her. He didn’t seem fazed by Margot, which Jade found kind of remarkable. Her sister’s stunning beauty and confidence generally transformed men into babbling idiots or mute lumps.
“See you, Jade.”
“See you. And thanks for the muffin.” Considering that her heart was still playing leapfrog in her chest, she was pleased at how normal she sounded.
“Anytime. I figure I owe you after all those donuts you sent me.”
She smiled weakly, while beside her Margot whispered a shade too loudly, “Busted.”
Trying not to squirm when one was definitely in the hot seat wasn’t easy. “Oh, yeah. I’d almost forgotten about those donuts.”
The mirth in his eyes told her he wasn’t buying her line. “I was a real hit with the guys in the department for a while there. Bye, ladies.”