Riding High

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  Lily caught her excitement and was soon leaping in with ideas of her own. She’d create a website, a Facebook page and the graphics for a flier. Regan stood by the counter eating his coffee cake while he watched them interact, Tyler’s dark head leaning toward Lily’s fiery red one. Yep, this had been a great idea, if he did say so himself.

  Alex made an excellent counterpart to Tyler. He volunteered to help with local publicity and organize music if they decided to have any. These days Alex handled marketing for the Last Chance, but he used to be a DJ, which meant Alex and Tyler were the couple you wanted for a successful event.

  Josie offered to put up Lily’s fliers around town, including at the Spirits and Spurs. Morgan had connections in the business community, too, because she was a successful real estate broker, and Dominique said she’d push the adoption fair in her photography studio and give away portraits of any horse that was adopted. Pete’s experience with charity events would be valuable, too.

  “I think they have it together.” Jack walked over to the counter and refilled his coffee mug. “Let’s talk about the horses.”

  “Yeah, we need to do that.” Regan finished the last of his coffee cake. “We only have a week.”

  Jack beckoned to Nick and Gabe. “We need a confab over here. That bunch at the table will bring in the folks. That puts us in charge of the horses.”

  Nick topped off his coffee and turned back to Regan. “So six out of the twenty-one aren’t going anywhere. That leaves fifteen that could potentially be adopted.”

  “Right.”

  Gabe nodded. “That’s doable, I think. We’d have time to showcase each horse during an all-day event. You have a corral, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “We can give each horse fifteen or twenty minutes in that corral. Three an hour works out to five hours. We can take turns so each of us gets a break and a chance to talk to anybody who’s interested.”

  “They aren’t all ready for their spotlight,” Regan said. “These aren’t your expertly trained Paints, Gabe. They’re a little rough around the edges.”

  “So what kind of behaviors are we dealing with?” Jack cradled his mug in both hands. “Have you had a chance to evaluate them?”

  “To some extent. Several have bad habits. They’re not well mannered on the lead, or they’ve tried to crowd me in the stall. A couple are biters.”

  Jack nodded. “I figured as much. People say they don’t have the money to keep a horse, but sometimes it’s more that the horse has developed bad habits and they don’t know how to correct them.” He looked at Regan. “You don’t want to adopt out any horses that misbehave. Either they’ll come back, or they’ll be mistreated or passed on to some other unsuspecting person. Bad for the horse.”

  “I know.”

  “And Lily doesn’t know how to retrain them yet,” Nick added. “She admitted that when I talked to her on Friday. Oh, and by the way, Regan, a fence crew will be out there Monday morning to build her a paddock.”

  “Excellent. Thanks, Nick.”

  “I convinced them she doesn’t have the time to wait for them to work up a detailed estimate, so they’ll just give her a ballpark figure before they start. If she okays that, they’ll get to it immediately.”

  Regan nodded. “Good. I’m sure Lily will be thrilled. The fact is, we can’t have an adoption fair without a paddock. Penning the horses up in the barn for the day isn’t a good idea.”

  “I’m still working on the issue of how we’ll get them trained,” Gabe said. “I could spare some time at night, but that means leaving Morgan to deal with the kids, and she gets tired now that she’s PG again. Besides, I like being there for those rug rats.”

  “I’m in the same boat with little Archie,” Jack said. “And Josie’s been shorthanded at the bar recently, so she needs me to be at home when she has to go into town.”

  “I probably can help some,” Nick said. “But I’m coaching Lester’s Little League team, so that takes up three nights next week. Luckily his Saturday game is at night, so it won’t conflict with the fair.”

  “Even if it did, the game’s more important.” Regan had become fond of Lester, a small but spunky fifteen-year-old who’d been in the first batch of campers a couple of years ago. Dominique and Nick had fallen in love with Lester, and when they’d discovered he was in a dicey foster-care situation, they’d adopted him. “If you wanted to come out and train some night when he doesn’t have a game, you could bring him along.”

  “That’s an idea. And you know what? We don’t have to showcase all fifteen on Saturday. This will be an ongoing process, so we should plan to do another fair later on, maybe in the early fall.”

  “I agree,” Regan said. “If we can adopt out six or seven, that would be huge.” He glanced at Jack and Gabe. “I don’t want either of you to worry about anything except coming out on Saturday. Your kids are young. You have to be away from them most of the day. You don’t need to be sacrificing your evenings. I can handle the training.”

  Jack set his empty mug on the counter. “I’m sure you can, especially if you only concentrate on six or seven horses. But it’d be a lot more convenient if Peaceful Kingdom was located on this side of town instead of in the other direction. You’re going to be doing a lot of driving.”

  “Not necessarily.” Regan hesitated. He didn’t want to make Lily uncomfortable by discussing their new living arrangements while she was in the room, but she seemed to be absorbed in her conversation with the publicity team. “I don’t want you guys to read anything into this, but I’ve decided to stay in Lily’s guest room for the time being.”

  “Yeah?” Nick kept his expression carefully neutral. “Does she know about this decision?”

  “She does. We had a little incident yesterday where one of the geldings went after another one, and it scared her. She doesn’t have the background to deal with that kind of thing, so she asked if I’d hang around this weekend. If I’m going to work with the horses in my spare time this coming week, it seems logical for me to stay on.”

  “Yes, it certainly does.” Jack nodded and ducked his head to take a sip of his coffee.

  “Absolutely.” Gabe stroked his mustache, which allowed him to cover his mouth except for the corners, which were twitching. “Brilliant idea.”

  Jack spit his coffee back into his mug and his shoulders shook. When he looked up, his eyes brimmed with laughter. “Sorry, buddy, but your story has so many holes in it, Mary Lou could use it to strain her spaghetti. We all know why you’re staying out there. The animals will benefit, but there’s a lot more going on than training a few horses.”

  Nick grinned. “When Jack’s right, he’s right. Fortunately, Lily thinks you’re pretty cute, too. I could tell that from the way she talked about you.”

  Heat rose from Regan’s collar. “Is that so?”

  “Yeah.” Nick regarded him with amusement. “In fact, I called this one last night.” He glanced over at Jack. “Didn’t I, bro?”

  “You did. While we were sitting on the porch drinking beer and speculating on where, oh, where Regan O’Connelli might be, since he hadn’t been seen after heading out to Peaceful Kingdom around dinnertime.”

  “I’m sorry I missed that conversation,” Gabe said. “Morgan and I took the kids to a movie in Jackson last night so I wasn’t porch-sittin’ like these railbirds. But I didn’t miss the way you two were shooting sparks when you walked into the kitchen.”

  “Yeah, Tyler noticed it, too,” Nick said. “I saw that look she gave you. She’s gonna want to make sure you don’t hook up with another loser like Jeannette. Fortunately I can vouch for Lily. She’s a good kid.”

  “You need your eyesight checked, Nicky,” Gabe said. “She’s not a kid anymore, if you get my meaning.”

  Regan pointed a finger at Gabe. “And you can just keep yo
ur eyes to yourself, mister.”

  “Classic.” Jack smiled and shook his head. “Possessive and protective already. This will be fun to watch.”

  “Keep it down, okay?” Regan quickly glanced over at the table, but Lily and the rest of them seemed oblivious to the discussion going on over by the coffeepot. “I don’t want to embarrass her.”

  “Neither do we,” said Nick. “Don’t worry. We won’t make a big deal out of it. But don’t you need to pack a few things before you drive back?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.” He thought about the box of condoms. And clothes, of course. But the condoms topped his mental list.

  “Go ahead and handle that now,” Jack said. “I’ll explain to Mom later that you won’t be sleeping here for the foreseeable future. We’ll keep it on the down-low. Get your stuff and put it out in the truck. We can say you went upstairs to see Sarah Bianca.”

  “Which you should, anyway,” Gabe said. “SB will be devastated if she finds out you’ve been here and she didn’t get a hug.”

  “Good point. I’ll make it fast.”

  Jack checked the situation at the table. “Take your time. They’re into it, now. We’ll need to break it up soon, though, or they’ll be renting a jumping castle and a cotton-candy machine.”

  “Be back shortly. Oh, and Nick, will you be sure and tell Lily about the paddock? She’ll want to thank you for setting it up.”

  “I’ll tell her. Go take care of business, Romeo.”

  “Right.” Regan turned to leave but glanced over at Lily one last time.

  As if they’d choreographed it, Lily looked up and met his gaze. The moment was short and packed with meaning. When she turned her attention back to the notes she was taking on her phone, the corners of her mouth tipped up in a secret smile.

  He had the distinct feeling that she knew he was sneaking out to pack his clothes. Unless she was psychic, though, she couldn’t know what else he was going after. Then again, she’d claimed to be a bit psychic.

  She confirmed that she knew he’d packed a suitcase as they pulled away from the ranch house about thirty minutes later. “That was slick, Sherlock.”

  “What?”

  “Do you, or do you not, have a suitcase full of your stuff in the back of this truck?”

  “I do.”

  “I figured that’s what you were up to when you sidled out of the kitchen. What excuse did you give the Chance brothers so you could execute that maneuver?”

  “Didn’t need an excuse. Jack suggested I slide out and take care of that while nobody was looking.”

  “He didn’t! Are you saying they know you’ll be staying with me at least until Saturday?”

  From the corner of his eye, Regan noticed that her cheeks were very pink. “I had to tell them, Lily. They were twisting themselves into pretzels trying to figure out how we’d get these horses in shape, but the obvious answer was for me to move in and have regular access to them so I can make the best use of my free time.”

  “So they think this is strictly a business arrangement?”

  “Well...no. They don’t think that.”

  Lily groaned. “I’m afraid to ask what they think it is. But I guess it couldn’t be avoided. This is exactly what you warned me about.”

  “It’s not surprising.” He gave her a quick smile. “You’re a caring, beautiful woman, and I’m a man with a...” He started laughing and couldn’t finish.

  “What?”

  “A secret anguish.” And he laughed some more.

  She whacked him on the arm, but she was laughing, too. “I’ll never live that down, will I?”

  “I kind of like it. It gives me a certain Phantom of the Opera appeal.”

  “It used to, before you started making fun of my tenderhearted description.” She folded her arms and did her best to look stern and disapproving. “See if I worry about your secret anguish anymore. Or, to be more direct, O’Connelli, bite me.”

  He laughed so hard he almost ran them off the road. Fortunately they were still on the dirt stretch leading to the main highway into Shoshone and nobody else was coming from the other direction. “You are such a redhead. But I grew up with redheaded sisters. You can’t scare me.”

  “You sure?”

  His laughter faded. “No. You scare the hell out of me.”

  “I know.”

  “How do you know?”

  Her voice grew quiet. “Because you scare the hell out of me, and I recognize the look of panic that sometimes flashes in your eyes.”

  “Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m sure it does.”

  “I like you, Regan. I like you a lot.”

  “Ditto.” He took a deep breath. “Want to know how I picture us?”

  “Probably not, but now that you’ve asked me, of course I’ll die of curiosity if you don’t tell me.”

  “Is that a yes or a no?”

  “Yes! How do you picture us?”

  Now that he was about to tell her, he decided it was sort of stupid. Ridiculously romantic. Dopey, even. He shouldn’t have brought it up.

  “Come on, Regan. You have to tell me now.”

  “You’ll laugh.”

  “No, I won’t. I promise. You’re not thinking of us as Romeo and Juliet, are you? Or Anthony and Cleopatra? I don’t want to be a tragic couple.”

  “We’re not. At least I hope not. But I see us as two cliff divers standing at the top of a cliff, about to dive into a deep pool. Or maybe it’s a volcano, like in that old Tom Hanks movie.”

  “I remember that movie. He held hands with Meg Ryan before they jumped. Are we holding hands in your mental picture?”

  “Yeah.” Sheesh. Good thing nobody else was around to hear this sentimental claptrap. He’d be drummed out of the manly man corps.

  She was quiet after that, and he had to look over to make sure she wasn’t biting her lip to keep from laughing at him and his sappy image.

  She wasn’t laughing. Instead she gazed at him with a soft light in her eyes. “I think that’s a lovely image,” she murmured.

  “You do?” He waited for her to start giggling. When she didn’t, he returned his attention to the road, relief easing the tightness in his chest. Guilt followed. She was a nicer person than he was. “I shouldn’t have teased you about the secret anguish thing.”

  “I deserved it. That was way too dramatic. A cringe-worthy description.”

  “And cliff diving isn’t?”

  “No, it’s sweet and brave.” She paused. “And I like that we’re holding hands.”

  The warm feeling that he’d now recognized as happiness spread through him. “Me, too.” Without taking his eyes from the road, he reached for her hand. She met him halfway and laced her fingers through his. They rode in silence, hands clasped, all the way back.

  10

  LILY THOUGHT ABOUT Regan’s cliff-diving metaphor on the drive home. He hadn’t said they were jumping off a cliff together into the unknown. He’d said they were diving into a deep pool. It still sounded a little scary, but they had a destination, and it involved going beneath the surface of things.

  If she couldn’t trust a man like Regan not to treat her as if she was disposable, then she couldn’t trust anyone. She’d known from the moment she agreed to have him stay the rest of the week that she wouldn’t be able to resist him for seven solid days. As they pulled up in front of the locked sanctuary gate, she realized she couldn’t resist him for another seven minutes.

  She’d been the one to toss up objections with all her talk about rebound relationships, so she had to be the one to remove those objections. Yes, they had a lot to do in the next few days, but the world wouldn’t come to an end if they started a little bit later.

  “The house and barn are still in one piece.” Regan flashed
her a smile as he squeezed her hand and released it. “Can’t say that for the flower garden, but that was a foregone conclusion.”

  As she absorbed the beauty of that smile, her breath caught. She’d been drawn to him because he was gorgeous, but behind that million-dollar smile was a depth of character that she’d only begun to appreciate. She vowed to use these seven days to find out what made Regan O’Connelli so amazing.

  “Lily? Are you going to let us in?”

  “Uh, sure.” She scrambled out of the truck and opened the gate. Standing guard, she waited until Regan had driven through before locking up again. Once the critters were all penned in, she wouldn’t have to continue this little routine. But for now, because of the locked gate, no one could come to her door unannounced. Considering what she had planned for the next hour, that was a good thing.

  “Are you okay?” Regan climbed out of the truck, which had been fitted with a camper shell to protect his medical supplies.

  “I’m fine.” And soon she’d be mighty fine. So would he, if she had anything to say about it.

  “I know we didn’t talk much the last few miles of the drive.” He opened the tailgate and pulled out a small duffle bag. Closing the tailgate again with a clang, he turned to her. “Is something bothering you?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, there is.” She was glad he’d traded in his sunglasses for his Stetson. Looking into his eyes had become one of her favorite pastimes.

  His gaze darkened with concern. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Yes.” She kept her expression neutral, but inside she was a bottle of champagne about to pop its cork.

  “What? Tell me and I’ll do my best to fix whatever’s wrong.”

  What a caring man he was. How had she ever thought he’d end up hurting her? “Let’s go inside before we get into it.”

  “Yeah, sure.” He followed her up the steps and across the small front porch with the chewed-up railing. “I’ll replace that railing once the paddock is finished and Sally can’t get to it anymore.”