Ride a Dark Horse

by Laura Moore

  Melissa didn’t hesitate an instant. “She’s the kind of woman who wears a silk blouse and open-toed, highheeled sandals into a barn full of horses.”

  “Oh dear. That’s awful.” Cassie tried not to snicker too loudly at the scathing characterization.

  Melissa smiled, shaking her head. “Caleb was awfully young. Pamela simply broadsided him. She had him at the altar before he knew what was happening. Or any of us could talk him out of it. In a way, I guess I feel sorry for her, too . . . at least a little bit, and only on my most compassionate days. I think she had this fantasy image in her mind of how exciting and glamorous the life of a vet might be, especially for a vet living in these parts who specializes in horses. Like something out of a made-for-TV movie. And she was so greedy, not even Caleb’s success—and he’s done quite well in a short amount of time—satisfied her. She left him for some fat cat with a huge bank account and a string of polo ponies.”

  Cassie’s eyes widened. She sat, stunned by the information. Her cereal quickly turned to sodden mush, forgotten in its bowl. “You mean she left Caleb for another man?”

  “No, I think she actually left Caleb for a bigger bank account and a purse full of gold cards. Because even now with all her wealth, married to another man, she’s still hovering about trying to lure Caleb back. See whether he’ll bite. I certainly don’t like the way her eyes eat him up whenever we have the bad luck to cross her path. She hurt his heart and his pride and doesn’t even have the decency to leave him alone so that he can heal. Although Caleb tries not to show it, the divorce left him foundering. Her popping up every other minute just makes it all the more difficult.”

  “But if they’re divorced, why would Caleb need to have anything to do with her at all?”

  Melissa mumbled a vague reply something about a divorce settlement, in any case difficult to hear as Hank succumbed to a loud coughing spasm that filled the Sawyers’s kitchen.

  Suddenly both Melissa and Hank remembered tasks that required their immediate attention, abandoning Cassie to her soggy cereal and her thoughts. She glanced down at the bowl in distaste, shoving it aside. The toast, though cold, was still edible. She picked up a slice.

  How awful for Caleb to have discovered too late just how ill-suited he and Pamela were for each other. In comparison, Cassie realized she’d been far luckier. She learned fairly early that marrying Brad could only end in disaster. And the pain that might have been inflicted on Sophie and Jamie was avoided.

  That bitter month of February when Brad revealed the true source of his antagonism remained all too clear in her mind, as if it were yesterday.

  First, that snowy grey afternoon when Brad had come by her family’s home to pick her up. College friends were visiting the city and wanted to get together for the evening. Brad had arranged to meet them at one of his favorite hangouts. But when he arrived, he found Cassie wearing a path into the living room rug as she attempted to soothe a shrieking Sophie. Brad had looked at Sophie cradled in her arms with impatience.

  “What’s going on? Why aren’t you ready?” His gaze moved over her, taking in her threadbare sweatpants and rumpled turtleneck.

  “Oh, Brad, I’m sorry! Things have been so chaotic here, I forgot to call. Sophie’s not well.”

  “Why isn’t Thompson taking care of it? Isn’t that what she’s paid for?”

  “Thompson’s upstairs with Jamie, giving him a bath.” Brad muttered something Cassie couldn’t catch. His eyes narrowed on the baby once more.

  “I really am sorry, Brad, but please understand. Sophie’s been like this off and on since yesterday. She’s got a cold and her teeth are bothering her. The pediatrician’s given her drops, but they don’t seem to help. He said there’s not much we can do except to make her as comfortable as possible.”

  “Well if there’s nothing you can do, then let’s go. Thompson can deal.” He glanced at his watch. “I told Greg we’d meet him at six. We’ll be late if we don’t hustle.”

  “Brad, just look at her! Sophie’s sick! And Thompson was up all night with her. She’s exhausted. I’m the twins’ guardian, as well as their aunt. I can’t leave. I’m sorry you’ll have to go without me. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  Before her astonished eyes, Brad’s face darkened to a deep, ugly red. Without another word, he stormed out, the front door shuddering in its frame seconds after his departure. Leaving Cassie dazed and sick at heart.

  She didn’t hear from him for more than a week.

  Their engagement was over on the evening of the fourteenth, Valentine’s Day. It would have been far more fitting had it been Halloween, because even now that final scene played inside her head like a nightmare.

  Cassie had been an emotional wreck when Brad finally called. His behavior the afternoon of Sophie’s sickness was one reason for her increasing nervousness. Too, Cassie realized it was imperative she broach the idea of the twins’ adoption with Brad. Adopting them was a decision Cassie had made as she’d struggled with her grief over Tom’s and Lisa’s deaths. She was convinced of its rightness. She’d always assumed Brad would agree.

  Subconsciously, however Cassie must have guessed what Brad’s reaction to her idea would be. Because when Brad finally called, suggesting they make up and celebrate Valentine’s Day with a candlelit dinner at their favorite French restaurant, Cassie had deliberately dressed to please him. Her navy blue silk shift emphasized the slimness of her figure and enhanced the midnight blue of her eyes. She left her hair down, allowing the riotous curls their freedom. Her shoulders were bare, and she’d chosen the tea rose scent Brad said he loved on her skin.

  It was over a dessert of raspberry mousse and champagne that Cassie managed to gather her courage and bring up the subject of Sophie and Jamie. “Brad, I’ve been thinking about the babies.”

  “Babies, what babies? Oh, your brother’s kids.” Brad took another sip from his champagne glass. He’d been drinking steadily since they’d arrived at the restaurant. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking, too. Mulling over ideas about what to do with them.”

  Determinedly optimistic, Cassie smiled, the candlelight adding to its brilliance.

  “You have? That’s wonderful!” She reached out to stroke his hand wrapped around the stem of the champagne glass. “You know whenever I look at them I’m overwhelmed. They’re so beautiful. I love you and them so much. Brad, wouldn’t it be perfect if we could adopt Jamie and Sophie? We’d be a family. In my heart, I know that’s what Tom and Lisa would have wanted.”

  “Yeah, well, they’re gone and we’re alive ” Brad countered flatly as he lifted his glass, breaking the contact of their hands. The glass stem twirled between his fingers. “Adoption. That’s a pretty big assumption you’re making, Cassie. What makes you think I’m going to jump at the chance to raise someone else’s children? Why should I? The way you’ve been acting, it’s like those kids are the most important thing in the world. Well, they’re not to me.”

  Right then, Cassie’d had the awful sensation that she was going to be sick all over the white damask tablecloth. “But . . . but, Brad!” she’d stammered. Taking a deep breath, she’d forced herself to begin again, to appear calm. Surely Brad’s attitude was champagne induced.

  “Jamie and Sophie are my nephew and niece. They’re barely eleven months old and are orphans. Of course I’m trying to give them as much attention as possible. I’m their aunt and guardian. Wouldn’t adopting them be the right thing?”

  “And I’d get to assume the financial responsibility. Terrific. I hate to break it to you but I had other plans for my money. You probably don’t have any idea how much it will cost, do you?”

  “That is unfair and untrue, and you know it. Alex has devoted a lot of time and thought into investing my inheritance and managing the funds in the children’s trust.”

  “And what if your hotshot brother’s investments fail? I’ve had it up to here with how terrific he is. Let me tell you something, from where I see it, I’m the one who’s doing all
the giving: my name, my house, my protection. So, how about this for a plan? Let’s get Alex to adopt the twins. Let him shoulder some real responsibility.”

  “Brad, you said you loved me.” Cassie hated the pleading note she heard in her voice, but was frantic to find the person she loved.

  Not this stranger sitting across from her.

  Fear, too, made her voice quaver. She could no longer pretend that this was just the effect of one too many glasses.

  “I do love you.” Brad leaned forward and grabbed her cold hand, massaging hers roughly. “Come on, Cassie,” he cajoled. “We don’t need those kids. You and I can make our own babies. Lots of beautiful babies.” His gaze dropped to her breasts, lingered, then slowly returned to her face. She cringed at the slight smirk on his lips. “I taught you how, didn’t I?”

  Abruptly, Cassie stood, trembling from head to foot. She fumbled for the engagement ring on her left hand and pulled it off, feeling the gold scrape her flesh. Carefully deliberately she laid it on the table in front of his dessert plate. The raspberry mousse was like a ghastly wound against the white porcelain.

  “Good-bye, Brad. Please don’t try to call.” Cassie gathered her evening purse and left the table. She managed to reach the ladies’ room before she was violently ill. Afterwards, she sat huddled in the bathroom, afraid to leave, afraid she might see Brad.

  But as brutal as her experience had been, at least she had walked away from the ruins of her relationship with her pride and her sense of self intact. Remembering Melissa’s description, Cassie wasn’t sure Caleb had fared as well. What kind of a woman would leave someone as dynamic as Caleb for mere wealth? Cassie found it difficult to imagine that life for Caleb and his wife had been too uncomfortable financially, which meant that if Pamela really did leave him for someone richer, Melissa’s harsh assessment was amply deserved. She was greedy. And stupid to boot.

  By the time eleven o’clock rolled around, Cassie had worked with two of Five Oaks’s younger prospects, a gelding and a mare, both just four years old. The youngsters had been started by Hank and Caleb together. Hank had explained that it was the part of the training he enjoyed most, working with the young horses, seeing they were gently and properly schooled from the beginning, so that they’d be on the right track for other trainers and riders later. He and Caleb always worked as a team: Hank on the ground advising, Caleb in the saddle.

  Both the young mare, Silverspoon, and the gelding, Arrow were from the same sire as Orion, Five Oaks’s stud, Kenyon. Though their dams were different, Hank and Caleb hoped they would develop as impressively as their older half brother.

  Hank had dropped by to observe Cassie and had set up some ground rails, known as cavalettis, and a couple of low fences for her to try them on. At this stage in their training, Cassie was careful not to demand too much too soon. Young horses were a lot like small children. They had short attention spans and were easily distracted. The most important thing in their development was for them to remain focused and willing. They had to like what they were doing, or else they’d never be champions.

  Caleb arrived after Cassie had already begun warming up Orion, trotting him in large circles around the ring. She knew the instant he appeared. The intensity of his gaze on her was an almost palpable thing. She didn’t pause to acknowledge Caleb’s presence, nor did he interrupt, as Cassie continued working Orion on the flat, communicating to him with the light pressure of her hands and legs.

  The workout over fences Cassie had devised for Orion was based on taking him over a group of four low jumps, split up into two on either side of the ring. By cantering in a large figure eight over the same four jumps again and again without stopping—as she might if she were working Orion on a larger and more difficult course—Cassie was able to zero in on any potential problems with his form. After she set him up for the jumps on one side of the ring, she cantered Orion through the center of the ring, checking his flying changes, making sure that he was able to switch his lead in midair smoothly in both directions and approach the oncoming fence properly balanced. By jumping over the same fences from different directions, she could see if Orion were equally comfortable at flying changes on the right and the left lead. It was an exercise Cassie often employed when she was just beginning to know her mount. Not terribly fancy, but it paid off when show season started.

  Orion settled quickly into the rhythm of the exercise, neither rushing the fences, nor getting sloppy because they were set low. Relief swept over her. A few horses Cassie had ridden had the frustrating habit of nicking the fences with their hooves, because they weren’t tucking their knees or hocks up high enough as they cleared the fence. Sometimes this happened because the jump was too difficult or too high, which was understandable, but sometimes it happened over easier or lower fences. A sign of boredom, a lack of care on the horse’s part. At the major horse shows, where the jumps were supported by shallow cups, a nick that was a hair too hard would bring the pole tumbling down and penalty points tacked on.

  When Cassie felt Orion’s attention begin to wander, she used her voice to redirect him. It was important for him to realize that they were partners now that they had to finish the work together. Letting a stallion like Orion think he was calling the shots would be disastrous.

  “Come on now Orion, these last four, and then we’ll call it a day.”

  When the stallion had cleared the remaining jumps neatly, Cassie slowed him to a walk, reaching down to pat his gleaming neck. She circled the perimeter of the ring, conscious of Caleb standing by the gate, making no move to approach.

  Shy and uncertain, Cassie admitted to herself that she lacked the necessary experience to handle the situation with Caleb Wells. In her mind, she accepted that it was far better to stay uninvolved. She had a new and challenging job, and she was the single parent of two small children. She didn’t need and couldn’t afford the emotional complications Caleb Wells presented, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle a one-night stand or a casual fling with him. She wasn’t sophisticated enough or tough enough to walk away unscathed.

  Oh, God, she wondered, why couldn’t she get along with men as easily as she did horses? With horses, Cassie understood what they wanted and needed and she knew how to make them understand what she needed. But with men, it seemed as if they might as well be aliens from outer space. Alex, her brother or Hank she could communicate with easily enough, but as soon as she became attracted to a man, her sense of self and her sense of direction just flew right out the window. Brad was a case in point. If it hadn’t been for her instinctive need to protect Sophie and Jamie from any more pain and unhappiness than they’d already suffered, she might possibly have done whatever Brad suggested without thought of resistance.

  Well, she resolved fiercely Brad taught me a lesson. I’ve got to think of the kids and myself first, not lose myself in a passionate affair with Caleb Wells. If I can keep my distance, I might be able to pull it off.

  And when we’re together, I’ll simply treat him as I treat Alex. Yeah, right, her inner voice replied. That should be a piece of cake.

  Dismounting from Orion, she slipped the reins over his neck, gathered them in her hands, and led the stallion toward the gate where Caleb stood watching. He’d changed into black jeans, work boots, and a white cotton buttondown shirt. His body looked whipcord lean and strong, but when Cassie looked into his face, her heart sank a little.

  Caleb’s expression remained identical to the one she remembered from this morning when he’d left her standing at the foot of Five Oaks’s driveway. Chillingly polite, his dark, intelligent eyes shuttered. Gone was the teasing glint, the masculine admiration that turned so quickly to sexual hunger that she had seen in them before. That in a mere thirty-six hours Cassie had come to expect, to anticipate.

  So much for kidding herself she wanted merely a fraternal relationship with Caleb Wells.

  Nevertheless, this was surely for the best. She was here to ride, not to flirt. Caleb could doubtless, at the
snap of his fingers, have women lining up for his personal amusement if he wished. She just happened to be around and convenient, no matter what he’d said to the contrary at his parents’ house.

  Well, good for him. She was happy with her life the way it was: her children and her horses. There was more than enough love for her there.

  “Hi,” she began guardedly. “Orion did well today. Has Hank told you about the list of shows he’s drawn up?”

  “Yeah, he asked me to tell you to come over to the office after you’ve finished with Orion and the three of us can discuss it.”

  Caleb allowed his gaze to rest briefly on Cassie. She looked incredibly lovely, standing slim and reserved by the large dark stallion. His fingers itched to reach out and finger the silky golden curls that had escaped her braid. He wanted to lower his mouth to hers and sample once again the sweetness he’d found there. Stronger, though, was the memory of Cassie’s look of chagrin when she had thought Caleb’s sexual interest in her might become public knowledge.

  He knew it was vain of him, but he wasn’t used to having a woman upset or humiliated because she was caught kissing him. She’d made him feel as if their mutual attraction was a dirty little secret she’d rather die than admit to. Now his irrational pride dictated that the next time they kissed, it would be up to Cassie to make the first move. For some crazy reason, he was determined to wait her out— and he was equally determined to have her.

  He was pretty much resigned to the fact that he was going to find his experience of chastity a bit hard.

  Deliberately Caleb shifted his attention to the stallion. “Hey, big guy, you looked sharp out there. Must be a nice change to have someone who knows how to ride on your back.” Cassie’s cheeks warmed at Caleb’s indirect compliment. But she couldn’t help but notice that as they walked back to the barn, Caleb positioned himself on the other side of Orion so that the horse’s large head and neck was between them, making conversation impossible. It wasn’t until they reached the barn that he addressed her.