Foolish Gamble

by Lita Lawson

  Foolish

  Gamble

  Lita Lawson

  Cover Art design by Rachel Conner

  Stock photography from

  Shutterstock and

  Hot Dam Designs/Killion Group

  All rights reserved; used with permission

  Copyright © 2013 Lita Lawson

  Second Printing

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-10: 1494333708

  ISBN-13: 978-149433706

  DEDICATION and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To my Mom, for instilling the love of reading, and my husband for supporting me in the pursuit of my writing dream.

  To my critique partners: Angie, Denise and Bethany; my brainstorming partners: Margaret and Robin; Central Ohio Fiction Writers; and the Romance Writers of America® for having an organization dedicated to helping aspiring romance authors.

  To my boss and second Dad, Ollie, for the use of his grandson’s name for the hero.

  For more information about the author, visit www.allromancenovels.com

  Don’t miss this great new voice in romance – guaranteed to keep you turning pages!

  – Jules Bennett, best selling Harlequin author

  A delicious romp through horse country! Lita Lawson is in the winners' circle with this one. I enjoyed every tantalizing page.

  – Sandy, Amazon customer review

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I thought I was getting a diamond!” a voice wailed.

  Pausing a moment from washing her hands, Cassi Whitaker wondered whose voice it was and from which of the bathroom stalls it came from.

  “He gives me a horse…a horse! As if I don’t already have plenty of those.”

  Pausing again, Cassi listened for further outbursts, but there was silence. Exhausted, she continued scrubbing at her dirty hands, an unavoidable necessity associated with her job. There was plenty to do while the thoroughbred horse races were in full swing at Keeneland Horse Park. The seasonal side job of cleaning stables gave her an opportunity to earn much-needed extra money to help keep her struggling farm afloat.

  The click of a stall lock alerted Cassi. Looking in the mirror, she saw a door open and a woman emerge dressed in an expensive cream-colored knit dress that clung to her every curve. Cassi could tell from the well-styled, dyed-blonde hair and the diamond earrings tugging at the woman’s earlobes that she had money. Lots of money.

  The woman stopped a few washbasins away. Trying not to be obvious, Cassi stole a glance from the corner of her eye and could tell the woman had been crying. Tearstains marred the otherwise perfectly made-up face.

  If someone gave me a horse, all my problems would be solved, Cassi mused, and guilt washed over her for making light of the woman’s situation, albeit to herself. To make the woman feel better, she offered, “Men don’t give horses away to just anyone.”

  A shrill laugh erupted from the woman. “The man is worth millions! Not to mention the fact he’s the most eligible bachelor in town. He could have given me a Porsche or anything else, but no, he gives me a damn horse.”

  Cassi continued to discreetly study the woman. There was something familiar about her. Then it dawned on her, the woman was Annie Mae Ashworth, the governor’s daughter. She had seen the woman pictured in the Lexington Herald society section a few weeks ago draped on the arm of Austin Keller, notorious playboy and sole heir to Keller Farms, one of the oldest family-owned horse dynasties in Kentucky.

  Cassi undid her ponytail. Pulling a comb from her jeans pocket, she ran it through her tangled hair as she watched the woman beside her dab at her makeup, still sniffling. She wondered if she should make some attempt at conversation, but was at a loss. Finally she said, “Aren’t you Annie Mae Ashworth?”

  The blonde seemed to puff up at being recognized. “The one and only.” Annie Mae gave her a genuine smile and held out her hand.

  As she took it, Cassi couldn’t help but notice the large diamonds, emeralds, and rubies that glittered from the woman’s fingers. If she had just one of those nuggets, she could feed and shoe a whole stable of horses for a year.

  “I’m Cassi Whitaker,” she said by way of introduction. She envied Annie Mae’s delicate hands with long manicured fingernails painted a blood red. What she would give for nails like that! Working with horses meant keeping her nails short and living with the unglamorous side effect of perpetually work-roughened hands.

  Still feeling sorry for the woman beside her, she offered, “Maybe next time you’ll get that diamond.”

  “Ha! I don’t think I’ll be waiting around for a next time.” Annie Mae giggled. “I know what I’ll do…I’ll get even. That’ll show him! Then he’ll realize who he’s dealing with.”

  The blonde tilted her head to the side as she looked closer at Cassi. “Are you from that little Whitaker farm by Midway?”

  Cassi absorbed the condescending tone in the woman’s voice and her spine stiffened. “I am,” she said tightly and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why?”

  Annie Mae started laughing in a high-pitched shrill tone again. That could get on someone’s nerves after awhile, Cassi thought.

  “Oh, that’ll be rich!” Annie Mae pulled a piece of paper from her purse. “What’s your legal name?”

  “What? Why?” Cassi watched the woman pull a gold pen out.

  “Kelly? No, Candy?”

  “Cassandra”, she answered as the woman scrawled something down on the paper.

  “Here.” Annie Mae shoved the paper into Cassi’s hands.

  “What’s this?” Cassi looked down at the ivory sheet. It was some sort of official looking registration paper. The name on the document was Bella Donna, one of the prizewinning horses from Keller Farms. Cassi couldn’t believe her eyes. “You signed the horse over to me?”

  The blonde looked mischievously at Cassi. “Don’t you think that’ll get his goat? This will teach him that the next time he gives me something, it better be a diamond. A great big one.” With that, Annie Mae flounced out of the restroom.

  For a moment Cassi stood dumbfounded, then hurried outside to catch Annie Mae. She couldn’t take this horse, it wasn’t right. Horses were valuable, especially this one. She needed to give the paper back to the woman.

  Quickly glancing around in all directions, Cassi discovered the crowd had plenty of blondes. Choosing one head bobbing toward the grandstand, she went chasing after it. As she got closer, the blonde’s outfit was white, not cream. Where had Annie Mae Ashworth disappeared to? Frantically, Cassi searched the crowd. She had to find her. She couldn’t accept this horse, but there were no more blondes dressed like her in sight.

  The only other thing she could think to do was to head to the barn where the Keller Farm horses were stabled during the spring races. She would have to give a horse back to Austin Keller, a horse he didn’t know he’d lost.

  Fighting through the throng of people at the edge of the grandstand area, Cassi finally made her way to the stables. She headed toward the area where she remembered the Keller horses were located.

  As the crowd thinned, Cassi recognized a few of the horse exercisers walking by and nodded a greeting. While she waited for one horse to pass by, a raised voice caught her attention.

  Deep and male, the voice boomed, “What do you mean, you can’t find her?” Cassi looked in the direction of the voice. “This is the biggest stakes race! We’re about to take Skeeter to the paddock area.”

  As she neared the bellowing man, Cassi could see him pacing in front of the stable area talking on a cell phone. He stood at least six feet tall, a good eight inches taller than her.

  The way his navy suit fit him, it was apparent it had been custom tailored. His dark black hair was trimmed neatly, but a stubborn curl remained right above his shirt col
lar. He was already deeply tanned for the month of April. A pair of designer sunglasses shielded his eyes, but she recognized him from pictures in the paper and the Internet. It was Austin Keller.

  Leaning against the whitewashed wall of the stable, she waited for him to finish his phone call. Once he discovered Annie Mae had signed away his racehorse to her, he was going to be more agitated than he was already.

  “I don’t care, Don, just find her. I don’t have time right now. Skeeter’s up next.”

  Cassi didn’t want to bother him before the race, but she needed to give back the man’s horse. Walking up behind him, she cleared her throat.

  “Mr. Keller?”

  He whirled around to face her. With one swift movement, he jerked the sunglasses off his face and put them in his coat pocket, revealing an intense tawny gaze. She was not prepared for the impact of that look. Her heart momentarily stilled before taking another beat. So this was Austin Keller. Photos of him didn’t do him justice. They could not make you feel the predatory maleness that surrounded him. Annie Mae Ashworth was one lucky woman.

  “What do you want?” he snapped.

  “I don’t know how to begin—” Cassi wasn’t able to finish her sentence as he interrupted her.

  “Then just begin. I don’t have time to waste.”

  Cassi squared her shoulders and decided to give it to him straight. “There’s no easy way to say this, but I was in the restroom with Annie Mae—”

  “You saw her?”

  She noticed his eyes seemed to have turned a dark gold. “Yes. I’m trying to tell you, if you would just let me finish.”

  “Hurry, then. I’ve got a horse race to win.”

  Maybe Annie Mae wasn’t that lucky after all. “Look, apparently Annie Mae was angry that you didn’t give her a diamond ring—” Again, Austin cut her off before she could finish.

  “A ring?” He almost choked on the word.

  “A diamond to be exact. She was upset when you didn’t, and was even more upset when you gave her—”

  A stable hand approached them and Cassi recognized him as a former high school classmate. She nodded in his direction.

  “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but it’s time for Skeeter to get goin’.”

  Austin walked over to the horse stall and stroked the nose of a chestnut colored horse.

  “That’s my boy,” his voice crooned softly. “What are we going to do today?”

  The colt tossed his head slightly, acknowledging his master.

  Cassi watched in amazement as the hardened features of the man softened while speaking to the animal.

  “That’s right, we’re going to leave ‘em all in the dust and win the stakes.”

  Cassi cleared her throat again. “Mr. Keller, I’m in a hurry as well and have other things to do.”

  “Well, whatever it is you want to tell me about Annie Mae’s latest tantrum will have to wait. My horse has a race to run.” With that, he opened the stall and led Skeeter out.

  Cassi fumed at his dismissal, not only for her, but also for Annie Mae. What a jerk! “I have something of yours to return to you,” Cassi called after him, her voice an octave higher.

  Austin simply looked over his shoulder at her as he continued walking. “Bring it to me at my house tonight. It’s our annual victory party.” Momentarily, he stopped walking and turned to face her.

  Cassi sensed his assessing gaze travel from her face to her breasts and farther. She threw her hands on her hips and let him look his fill.

  A wry smile tugged at his lips. “I bet you clean up nice.”

  Cassi’s eyes narrowed at his insolence, speech momentarily eluding her as he walked away. Numerous adjectives for him came to mind a minute too late. It was no wonder the man was still a bachelor. No sane woman would put up with such behavior. The piece of paper clutched in her hand suddenly reminded her why she had come to talk to him in the first place.

  “Damn,” she muttered out loud, then yelled after him, “I don’t have time for your party. I’ll see you after the race.” He didn’t look back, waved, and kept on walking toward the paddock area.

  Glancing at her watch, Cassi decided she had at least a half-hour to clean more stalls before Austin would return. She heard a soft whinny and looked over at a beautiful champagne colored horse hanging its head out the stall door, eyeing Cassi.

  “And who might you be?” Cassi asked as she walked closer.

  Another groom walked by, answering her question, “That’s Bella Donna.”

  Cassi clutched the paper she still held in her hand. For this one moment in time, she owned this horse. She let the filly sniff her hand, whispering, “Hey girl.”

  Owning a horse like this could save her debt-ridden farm and help launch her horse-training career. Financial resurrection. Respect among other horse farms. Admittance to the elite circle of horse owners, things she could only dream about. She let the fantasy run its course, returning to reality as she left to go muck out more stalls.

  Austin patted Skeeter’s hindquarters as they circled around the tree in their assigned space. His stable hand, Billy Joe, held the horse’s reins as he walked him. Austin tried to concentrate on the race at hand, but his mind kept tripping back to the woman he just met. He was certain he’d never seen her before in his life. And that was odd, since he’d met most of the single women in Lexington.

  “Billy Joe, do you know who that woman was?”

  “Yeah, I went to high school with her.” The groom looked at him as he circled around with the horse. “That’s Cassi Whitaker.”

  Austin recognized the name, but couldn’t place it. If she was Billy Joe’s age, she was at least five years younger than Austin. “Do you know anything about her?”

  “Well,” Billy Joe pulled on the reins. The noisy spectators watching the pre-race workout encircled the small area, causing Skeeter to get frisky. “She runs Whitaker Farms. You know, the one at the edge of Midway.”

  Realization dawned on him. She was the daughter of Red Whitaker, a notorious gambler and heavy drinker. Rumor had it old Red had deserted his family about a year ago, leaving them nothing but a run down farm that was heavily in debt. What a louse. “So she runs the place all by herself?”

  “Pretty much. She’s got a younger brother, but I hear he’s goin’ to college.”

  Austin stopped pacing with the horse and Billy Joe. He took a moment to recall Cassi. She was a wisp of a woman, not more than a couple of inches over five feet. Her auburn hair and petite features had held his attention, even though she wasn’t the type of woman he went for. He preferred his women in sleek short dresses, not the casual jeans and shirt Cassi wore. But there was something intriguing about the way she had stood up to him earlier. Most women he met either fawned all over him or were tongue-tied. Cassi had been neither.

  The racing official came over to saddle up Skeeter. Willfully Austin pushed Cassi from his thoughts. It was race time.

  Wiping her arm across her forehead, Cassi blotted the sweat that had formed while working. She got enough mucking at her own farm, but the extra money she earned here came in handy with all her bills.

  In the distance, she could hear the cheers of the spectators watching the race Austin’s horse, Skeeter, was running. One day, she herself would be there when her horse, Foolish Gamble, raced to victory. Right now, she had to perform the task at hand.

  The cheering increased in intensity as the race obviously was nearing its end and she wondered if his horse would win. Pausing in her chores, she waited for the final roar of the crowd to stop and the winner to be announced. Cassi opened the nearby water spigot, filled a plastic cup full of water and took several large gulps.

  The garbled sound of the announcer’s voice pierced the fresh spring afternoon. “It’s Skeeter by a nose, followed by Hall of Mirrors…” Cassi didn’t listen to the rest.

  Austin’s horse had won. A silent thrill went through her and envy followed close behind. She stopped the ‘what if it were my horse’ thi
nking before it began. She was who she was, and she’d have to work hard to make her dream a reality. Cassi was born with a tin spoon in her mouth and nothing would change that.

  Except with the deed in her pocket to the champion racehorse, Bella Donna, that ownership could, and would, change everything for her. As tempting as the thought was to keep Austin’s horse, she wouldn’t do that. She knew what a horse meant to an owner; they were more than trophies and money and prestige. They were friends possessing a personality all their own. She couldn’t deny any man that, not even one as arrogant as Austin.

  Checking the watch on her wrist, Cassi estimated it would take another twenty minutes or so for Austin to get back from the winner’s circle to his stable. If he would give her a chance to talk instead of dismissing her, he would find out how badly he had upset his girlfriend, and she had given his gift away, in revenge, to a random stranger.

  The twenty minutes passed quickly as Cassi finished her job. She groaned inwardly, dreading another encounter with the arrogant man.

  She peered into a cracked mirror hanging outside the stall. It was so dirty she could barely see her reflection. Stray pieces of hay stuck out of her hair and she had a few smudges of dirt on her face. Cassi took the bandanna out of her back pocket, licked it and dabbed at the grime. Re-stuffing the bandanna in her pocket, she then picked the straw out of her hair. The knees and back of her jeans were covered with dirt, and she knocked off what she could. Summoning courage, she again headed toward the Keller stables.

  Small crowds of well-dressed people milled about the stalls where she had met Austin earlier. Cassi’s confidence sagged. She didn’t want to talk to him with so many people around, but she had no choice. Pushing ahead, she made her way through the mass of well-wishers. Several people glanced at her with a mixture of curiosity, then dismissal, but she ignored them, focused on her mission. After several twists and turns, she had Austin in her sights. He was bending low, talking to an elderly woman at his side. His face looked friendly, kind, as he spoke to her. When Austin smiled at the woman, it was dazzling. That smile was more mesmerizing than his eyes had been earlier. Not wanting to interrupt, she waited for him to finish his conversation.