Cole wasn’t the only guy who’d gotten lucky in Kentucky last year. Even when Silk Purse missed winning the first jewel in the Triple Crown, it hadn’t diminished Cole’s certainty that he was the luckiest SOB on earth. Besides, his and Susannah’s entry this year, Shimmering Pearl, would go all the way.
A voice over the loudspeaker announced that the horses for the Derby would be making their way around the track to the gates, bringing him back to the matter at hand. Susannah Pennington was on his other side, smiling in a way that let Cole know Esteban, her new husband and Pearl’s jockey, was in a very good mood today. She looked over at Cole and winked at him, letting him know that was indeed the case.
“So are you feeling lucky?” she asked Cole.
He nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, yeah.” Of course, he was thinking about how lucky he was in another area of his life, but he was sure that would wash over into the race, too.
The race fans and bookies had caught on to Pearl’s potential right off the bat, her odds making her this year’s favorite. In a few more minutes, she was going to be the toast of the town, the way Silk had almost been last year. Along with Cole, Susannah, and Esteban. And, of course, Lulu.
Just as she had been last year, she would be with him to help field the crowd, but not because he wanted a buffer. No, what Cole wanted now was, well, everything. And what he’d gotten in Lulu was exactly that.
She slipped her arm through his and pulled him close. “This is always so exciting,” she said as she watched the horses canter and prance on the dirt track below. “There’s so much energy here. So much vibrancy. It’s like the air itself is alive.”
“There’s not another feeling like it in the world,” he assured her. “The minutes before a race are always magic.”
And they felt even more magical now that she was here with him to enjoy them.
The announcer asked everyone to rise for the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home,” something that was unnecessary, as far as Cole was concerned, because who could be seated at a time like this? Nevertheless, he once again had to consult his program to find the lyrics, even though Lulu, Bree, and Rufus sang them by heart. As the song drew to a close, he noticed a tear slip from beneath Lulu’s sunglasses, which she hastily swiped away at the same time Bree performed the same function. The two women laughed as they did so, as they had last year, confirming it was something they did every year.
As he watched the last of the horses entering the gate on the other side of the track, that old feeling seeped into him again. A barely restrained force of power that put his entire body on alert. The crowd went curiously silent as the final gate was closed and stayed that way in the few interminable seconds before the announcement of—
“They’re off!”
And then Cole was in the zone he entered the moment one of his horses hit the track. It was as if a bubble descended to surround him, blocking out everything except the horses pounding the dirt below and throwing them into crystal clarity. But now, Lulu was in the bubble with him. Now, he had her fingers woven with his, her cries of “Go, baby, go!” chorusing with his own, her exhilaration, her vitality, and her passion mingling with his and doubling its power. And when Shimmering Pearl rounded the final curve, when she began to pull away from the rest of the horses, when she began to run, Lulu grabbed both of his hands in hers, and it was like a jolt of something white-hot and frenetic shot through them both.
By the time Pearl crossed the finish line, she was three lengths ahead of the placing horse. But when Cole swept Lulu into his arms and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her, it wasn’t the joy of having his horse win that filled him with such euphoria. It was the joy of having Lulu beside him to share it. And it was the joy of knowing she would be there forever.
Author’s Note
I grew up in Louisville, still live just outside of town, and absolutely love writing about it. I know the city and its environs intimately, having lived and worked in many of those environs. However, I have taken some literary license with my hometown. The Ambassador Hotel is fictional, modeled after Louisville landmark the Seelbach Hotel, because I know the venerable and elegant Seelbach would never tolerate some of Bree’s hijinks or the trawling of call girls in its bar. Deke’s, likewise, doesn’t exist, and is an amalgam of Highlands nightclubs, some of which, alas, are no longer in business.
I’ve also played fast and loose (if you’ll pardon the pun) with Louisville’s seasons, something one wouldn’t think it possible to do considering the fact that Louisville’s seasons are so unpredictable. But the locals will recognize areas where I’ve done that and can feel smug thinking, “That’s so wrong,” while others will find in reading those passages the enjoyment of, I hope, some evocative and lovely prose.
And although there are scores of real Derby Festival events I could have had Lulu and Cole attending, I invented a few for my own selfish purposes. This is the first of a three-book series, and I need to save some of the good stuff for later novels. I have done my best to include some local color, and if I’ve made mistakes with any of it, it’s due to the fact that, since I started writing full time, I don’t get out much anymore. So I apologize if there are any errors within. (Please address all angry e-mails to [email protected].)
And, finally, if you’re interested in renting a house for Derby sometime, you can find more info at www.rentmyhouse4derby.com. (Really.)
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