Page 16 of Tempting Fate
“What does that mean?”
In Raylene’s case, it usually meant a beating for hanging around with Lucky, but she didn’t think Clay was like that. His father, Tip, had been one of the nicest men she’d known. She’d openly wept at his funeral. “Probably a time-out.” Or maybe Harper was too old for that. Raylene didn’t interact with too many tweens.
She tied Ginger to her back bumper and drove at a snail’s pace to the McCreedy house. Harper kept up a steady chatter, which indicated to Raylene that she wasn’t too afraid of the consequences for sneaking out to go riding. The girl seemed healthy—and fearless, not something you displayed if you’d been abused. Then again, victims of abuse had all kinds of ways of manifesting their pain.
Raylene knew that all too well.
“Do you know a lot about horses?” Harper asked.
“Yep.” That was pretty much all Raylene knew about. She’d failed at everything else. Friendship, marriage, managing her money. “When I was a little bit older than you, I was a champion barrel racer.” Later, she’d married Butch and left the rodeo circuit. And now, living in Santa Monica, there was no place convenient to stable her gelding. She’d had to leave Gunner in Colorado.
“Really?” Harper’s face lit up, and it did something gooey to Raylene’s insides. It was nice to impress someone again, even if she was only thirteen years old. “Maybe you can show me some things.”
“It’s up to Clay and your mom.” And dad, Raylene supposed. She didn’t know anything about him, or even if he was still in the picture.
“They’ll say yes.” Harper clapped her hands and Raylene felt guilty for getting her hopes up. Clay wouldn’t let her anywhere near his stepdaughter, and she didn’t have time anyway. She had a fortune to find.
Raylene kept her eyes on the rearview mirror to make sure Ginger was okay, then took the fire trail back to the main road and headed to McCreedy Ranch. Three big dogs came nipping at her tires, barking as she crawled up the driveway. At least the mare wasn’t fazed. Clay, Emily, and a man Raylene had never seen before were standing on the front porch, watching her drive up.
She parked in front of the house and hopped out of the cab to untie Ginger. The stranger and Emily trotted up to the passenger side as Harper started to get out.
“We’ve been worried sick,” Emily said. “You can’t just go off like that.”
Clay came around to Raylene’s side and took Ginger’s reins. “Where’d you find her?”
“She found me, actually. I was up the road…on my property.” Raylene waited for Clay to ask about the land and wondered if he knew about her buyer yet. She was a little surprised that he hadn’t tried to buy the parcel himself. It bordered his ranch, and cattlemen were always looking for new grazing land.
He just grabbed the saddle from the bed of her truck. “Thanks for bringing her home.”
“No problem. She had trouble with the saddle and fell off.”
He gazed over at Harper, who was getting a good talking to, with what looked to Raylene like a great deal of relief. He appeared to have a deep affection for the girl. “I need to spend more time teaching her.” He sighed.
“Is that her father?”
“Yeah, Drew Matthews. He has a place in Sierra Heights and splits his time between here and the Bay Area.”
“She’s a good girl,” Raylene said, not that anyone would take her word for it. “I think she was trying to spread her wings, and she desperately wants to learn to ride.”
He glowered, clearly not interested in her opinion. “After what happened…we’re protective,” he said tersely.
Raylene nodded, not knowing how to respond. She could only imagine how difficult it would be to recover a daughter who’d been ripped from you, only to fear losing her again.
Harper ran over to them, and Emily and her ex followed.
“Raylene said she’ll teach me to be better on Ginger. Can she?”
Emily looked at Clay and there was a long silence. Raylene wanted desperately to extricate herself from the conversation, but Drew stuck out his hand and introduced himself. Clearly, he hadn’t gotten the memo about her.
“Thanks for helping my daughter and bringing her horse home. She’s still learning the ropes.”
“Not a problem. My brother’s rehearsal dinner is in a few hours, and I need to get home to help with the preparations.” She ruffled Harper’s blond hair. “You take care, now.”
“You’re still gonna help me ride, right?”
Clay stepped between them and squeezed Harper’s shoulder. “I’ll work with you some more, kiddo.”
“But Raylene said she would, and you don’t have time.”
