Page 106 of Tempting as Sin
Jo nodded, and when Rafe came out, told him, “Horses don’t like dogs around their feet. I know I told you that. And I know I said nine-thirty.”
Rafe’s expression was almost the same as Martin’s. “You did,” he said. “I heard.”
Jo nodded again “OK, then.” After that, she opened the back doors of the trailer and let down the ramp.
Lily had a hand on her chest. That was because she couldn’t breathe. Jo was leading a horse down, a horse that was picking up her hooves in the daintiest of fashions andnottossing her head, because she was too well-bred for that. Smallish, maybe fifteen hands, a pale brown shading into white, with a fawn-colored mane and tail.
Starlight.
“Are we going riding?” she asked Rafe before she went to Jo and took Starlight from her, giving her a rub on the cheek. “Yes, girl,” she told the mare. “I do have carrots. Not as tiny or as tender, but you don’t care about that, do you? You love me, and I love you. Yes, I do. What a pretty girl you are.”
Jo hadn’t answered her, she realized, and neither had Rafe. But Jo was leading Thunderbolt down the ramp now and handing him to Rafe, so she didn’t really need to answer.
“What a great idea for our last day,” Lily told Rafe. “But you should have told me, so I’d be ready. Also, is your hand in good enough shape?”
Rafe scratched his nose and looked…sheepish, maybe. Jo had gone up into the trailer again. Getting saddles, most likely. Martin and Ezra were still just watching.
“Oh!” Bailey said. “Oh, man. Oh,man.”Jo was leading another animal down the ramp, a gray pony with a black mane and a gentle eye, a perfect size for a girl who was almost nine, but tall for her age.
“No fun if you don’t do it together,” Rafe said. And then Jo stood back and he scratched his nose again and said, “Right. I wasn’t expecting an audience. Also, I was planning to improvise, so I didn’t learn my lines. It’s harder than I thought.”
He glanced at Ezra, who said, “Why am I here? Supervising the delivery, possibly. Or maybe I just wanted to watch.” He smiled, but it was kind. “You’re a special person,” he told Lily. “Maybe I needed to see you get the life you deserve. It’s healing, possibly, for the heart.”
Lily was still holding Starlight’s rein. Now, she looked at Rafe. “What?”
He said, “She’s yours, baby. Seems I’ve bought some horses.”
“You’ve…” She didn’t know what to say. “What?”
“They’re going back to Jo’s,” he said. “I wanted to make a statement, though.”
“Oh,” she said. “Wait. Did you buy them, or not?”
“I bought them,” Rafe said. “But you don’t buy a woman a horse without having a stable built, and some fencing around a paddock, of course, and that would have spoiled the surprise, because obviously, you need to plan that yourself. No worries. You get them back as soon as we’ve got a home built for them.”
“Rafe.” She was laughing, because how could you do anything else? “That is thesweetest…That is the most wonderful…” She gave it up. “I love you, OK? We’ll leave it at that. But why horses?”
Rafe inclined his head at Ezra, who came over and took hold of Thunderbolt and Starlight’s reins. Jo was still holding onto the pony, which Bailey was now patting like she couldn’t believe it could possibly be hers. Lily knew how she felt.
“Because,” Rafe finally answered, “a horse is a commitment, and I wanted to make a commitment, and to show you I’m doing it. I can tell you I’ll come back every other weekend, but will you believe I’ll keep doing it, those nights and those weeks when you’re home alone? How about after this film, when I’m in London, or Cairo, or on some publicity tour? It seemed to me that a horse would be hard to ignore, even on days when the doubts creep in. And three horses would be three times as hard.”
“OK,” she said. “OK.” She wished she could think of something else to say, but she appeared to have lost her words.
“Another thing,” he said. “A thought to leave you on, something you could be pondering during these next couple weeks. What would your perfect life look like? What would you do if you could do anything, if there were no limits?”
“Rafe.” She was laughing. “Wow. You don’t ask much.”
“No,” he said, and hewasn’tlaughing. “I intend to ask everything. Fair warning.”
“Oh. OK.” She tried to get her breath, and pretty much failed. “So…do I answer now?”
“If you like,” he said, “you do. Or you start answering now. I know you love it here. I know this is home. Could be it’s not the only home. And you can say, ‘The shop,’ and ‘Bailey’s in school.’ I’m asking you not to say, ‘It wouldn’t work,’ and to think, ‘How would it work? How would it work for me to be happy, and for everybody else to stay happy, too? I’ll give you a hint. My part of being happy includes you.”
“Ah…” She tried to think, went to pull her hair back, and realized it was already in a ponytail. She was in her overalls, in her driveway, standing around with five other people and three horses, having a Life Talk. OK, then. “I guess it would be…my shop, but maybe different. Maybe…if I were going to Australia sometimes? If we were?”
“That’s the idea,” he said, starting to get that almost-smile.
“OK, then.” It was scary, but she went on anyway.Lifewas scary. That didn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. “Maybe Hailey would like to manage the store, at least sometimes. Maybe growing into it. I think she would. We could hire somebody else to help out. She doesn’t want to be the boss, shesays,but I suspect she could see her way clear to doing that much.”
