Page 39 of Tempting as Sin
“Thunderbolt” didn’t sound much like a starter horse, but Rafe had clearly decided, somewhere between Walmart and the logging truck, to surrender to the whims of the universe. Jo turned and headed for the stable, and Rafe followed her with Martin beside him.
“Where’s your hat, cowboy?” he asked Martin. “And if you’ve got a can of snuff in your back pocket, you’re fired. Filthy habit.”
“Excuseme? Martin asked. “Who’s wearing three-hundred-dollar sunglasses? Not me. Who’s wearing long sleeves? Not you.I’min character.”
They didn’t have time for more, because Jo was opening a half-door on a horse box, giving a freakishly large brown animal a rub of the nose and a pat of the shoulder, fastening a rope to his head collar, and saying, “This is Thunderbolt.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out a baby carrot, and handed it to Rafe. “Flat palm,” she said helpfully. “Don’t want him biting your fingers off.”
Martin had his arms crossed and an I-told-you-so look on his face. Jo asked him, “Are you paying for lessons, too?”
“No,” Martin said. “I’m here to assist.”
“Well, I don’t need your assistance,” she said. “Go on up and wait at the house. There’s some iced tea in the fridge.”
Martin opened his mouth, closed it again, and left, and Rafe grinned. He might end up conceding that Martin had been right, but he was an optimistic fella. He’d hope for the best, and ignore the fact that when he’d told his assistant the Montana plan and Martin had checked it out, Martin had rung back and said, “It’s not Colorado, that’s all I’m saying. Star Stables had the best reviews anywhere. This place isn’t on the radar. It’s not on theDoppler.It’s nowhere. If what you want is to be an old cowhand from the Rio Grande, though, wrapping yourself up in your bedroll after a hearty meal of beans from the chuck wagon, I’m guessing you’ll be all set.”
“I thought that was all you were saying,” Rafe had said.
“It is. The owner’s name is Jo Schweitzer, she’s expecting you on the seventh, and I’ll put everything into an email and send you a text just in case. If you want to know your instructor’s name, it’salsoJo Schweitzer, oddly enough, because she’s all there is. Until the Fourth of July, of course. That’s her high season. She has a helper after that. Probably ten years old.”
“Thank you,” Rafe had answered. “Your subtle rebuke is noted.”
“My subtle rebuke has barely begun. Six days a week for two weeks, and then we see where we are. And by the way, Jo said, ‘Lord help him’ when I gave her the six-days-a-week plan, which I do not take as a good sign. Also, please tell me they don’t make coffee in Montana by throwing a handful of Folgers into a pan of boiling water. I don’t have a good feeling.”
“It’s a ski resort,” Rafe had said.
“I checked it out,” Martin had answered gloomily. “Not much of one, it’s not. It’s too bad we won’t be there after the Fourth of July, because we’re missing the rodeoandthe walleye fishing contest. I might have been able to handle the rodeo, but there is absolutely nothing attractive about fishing unless it’s men riding the rough waves in the killer storm and pulling in the deadliest catch, which it isn’t. Right. On to arrangements. What do you want up there, what shape is the log cabin in—sounds horrible, I’m just saying—and what do you want me to set up before you get there? Cleaning? Groceries? Meal service? Spitting lessons?”
“If you weren’t my oldest American friend,” Rafe had said, “and if you weren’t so annoyingly efficient, I’d have sacked you so many times. No. I’m getting into character. I’m roughing it. I’m acquiring new skills. Send me the hotels for the trip and set things up with my equestrian adviser. After that, if I need you, I’ll call you.”
Except not right now, because Jo was putting the horse’s lead into his hand and saying, “Stay on his left side and take him on over there by the saddles. Act calm. Pretend you know what you’re doing. Horses sense fear.”
After Rafe left, Lily opened up and dealt with customers, leaving Hailey to finish the stocking. The summer was heating up, and so was business, which was fortunate. A seasonal shop getting busy with the season was always a relief.
“Could you go tag that new Lively shipment?” she asked Hailey during a lull. “I think you’ll love the colors. In fact, we may want to change the window display. I’m thinking fun and flirty. Tap pants and camisoles and pima cotton nightgowns, and maybe bralettes, too. Summer’s no time for underwire.”
“Sure,” Hailey said. “Right now.” She headed off, then turned back. “Unless you want to tell me how you ended up with a dog, a boy,andabout the best-looking man I’ve ever seen, all since I left work on Sunday. It’s almost time for my break anyway. No pressure, but I sure am curious.”
“It’s really nothing exciting,” Lily said, beginning to straighten the Fleur du Mal display and already thinking about the window. Cotton briefs and bra, soft fabric and a cool color, with a short black silk kimono over it all. Casually sexy, like you didn’t know you were doing it. If she added thigh-high stockings… Too much? Yes. Not casual.
What if they were white, and the kimono was, too? Hmm. Better. She could ask Rafe. A thought that made her smile. She’d spent the last two years discouraging male interest, and yet she really, really wanted to know whether he’d think white thigh-highs with lace tops were too sexy for her pretty summer display.Ifshe made the kimono white.
“If you don’t want to tell me, hon,” Hailey said, “that’s OK.”
“Oh. What?” Lily blinked.
“He’s pretty good,” Hailey said. “I can sure see that. He’d be distractingme.”
“Oh.” Lily remembered. “Yes. I found a stray dog, or he found me, yesterday. And an…almoststray girl, because she’s not a boy. I know, I was surprised, too. Her grandmother says she knows you, though. Ruby Johnson, unless that’s her married name. She lives out in the Juniper Mobile Home Park, and Bailey lives with her, because her mother died, I guess. Ruby’s on oxygen, so if you’ve seen her, you’d probably remember.”
“You’re kidding,” Hailey said. “That’s not her married name. I doubt she remembers all her married names. She has a granddaughter here? I didn’t know that.”
“She said she went to school with you,” Lily said. “Ruby, that is, although she looks too old.”
“Hard living will do that to you. What was her daughter’s name? Kathy? Connie? Karen, that was it, not that I knew her very well. She’s passed away? What a shame. She was younger than my girls, but smart. Must have got that from her dad, because it sure wasn’t from Ruby. She’d have been sixteen or seventeen when she left home. In fact, if Bailey’s dad had turned out to be Ruby’s old boyfriend, I doubt anybody would have a heart attack from shock. Just one of those families where bad things happen, and they keep on coming.”
“Oh.” Lily felt faintly sick. “Then maybe it’s not wonderful that her grandmother has her now.”
“Well, she’s past the days of having a lowlife man hanging around, at least,” Hailey said. “I saw her in the grocery store the other week, and she looked about a hundred years old, and let’s just say that she could use a bra fitting. You mean she’s got her grandchild full time? She didn’t look all that cared for to me. Bailey.”
