Biding Her Time

“Salmon bone,” he managed to gasp, thumping his chest as Jenna, looking alarmed, rose from her chair. Across the table, Thomas rose also and took a step in Shane’s direction. He tried to wave the help away. “I’m fine now.”

They weren’t listening.

Coughing into his napkin, he waved them off again, then realized that Melanie, too, had stood, her eyes round with panic. He followed her gaze.

It was Audrey who needed help.

Swearing, Shane leaped from his chair, shoving his aunt and uncle aside with an unfortunate lack of courtesy to get to her.

Grasping Audrey’s shoulders, he turned her so that he could look fully into her face, now splotched a deep red.

“Are you choking?” he shouted into her face, making the international choking sign and waiting for her to mimic him before he commenced the Heimlich maneuver.

Instead of placing her hands at her neckline, she looked at him in panic and immediately reached for his neck, squeezing hard and nodding furiously.

“Let… go…” he commanded, prizing her hands off and turning her so he could wrap his arms around her with his fist under her sternum. He administered two swift upward pushes.

Nothing happened. Whatever had lodged in her airway had yet to budge.

Shane could feel Audrey’s heart thundering like a dozen hooves and knew his was keeping pace.

“Come on, baby, give it up,” he whispered in her ear right before he gave her diaphragm a shove that pulled her right off her feet.

Out flew a piece of grilled asparagus.

Impressed and enormously relieved, Shane released a breath and nodded. “Nicely done.”

Chapter Five

Audrey coughed maniacally as she tried to catch her breath.

Shane’s stone-solid arms were still wrapped around her. His murmured words tickled her ear.

Jenna was holding out a glass of water and looking worried. Thomas had his hand up, ready to thump her on the back should the need arise again, and Melanie had come around the table, an acutely sympathetic expression on her attractive face and a napkin in her hand. They all stood so close, Shane wouldn’t have been able to back away if he wanted to.

Gently but firmly removing Shane’s hands, still splayed across her stomach, Audrey accepted the napkin from Melanie, the water from Jenna and smiled to let Thomas know she was fine.

Then she eased away from Shane. He had saved her life. Too bad he, too, had almost choked upon hearing Jenna’s plan. Kinda implied she was not a cute, charming girl, which put a big fat chink in her undying gratitude.

Involuntarily, Audrey’s right hand covered her left. Somehow the Heimlich maneuver had made less of an impact than his squeezing her hand several moments ago. That had been earth-shattering.

Even now, she felt a swell of emotion that had nothing to do with the fact that she’d almost choked. That firm-yet-gentle, reassuring squeeze he’d applied to her hand was her undoing. She knew he’d meant it impersonally, but tears had risen to her eyes nonetheless. For a moment, just as she had last night, she’d felt… seen. Seen by Shane the way she hadn’t felt seen by anyone in a long while.

And once again, she became aware of a place inside her that seemed comprised solely of painful raw need. She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could escape from the table and from her own feelings.

Humiliating, sentimental—

“Crap! You almost killed my best farrier, honey pie.” Thomas lightened the awkward moment-after-near-death with a robust but humorous rebuke sent Jenna’s way. “I nearly choked, too! Audrey can’t go gallivanting around the world handing out wine samples. I need her here.” He shot Audrey a paternal smile.

“She won’t be gallivanting around the world.” With a last glance at Audrey, Jenna returned to her seat and picked up the napkin she’d tossed next to her plate. “She’ll travel to New York, Boston and Montreal. And she won’t merely be ‘handing out wine samples,’ Thomas. She’ll meet and converse with people from many walks of life.” Reaching for her wine, she spoke into the glass. “People whose interests extend beyond horses and racing.”

Before he or Melanie could protest that people interested in horses and racing were the most interesting people in the world, Jenna insisted, “It would be good for her to get out and see something besides the inside of a stable.”

Thomas’s brows swooped down at the blasphemy.

“For pity’s sake, Tom, sit back down and eat your lunch. Quest is my life, too. But Audrey has grown up here. She needs to expand her horizons.”

Whether they recognized the determination in Jenna’s tone or whether they actually agreed with her, Thomas and Melanie obediently resumed their seats. It seemed Audrey’s brush with the ever after and Shane’s lifesaving efforts were going to be overlooked by the Prestons for the moment in favor of hashing out Audrey’s future. Without her input.

She and Shane were the only ones left standing. Awkwardly. As Thomas pointed out that he always worked Audrey’s schedule around the classes she took at the local college, Jenna countered that classes did not substitute for life experience. Audrey realized that wishing she could disappear did not make it so. Doing the right thing, she turned toward Shane.

“Thank you. That was… very nice of you.”

He took his time replying. “Don’t mention it.”

She thought she ought to say something more about how grateful she was, but he was holding out her chair, his gaze steady and calmer now. Longing to bolt from the room, she forced herself to sit instead.

Jenna had as good as stated, “Audrey Griffin is a twenty-four-year-old woman who has spent her best years in a stable.” And the reason that truth ached so much was that she did want more—when she allowed herself to long for something. When she didn’t deny the daydreams that sometimes came to her.

“Thank you so much, Shane, for helping Audrey.” Jenna, usually the soul of grace, finally remembered her manners and remembered Audrey, too. “You are all right now, aren’t you, honey?”

Audrey replaced her napkin on her lap, but knew she wouldn’t eat another bite. “I’m fine. I’m terribly sorry.”

“Nonsense. Don’t you apologize.” Jenna reached for her fork with a hand that shook slightly. “With everything that’s gone on around here lately, I think I’m a little testy.”

Melanie and her father exchanged a smile.

“I saw that.” Sighing heavily, Jenna collected herself. “As you can see, Shane, Audrey is special to us. So thank you again.” Her gaze, warm and wise and steely strong regardless of what was happening at Quest, settled on Audrey. “I’ve never heard you complain, but with all you’ve been through, isn’t it time for you to do something for yourself? Something a little different?”

Audrey’s cheeks prickled with heat, and she deeply wished Jenna had not referred, however vaguely, to “all she had been through.” She had never asked for special treatment—not when she’d been ill, not when her mother had decided a sick kid was too much to handle and had taken a powder. And not when her father died; she’d returned to work two days later. Keeping busy had grounded her.

Eager to squelch once and for all time Jenna’s strange proposal that she should accompany Shane to the wine shows, Audrey decided the time had come to discuss her plans. “I am going to do something new.”

Her heart pounded. Though she never mistook the Prestons for family, they were the closest thing to relatives that she had left. The thought that she might disappoint them made her more nervous than it should have.

“I do want to travel.” She nodded at Jenna and smiled sheepishly. “You could say I have a library of AAA travel guides. I was going to talk to you about it this week, in fact, but I suppose…I mean, since you’ve brought it up…I guess now’s as good a time…” Her voice dwindled. Raising it above her trepidation, she ventured, “I’d like to start traveling by August. It’s only the beginning of July, so I thought that would give you enough time to hire… hire someone new.”

Well, she’d done it again: everyone at the table stopped eating. Forks remained suspended halfway to mouths; jaws went still and then slack. Even Shane, who likely had not expected this much drama with his noon meal, paused with his butter knife hovering over his roll.

Thomas recovered first, enough to practically bellow, “What the devil are you talking about? Travel if you want to, but you don’t need to quit your job to do it!”

Resting a forearm on the linen-covered table, Jenna stared earnestly at Audrey. “Do you have other job prospects, sweetheart?”

“Other job—” Thomas began, and Jenna must have clipped him in the shin under the table, because he let out a huff and muffled himself into a frowning silence.

“No, no!” Audrey hurriedly assured them. Lord, she would never want them to think she was merely after a new gig in the same field. Especially not now. But if her doctor’s suspicions proved correct, she would be little use to the Prestons anyway.

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