Riding High

She appeared to be a free spirit. That didn’t necessarily mean she would embrace the concept of a no-strings affair, but it might. The thought created a pleasant ache in his groin. He hadn’t felt that surge of desire in some time. Apparently he’d repressed it, because sure enough, thinking of sex brought up what had happened back in Virginia. Last Christmas Eve he’d found Drake Brewster, his best friend and business partner, in bed with Jeannette Trenton, his fiancée. That discovery had affected him more than anyone knew.

Jeannette had accused him of being cold-blooded because he’d refused to discuss it afterward. Instead, he’d handled the situation with surgical precision. Within a week he’d moved out of their shared condo, ended their engagement, sold his share of the veterinary practice to Brewster and relocated from Virginia to Jackson Hole, where Nick Chance had welcomed him into his practice. The move had been a no-brainer. He couldn’t continue to work with Brewster after what the guy had done, and the previous summer Nick had mentioned needing a partner in his clinic.

Even more compelling was the prospect of being surrounded by family while he put his life back together. Nearly twenty years ago his folks had spent several months in Jackson Hole. His older sister Morgan had loved the place so much she’d vowed to return. When she finally made good on that promise to herself, she’d met and married Gabe Chance. Thus had begun the growing connection between the Chance family and the O’Connelli brood.

Next, Regan’s twin sister, Tyler, had married into the Chance extended family. She was happily hitched to Alex Keller, brother of Jack Chance’s wife, Josie. And most recently, eighteen-year-old Cassidy, youngest of the O’Connelli siblings, had apprenticed as the ranch housekeeper.

Sarah, the Chance family matriarch, had insisted that Regan stay at the Last Chance until he’d decided whether to live in town or buy some acreage. Six months later he was still there soaking up the ambiance. He’d never lived in a place that felt more like home, and he craved that sense of permanence.

For half a year he’d managed to convince himself that he’d moved past that fateful Christmas Eve when two people he’d trusted had betrayed him. He hadn’t dated, but that seemed natural under the circumstances. Lily was the first woman he’d met who interested him, which was ironic. All the evidence suggested her philosophy of life was exactly like his parents’ and the complete opposite of his.

But did that matter? He wasn’t ready for anything serious. As for Lily, if she was the least bit like his parents, she’d grow bored with the horse sanctuary eventually and search for a new challenge somewhere else, so she wouldn’t be around long.

But while she was, maybe they could hang out together. During their conversation she’d slipped in a comment about a potential wife or a girlfriend. Sometimes that meant a woman was trying to find out that information for her own reasons.

He’d know soon enough. She didn’t strike him as a woman who was into mind games. No, she seemed forthright, playful and creative. Instead of wincing at her paint job, he should rejoice, because it told him that she enjoyed having fun. It had been so damned long since he’d had fun.

2

LILY STOOD BY the gate and waved as Regan drove away. She continued to watch until the plume of dust kicked up by his truck’s tires disappeared. Long after he was gone, she stayed where she was, lost in thought. Regan O’Connelli was a pleasant surprise, even if he had informed her that she needed to change how she was running the sanctuary.

He’d meant it in a helpful way, though, and he might have a point. Nick had hinted at the same thing, but she’d been so convinced the horses deserved spoiling that she hadn’t paid much attention. Besides, he was Nick, someone she’d known since she was a precocious whiz kid and he was one of her parents’ favorite students in high school. He behaved toward her like the big brother she’d never had, and she expected him to dispense advice, most of which she would ignore.

In this case, maybe she shouldn’t have ignored it. She was a little embarrassed by how quickly her situation was getting out of hand. Each day she worked to be more efficient, but then a new horse would arrive and she’d struggle to get all her chores done.

She probably shouldn’t accept any more horses, but how could she turn them away if they had nowhere to go? She needed to find homes for some of them, but she hadn’t figured out the adoption part of the plan. Come to think of it, the Turners hadn’t mentioned it, either. They’d both been a little absent-minded during the transfer of ownership, and she hadn’t thought to ask.

Regan might have some suggestions. She smiled to herself. The guy was hot. As she finally admitted that she’d noticed that, she laughed. His hotness was the real reason she was standing here dreamy-eyed over her new vet.

He was one juicy dude, in a Johnny Depp kind of way. That comparison couldn’t be confirmed until she’d found out whether he had dark eyes, and he’d kept his bad-boy shades on the entire time, darn it. What a great idea, inviting him to dinner so he’d be around after the sun went down.

Maybe he’d kept the shades on because he had sensitive eyes, but she wondered if something else was going on with him. Sunglasses could also provide emotional protection. She’d always been super conscious of people’s emotions, and after hanging out with rescue animals, she picked up on their moods, too. Understandably, many of the horses had trust issues, and she’d felt the same vibe coming from Regan.

Buck plodded over and nudged her from behind, so she turned to give the sway-backed horse some neck scratches. “I could be wrong, Buck, old boy, but I think that guy might need to be rescued as much as the rest of you around here.”

The horse bobbed his head, and Lily smiled. “Thanks for validating my hypothesis.” She patted his neck and reached for the cell phone in her back pocket. “Let’s see if Dr. Chance agrees with me.” She scrolled through her contacts and called Nick.

He answered on the second ring. “How’d it go with Regan?”

“Fine. You busy?” Holding the phone to her ear, she set off in search of the two pigs. They were probably okay, but she wanted to make sure.

“Yeah, I’m an extremely busy and important man, but for you, I’m willing to postpone my critical work for a few minutes.”

“You are so full of it. I’m convinced you passed my mom’s class purely on your ability to BS.”

“I might’ve. But I aced your dad’s science class with a minimum of BS. Just ask him.”

“Don’t have to. You two have a mutual admiration society going on.” She located the pigs wallowing in the large mud pit she’d dug a few days ago for Wilbur. Harley was going to fit right in. “I like Regan a lot, although he’s already telling me I’m doing this horse thing wrong.”

“What does he think you’re doing wrong?”

“Letting the horses roam the property, for starters.”

“Well, Regan prefers more order than that, but those six horses are pretty old. I don’t think it’ll hurt to let them have some freedom in their golden years.”

“I, um, have more than six, now. And they’re not all in their golden years.”

“Oh? How many do you have?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Good golly, Miss Molly! What did you do, advertise?”

“Not exactly, but I’ve talked to people when I go into town. Oh, and I redesigned the website and made sure it came up on all the search engines. It’s a kick-ass site, if I do say so.”

“I’ll bet.”

“I guess the word got out that I was here and had room for more horses.”

“I’m sure it did.” Nick was quiet for a bit. “Lily, you don’t have room in your current barn to keep twenty-one horses forever. You’ll have to renovate that barn and add more stalls.”

“What do you mean, forever? Won’t people come and adopt some of them?”

“Not usually. You have a sanctuary, which means you take in animals that are too sick or old to be ridden anymore and you keep them until they die.”

“Oh.” How embarrassing. She hadn’t understood the basic premise of the project she’d taken on. “What do you call a place where you adopt out some of the horses?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe an equine rescue facility. But not a sanctuary.”

Lily swallowed. “Well, that’s what I need this to be, then, an equine rescue facility, at least for the animals I’ve taken in since I arrived. They’re not old and ready to die. People didn’t want them, so I accepted them. I thought that was what I was supposed to do.”

“It’s okay. No harm done. But you can’t ever adopt out those original six. They’re there for the duration.”

“I did figure that, but the barn holds twelve, and I thought it was a shame for the other stalls to go to waste.” Still, she felt like an idiot.

“Don’t worry. You can sort this out. What’s your plan for the adoption process?”

“Um...I’m working on it.” She hated to admit that no plan existed yet, but it couldn’t be that hard. She’d had no trouble finding people who wanted to get rid of horses, so now she needed to find the other half, the ones who wanted horses. “I should also probably mention the chickens.”

“What chickens?”

“Rescue chickens. I have nine of them.”

“How the hell did that happen?”

“I said yes to one person, and before you know it, I had nine.”

Nick sighed. “Do you know anything about chickens?”

“Enough to know I don’t want a rooster!”

“That’s a start.” He didn’t sound quite as confident now.

“I’m okay with the chickens, Nick. Mom and Dad had some a few years back, so they’re helping me figure it out. I also have two potbellied pigs. You’d be amazed how much info Google can dig up on potbellied pigs.”

“Good Lord. You know, Lily, you don’t need to accept every animal that shows up at your gate.”

“That’s what I tell myself, but I worry what will happen to them if I don’t.”

He sighed. “Yeah, that’s a problem when you get into the rescue business, but here’s the deal. You have accepted twenty-one horses, nine chickens and two pigs. I’m sure they keep you busy.”

“They do.” She had almost no downtime these days. She hadn’t played a video game in weeks, and her meditation practice was shot, but so far she’d kept up with the critters.

“Think about the animals you already have before you take in any more, okay? You owe those animals your best, and the larger your numbers, the less you’ll be able to give them your best.”

“I could hire help.”

“You could, but you’re still limited to the space you have. When winter comes, you’ll want to keep the horses in the barn most of the time, and that barn’s not big enough for twenty-one horses.”

“I could add on or build another one, like you said.”

“But where does it stop? Are you planning to buy more land and just keep building barns? How big an operation do you want?”

Lily took a deep breath. “I don’t want a big operation. I love this property just the size it is. It suits me, and the idea of employees gives me hives. I’d have to fill out IRS stuff and get them health insurance and learn how to be the boss of them.”

“If you don’t want to expand, you know what you have to do.”

“Right. Turn away any incoming horses until I adopt some out and make room.” Her stomach hurt. How could she refuse to take a homeless animal? That would kill her.

“Good. And about letting them roam everywhere, you might want to—”

“I know. Regan pointed out that they won’t be adoptable unless they have good manners, and some of the younger ones aren’t all that well behaved. A couple of them act like they want to fight with each other. I probably need to stop letting them run loose.”

“Yes, you do. They need to adapt to normal restrictions or nobody will want them. A well-trained horse is much easier to adopt out.”

For the first time since she’d moved onto the property, she felt uncertain that she’d done the right thing. She should have asked more questions instead of blithely leaping into something because it had sounded cozy. She’d liked the idea of doing something good for the planet. On the surface a horse sanctuary had seemed romantic and not particularly complicated. She’d loved the name of the place. Someone with the last name of King should have a kingdom, right?

If she’d understood that she was only supposed to take care of animals on their last legs, she might not have bought Peaceful Kingdom. Sure, somebody needed to do it, but she didn’t have the temperament. She’d be bored out of her tree, which might have been why she’d encouraged the locals to bring in more horses and liven things up.

Now she had to whip these newly acquired equines into shape fast and find them good homes so she could keep taking in the needy ones that would be lining up outside her gate with woeful expressions in their beautiful big eyes. The word was spreading, and in tough economic times, many people couldn’t afford to keep the horse they’d bought in a burst of optimism. That was the story most everyone had given her when they’d arrived at her gate.

Her next admission was so hard to make. “Nick, I don’t know how to train a horse.”

“That’s no problem. You’re a smart person. I’ll talk to Regan and see if he can help you. I’ll help you, too, when I can, but Regan has a little more free time than I do. He’ll probably agree. He’s a good guy.”

She latched on to this new topic with relief. “Speaking of Regan, what’s his deal, Nick?”

He hesitated. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to tell me if you shouldn’t, but I get the impression something bad happened to him recently. He seems...wounded.”

“What made you think that?”

“He didn’t take off his shades.”

“He examined all the horses with his sunglasses on? That doesn’t sound like Regan. He’s usually super professional.”

“He didn’t examine the horses. He’s coming back tonight when they’re all in the barn.” As she said it, she realized that expecting him to make a second trip really was ridiculous. Both Regan and Nick were right. She had too many horses and no control of them. That had to change.

“So what did he do while he was out there, if he didn’t examine the horses?”

“Helped carry the pig crate in here, and then we talked for a little while. That’s when he mentioned that I might be headed down the wrong road here at Peaceful Kingdom.” She gazed at the porch rail Sally was currently chewing on. Then she walked over and gave the mare a swat on the rump. Sally barely flinched and kept chewing. “So am I right? Is Regan hiding behind those shades?”

“I never thought about it before. He does wear them a lot. Most of us are fine with using our hats to shade our eyes. Sunglasses just get in the way.”

“He had the hat on, too. Double protection. I just thought, if he’s going to be advising me, I should know if there are certain subjects to avoid. I don’t want to stumble over a psychological land mine.” That was absolutely true. Regan was beginning to look like her savior, and she didn’t want to tick him off accidentally. She’d already created a problem for herself with the horses. She couldn’t afford to make the situation worse by alienating someone who could help.

Nick was silent for a moment. “I suppose it might be good for you to know. Everyone at the ranch does. But you can’t tell him I told you.”

“I won’t.”

“Okay, last Christmas Eve, he found his fiancée with his best friend.”

Lily’s chest tightened. “In bed?”

“Yeah.”

“Damn.” Now she wished she hadn’t been right about Regan’s vulnerability. “No wonder he’s wearing shades. I would, too. I’ve never had a fiancé, but I can imagine that would feel pretty awful, especially if it was with your best friend.”

“Don’t let on that you know, although maybe it is better that you do know. We all feel protective of him. He’ll be fine, but I don’t think he’s totally over it yet.”

“How could he be? Poor thing. It’s only been six months.” That meant he was off-limits to her, though. She had no interest in being some gorgeous guy’s rebound girl, even if she did want to soothe his wounded heart. She’d tried that once and it hadn’t turned out well. The rebound girl served a purpose, she’d discovered, but once that purpose was gone, so was the guy, which left the girl feeling used. “Anyway, thanks for filling me in.”

“You bet. Gotta go. He just walked into the office.”

“Okay. ’Bye.” She disconnected the call. What a shame about the fiancée and the best friend. Good to know, she supposed, and she owed Nick big-time for telling her. But her Johnny Depp fantasy had officially bitten the dust.

* * *

TECHNICALLY, REGAN SHOULD be frustrated as hell with the situation in Lily’s pink-and-turquoise barn. The quarters were cramped and the horses tested him continually. He’d countered every attempt to gain control with a stern word and a flick of the lead rope. So far that had kept any misbehaving animals in line.

But he’d had to remain vigilant. He should hate being here in this chaotic environment, except that it also contained Lily, who watched his every move. She asked excellent questions and took detailed notes on her phone, which he found endearing.

Earlier today he’d talked with Nick, who’d clarified the sanctuary-versus-rescue mix-up. Regan hadn’t been clear on the terms until then, either, but now he understood a little better how Lily had landed in this mess. Nick had wanted to know if Regan could spare some time to help her. Damn straight. Catching a glimpse of her bright hair and ready smile made his heart lift. He wouldn’t mind coming out here on a regular basis. It would be no sacrifice at all.

At last they were done, and she turned to him. “Should I keep them inside tonight so they’ll start getting used to the idea?”

“It’s pretty crowded. How about if we split them up and lead a few into the corral, instead?”

“That’s a good plan, except the gate’s broken. Mr. Turner told me he’d meant to fix it, but his arthritis was so bad he never did.”

“How broken is it?”

“It’s coming off the hinges. I decided not to worry about the corral, so I don’t know if it could be easily fixed or whether I need a whole new gate.”

“Let’s leave them in here for now and take a look.”

She nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

As he walked with her toward the corral, he noticed that the orange-red glow of the sunset matched the color of her hair. Nice. But the setting sun also brought out the unusual colors of the ranch buildings, prompting him to ask the question that had been nagging him for hours. “Why did you paint the buildings such...unusual colors?” He was proud of himself for substituting unusual for god-awful.

“Several reasons. First of all, these colors make me happy. I also like doing the unexpected thing to keep me from being bored. Nobody in this area has a pink-and-turquoise barn or an orange-and-green ranch house.”

“That would be true.”

“Besides that, I wanted to make sure people could find the place, and you have to admit that the colors make it stand out.”

“Also true.”

“But you don’t care for them.”

He smiled to soften his response. “No, not really.”

“I’m not surprised.” She said it in a conversational tone, as if his answer hadn’t fazed her in the least. Apparently she’d been expecting him to turn thumbs down.

Damn, now he wanted to know why. Did she think he was too boring to appreciate her creativity? Had he come across as someone with no imagination who always did what others expected? That was a stodgy image he wasn’t crazy about, but it might be accurate.

In any case, he didn’t have to worry about hurting her feelings. Obviously she didn’t need his approval to feel good about her choice of paint, and she’d accepted his comment without taking it personally.

Her attitude made him look at the colors differently. Why shouldn’t she be surrounded by colors that made her happy? It was her place, after all, and a little paint wasn’t going to hurt anything. If it shook people out of a rut—stodgy people like him, for example—that could be a good thing. And she was right about making the place easy to find.

“I may have made the place too accessible, though.” She paused and turned toward him. “The truth is, Regan, I blundered into this without the necessary skill set, and that’s embarrassing. I don’t have the foggiest idea what I’m doing, other than I want to help homeless horses.”

“That’s a good start.” Her honesty touched him. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. If everybody waited until they had the necessary skills before they started something, we’d still be living in caves.”

“What a nice thing to say.” Gratitude shone in her eyes. “Nick said he’d ask you about helping me. Did he?”

“Yeah.”

“Will you? Do you have time?”

He didn’t even have to think about it. “I’ll make the time.”

Her expression brightened. “Thank you, Regan.”

As he gazed into her eyes, the pressure that had constricted his chest for months began to ease. Exercise hadn’t eliminated it, and neither had booze. But granting one heartfelt request from Lily King made him feel lighter than air.

He should be thanking her. He wanted to stick around and see if she had any other miracle cures up her tie-dyed sleeve. An emotion washed through him, one he couldn’t immediately identify. Then he figured it out. For the first time in ages, he was happy.

3

LONG BEFORE THE sun went down, Lily found out that Regan had brown eyes. He’d taken off both hat and sunglasses while he examined the horses. Whenever he’d glanced up to discuss something with her, she’d looked into the velvet depths of those brown eyes and wished like hell he hadn’t been dumped so recently.

Later on, he’d delivered a line guaranteed to make a woman swoon—I’ll make the time. He’d compounded the effect of that by demonstrating that he knew exactly how to fix her broken gate. A man with multiple skills—now that was sexy. She was handy with a paintbrush, but she hadn’t taught herself to use the array of tools Mr. Turner had left her.

She would learn eventually, but watching Regan took away a big chunk of her incentive, especially after he rolled up his sleeves to reveal the play of muscles as he worked. She’d have no trouble being into Regan O’Connelli. As she held the gate steady while he reattached the hinges, she wondered what sort of idiot would cheat on a guy who seemed so special.

Then she chastised herself for making a snap judgment. She didn’t know the whole story, only the version presented by Nick, who was clearly biased in Regan’s favor. There might have been extenuating circumstances. If she kept her distance as she planned, she’d never know.

Maintaining that distance would be more of a challenge than she’d counted on, though. He was definitely a wounded man in need of comfort. She’d sensed it when they’d met, but at that point his shields had been firmly in place.

Apparently his thinking had changed in the intervening hours, because now he was lowering those shields. She heard it in his voice, as brisk efficiency was replaced with mellow goodwill. His body language was more open, too. No more crossed arms or clenched jaw when he talked with her.

But mostly she saw it in his eyes. They flashed with interest now instead of wariness. Fortunately she could resist those flashes of interest. What sucked her in were the brief moments when she glimpsed sadness and pain in those beautiful brown depths.

If a more powerful aphrodisiac existed, she didn’t know what it was. Responding to it was a huge mistake, as she’d long ago discovered to her sorrow. But he was a gorgeous man with a broken heart, and what woman wouldn’t yearn to help him heal?

This woman. Taking a deep breath, she tightened her resolve to keep Regan at arm’s length. She’d learned her lesson, right?

“That should do it.” He swung the gate back and forth a couple of times and made sure the latch fastened securely.