Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse (33 page)

They go back down to the barn, and Dan spends a little time talking to everybody, figuring out training goals for each horse for the week. He’s registered several of the animals in a horse trial the next weekend, so the barn’s priority will be to work with them and make sure any kinks have been worked out. It feels good to be back with the horses, back where he’s confident in his abilities and his role. He can’t totally keep his mind off other things, though, and when he’s talking to Tat about Sunshine’s training, his mind wanders to her brother more often than it should.

“So, you understand what we’re trying for there?” he asks. “Sunshine is registered
hors concours
. That means that she’s competing at a lower level than she should be, so she won’t be eligible for any prizes. We’re treating this as her introduction to California, and as an opportunity for you to get some experience. She’s ready to go quite a bit higher as soon as you are, so most of our training is going to concentrate on getting you up to her level. Does that make sense?”

Tat nods, but looks a little pensive. “Is it bad that I’m holding her back? I mean, is she losing important opportunities or something?”

Dan grins and resists the urge to ruffle Tat’s hair. “No, she’s fine. She’s probably happy to take it easy for a bit. Top-level eventing is really hard on horses. It’s pretty rare to find one that retires because of old age rather than injury. So you’re essentially giving her body a bit of a break, and that could be good in the long run.”

Tat nods but still looks worried. “But then, should I
never
compete her at the higher levels? If that’s going to hurt her?”

That’s a tougher question. The ethics of his sport are not crystal clear for Dan. “I don’t think so. Wait until you see her next weekend; she’ll be so alive, so enthusiastic. Good eventers are competitive—if they don’t want to win, they don’t do well.” Tat is looking at him like he holds the answers to the universe, and it’s a little unsettling, but he tries to find something intelligent to say. “It’s like… do you remember what you said about Justin?” He’s proud that he’s saying this without having to fight back a huge rush of emotion. Maybe things are getting better. “You said that he seemed so happy when he was eventing, like that’s what he was meant to do.” She nods in recollection. “That’s what a good eventing horse is like too—it’s like they’ve found their place in the universe, and they
have
to give it all they’ve got. You know?” Tatiana is smiling now. “Wait and see her on Sunday, and then you can figure out what you think she’d want to do.”

Tatiana nods and starts to move away, but Dan can’t help himself. “Hey, Tat? Is your brother around, do you know? I have some stuff to go over with him.”

She shakes her head. “No, he left just after I got up this morning. Said he had a big day at work, probably wouldn’t be home until late.”

Dan feels a bit foolish. Had he expected Evan to abandon his multibillion-dollar business just to sit around and wait for Dan to want to talk to him? “Oh, yeah, okay. Uh, what about Jeff?”

“He left with Evan. But if there’s something important, you could give them a call. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”

“No. There’s nothing important. I can just catch up with them later.” She grins as she heads back to work, and Dan is left feeling a bit foolish. He had been dreading the conversation with Evan and Jeff, expecting awkwardness and embarrassment, but now that he knows it isn’t going to happen for a while, he feels a bit let down. He shakes his head and focuses on his work. It seems like horses are about the only thing he understands these days.

Chapter 27

D
AN
rides three more horses that day, and the last of them, an off-thetrack Thoroughbred called Winston, has such a bad day and is so stubborn about not leg-yielding that Dan’s muscles are almost shaking by the time he finally gets the beast to behave. They manage one properly rounded trip around the ring in each direction and then Dan hops off quickly, grabbing the opportunity to end the training session on a positive note. Winston’s still a little hot, and once he’s got the rider off his back he’s a total sweetheart, with none of the pigheadedness he’d been showing under saddle. So Dan pulls off his tack and walks him with a lead rope and a cooler for a while, then takes him out to the side of the barn and hoses him off. The cool water feels good on Dan, too, and he’s not exactly careful about keeping himself dry.

He’s just finished rinsing his head under the end of the hose when he hears Robyn’s voice. “Oh,
there
you are!” Dan looks up and sees her just as she finishes stating the obvious. “Ryan’s here.” She gives Dan a quick look-over and then says something under her breath to Ryan. He just grins at her and nods in agreement, and she turns and heads back the way she came.

Ryan holds up Dan’s car keys in one hand, and takes a couple cautious steps forward before coming to a reluctant halt. Dan can’t figure out what the problem is, and then realizes that he’s standing next to twelve hundred pounds of restless animal. Winston is a teddy bear, nudging Dan a little to get back to the bath time, but apparently Ryan isn’t a big fan. Dan grins. It’s nice to see someone else’s vulnerability for a change.

“He’s okay, man. He’s really friendly.” Ryan nods, but doesn’t come any closer. He is
looking
, though, and Dan remembers that he’s soaking wet from the waist up, and more than a little damp lower down. He holds out his arms in mimicry of Ryan’s move from the night before. “See something interesting?” he asks teasingly. “Wanna come over and have a closer look?”

Ryan chuckles nervously, his eyes cutting from the horse to Dan and then back. “Is there any way you could get rid of the audience?”

“Who, Winston?” Dan shrugs his shoulder in under Winston’s chin, draping one arm up and around his head. “Nah. Winston likes to watch.” Dan grins then but tells himself to stop teasing. Ryan is being a good guy about Dan’s issues, and Dan shouldn’t be working him up unless he’s willing to do something about it. He takes hold of the end of the lead rope and walks toward Ryan, leaving the horse behind. When Dan gets to the end of the rope, he’s still a couple of feet away, but Ryan makes up the difference, stepping forward and eagerly meeting Dan’s mouth with his.

Dan’s feeling a lot more relaxed today. When Ryan brings a hand up to cup his head, he goes with it, and when Ryan’s other hand brushes gently against Dan’s torso, knuckles running along his abs through his soaked shirt, Dan leans into it a little, deepening the kiss and bringing their bodies into contact. He’s vaguely aware that there’s no longer any tension on the lead rope, but he doesn’t think much about it until he feels warm, sweet breath on his cheek and finds Ryan jumping backward in alarm.

Ryan looks like he’s been nuzzled by a bear rather than a horse, but Dan tries to keep a straight face. “Seriously, man, it’s okay. Come on, you should meet him. This is…. You not liking horses is like if I was scared of guitars or something….”

Ryan shakes his head, trying to relax. “What am I supposed to do?” “I dunno. Come over and say hi?”
“Yeah, he already said hi, thanks!”
“Come on…. Look, I’ll hold his head really snug, okay? So he can’t

move. You can just come up and pat him on the neck, or the shoulder.” Dan tightens up the lead rope as promised, and Ryan takes a tentative step forward, then another when Winston doesn’t react. He works his way around to the side, and reaches out to touch the horse’s neck with the tips of his finger.

He jerks them back quickly, and looks at them. “He’s wet.” “Yeah, dude, we were having a bath.” Dan smiles a little. “Okay, now bring your hand back, and rest the palm of it on his neck for five seconds. Okay?”
“Five seconds.” Ryan looks a little dubious, but he leans forward and puts his hand on Winston’s neck. Dan moves then, one arm still reaching back to hold the lead rope, the other pulling Ryan’s face around for

another kiss. Dan puts some effort into this one, working their lips open and bringing his tongue forward to meet Ryan’s eagerness. Ryan’s spare arm wraps around Dan’s back, pulling him in tighter, and Dan doesn’t resist. He does notice when the hand from Winston’s neck moves over to his own, and he pulls his mouth away a little in protest. Ryan seems to know what he’s going to say, and murmurs, “It’s been way more than five seconds,” before finding Dan’s lips again.

It’s not long before Winston gets restless and moves a bit, and Ryan’s attention is distracted long enough for Dan to remember where he is, and remember why making out at work is an
especially
bad idea given his current circumstance. He pulls away a little, and Ryan lets him go, his eyes running over Dan’s heated face and down over the wet shirt clinging to his body. He shakes his head. “Damn, Robyn was right.”

“Yeah? What’d she say?”

“She said you oughta be illegal,” Ryan rumbles, and Dan ducks over to the other side of Winston before he gets dragged back in.
“Well, illegal at work, at least,” Dan says, as much to himself as to Ryan. Ryan seems to take the warning, though, and takes a step back.

“I brought the truck back out… new fan belt and Donny did a couple other things as well—none of it cost much, and he said you definitely needed it done.”

Dan sighs and nods, has a quick flash back to Evan’s offer to buy him a new truck. He knows it hadn’t been meant seriously, at least not entirely, but he wonders what it would be like to have that kind of money. Thanks to the back pay from the Archers and the generous moving allowance to get to California, Dan has savings in the bank for pretty much the first time in his life, but he’s been poor too long to take it for granted, and he doesn’t want to blow it on a new truck. Or on truck repairs, really, but at least they’re cheaper. “Okay, yeah. Is there a bill?”

Ryan nods. “I left it in the truck. I was hoping I could get a lift back into town?”
“Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for helping out with this.” Dan looks down at himself. “Are you in a hurry? I should probably change.”

Ryan checks his watch. “I’m supposed to be at work in about an hour, and I need to put on my work clothes. So maybe if we left here in forty minutes or so?”

“Yeah, that’s good. Let me just dry Winston off a bit, and then he can go in the pasture and I can get a quick shower and we’ll go.”

“A shower, now? Jesus, you were just about killing me with the ‘changing’ talk, and now there’s a shower?” Ryan’s voice is teasing, but there’s heat in his eyes.

“Well, if you want to drive into town with someone who smells like a horse, I guess that’s your call.”

Ryan grins. “I wouldn’t mind the drive, but I was gonna ask if you wanted to have dinner at the restaurant. Mondays are slow, so I’ll probably have a bit of spare time. And the paninis miss you.”

Dan can feel his mouth starting to water. “Damn, absolutely. Bring it on!” A part of his head reminds him that this is three days in a row that he’s spent time with Ryan, and that’s not exactly casual, but he ignores it in favor of thinking about the paninis.

Dan runs the sweat scraper over Winston and puts some oil on his hooves to help deal with the dry California climate, and then turns him out in the paddock and calls in to tell Robyn that he’s leaving. She nods and waves, and he and Ryan pile into the truck for the short trip to the guest house. Dan’s mostly dry by now, but one good thing about having a cheap old truck is the vinyl seat covers. He really doesn’t need to worry about wrecking the upholstery.

It’s a bit awkward when they get to the house. Obviously Dan’s not going to ask Ryan to wait in the truck, but he doesn’t want to make it seem like he’s inviting him
in
, either. Ryan solves the problem by commenting on the view from the porch, and asking if he can sit out there while Dan cleans up. Dan doesn’t know if Ryan’s being really tactful or just likes looking at mountains, but he doesn’t complain either way, and promises to just be a couple minutes.

He barely rinses himself off in the shower and then pulls on clean clothes and heads down the stairs. When he gets to the bottom he hears voices on the porch, and proceeds a bit more cautiously. He looks out through the window and sees Ryan talking to Jeff. They both seem relaxed. It looks like Jeff is telling a story, and Ryan is listening happily, interjecting comments now and then. Dan has no idea how his life got so complicated, and he almost wishes that other people could be a bit more uncomfortable about things, to keep him from feeling like quite such a spaz. But it’s Ryan and Jeff, so expecting them to be anything but laid back might be asking a lot.

He waits until there seems to be a pause in the conversation, and they both look up with smiles when he opens the door and steps out.

“Hey, Dan,” Jeff says. “Evan’s working late, so I just dropped by to see if you wanted to get some dinner, but it seems like I’m a little too late.” As usual, Dan has trouble reading his face.

“I said he should come with. I’m gonna be working most of the time, so it’d be good for you to have some company,” Ryan volunteers.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Dan says. He thinks he means it. “I guess you’ve probably already had the paninis at Zio’s?”
Jeff nods. “Yeah—they’re worth the trip, no doubt. But I don’t want to intrude.” Jeff gives him another unreadable look, and Dan sighs internally. If the man is honestly trying to communicate with Dan, what happened to his realization that Dan can’t read people?

Dan glances at Ryan, who gives him a laidback shrug in return. Jesus, enough with the body language. Dan decides to lead by example. “I’d be happy to have you along, if you want to come.” There. Clarity.

Ryan nods. “And you’d get to ride in that fine piece of American craftsmanship—they don’t make ’em like that anymore.” He nods at the truck, and Dan gives him a cautious look. Is he making fun or being genuine? Ryan grins and holds his hands up in a ‘don’t shoot’ gesture. “Seriously, man—it’s a great truck.”

Dan’s still suspicious, but he lets it go and turns to Jeff. “If Evan’s working late, should we bring Tat?”

Jeff nods. “But you’ve got to go to your place first, right?” he asks Ryan, who agrees. Jeff turns to Dan. “Why don’t you drive Ryan in, I’ll go and see what Tat’s up to, and we’ll meet you there. ’Cause God knows she’s not going to appear in public straight from the barn.” He glances at Dan’s freshly washed self and grins at Ryan. “It’s always the pretty ones who end up getting vain.”