A Love Like Ours (26 page)

She set the ice water and two Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on the ottoman within his reach. Hands on hips, she regarded him. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Lyndie, I’m not your houseguest.”

“You are tonight.” She was dying to kiss him again, but there was no telling how much longer that would keep them both awake. “You need sleep. Do you remember what that is?”

“No.”

“I’ll wake you at five. Will that give you enough time to go home before you’re needed at Lone Star?”

He nodded.

“Okay.” She paused, not quite able to make herself leave him. “See you in the morning.”

She forced her feet to walk to her studio. On the threshold, just before she closed herself in, she glanced back. He was looking directly at her, his eyes glittering with intensity. Oh, have mercy! She was really dying to kiss him. More honestly, she wanted to kiss him, marry him, and take him to bed.

Not so fast, Lyndie
.

She closed the door on his image, then stood on the other side in a dreamy daze. She’d come to her studio because she knew
she’d need at least forty-five minutes of work to quiet the thoughts chasing themselves around in her brain.

From the front of the apartment, she heard the
thunk
of her deadbolt. She started forward, intending to rush out and stop him from leaving—then remembered that he couldn’t have left. The deadbolt locked from the inside.

She’d forgotten all about locking the front door, but he had not. As always, Jake’s main concern?

Keeping her safe.

I
f tiptoeing had been an Olympic sport, Lyndie would have won gold. She’d managed to slide out of bed and make her way down her hallway with nary a sound. She came to a silent stop near the end of her sofa. This was the third time she’d checked on him since he’d fallen asleep last night. This would also be the final time. Five a.m. would arrive in just three minutes.

Jake slept on his back, his face turned to the side. His expression, often so severe when awake, looked unguarded in sleep. One of his hands gripped the top edge of the blanket, which lay tangled around his hips. The other hand rested on top of Gentleman Tobias, who’d snuggled next to his side and was snoring softly. Empress Felicity had draped herself, belly-up, alongside Jake’s shin. And Mrs. Mapleton had her front two paws resting on his ankle.
Defectors
, Lyndie thought, her heart full to bursting.

She couldn’t keep Jake in a bubble, even though she wished she could. On this Monday morning, the two of them would fill their usual roles at the track. She could only hope that working alongside her wouldn’t throw him for a loop. Goodness knows, he was touchy. She had to tread very carefully with him or she’d scare him away.

Sixty seconds until five. Which gave her one more minute to indulge in staring at him.

She released a sigh, her chest filling with buzzing and tipsy devotion.

When Lyndie arrived at the barn at Lone Star, she went straight to the bulletin board that always contained her instructions for the morning. On it, Jake had listed workout details for the other four horses she exercised but nothing for Silver.

At Silver’s stall she found Zoe within, hanging a fresh pail of water on his hook. “Morning.”

“Good morning.” Zoe smiled.

“I don’t have a workout for Silver Leaf on my sheet.”

“That’s because Jake thinks he’s sick.”

Concern plummeted through Lyndie. Silver Leaf had come out of his race in excellent form. The vets had checked him afterward, as was standard and required, and declared him completely healthy. “What’s wrong?”

“He didn’t clean up his feed. And he’s running a temperature. More than either of those things, though, I think Jake could tell by looking at him that something’s off. The vet’s coming by this morning.” Zoe gave the horse two pats on his withers, then went to work raking the floor. “I’m not sure . . .”

Whether Silver’s contracted chicken pox? Lyndie’s imagination supplied. If Saturn is currently aligned with Neptune?

Lyndie let herself into the enclosure. At first glance, the stallion appeared as placidly regal as always. Yet the more she studied him, the more she could sense what Jake had noticed. The horse’s eyes lacked their usual bright intelligence.

Silver rested his head on her shoulder with a little too much heaviness, as if the weight of it taxed him. “You’re just getting started,” Lyndie murmured, scratching the underside of his cheeks. “Don’t go getting sick on me now.” Since running to such an overwhelming victory, interest in Silver Leaf had swelled. Lyndie had
heard that Meg had fielded several calls from buyers interested in acquiring the horse. Meg, of course, had no intention of selling.

“Is Jake out at the track?” Lyndie made an effort to mention Jake’s name casually. It wouldn’t do for Zoe to suspect Lyndie’s romantic notions toward him at this point.

“No. He got in his truck and left a minute ago.”

Lyndie parted from Silver and went about exercising her other horses. Jake did not appear. She followed the plans he’d written out for each of his Thoroughbreds under the oversight of his foreman.

The whole time concern for both Silver and Jake dogged her. Surely Jake hadn’t fled the track because he wanted to avoid her. When she’d woken him this morning, they’d shared nothing noteworthy. But then, this morning hadn’t been the time for noteworthy interactions. It had been fully dark and her animals had twined around his feet in happy chaos when he’d stood and thanked her and tried to walk to the door. He’d still been three-quarters asleep when he’d left. She shouldn’t be concerned. Should she?

She’d just released her final horse to his groom when she saw Dr. Murray, the vet, pull into a parking spot outside their barn. Lyndie poked her head into the break room. “Zoe?”

“Yep?”

“Dr. Murray’s here.”

Lyndie and Zoe waited in the row outside Silver’s stall. At the risk of sounding like a broken record . . . “Is Jake back?” Lyndie asked.

“No, but now that the doctor’s arrived, I’m sure he’ll be here any second.”

Dr. Murray walked toward them down the long shed row, flanked by a college-aged guy who had to be at least six foot six.

“I think I’ve finally spotted a cute tall guy for you,” Lyndie whispered.

“Oh my gosh. He’s
so
cute. And he’s
so
tall.”

Lyndie had nothing but respect for the vet Jake used. A trim woman who wore her gray hair cut short and favored cargo pants and T-shirts, Dr. Murray knew her stuff when it came to Thoroughbreds.
The doctor introduced the tall guy as her intern. “Andrew’s finishing up his final semester at SMU. He’ll be heading to veterinary school in the fall.”

“Awesome,” Zoe told him. “Will you be going to school close to Dallas?” Her tone all but warbled with hopefulness.

“At Texas A&M in Commerce.”

“Oh, I live in Holley. Less than an hour from Commerce.”

“Cool.” Andrew had brown hair and big dimples and a shy smile. Like Zoe, he had an upper body that bent forward slightly, as if it had grown that way because he’d been forced to lean forward to hear people.

While Dr. Murray examined Silver, Lyndie talked with the two tall people. For the first time since she’d met Zoe, the redhead’s posture had straightened to fully upright, from the soles of her lime green boots to the crown of her head.

When Jake strode suddenly into a flush of sunlight at the far end of the barn, Lyndie’s heart stuttered. His attention locked on to her, holding as he closed the distance.

Please don’t be freaking out over last night. Please be okay with the dynamic between us, both
personally and professionally.
“Hi.” Not the most clever conversational volley.

“Is Dr. Murray with Silver Leaf?” he asked.

“Yep.”

“Thanks.” He said hello to Zoe, shook hands with Andrew, and moved past Lyndie into the stall. Dr. Murray consulted with him as she continued looking over the horse.

Jake had showered, shaved, and changed since she’d seen him last. His handsomeness blared at her as loudly as a full orchestra. She was stunned that everyone else was able to go about their business in a normal fashion around him.

“Andrew,” Dr. Murray called.

Andrew joined the doctor, and the two of them spoke in hushed tones.

Lyndie looked to Jake and found him watching her in such a sober, measuring way that nervousness tightened her lungs.

She mumbled something to Zoe and beelined to the sanctuary of the restroom.

Something was wrong between her and Jake—no, no. Nothing was wrong. Good grief! She couldn’t lay expectations on him of any kind.
I just have to take what comes and pray over the rest.
She washed her hands, undid her thick ponytail, and finger-combed it back into a neater ponytail. Then she went to the tack room and polished the bridles belonging to each of her horses—

Jake let himself into the tack room. Every scrap of air seemed to evaporate in the small space.

“What did Dr. Murray say about Silver Leaf?” Very industriously she kept right on polish, polish, polishing away.

“It’s a lung infection complicated by a virus.”

Lyndie’s motion paused. A diagnosis like that could quickly turn dangerous. “He’s going to be fine, Jake.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want you to worry.”

“I’ve learned to deal with worry about my horses. I’ve had to. They get sick now and then.”

“Well, he’ll be better in no time.” She refused to consider the possibility that Silver would be sidelined so soon, after just one race. “Silver’s strong. He’ll recover quickly—”

Jake turned the lock on the tack room door.

“Um.” Lyndie swallowed.

He stepped to her and took her face in his hands. He had a way of circling his upper body, his shoulders and arms and strength, around her. He kissed her like his universe centered on her, and it went right to her head.

He pulled back an inch. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here this morning.”

“It’s okay.”

“I had to meet with a horse agent.”

“Likely story.” She grinned. It was sheer delight to have the freedom to rest her hands on his upper chest. “So. About dinner tonight. I’ve already made you the only thing I cook well, but I’m willing to try a casserole. Or we could go to a restaurant.”

“Do you like barbecue?”

“Yes.”

“Taste of Texas at seven? I’m buying.”

“No, I’m buying.”

“This isn’t California. If we go to a restaurant, I’m paying.”

She exhaled because she could see he wouldn’t budge on the point. “Do they have dessert at Taste of Texas?”

“Cobbler.”

“Then bring an appetite for cobbler.”

“I don’t usually eat dessert.”

“I know. But, Jake?”

“Mmm?” He seemed distracted by the sight of his thumb as it smoothed across the skin below her bottom lip.

“You’re going to be eating dessert from now on. Like it or not.”

“Like it or not?” An ember of humor lit eyes that were usually deadly serious.

“Like it or not.”

“I think . . .” His thumb made another pass over her lip. “I’m going to like it.”

Around noon the next day, the sound of feminine laughter broke through the barn at Lone Star just as Jake finished a conversation with his foreman. He stepped outdoors to investigate and saw Lyndie standing beneath a tree, wildflowers at her feet. She had Silver Leaf with her, as well as his mom, her mom, and Mollie. Odd. No one had mentioned anything about holding a family reunion at his barn today. He made his way to the group.

Lyndie had finished standing beside him at the track half an hour ago. By now, she should have been on her way back to Holley to spend the afternoon on her art.

“Jake.” His mom approached him, arms outstretched. Nancy Porter’s hugs were always as energetic as she was.

He hugged his mom back, then greeted Lyndie’s mom. “Hi, Karen.”

“How are you, Jake?”

“Doing well. Hi, Mollie.” They’d settled Mollie into the same special chair they’d used for her on Easter. Her eyes were open, her head angled down and to the side.

“It’s fun to see behind the scenes here at the track,” Karen said. “Now I’ll have a visual of where you and Lyndie work.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve visited here, myself,” his mom said. “Maybe you can give Karen and me a tour after lunch.”

“Lunch?”

His mom bent and lifted a big white sack. “Chicken tarragon salad sandwiches.” She tucked a piece of her hair, dark brown with one gray stripe, behind her ear and smiled.

“We didn’t make them ourselves,” Karen put in.

“Land sakes!” His mom slapped her thigh. “I certainly couldn’t make anything this high-falutin’, as Jake well knows.”

“Nor me,” Karen said. “Lyndie buys frozen enchiladas from the grocery store, and it’s all I can do to warm them up.”

The two older women looked at each other and laughed. They’d been good friends since before his birth. He could remember them laughing together just this way when he’d been young.

He risked a glance at Lyndie. She returned his attention, a gentle expression of enjoyment on her face. In the past half hour, she’d taken down her hair. She’d also undone a few of the tiny buttons at the top of her pale blue shirt, revealing a
V
of skin. Completely modest. And yet,
man
, that
V
of skin . . .

“I brought food for you,” his mom said. “Can you join us?”

“I can join you.” He remembered how faithfully Lyndie had continued to feed the Stoneleighs’ dog after his surgery. “Do you need help getting things set up?”

“Goodness, no. Visit with Mollie.”

Karen and his mom pulled out a yellow tablecloth and used it to cover the plastic outdoor table his employees sometimes used for meals or break times.