The Chase (23 page)

Kendall hesitated. Dinner did sound appealing.

Jake took the empty water bottle from her hand and tossed it in the trash can. “You choose the place. I promise we won’t be out late.”

She felt her resolve weaken. “Actually, I’d kill for fried chicken from the Coach Stop.”

“You’re on.”

Kendall hopped down from the rail. “Let me just go freshen up. How about if we meet in the parking lot in five minutes?”

He nodded. “See you there.”

Kendall grabbed her purse from her car and hurried to the women’s rest room. After using a wet paper towel to remove as much dust from her face as she could manage, she applied lipstick and blush, then shook loose her pony tail, which was tangled and limp from the dust in the ring. Brushing helped some, but her hair still looked flat and dull. What she really needed was a haircut and highlights, but she sure couldn’t afford to plunk down two hundred dollars at the hairdresser’s right now.

“I guess that’s as good as it’s going to get,” she muttered, shoving her makeup into her purse.

Jake was waiting by his truck in the parking lot, and when she approached, he opened the passenger door for her.

“I think I’ll drive my own car, so I can head right home from the restaurant,” Kendall said.

Jake closed the door. “Suit yourself. I’ll follow you.” He didn’t make eye contact, but as he passed by her, Kendall saw a flicker of annoyance in his eyes.

Darkness had blanketed Middleburg by the time Kendall parked at a meter in front of the Coach Stop, and she was struck by the serenity of the village at night: Old-fashioned streetlamps cast a soft glow over the redbrick sidewalks and illuminated the hand-painted signs that hung above darkened storefronts.

Jake pulled up to the meter behind her. “I hope the kitchen’s still open,” he said as he stepped out of his truck. “I didn’t realize things shut down so early in Middleburg.”

“We should be okay. The Coach Stop usually stays open until ten o’clock.”

At least half the tables in the restaurant were filled, and as they stood by the front door, waiting to be seated, Kendall was painfully aware of her appearance. Maybe coming there hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

A waitress walked by with a large tray of food. “You can sit anywhere you’d like.”

Kendall looked at the nearby corner booth. “Is this okay?”

Jake nodded and motioned for her to go first. “Sure.”

Kendall slid three-quarters of the way around the circular bench, allowing for plenty of distance between Jake and her.

“Can I get you something to drink?” the waitress asked, placing cocktail napkins in front of them and handing them each a menu. “We’re going to be closing the kitchen soon, so I’ll need to take your orders in a couple of minutes.”

Jake looked at Kendall. “Would you like a glass of wine?”

“I’d love one. Chardonnay, please.”

“And I’ll have a Budweiser,” Jake said.

“Coming right up,” the waitress said, hurrying off.

“Kendall, is that you?”

Kendall turned around and saw Helen Dunning sitting in the booth next to them. Helen was dressed in a black silk suit with a crisp white linen blouse, and her hair was expertly coiffed in a French twist. “Helen, hi.”

“That was a lovely shower you hosted for Anne the other day. It’s just too bad it had to end the way it did. How is Doug doing? Do you know? I heard he was out of the hospital.”

“Doug’s doing very well, considering what he went through.”

“Oh, that’s so good to hear.” Helen smiled at Jake. “Hello, I’m Helen Dunning.”

Jake nodded at her. “Nice to meet you, ma’am. I’m Jake Dawson.”

“Have you been at a show today, Kendall?” Helen asked.

“No, I’ve been teaching at Fox Run.”

“Oh, yes, that’s right. You have my niece, Caitlin, in your camp session this week. I’ll bet teaching camp is quite an experience.”

“It is, Helen. I’m really enjoying working with the children.”

“And you’re a saint to do it. I’ll bet when you and Peter went through all those fertility treatments to try to conceive a child, you never dreamed you’d have a whole group of children demanding your attention.”

Kendall opened her menu. “You’re right, Helen. I didn’t.”

Helen stood up. “Well, you look great. Very outdoorsy. Are you growing your hair out?”

Kendall kept her eyes on the menu. “I’m thinking about it.”

Helen turned to Jake. “It was very nice to meet you.”

Jake stood. “Nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Dunning.”

The waitress set their drinks on the table and took out a pad and pen. “Ready to order?”

Jake looked at Kendall.

“I’ll have the fried chicken,” Kendall said.

“You want french fries with that, or whipped potatoes?”

“Fries, please.”

“You also get one other side. Our vegetable of the day is broccoli. We also have macaroni and cheese or fried apples. All the side dishes are listed in the menu.”

“I’ll have the fried apples.” Kendall handed her menu to the waitress and looked at Jake. “Might as well make the whole meal fried. It goes with my outdoorsy look.”

Jake smiled at the waitress and closed his menu. “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Kendall lifted her wineglass. “Cheers,” she said, talking a long swallow.

Jake left his bottle on the table. “Is something bothering you?”

“I’m fine.” She took another sip of wine. “Just sitting here feeling
outdoorsy.”

“Aw, come on. I can’t believe you’d let that get to you.”

Kendall felt anger bubble in her chest. “Of course you can’t. You don’t know Helen Dunning. By this time tomorrow, she’ll have found out who you are, and she’ll tell everyone she saw me having dinner at the Coach Stop with
that cowboy from Fox Run
. And she’ll be sure to mention that I was dirty, and bedraggled, and badly in need of a haircut.”

Jake studied her thoughtfully while he took a swig of his beer. “What bothers you more, that she’ll tell people you were having dinner with me or that remark about your hair?”

Kendall hesitated.
Was she embarrassed to be seen dining with Jake?
No doubt, Helen would just assume it was a date. And tongues would start wagging, comparing Jake to Peter. Gossiping about how she’d
lowered her standards
from a CEO to a cowboy. That was sure to send her tumbling down the social ladder in a hurry. The funny thing was, she didn’t really care.

“I just don’t like to be the subject of gossip,” she said finally.

“Fair enough. No one likes to be gossiped about.”

The waitress arrived with their meals, and Kendall looked distastefully at the plateful of food in front of her. She’d lost her appetite.

Jake picked up a drumstick and bit into it. “This is great fried chicken.”

Kendall nodded, nibbling on a french fry.

“By the way,” Jake said, pausing to wipe his mouth on the napkin. “I like your hair. I thought Mrs. Dunning’s hairdo looked kind of like a poodle.”

Kendall couldn’t resist a smile. “Thank you.”

“Aren’t you going to eat your chicken?” he asked, gesturing towards her full plate.

“I’m just not very hungry anymore. I’ll have them wrap it up for me.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself, but it’s probably better warm.”

Kendall peeled off a small bite of chicken and pushed the rest of the food around on her plate.

“Forgive me if I’m sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong, but I thought that was a low blow for Mrs. Dunning to say what she did about you trying to get pregnant.”

“Helen is an expert at low blows.”

He chewed thoughtfully for a few moments. “It’s tough, going through fertility treatment, isn’t it?”

Kendall looked at him in surprise. “Have you gone through it?”

Jake shook his head. “No, not me. Some friends of mine went through it, though, and it almost cost them their marriage.”

“It can be very emotionally draining.”

“I take it you weren’t able to get pregnant?”

“No, I wasn’t.” She picked up her wineglass and leaned back against the booth.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. The reason I wasn’t able to get pregnant had nothing to do with the fertility treatment.”

Jake frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that there was nothing God or the doctor could do to help me conceive a child with Peter. My husband had a vasectomy before we got married, a small detail that he failed to tell me about.”

Jake snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

Kendall looked away. “I wish I were.”

“Why didn’t the doctor catch that during the fertility treatment?”

“Peter didn’t participate in the treatment. He had two children from a previous marriage, so he maintained that he couldn’t possibly be the source of the problem. He insisted that if I wanted a child, I was the one who should undergo fertility treatment. I went along with that, assuming that, as he said, he was perfectly capable of fathering a child.”

“Which he knew all along he wasn’t,” Jake said.

Kendall nodded.

Jake shook his head. “No wonder you have no faith in the male species.”

She drained her wineglass and attempted a smile. “My therapist tells me it’s part of the normal healing process for me to hold all men accountable for Peter’s sins.”

“Just don’t let it make you bitter, Kendall. Hate can eat away at you like a cancer. Trust me, I know.”

“Are you talking about the way you feel about your father?”

Jake gazed steadily at her for a moment. “Yeah.”

A
nne watched in fascination as the chestnut Thoroughbred was led down the ramp and into the swimming pool. The pungent smell of chlorine had turned her stomach when they’d first entered the pool area, but she’d grown used to the odor and her stomach had settled down.

“Look, Mommy, he’s doing the doggie paddle.”

“He sure is.” Anne pulled Samantha a step backwards to allow the horse’s handler plenty of room to pass in front of them. She sensed a movement next to her, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Ben, their bodyguard, shift closer to Samantha.

“This horse isn’t very fit, so I am only going to take him around the pool a couple of times,” the handler explained. “That may not seem like much to you, but horses aren’t really built to swim efficiently, because of their large bodies and little legs. It can be very tiring for them.”

“What’s the reason he’s swimming?” Jake asked.

“This horse is a racehorse and he has a tendon injury. By taking him swimming, his trainer is able to keep him physically fit without straining the tendon. When the tendon has healed, he will be able to be put back to work much more quickly.”

The handler led the horse down the far side of the pool. “Okay, I’m coming around again.”

A few of the campers had inched towards the edge of the pool, and Kendall backed them away. “Come on, kids, let’s stay together.”

“I’m hot, Mommy,” Samantha said, pulling on Anne’s blouse. “I wish I could go swimming.”

“Not in this pool, I hope.”

“Eew, no.” Samantha wrinkled her nose. “It probably has horse poop in it.”

Jake, who was standing nearby, turned and winked at her. “How’s that new puppy of yours doing, Samantha?”

“He’s doing great. Last night, Rascal slept in my room all night long. He only had two accidents.”

Anne fought back a smile. “Tell Jake what else Rascal did.”

“Oh, yeah. Rascal was in the kitchen this morning, and we weren’t really watching him because we were eating breakfast, and he chewed Daddy’s riding boots.”

“Uh-oh. Did your daddy get mad?”

Samantha nodded. “A little bit. But then Mommy told him he had to sleep in his own bed.”

Anne laughed. “What I said was, ‘Daddy made his own bed; now he has to sleep in it.’”

“I hope you weren’t too hard on Mr. Cummings for taking the puppy home,” Jake said with a smile.

“No, I took pity on him because of his injuries and let him off pretty easy.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Jake looked around. “I thought I might see him here today. Is he feeling all right?”

“Doug’s fine. In fact, I almost think he’s feeling too good. He’s at his office in Washington right now.”

“You’re kidding.”

She shook her head. “No. Doug woke up this morning rearing to go to the office. I tried to talk some sense into him, but that fell upon deaf ears. Then I realized it was probably doing him more harm to sit around at home, fretting about work, than it would to go to the office for a few hours.”

“Okay, kids, the horse is going to come out of the pool now,” Kendall said. “Let’s all back up and stay clear of the ramp.”

Anne reached for Samantha’s hand and held it until the handler led the horse out of the pool and over to the hosing-off area.

“The horses get hosed down before and after they swim,” the handler explained, reaching for the hose that hung from the ceiling.

“What did you think, kids, was it fun to see a horse swim?” Kendall asked.

A chorus of “yes” came from the cluster of girls.

Kendall smiled at the handler. “Thank you so much for letting us visit the swim center.”

“No problem. Anytime.”