Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse (12 page)

“Well, I think Evan is hoping to take advantage of your expertise even if it’s not a long-term arrangement,” Linda says smoothly. “He’d like to get your opinion of what’s been done at the barn, and what else needs to be done. And he’s also planning to get your help in evaluating the skills and credentials of the candidates for the jobs.” Dan can hear the smile come into her voice. “I think he’s also hoping that once you see the place you’ll want to come back. But that’s really not the main reason for the trip.”

“Well, sure, then, I can come out. Do you have dates in mind?” “The ads have already been posted for the positions, and we’ve gotten a good response. Evan asked me to fax the applications to you for review, and then as soon as you get back to me with the names of the candidates you’d like to see, I can have someone set up the interviews.” It occurs to Dan that Linda is probably working well below her pay grade, placing want ads and coordinating travel for a bunch of horse people. He wonders why this project merits special attention from Evan’s own assistant, and the answers he comes up with make him uncomfortable but also a little flattered.

“Sure, yeah, that sounds good.” Dan remembers something. “Oh, wait—I was talking to Robyn, the woman who looks after the horses here, and does some training… and she’d be interested in moving out, having one of the jobs.” Robyn had just broken up with her boyfriend, and when Dan mentioned the possibility of her going to California with the horses, her eyes had actually glowed. “Uh, I think that’d be good whether I come or not—if I’m there, we work well together, and if I’m not, you’d have someone who knows the horses.”

“All right, I can pass that along to Evan. I think he and Jeff Stevens were hoping to sit in on the interviews, along with Tatiana—Evan’s trying to use this project as a way to get her more involved with the family businesses. But I expect they’d be interested in hiring someone you recommend, even if they don’t have the chance to interview her themselves.”

And only three days later, Dan finds himself being picked up in an airport limo (really just a car, he’s relieved to see) and driven to the Cincinnati airport. He’s never flown before. He’s traveled lots, at least through North America, but at first he got around by hitchhiking, and later he drove with horse trailers. He and Justin had talked about taking Willow on the international circuit, but that was just one more thing that they hadn’t gotten to do together.

The airport staff seem bored and vaguely hostile, but he manages to make it through security and boarding without too much trauma. He’s a little nervous about taking off, but when it comes, the acceleration is nothing compared to what he’s felt on a horse. Karl has lent him a couple books on horse farm management, and he’s taken the smallest one with him. He doesn’t want the California people to see it and realize how little he knows, but he also doesn’t want to sit around wasting time when he could be learning something. This one is small enough that he can stuff it in his bag before he meets anyone.

Landing is a little scarier than taking off—again, the bumps and deceleration are nothing compared to what he’s felt on a horse, but he’s used to being more actively involved in the situation. It’s against his nature to just sit there and trust that someone else will take care of things. They do, though, and he follows the instructions to get him off the plane and out to the arrivals area.

He had been told that someone would pick him up and to call Linda if there were any problems. He realizes when he gets outside the security gate that he has no idea how the person picking him up is supposed to recognize him. He’s seen movies where drivers hold signs with their passengers’ names on them, but he doesn’t see any signs, or anyone else who’s looking as lost as he is.

He really doesn’t want to call Linda and bother her with this sort of detail, but he also doesn’t want to be the idiot who stood around the airport for hours when a simple phone call could have straightened things out much earlier. He’s playing with his phone, trying to decide, when he hears a voice boom out from behind him.

“Dan! Hey, sorry I’m late! Have you been waiting long?” Dan turns to see Evan, but not the Evan he’s used to. In Kentucky, Evan had dressed to blend in, wearing jeans and button downs at his dressiest. Here, Evan is wearing a medium gray suit with a crisp white shirt and a purple tie. His hair is still a little long, but it looks carefully styled. For the first time, Dan finds the other man a little intimidating.

Then Evan grins and the effect is lost. “I told Linda I could drive you out, because I’d be at the airport anyway… but then my flight got delayed, of course!” Dan notices that Evan has a carry-on of his own slung over his shoulder, although Evan’s is the folding suit kind and Dan’s is a knapsack.

“No, it’s fine, I wasn’t waiting long,” he finally manages.

“Oh, good. Hey, it’s good to see you, man!” Evan looks like he might be working up to a hug, but Dan shoves his hand out for a shake and shoulder-slap instead. Evan doesn’t seem to notice the shift. “So, did you check a bag or anything? No, me neither—I hate standing around waiting.” Evan charges off through the crowd, and Dan just tries to keep up. Once they’re out of the main building, Evan slows a little, and Dan moves up beside him, watching as Evan loosens his tie and unbuttons his collar. He sees Dan looking, and grins. “I really don’t like the suits. But they do help people to take me a bit more seriously.”

Dan nods, and then Evan’s burrowing through his suit jacket to find his wallet, then the claim ticket for his car. “They have this valet service for parking here… I swear, I don’t normally use it, I’m not a fat sixtyyear-old, but I was totally running late for my departure flight, so I just wanted to dump the car and go….” Evan keeps up a running monologue as they head for the parking garage. He gives the claim ticket to the valet staff, and moments later they’re climbing into a Jeep Cherokee that’s not much newer than Dan’s own truck.

Evan drives them out of the parking structure and into traffic. At the first stoplight he takes his tie all the way off and tosses it into the back seat. Then he rolls his shoulders a little, and Dan can see the way his muscles move even through the suit jacket. Evan is slowly nodding. “Damn, it’s good to be home.” Dan realizes that those are the first words Evan has spoken since they got into the car. He wonders if this is what Jeff was talking about, the transition between go-go-go business Evan and the more laidback home version.

They drive in silence for another few blocks, and then Evan asks, “Are you hungry, at all? I usually get a burger for the drive home.” “Sure, yeah, that’s fine.”

They go through the In-and-Out drive through. The chain hasn’t reached Kentucky yet, so Dan actually has to pay attention to the menu. He finally just tells Evan to order two of whatever he’s getting. Evan seems strangely pleased, as though he has finally earned Dan’s trust in at least one tiny area.

After they get their food, Evan pulls into a parking spot. “I always drop food all over myself if I try to eat while I drive,” he explains. “I’ll eat the burger first, then I can drive with the fries.”

Dan shakes his head. “No rush, man. I mean, as far as I know… are we supposed to be somewhere?”

Evan laughs, and then looks a little worried. “Probably. Linda schedules things pretty tight.” He crouches down in his seat as if he thinks she might be watching.

Dan fights the urge to giggle. The mighty Evan Kaminski is afraid of his assistant. “Don’t worry, man, I’ll cover for you. Traffic?” Evan grins ruefully. “I dunno… I use that one a lot.”

 

“Uh… late flights?”

Evan almost whispers. “She checks the arrival times—they’re on the internet.”
Dan looks at Evan, and then slides down a little lower in his own seat.

They sit there, silently eating their burgers, Dan swallowing a giggle with every bite.
When Evan is done with the burger, he tidies up the wrapper and pulls the car out into traffic. Dan watches him drive. Evan is confident, but he’s also polite, yielding to other cars and not getting frustrated by traffic. When a minivan cuts in front of him and then slams on its brakes, Evan’s right arm shoots out to catch Dan as they brake hard to avoid a collision. Evan steers around the minivan and glances inside as he passes. He looks over at Dan and shrugs. “Damn, he’s got a pack of kids in there—I bet they’re driving him crazy!”

They head out of town. Evan shares occasional tidbits of information about the places they pass, but mostly they’re quiet. Dan is surprised by how fast San Francisco’s green lushness fades to dry scrub land, and he mentions it to Evan.

“Yeah, with the mountains and the ocean out here, we’ve got about seven different vegetation zones in a hundred mile radius.” Dan looks at him oddly, and Evan laughs. “I used to want to be a climatologist.”

“Gave it up for the life of a billionaire businessman?”

 

Evan looks a little rueful, maybe even a little sad. “Didn’t have a whole lot of choice, you know?”

Dan is reminded of what Jeff had said: that Evan had taken over the family business after his parents had died. He wishes he’d looked into that more. The information must be public record, wouldn’t have been hard to find. But he’d been too wrapped up in his own pain to worry about anyone else’s. Or would it have been intrusive to read about something that Evan might prefer he didn’t know?

“Sorry.” Dan knows the word is inadequate.

Evan seems almost startled. “Oh, no, don’t worry about it! I mean, I was going to end up doing the business stuff anyway, eventually. I just got into it a bit faster than I thought I would.”

That isn’t what Dan is sorry about, but he lets it go.

Evan finishes the last of his fries and looks for somewhere to throw out the container. Dan wordlessly takes it from him and puts in the bag with the other garbage. They drive for another few minutes, and then Evan starts pointing out landmarks with more regularity. They leave the highway and drive through a little town. Evan shows Dan a restaurant he and Tatiana love, and the hardware store that has everything he’s ever thought to ask for, even though it’s a quarter the size of a Home Depot, and the bar he and Jeff go to most Saturdays to hear live music.

Dan knows Evan is trying to sell him on the town, but it doesn’t feel pushy like it did in Kentucky; it just feels sincere, like Evan loves it here and wants Dan to love it too.

As they pull out on the far side of town, Evan slaps Dan’s shoulder and points to the bleachers at the high school. “First kiss—right there.” He nods sagely.

“You went to a public high school?”
“Uh, no.” Evan grins. “But she did.”

Dan digests that little bit of information, adds it to his growing collection.
They leave town and turn onto an even smaller road, winding its way through foothills covered in rough scrub and pine trees. They reach a sort of plateau and Dan notices the fence stretching along the land on one side. It’s vinyl, the kind that looks like wood but is stronger and wears longer, and Dan notices that the post holes are all freshly dug. He doesn’t even want to think about how much it cost to install a fence like that this far away from any barn or buildings. Dan wonders if this is Evan’s property or if the Kaminskis have neighbors just as rich as they are.

“Yeah, that’s the start of our property,” Evan says, as if he’d heard Dan’s thoughts. “We’ve got about two hundred acres in this part, but then we bought another hundred just attached at the corners. We’re building the cross-country course over there, but we figured we’d fence the whole place—if a horse gets loose, we’ll have to catch it, but at least we won’t have to worry about it getting on the road.” Evan seems to be looking for Dan’s approval.

“That’s great, man.” It’s a fairly standard system for large horse farms, although Dan knows most of them don’t use the most expensive type of fencing for their entire perimeters. “I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the place.”

“The guys have been working really hard. It won’t be completely done by the end of the month, but it’ll just be finishing touches left.”

Dan nods as Evan pulls off the road and starts down a long driveway. There’s horse fencing on both sides now, and a large barn comes into view on the left. There’s a gate leading to it, and Evan stops the car in front of the drive. “We’re putting you up in the guest house, if you don’t mind. We can get you a hotel room if you prefer, but it’d be a lot easier if you were on site.”

“Sure, that’s fine.”

 

“Linda’s waiting for us at the house, but we can have quick look at the barn first, if you want….”

“Well, if Linda’s waiting, shouldn’t we go see her? The barn’s not going to go away if we make it wait a couple hours.”
Evan barks out a laugh. “Yeah, trust me… neither will Linda.”

Dan really wants to meet this woman.

Evan reluctantly puts the car back into gear and steers it up the driveway. There’s a branch off to the right, and Evan gestures to it. “Guest house is up there. We’ve got a couple extra cars around if you want to borrow one, but if you stay on the property everything is pretty much walking distance.” Evan suddenly gets animated. “Or we have golf carts! I forgot about those, but they might be good—I think they’re in the garage, maybe. Or there’s ATVs, if we want to go out to the cross-country course. I don’t… I don’t actually know where those are, either, but I’m sure somebody can find them.” Evan looks a little bashful. “That’s not what’s going to happen with the horses, though. It’s like I said, the horses are a business as well as a hobby, and I’m much better at keeping track of business.”

Dan nods. “That’s good… horses don’t do well if they get lost in the garage.”

 

Evan just grins. “See, that’s the kind of expert information we flew you out here for!”

There’s a bend in the road, and then Evan is pulling up in front of the main house. The house isn’t actually as imposing as Dan was prepared for. It looks big, but not huge.

Evan turns the car off and climbs out, snagging his bag from the back seat. Dan does the same and then looks up to see the front door of the house opened by a striking brunette. She’s dressed for business, but looks so comfortable in her suit that she could just as well have dropped over for brunch. She comes down the steps toward them carrying a leather portfolio.