Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse (13 page)

Evan grins at her. “Can’t even wait for me to get inside, Linda?”

“Seems like I spend half my life waiting for you, Evan.” She hands him a sheaf of papers from the portfolio. “You probably want to look at these as soon as possible.” She turns to Dan and holds out her hand.

Evan remembers his manners. “Uh, Dan, this is Linda. Linda, Dan.” Dan shakes her hand. “It’s really nice to meet you.”

“And you. Welcome to California!” She smiles warmly. “Have you been out here before?”

 

“Uh, California, yes, but not this part. LA, mostly.”

Linda wrinkles her nose delicately. “Well, this is like a whole different state, if not a different country.” She smiles to take any sting out of her words, and then pulls another collection of papers out of her dossier. “Don’t think I left you out… here’s what we’ve got scheduled for you

while you’re here. And there are also copies of the resumes of the people we’ve arranged to have interviewed.”

 

“Linda, seriously, can’t you let us go inside first?”

She just shakes her head at Evan. “If I’d let you go inside, you would have offered him a drink, and then you’d have wanted to show him around, and you would have finished the tour by the pool and asked if he wanted a swim, and by the time that was over it would have been dinner time and you’d say it gives you indigestion to look at paperwork while you eat.” She smiles again. “If I don’t catch you now, the day is wasted.”

Evan just shakes his head. Linda loops her arm through Dan’s and leads him into the house. “Now, before Evan steals you away, I just need you to enter any four-digit PIN you want in this computer. It’s our security system, you can enter the code on any keypad on the property and it’ll open the door for you.”

Evan grimaces. “And it tracks you, man! If she wants to know where you are, she can find out the last door you opened. It’s Orwellian, and I paid for it!”

“It’s an excellent security system, and if you would answer your phone I wouldn’t have to track you down.”

Evan leafs through his papers while Dan enters his code, and then makes an apologetic face. “I actually do have to deal with these… Linda, do you think you could show Dan around, get him settled in?”

She smiles. “I’d be happy to. And I can offer you a drink as well.” She guides Dan down the hallway as Evan disappears through a door to the left.

It turns out the house is a lot bigger than it looks. Dan thinks there must have been a deliberate attempt to minimize its appearance from the outside, with parts set back from each other, hidden by shrubs, and built on different levels. There’s an indoor pool
and
an indoor lap pool in the gym, and when they go outside there’s a huge terrace with another pool, and Dan can see tennis courts around the corner. Linda sees him looking. “Tatiana used to play every day, but for the past year or two it’s been all about horses.”

“So you’ve worked with Evan for a while, then?”

“Oh, I’ve known him since he was a little boy. I used to be his father’s assistant, got the job right out of university. It’s why I can boss him around like I do. But don’t be taken in—I know that he’s in charge, and on anything serious I listen to him. He just needs a firm hand to help keep him organized.”

Dan doesn’t let his mind dwell on the “firm hand” comment.

Linda walks Dan up to the guest house and lets him try out the door code, and then shows him in. He’d been expecting some sort of tiny cabin, but it’s a full-size house, with an open plan living and dining room, a full kitchen and three bedrooms. “It hardly gets any use, really. Evan’s parents used to loan it out as a sort of artist’s retreat, but Evan really isn’t too interested in the arts, and I think he prefers to have a bit more privacy when he’s at home.”

They return to the main house and Dan is introduced to the housekeeper, Tia, who has also been with the family forever. She gets drinks for them and they go out and sit by the pool, waiting for Evan. Dan takes a quick glance at his schedule.

“So, this is it for today? Just getting settled in?”
“That’s all I have scheduled for you. Evan really does need to get caught up on some of those issues, and I know he wanted to show you around the farm himself, with Tatiana and I think Jeff… so unless you’re really restless, you can just relax and enjoy the view.”
“Am I keeping you from anything? I mean, the company’s great, but if you have somewhere you need to be, I’m fine by myself.”

She checks her watch. “Well, if you don’t mind, I should run in and see if Evan needs me to follow up on anything… can I get you something, though? A book, or….”

A deep voice comes from behind them. “It’s okay, Linda. I can keep him company.”
Dan turns and sees Jeff, and his stomach does a little flip. He’d thought he’d gotten over whatever he’d been feeling in Kentucky, but seeing Jeff again makes it clear that he was wrong. Jeff’s beautiful in the late afternoon sun, and Dan can almost feel the warmth in the man’s smile.

Jeff walks across the terrace and sits in a deck chair opposite Dan and Linda, who stands gracefully and heads into the house.
Jeff just looks at him for a moment and then smiles again. “Welcome to California, Dan.”

Chapter 11

D
AN
leans back in his chair and lets the sun hit his closed eyelids. He feels peaceful here, like he’s wrapped in a safe cocoon, just the sun’s warmth, the chill of the drink in his hand, the sound of the water hitting the edge of the pool… and Jeff. He opens his eyes again, because if Jeff’s around, Dan wants to be able to see him.

Dan squints into the sun, and Jeff pulls his own sunglasses off and leans over to hand them to Dan. Jeff’s back is to the sun, it only makes sense for Dan to have the glasses, but it still seems intimate somehow. He takes the sunglasses and puts them on.

Jeff smiles at him. “You just get in?”

 

“A little while ago. Evan picked me up at the airport, and then he had to do some work, so Linda showed me around.”

 

Jeff nods. “He’s in there now, working the phone. It’s always a bit hectic when he gets back from being away.”

“He seems to have a lot of responsibility. But, you were right, what you said in Kentucky… he does seem different out here. More relaxed.”
“Yeah, he’s a big homebody.” Jeff’s tone is affectionate, and again Dan is jealous. He decides to try to get the topic of conversation away from Evan.

“So, what about you? You have your own business, right?”

“Well, nothing on the scale of Evan’s, that’s for sure. I just try to teach rich people to ride, and then train their horses well enough that the riders think they’ve achieved something.”

Dan raises an eyebrow. “Wow, cynical! Don’t you have any good students?”
Jeff rubs the back of his neck and smiles apologetically at Dan. “Yeah, sorry, of course I do. It’s just been a long day. A long few days.”

A long few days because Evan had been out of town, Dan realizes. Their relationship still feels a little strange to him. They seem so casual about sex, but are clearly very attached emotionally. He tries to be mature about it. “I really am fine out here on my own… if you wanted to go in and check….”

Jeff shakes his head. “Nah, I poked my head in when I arrived. He knows I’m here. He’ll come out when he can.” He kicks his shoes off and rolls up the cuffs of his pants, then walks over and sits on the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the water. He lies back, resting his head on the pool deck and looking backward at Dan. “Everything okay in Kentucky?”

Jeff’s tone is gentle, and Dan appreciates the vagueness of the question. Dan can answer with any level of detail he wants. “The barn’s good. I’ve got to tell Evan that one of his horses is lame, but we think he just pulled a muscle. And everybody’s working well together.” Dan pauses, and then pulls his own shoes and socks off, rolls up his cuffs and walks over to sit beside Jeff with his feet in the pool. He doesn’t lie back, although he sort of wants to.

“Justin’s the same.” Dan keeps his tone neutral, is proud that he can say Justin’s name without losing control.
“And you? You’re okay?” This time the question isn’t so vague, but the tone is still gentle.

“Me? I dunno… I’m fine, I guess.” Dan doesn’t really know how to answer. “I mean… I’m the same too.”
Jeff nods as if that were a real answer. They both rest as they are for a few minutes, and then Jeff grips the side of the pool with both hands and pulls himself back up to a sitting position. One of his hands rests right next to Dan’s on the pool edge, and Dan won’t let himself look down, but he can feel the contact. His whole body knows that his little finger is stretched out alongside Jeff’s. He feels like a school girl, but he won’t move his finger, won’t take it away or move it in closer. He stares out across the rolling foothills toward the ocean, thinks maybe he can see the water, and then realizes that he still has Jeff’s sunglasses, even though they’re both now looking into the sun.

He turns his head a little, enough to see the Jeff is looking at him. He raises his other hand to his face, starts to take the shades off. “Here, you should have these back.”

Jeff shakes his head, and uses his other hand to guide them back to Dan. “Nah, you hang on to them.” He smiles. “They look better on you anyway.”

Dan knows that if Jeff made a move right now, Dan would be right with him. He’d feel terrible about it later, he’s sure, for so many reasons. But his brain is not in control anymore, and his body knows what it wants, what it hasn’t had for far too long. And there’s something about Jeff, with his gentle awareness, his….

“Hey, Jeff!” It’s a female voice, and as Dan and Jeff turn toward it they see two dogs barreling toward them, and Tatiana standing in the doorway to the house. The dogs head straight for Jeff, and he raises both of his hands, releasing Dan from the spell and letting him shift away from the furred onslaught.

“Hey, guys, settle down, settle down,” Jeff chides the dogs and then looks over their heads to Dan. “They’re totally friendly but not too well trained… sort of like their master.” The dogs are done with Jeff and move on to Dan, a little more cautious but still very enthusiastic. Jeff points. “This one’s Copa, this one’s Trapper.” He looks over at Tatiana. “You take them somewhere with you?”

“Callie got a new puppy, and they’re trying to socialize her, so I took the big dogs for an introduction.” She walks over a bit shyly, and Dan knows it must be because of him.

“Tatiana, you remember Dan?” Jeff prompts.
“Yeah, hi, Dan,” she manages.

“Hey, Tatiana, it’s nice to see you again.” Dan knows that he’s a better actor, but he’s not sure that he’s any more comfortable than the girl is. What if she had come out a few minutes later? But then Dan catches himself. Just because he had been overcome with temporary insanity doesn’t mean that Jeff would have been or that Jeff is interested at all. Lined up pinky fingers are hardly a universal invitation to passion.

“Where’s Lou?” Tat asks Jeff.

 

“Her stitches are still healing up. I didn’t want to bring her over here to play and have her tear them out again.”

Tatiana nods understandingly. Then she looks shyly at Dan. “How’s Monty?”
Dan can’t believe the girl still has that crush on the horse. He’s not sure she’ll
ever
be strong enough to ride him really effectively. “He’s good. Still a bit headstrong, but… good.” He decides to try a slightly different approach. “The one I’m really impressed with lately is Sunshine. Horses sometimes, it’s like they hit plateaus in their training, you know? They’ll learn a bunch of stuff, and it’ll be like they’re improving every day, and then they’ll just sort of go into a holding pattern and don’t learn anything at all for a while. And then when they’re ready, bam! They start learning again. And she’s been learning like crazy the last week or so. Seems like every day I ride her she’s gotten noticeably better.” This much is true, and he doesn’t bother to mention that some horses don’t plateau. They backslide, seeming to forget everything they ever knew. That’s one of the most frustrating parts of training, and he doesn’t want to discourage Tatiana right now.

The girl smiles enthusiastically. “That must be so much fun!”

Dan nods. “It really is. She’s the one I’m most excited about right now.” He leans in a little, as though he’s about to tell Tat a secret. They’re still at least five feet from each other, but he thinks she gets the idea. “And she’s a mare, which is great, because with the geldings… well, it can be hard to see them get old and lose their fitness and know that they’re not good for anything but pasture ornaments anymore. ’Cause you still love them, but you can’t really
do
anything with them anymore. You know?” Tat nods, and Dan goes in for the kill. “But with a mare, even if she’s too old to compete she’s still usually healthy enough to have at least a couple beautiful foals. And then you get the fun of loving them, and raising them up and training them, and it’s like the horse you love continues, you know? Because you’ve still got her foals to remind you of her.”

Tatiana is practically clapping her hands. “I wanted us to have foals, but Evan said he’d looked into it, and it didn’t make sense to have a breeding operation, that it was more efficient to let someone else take all the risks of breeding the horses and then just go in and pick out the horses that are worth training.”

Dan nods, and hopes he isn’t making a mistake, setting up Tatiana for more disappointment. He glances over at Jeff who is standing behind Tat and watching the whole exchange. He grins, and makes a sort of ‘go on’ motion with his chin. Dan decides that he’s so far in, he might as well keep going.

“Well, a large scale operation probably doesn’t make sense. Or at least you’d need someone else to look after it for you, because I only know the basics about breeding. But I think if you’re going to have a business that you care about, especially a business with animals… I think sometimes you have to just go with your heart.” He shrugs. “Besides, Sunshine’s got great bloodlines—I can show you her pedigree sometime, you should see all the famous horses that show up in it. She’d be a good bet for breeding.”

Tatiana is enthralled and peppers Dan with questions about Sunshine and foals and training and how a friend of hers said that Thoroughbreds are better than Hanoverians, and how many Thoroughbreds are coming with the Kentucky horses, and are they really better, and….