SAM was still angry as hell as he strode around and up the path to the front door of the ranch house. He took off his hat and knocked, loudly. He was about to raise his fist and give the door a damn good thump when it swung open.
“Can I help you?”
He dropped the frown when he found himself face to face with a woman he guessed was the maid. He was angry with Mia, not the whole world, and this poor woman definitely didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of his scowl or his temper.
“I’m looking for Mia,” he said, glancing past her and into a hallway full of expensive looking antiques and paintings. The wooden floor was gleaming—it was polished to within an inch of its life.
“Mia doesn’t live here. She has her own house, over past the stables.” The woman smiled and stepped out, pointing. “You’ll need to walk around there. It’ll only take you a few minutes.”
He nodded and stepped back. “Thanks.”
Sam turned and headed back the way he’d come. He hadn’t expected that she would have her own place on the property, not with a house as big and impressive as that to be living in. But then she’d mentioned being at odds with her father over the horses, so maybe she liked her own space. He knew that feeling well. Or maybe she was just a grown-ass woman who wanted her own house.
He kept walking, stopping once he reached the stables and looked around. He took a few more steps, then realized the low slung roof in the distance wasn’t another farm structure. Once he was closer he saw the start of a timber path and followed it, walking along the faded cedar towards a small yet contemporary dwelling, surrounded by modern grasses and shrubs, and facing a rectangular lap pool. It was completely at odds with the more traditional style main house, but he liked it, especially the glass wrapping around each side of the house. He liked seeing his own property from every room of his place, and he was guessing that was why she’d built it this way, so she had 360-degree views of the fields, the trees and the animals dotted around the place.
“Knock knock,” he called out when he saw the big doors open around the side. The house faced the pool, and he was tempted to strip down and jump straight in after working up such a sweat with Tex.
“Come in!”
When he heard Mia call out, he wandered around, intrigued by her house. If he wasn’t so angry with her he’d have taken more time to appreciate the architecture—it made his big old ranch house look positively ancient in comparison.
“Nice place,” he said when he saw her sitting on a cream sofa, bare feet curled up beneath her, coffee mug in hand. Even her furniture was at odds with the traditional feel of the rest of the ranch, but he liked that she had her own style. Mia looked pale, eyes bloodshot, and he wondered if she’d been crying.
He felt like an idiot then for being so damn mad with her, because whatever had happened with that horse was more than just an accident; it was written all over her face. Sam sat down on a chair beside the sofa, glancing out at the crystal-blue water of the pool once again. It really was an incredible place. Her sofas were modern but still looked comfy, with throws at one end and plenty of cushions, and she had neat little piles of books stacked everywhere along with fresh flowers.
“We need to talk,” he said reluctantly. “If you don’t tell me the truth about that stallion, then I’m going to leave today and I’m not coming back. You’re not giving me any other choice, Mia.”
“Just like that?” she asked, leaning forward and setting her mug down.
“Yeah, Mia, just like that,” he said softly, his anger slowly dispersing. He didn’t have the right to be angry with her, she didn’t owe him anything, but he did have the right to walk away if she didn’t let him in. “I’ve spent the last few hours trying to get that horse to trust me, but something’s happened to him, something so deep that he might be impossible to get through to,” he admitted. “I don’t want to walk away from an animal that needs help, but I need to know his past so we can move forward. It’ll help me know what buttons not to press, and it’ll keep me safe. And him.” He shrugged. “I’m only asking what’s fair.”
Mia nodded. “Do you want a coffee?” she asked.
He ground his jaw. Had she not heard what he’d just said? “No, I don’t want coffee,” he muttered. “I need your goddamn help, and instead of being honest with me, you’re offering me a hot drink?”
He watched as Mia settled back, drawing her knees up to her chin, eyes wide like she was a little girl about to tell a scary story. Sam leaned forward, wanting to hear what she had to say, wanting to know how a horse as magnificent as Tex had been scarred for life. Not to mention what had Mia all tied up in knots.
“Kimberley was my best friend,” Mia said, her voice low and soft, nothing like the firecracker who’d stood her ground so firmly only a few hours earlier. “You’ll probably remember the accident, like my dad said it was all over the news. She’d won more show jumping titles than I could possibly count, and I was jealous as hell of her in the best kind of way possible. Every time we went out, she’d beat me, but she was good for me. She made me determined every damn day to win, to push myself harder, to start beating her.”
“Tex belonged to this friend of yours, didn’t he?” Sam asked, feeling like an asshole for being so damn mean earlier now he’d heard part of the story. Mia was hurting and she’d been through as much as the stallion. Only she was better at hiding it than an animal with no control over keeping his emotions in check.
“Tex was her baby,” Mia explained, brushing under her eyes with the back of her knuckles. Her eyes met his then, and he didn’t break the contact. Vulnerable, emotional women weren’t usually the type to get under his skin, but Mia’s story was making him feel like the biggest jerk in the world. He felt an unfamiliar urge to want to protect her, to rise up and sit closer to her, to comfort her. He wondered how often she let her guard down like this and doubted it was very often.
“He was always difficult, but what gave him the edge when they were competing was how gritty he was. He’d get around a course at a hell of a speed and never knock a rail, and then he’d carry on like a madman after, rearing and trying to bolt on her, so pleased with himself. It was almost like he knew there was no one out there better than him.”
Sam smiled, imagining how stunning the big horse would have been in his glory days. “So how did he go from that to what he is now?”
“He loved Kimberley and she adored him right back. She knew how to make him work, and she was firm with him when he acted out. They formed a partnership that lasted about three years, and then they were invited to do a charity display.”
Sam saw the pain on Mia’s face as she spoke of what had happened. He doubted this was something she relived often.
“I remember now,” he said solemnly. “I remember hearing about it from one of my clients, how the rider and horse both had a terrible accident.” Sam recalled it, how devastating it had been, the reports about her fall. But the news reports had only mentioned what had happened to the rider, not the horse.
“She was showing off, jumping a flat deck vehicle with hay bales stacked on top. It was a hell of a jump to tackle, but she was confident as hell and she’d nailed it when they’d practiced earlier.”
Sam nodded, a lump in his throat as he imagined the scene, playing through his head now as if he’d been there on the day. He might have heard about it before, but not like this.
“They cantered around the ring and she jumped it. The crowd went wild and Tex was crazy. He knew he was the champion and she must have decided to jump it one more time.” Mia sighed. “Once was never enough for her, it was why she was so good, that way she loved to show off.”
“They didn’t make the next one, did they? He clipped the deck on his way over?”
She nodded. “They went into it so fast. Tex was galloping, both of them were overconfident, and she didn’t slow him enough. He took off all wrong, and it was too big and too solid for them to make it.” Mia was speaking fast but quietly, and he leaned forward to listen, feeling her pain. “He had a hell of a fall himself. He somersaulted over as she went flying. They both made it over, just not together.”
“She broke her neck?” Sam asked gently.
“She landed on her head. I saw it with my own eyes. I’ll never forget the moment she landed, like it was slow motion as she awkwardly hit the ground. But it was Tex flipping that killed her. He connected with her as she fell, and the impact on her neck killed her instantly.”
Sam reached for Mia’s hand, grazing her fingers and then clasping them. He might not be a team player and he knew he was a jerk sometimes when it came to his work, but he had a goddamn heart, and he could tell when someone else’s was breaking.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and he knew he was apologizing for more than just her loss.
“He suffered a big blow that day, physically and emotionally,” Mia said. “I took him when the medics were working on her, and we got him back to the truck and the vets checked him over. He was badly lame, but he seems to have recovered from those injuries.”
“What happened to him after that?” Sam asked. “Where did he go?”
“Her family sold off all her horses, him included, and they refused to let me take any of them at any price. They wanted them gone. Tex went to a new show jumper who couldn’t handle how hot he was, then some so-called horse whisperer who claimed he could sort him out. That was the last time I saw him, messed up and crazy, before he was sent to a stud.” She went silent for a moment, staring out the window, and Sam realized he was still holding her hand then. He reluctantly pulled back, breaking the contact with her warm, soft skin. “I found him there, in a tiny yard that was full of mud and shit. He was knee deep in it. It was disgusting, and it was like he’d actually gone mad there, locked up and with no one giving a damn about him. It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.” Her breath shuddered out. “I went overseas to ride, but I never forgot about him and they finally accepted my offer to buy him after all these years.”
“He’s been through hell and back then,” Sam said, thinking about the stallion and knowing that everything was in the horse’s head then. He’d been screwed up by humans, that was for sure.
“He went from being so loved, the center of his rider’s universe, to being treated like crap. I fought for him, I tried so hard to buy him for so long, but now I’m wondering if it’s too late to save him.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Mia. It’s not going to be easy.” Part of him thought this particular horse might be damn near impossible to turn into a safe riding horse for Mia, but he decided to keep that to himself for now.
She smiled at him, and for the first time he felt like he was seeing the real her and not the person she wanted the world to see.
“I promised her, Sam. I promised her I’d always look after Tex, and she promised me she’d always look after Indi.” He saw her tears then, glistening from her eyes as she stared at him. “I let her down once, but I’m not giving up on him without a fighting chance now.”
Sam sat back, considered her, looked at the beautiful woman seated across from him and realized how stupid he’d been not to see past the money and beauty from the moment he’d met her. She was real and strong and determined, and it was blatantly obvious now.
“I’ll try my best, but I’m not making false promises,” he said, shooting straight. “I don’t like to over promise, but I’ll try my best to over deliver on this one.”
“I have your word?” she asked, her voice low.
He leaned in and held out his hand, smiling when she clasped it. “You have my word,” he promised. “So long as you pour me a beer and let me dive into that pool before I head home. In case you didn’t know, I’ve had one hell of a day. My new boss is a goddamn slave driver!”
She laughed at him and shook his hand, her cheeks pink now, the color seeping back into her skin as she stood and stared down at him. Damn she was pretty. He’d expected something so different, yet sitting here she was just a cute girl with her hair in a ponytail, still wearing her riding gear and not caring that her shirt was dirty.
“Fine. I’ll get you a beer, but if I find out you’ve left that poor dog in your truck instead of bringing him down here…”
Sam grinned. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Seems I’ve, ah, forgotten something though, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Sam tried not to laugh as he walked off to get Blue. Mia wasn’t so bad after all. It’d been a long time since he’d been able to relax and just enjoy a woman’s company, and if she hadn’t been his boss? Maybe they’d have gotten along better from the start.
He glanced back, saw her standing there by the pool and dragged his eyes away. He wasn’t going there. Sam forced himself to keep walking, breaking into a jog as he headed back for his dog. Mia was off limits. She was his boss, she was … beautiful. But beautiful wasn’t enough for him, because his fiancée had been beautiful too, but it hadn’t stopped her from breaking his heart and making him vow never to be vulnerable when it came to women ever again.