Kathie DeNosky - Suddenly a Daddy

“Mornings around here are pretty busy—we have our daily workouts and grooming,” she hedged.

When they reached the stables, she grabbed a lead rope by one of the stalls, slid the half-door back, then eased inside to attach it to Silver Bullet’s halter in an effort to escape Jake’s disturbing presence.

“All right,” he said, stepping back as she led the big dappled gray gelding out of the stall and down to the tack room. “This afternoon will be soon enough.”

She shook her head as she tied the rope to an eye hook by the tack room door, attached another rope to the halter, then tied it to another hook on the opposite wall of the wide stable aisle. “That won’t work. My schedule is pretty full today and to tell you the truth, tomorrow isn’t looking all that good.”

“Clear it for this afternoon.” Jake’s no-nonsense tone indicated that he was quickly running out of patience.

For the first time since he walked up beside her at the practice track, Heather met his irritated blue gaze full-on with a heated one of her own. “Will there be anything else, Mr. Garnier?”

Scowling, he stared at her for several long moments before he finally shook his head. “I’ll be back after lunch.” Turning to leave, he added, “And you might as well plan on working late this evening. After you show me around, I intend to meet with the other employees, then I want to go over the accounting records.”

As she watched him walk away, a nudge against her leg had her glancing down at the big Bernese mountain dog that had sidled up beside her. “You could really use some work on your guard dog skills, Nemo. Instead of taking a nap in my office, you’re supposed to keep varmints like him away.”

The dog didn’t act the least bit repentant when he looked up at her adoringly and wagged his thick black tail.

Returning her attention to the matter at hand, she released a frustrated breath as she picked up a brush and began grooming the gray. She had no idea how he’d managed to get his hands on Hickory Hills, but she’d told herself when she learned Jake was the new owner that she’d be able to handle seeing him again. That she could keep what happened between them all those months ago separate from their working relationship.

Unfortunately, that was going to be a whole lot easier said than done. The sound of his voice carried with it the memory of him calling her name as they made love.

Closing her eyes, Heather rested her forehead against the big thoroughbred’s shoulder. Over the past year, she’d done everything she could to convince herself that Jake wasn’t that good-looking, that her perception of their only night together had been clouded by loneliness and the haze of too much champagne. But she realized now that she’d been in deep denial.

Jake Garnier was well over six feet of pure male sex appeal and it was no wonder that he had an endless stream of women clamoring for his attention. With broad shoulders and narrow hips, he had the lean, muscular body of an athlete. When they’d met at the thoroughbred auction in Los Angeles, he’d been striking in a suit and tie, but today in jeans and a T-shirt, he was raw sensuality from his thick black hair to the soles of his outrageously expensive running shoes.

Sighing heavily, she went into the tack room, retrieved a saddle, then returned to place it on the horse’s back. She tightened the saddle’s girth, then bridling Silver, led him out of the stable toward the practice track.

As much as she’d like to forget what happened that night in L.A., she couldn’t regret it. Jake was arguably the biggest player on the entire West Coast. But there was an earnestness to his charm that she’d found completely irresistible. And she was reminded of how captivating it was each and every time she gazed into her baby daughter’s eyes. Eyes that were the same cobalt blue and held the same sparkle of mischief as Jake Garnier’s.

* * *

Walking back up the path from the immaculately kept stables, Jake wondered what the hell had just taken place. He wasn’t used to getting the cold shoulder from women and Heather’s blatant snub didn’t sit well.

There were only two things besides his siblings and highly successful law practice that caught and held his attention for any length of time and that was fast, flashy cars and shamelessly uninhibited women. And to his immense pleasure, the first frequently attracted plenty of the latter.

So why did one woman’s obviously low opinion of him matter? He wasn’t sure, but there had been a sparkle of hostility in Heather’s eyes that had taken him completely by surprise.

Thinking back to the first time he’d seen her, he still couldn’t believe how captivating she’d been. He’d attended a thoroughbred auction to personally see that the woman he’d represented in a bitter divorce sold the horses she and her husband had purchased as an investment. Jake had quickly lost interest in the parade of equine offerings and looking around spotted a pretty little filly of the human variety to divert his attention. And from the moment he introduced himself to her, he found Heather to be the most enchanting woman he’d ever had the pleasure of meeting.

They’d spent the rest of that day and one incredibly sensuous night together and over the course of the past year he’d come to the conclusion that he should have asked for her last name and a number where he could reach her. It was totally out of character for him and something he’d never contemplated before. Once he parted ways with a woman, he never looked back, never had the slightest regret about not contacting her again. At least he hadn’t until Heather.

But surely she wasn’t angry that he hadn’t kept in touch over the fifteen months since. Besides the fact that he didn’t know how to reach her, it was a well-known fact that he wasn’t looking for a relationship of any kind and that none of his liaisons went any further than a good time.

He had no idea if that’s what the problem was, but he had every intention of finding out and settling the animosity between them once and for all. If she was going to be running the horse farm that his newfound grandmother, Emerald Larson, had insisted he take over, it was essential that they get whatever had her panties in a twist straightened out so they could at least be civil.

In the meantime, he needed to unpack and put in a call to Emerald, Inc. headquarters to find out what the hell Emerald had up her sleeve this time. Given her track record of setting her grandchildren up to find their soul mate, he wasn’t naive enough to think that she wasn’t attempting to do the same thing with him. He wasn’t sure how she’d done it, but she had to have discovered that, however brief it had been, that he and Heather had a bit of history.

But the old girl was in for a big disappointment if she thought her tactics were going to work with him. He wasn’t looking to settle down with a wife, kids and the requisite canine. Nor was he inclined to trade his sleek little red Ferrari for a family-friendly minivan with car seats and clumps of dog hair.

With a plan of action to set down a few ground rules for both Emerald and his farm manager, Jake followed the path around the antebellum mansion to the circular drive in front where he’d parked his sports car. Just as he pressed the remote on his keychain to open the trunk, a teenage boy wearing stylishly ragged jeans, an oversize chartreuse T-shirt with It Is What It Is screen-printed on the front and a red baseball cap turned backward on his head came out of the house to greet him.

“Hi, Mr. Garnier,” the kid said, crossing the veranda and bounding down the steps. He came to a sliding halt at the side of the car, then stood staring at it as if in awe. “Suh-weet.”