Catherine Mann - A Diamond In The Rough

She had no family, not even the promise of one she’d once harbored while engaged to Stone. She had her work, her horses. This was her life and her future.

Hooves clopped as Mariah and Stone passed off their rides to two stable hands. Johanna frowned. Even though the McNairs were wealthy, they usually unsaddled and rubbed down their horses themselves. Instead, the grandmother and grandson were walking directly toward her. Tingles pranced up and down her spine. Ignoring him would be impossible.

She hooked her stethoscope around her neck. Her own racing heartbeat filled her ears now, each breath faster and faster, filling her lungs with the scent of hay and leather.

Trailing her hand along the plush velvet of the horse’s coat, she angled her way out of the wooden stall and into the walkway. “Hello, Mrs. McNair—” she swallowed hard “—and Stone.”

Mariah McNair smiled. Stone didn’t. In fact, he was scowling. But there was also something more lurking in his eyes, something...sad? She hated the way her heart pinched instinctively, and hated even more that she could still read him so well.

Mariah held out a hand. “Dear, let’s step back into the office where we can chat in private.”

With Stone, too? But Mariah’s words weren’t a question. “Of course.”

Questions welled inside her with each step toward the office, passing Hidden Gem staff barely hiding their own curiosity as they prepped rides for vacationers. Alex and Amie eyed them but kept their distance as they hauled the saddles off their horses. The twins wore the same somber and stunned expressions on their faces that she saw on Stone’s.

Concern nipped like a feisty foal, and Johanna walked faster. She’d all but grown up here, following her stable hand dad around. Her family hadn’t been wealthy like the McNairs, but she’d always been loved, secure—until the day her family had died when their malfunctioning furnace caught on fire in the night.

She’d lost everything. Except rather than making her afraid to love, she craved that sense of family. These walls echoed with memories of how special those bonds had been.

Custom saddles lined the corridors, all works of art like everything the McNairs made. Carvings marked the leather with a variety of designs from roses to vines to full-out pastoral scenes. Some saddles sported silver or brass studs on horn caps and skirting edges that rivaled the tooling of any of the best old vaqueros.

Her job here had spoiled her for any other place. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. This was her home as well as her workplace.

Stone held open the office door, which left her no choice but to walk past him, closely. His radiant heat brought back memories of his bare skin slick with perspiration against hers as they made love in the woods on a hot summer day.

His gaze held hers for an electrified moment, attraction crackling, alive and well, between them, before she forced herself to walk forward and break the connection.

Red leather chairs, a sofa and a heavy oak desk filled the paneled room. The walls were covered in framed prints of the McNair holdings at various stages of expansion. A portrait of Mariah and her husband, Jasper, on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary dominated the space over a stone fireplace, a painting done shortly before Jasper had passed away from a heart attack.

Mariah’s fingers traced lightly along the carved frame before she settled into a fat wingback chair with an exhausted sigh. “Please, have a seat, Johanna. Stone? Pour us something to drink, dear.”

Johanna perched on the edge of a wooden rocker. “Mrs. McNair? Is there a problem?”

“I’m afraid there is, and I need your help.”

“Whatever I can do, just let me know.”

Mariah took a glass of sparkling spring water from her grandson, swallowed deeply, then set the crystal tumbler aside. “I’m having some health problems and during my treatment I need to be sure I have my life settled.”

“Health problems?” Concern gripped Johanna’s heart in a chilly fist. How much could she ask without being too pushy? Considering this woman had almost been her family, she decided she could press as far as she needed. “Is it serious?”

“Very,” Mariah said simply, fingering her diamond horseshoe necklace. “I’m hopeful my doctors can buy me more time, but treatments will be consuming and I don’t want the business or my pets to be neglected.”

Mariah’s love for her animals was one of the bonds the two women shared. The head of a billion-dollar empire had always made time for a stable hand’s daughter who wanted to learn more about the animals at Hidden Gem.

Johanna took the glass from Stone, her hand shaking so much the ice rattled. “I’m sorry, more than I can say. What can I do to help?”

Angling forward, Mariah held her with clear blue eyes identical to Stone’s. “You can help me find homes for my dogs.”

Without hesitation, Johanna said, “I can watch them while you’re undergoing treatments.”

“My dear,” Mariah said gently, but with a steely strength, “it’s brain cancer. I believe it’s best for my dogs to find permanent homes.”

The pronouncement slammed Johanna back in her chair. She bit her bottom lip to hold in a gasp and blinked back tears. There were no words.

A firm hand landed on her shoulder. Stone’s hand. She didn’t have to look. She would know his touch anywhere.

God, he must be devastated. She angled around to clasp his hand, but the cool look in his eyes stopped her. Apparently, he was fine with giving out sympathy, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to accept any from her.

Johanna reached to take Mariah’s hands instead, holding them in hers. “I’ll do whatever you need.”

“Thank you.” Mariah smiled and squeezed Johanna’s hands. “Stone will be finding homes for my dogs, but I need for you to go with him and make sure the matches are truly right for each one. It should take about a week.”

“A week?” she squeaked.

Go off alone with Stone for a week? No, no and hell, no. The torture of running across him here was bad enough, but at least they had the buffer of work. Stone had stolen her heart then trounced all her dreams of having a family of her own. He’d refused to consider having children or adopting. They’d argued—more than once—until finally she’d broken things off. He’d thought she was bluffing.

He was wrong.

Did Mariah think she was bluffing, as well?

Johanna chose her words carefully. “I don’t mean any disrespect, ma’am, and I understand your need for peace, especially now...” She pushed back a well of emotion. This wasn’t about her. It was about Mariah, and yes, Stone, too. “You have to realize this attempt at matchmaking isn’t going to work. Stone and I were finished a long time ago.”

Johanna shot a pointed look at him in case he might be harboring any thoughts of using this situation to wrangle his way back into her bed. Even when she’d broken things off, he’d been persistent for a solid month before accepting that she wouldn’t change her mind.

He simply arched an arrogant eyebrow before shifting his glacial gaze toward his grandmother. Only then did his eyes warm.

Mariah shook her head. “I’m not trying anything of the sort. I have trusted you with my animals for years. I’ve watched you grow up, known you since you were in elementary school. You also understand Stone. He won’t pull off anything questionable with you watching him. Can you think of anyone else he can’t charm?”

Johanna conceded, “You have a point there.”

Stone frowned, speaking for the first time, “Hey, I think I’m being insulted.”

Mariah reached up to pat his cheek. “If you only think it, Stone, then I must not be making myself clear enough. I hope you will be successful in proving yourself, but I have serious reservations.”