Zara Stoneley - Stable Mates

‘ I’ve lost?’ He ran his hand through his curls, eyes wide with the injustice of it all.

‘You’ve lost. You did not ask me to send that entry in, Rory Steel, and we both know it.’

‘It’s not the one in the wagon is it? For Rio?’ Lottie tried to sound casual and hide the note of guilt in her voice. She distinctly remembered Rory picking up his post on the way out last weekend, and reading it in the cab as they took Flash to the dressage. And when he’d left it on the seat, she’d glanced briefly then stuffed it all in the glove compartment to stop the terriers chewing it to shreds. Then forgotten all about it. Until now. She kept her gaze fixed on the terrier and rubbed the silky ear between thumb and finger.

‘You are kidding?’ Pip had reached the hands-on-hips stage.

The terrier yelped as she rubbed a bit too hard. Rory frowned. ‘Oh, yeah I remember now. I did enter, that was the confirmation.’ He grinned. ‘Brilliant. Glad we got that sorted.’

‘Sorted? You call that sorted? You bastard, I just knew it was nothing to do with me.’ Pip was almost stamping her foot.

‘So,’ Lottie coughed to get their attention as they were back to a stand-off, ‘who is that guy on the yard?’

‘Oh, shit, I was supposed to be helping him, he said he’d sort Kis for me.’

Rory laughed as Pip shot out of the kitchen. ‘Come here gorgeous, I need some TLC after that battering.’

‘It’s your own fault.’ Lottie stood up, tipping the terrier onto the floor, and moved over to sit on his knee, shivering as his fingers rubbed exactly the right spot between her shoulder blades. ‘You know she’s not going to take it lying down if you blame her for things that aren’t her fault.’

‘Will you take it lying down?’

‘You’re being rude again aren’t you? Anyway, who is he?’

‘Why, do you fancy him?’ He didn’t wait for an answer, but stood up and unceremoniously dumped her off his knee. ‘Come on, I thought you knew him. Or maybe he arrived when you were off on your world tour.’

For a moment Lottie thought she heard a note of censure in his voice, then dismissed it. He didn’t care that she’d gone off in search of freedom and wide open spaces, he hadn’t even seemed that pleased when she’d got back. After a brief period of awkward side-stepping and enquiries about each other’s health and welfare, they’d just fallen back into step and carried on where they’d left off.

Mick was holding a hoof between his firm, denim-clad thighs and pointing at bits to Pippa, their heads close together, her blonde shiny bob and his unruly dark hair a stark contrast. To Lottie it just looked like a hoof, how could anyone be that interested?

‘He’s into this barefoot trimming crap.’ Rory lit up a cigarette and leaned against the stable door to watch him. ‘Aren’t you, mate?’

Mick ignored him and flicked a large bit of hoof off with his trimming knife, which the smallest and nippiest of the terriers leapt on and carried off like a trophy. When he looked up, his dark gaze met Lottie’s and she didn’t know whether to squirm or melt. Or just feel guilty. ‘You’re a farrier?’ And state the obvious.

‘I am. And for my sins I’m staying here, with that heathen.’ He dropped the hoof, straightened up and waved the knife in Rory’s direction. ‘I had to go back to Ireland for a bit to sort some business, so I missed the homecoming,’ he smiled straight at her, ‘I got back last night.’

Mick had been brought up by a traditional Irish farrier, and was trimming feet by the time he could hold a knife. The fact that it wasn’t safe or probably legal was by the by. He only hit a problem when he started experimenting with something other than traditional shoeing and his father termed him an ‘eejit who should know better’. But it had left one of his terminally lame horses sound enough to compete again, which was good enough to make him consider that maybe his father didn’t know everything. Mick was wise enough though to keep the fact to himself, continue to shoe in the way he’d been taught and to spread the word only to the few that sought him out. He rubbed out the kinks in his spine and watched as Pip trotted the horse up the yard for him.

His move to Cheshire had been totally unplanned. But had stopped him dissolving into a bottle of whiskey and self-pity after Niamh had waved an airline ticket in his face and told him the time for ‘fecking about’ was over, he could put a ring on her finger and fly with her, or rot in Ireland on his own. He’d chosen Ireland and his horses. And then, after a week of drinking too much, and a day out hunting with Rory, he’d booked a one-way ticket of his own and taken the boat over to Liverpool. He’d been fond of his girlfriend, in a way he’d never been fond of anyone before. But ultimatums didn’t do it for him. And the thrill of setting foot on foreign soil could never beat the adrenalin rush of galloping across country on nearly half a ton of barely controlled horseflesh. And Rory had some very attractive horseflesh on his yard.

Mick tore his gaze back from the easy-to-look-at Lottie onto the challenge that was Pip. The girl was attractive enough, except she never stopped asking questions long enough for you to appreciate it, and she was the bossiest female he’d come across in his life, with the possible expectation of his very Irish, very interfering mother. Now she was staring at him expectantly and all but tapping her foot.

‘I’d stop that, unless you want me to nail it to the floor, treasure. She trotted up fine, but no haring about the countryside or we’ll be back to square one. And don’t you go taking her to the last drag hunt meeting of the season.’

‘I don’t believe in hunting. It’s an archaic tradition.’

‘It’s not hunting, it’s drag hunting.’ His tone was mild, as though talking to a child, but Lottie suspected that any minute now Pip was going to launch into a tirade. ‘And it’s a test of courage.’

Pip narrowed her eyes and glared at him, obviously torn between the desire to say something and the need to keep on his good side. She might not have been around horses much, but she already knew that good farriers were few and far between, and good farriers who could be bothered to turn up on time were even rarer. She bit down on her bottom lip and scowled, which brought a lazy, and to Lottie’s eye, very sexy smile to his face.

‘I bet you enjoy a rough ride across country, don’t you Lottie?’ He winked.

Lottie opened and closed her mouth, not wanting the thoughts that he’d conjured up in her head to come tumbling out. She didn’t quite know how to take this sex god that had been dropped in their midst. Did he have some weird kind of Irish sense of humour that she didn’t quite understand?

‘She does, the rougher the better, don’t you?’ Rory pulled her into a bear hug of possession. Observing Mick from a position of safety, Lottie decided he was probably dangerous. He was making her nervous without even doing anything, and he was intent on winding Pip up, as though he needed some kind of stimulation, danger. Which figured, if he was a drag hunt enthusiast. A game player, and it would really have been better if she hadn’t been dying to find out more about him.

‘So, you’ll both be riding out on Sunday then?’ He was swinging the heavy metal file from side to side and the youngest of the terriers stood transfixed, her eyes following its route. A route to being brained if she wasn’t careful. Then abruptly he stopped the motion with a swift toss in the air before he caught it and dropped it in the heavy wooden tool box at his feet. ‘Both of you?’

Lottie nodded nervously and looked up at Rory, wondering why she was asking him. She never did normally. ‘I think so.’