Karen Leabo - The Prodigal Groom

“No,” she said. “Not to soothe your conscience, not even if I really believed you could get me out of the mess I’m in. It could never work.”

“You won’t even consider it? On a temporary basis?”

“Absolutely not.” The thought of seeing him every day, cooking dinner for him every night, brushed uncomfortably close to those girlish fantasies she’d once had before Jake’s disappearance had shattered her life. Those dreams were wrapped securely in mental tissue paper and pushed far to the back of her mind—and they weren’t getting out.

“You’re being unreasonable,” he said, rising slowly from his chair, towering over her intimidatingly. “If you don’t get some help, and soon, you could lose the Folly.”

She knew that, dammit. “I’ll get some help. But not from you.” Standing also, she stared at him, refusing to back down even an inch. That old electricity arced between them, and for one insane moment she thought he was looking not into her eyes, but at her mouth, and that he was thinking about kissing her.

The phone rang, cutting through the tension. Laurie turned abruptly to answer the old black wall phone. “Hello?”

Jake continued to watch her as he took a few steadying breaths. God, she was magnificent. She’d been a fiery, passionate girl when he’d last seen her. Now she was unmistakably a woman. Motherhood had added curves to her previously boyish figure. More importantly, the hardships she’d endured over the past four years had given her depth and maturity, and a certain air of mystery, too.

He had always been drawn to her, intrigued by her, and seriously attracted to her. During her absence from his life, that attraction hadn’t diminished one iota. If anything, it was sharper, more intense, than ever.

He wished she hadn’t cut her hair. He could still remember, as if it had been yesterday, the single night of passion they’d shared. He recalled the silky feel of her hair all around him, his fingers tangling in the long strands.

A change in her tone of voice brought Jake’s attention back to the present. Who was she talking to?

“You’re telling me there’s no hope, that he’s finished?” Laurie gripped the phone receiver so tightly her knuckles turned white. She nodded, biting her lower lip.

“Laurie, what’s wrong?” Jake asked, moving around the table.

She turned away from him and faced the wall, but not before he could see that her eyes were unnaturally shiny. “All right. I’ll have to think about it. I’ll call in the morning.” She hung up, chewing on her lip again.

“Laurie?” Unconsciously he reached out to touch her, but she shied away from him like a skittish filly. “C’mon, Laurie, tell me what the problem is. Maybe I can help.”

“It’s…it’s Flash in the Pan.”

The Folly’s highly sought-after stud. A two-time national quarter-horse champion more than a decade ago, Flash was the ranch’s claim to fame and the source of a great deal of income. Mares were shipped from all over the country to be bred with the old stallion. Jake’s own horse, Flash Lightning, had been sired by the original Flash.

“Is he sick?” Jake asked.

“In a manner of speaking. Last week, I decided to breed Flash with a new filly. She’d never been bred before, but she’s the gentlest of creatures, and Flash is just a big old teddy bear. We—Maurice and I, that is—decided it would be okay just to turn them loose in the paddock and let nature take its course.”

Jake winced. He had a feeling he knew what was coming next.

“Well, it wasn’t okay. That ornery mare kicked him where it counts. My vet’s been running tests on him, and she says Flash is permanently out of commission. Finished as a stud. She says I should have him g-gelded…” With that, the tears in her eyes spilled over.

“Oh, Laurie,” Jake said, reaching for her again. This time she didn’t stop him when he pulled her against his chest, but neither did she fully accept his comfort. She stood stiffly with his arms around her, sniffling miserably.

Laurie had never been weepy. Even as a little girl, when she’d fallen down or hurt herself, she’d struggled not to cry, especially if any boy, Jake included, was around to tease her. Jake could count on one hand the number of times he’d actually seen her give in to tears. One of those times was when he’d asked her to marry him.

Jake rubbed her back with one hand and stroked her hair with the other. Her hair was as soft as he remembered, and it still smelled like green apples. He struggled to keep his hormones firmly under control. She was not exactly receptive to his attempt at comfort; he could just imagine what her reaction would be if she sensed his desire for her.

“It’ll be okay,” he crooned. “Flash is a tough guy, from what I hear. He’ll come through this just fine.”

But Jake knew she wasn’t upset merely out of concern for the horse. Losing Flash’s stud service could be a fatal blow to the struggling Folly. But not if Jake had anything to say about it. As it turned out, Flash’s unhappy experience had given Jake the opening he needed, the ammunition that would convince Laurie he was the right man for the manager’s job.

“Let go of me,” Laurie said haughtily when she’d gotten the tears under control. “I can cry just fine without you.”

Jake chuckled. “But why, when I have this big wide shoulder here to accommodate you?” Just the same, he released her, giving her shoulder one final pat.

She grabbed a paper napkin off the table and wiped her face. “I don’t know why I’m getting so upset about this. Flash is an old horse. His macho days were numbered, anyway. His sperm count was getting lower every time I had him checked.”

Jake stifled a chuckle. The old Laurie he’d known, his child bride, would never have talked so casually in front of him about sperm count. He supposed that living on a breeding farm for four years had toughened her up a bit.

“You have other studs, right?” he asked.

“None with Flash’s lineage, or anything close to his reputation. People sought him out as much for his temperament as for his bloodline. He’s so gentle.”

That’s what Jake wanted to hear. “So you’ve never kept one of Flash’s sons or grandsons around as a backup?”

“Oh, we did, for a while. That was always Charlie’s plan. But I sold him. Some rancher from Oklahoma offered me so much money for him I couldn’t turn him down.”

“What if I could get you the services of one of Flash’s sons…for free?”

Laurie looked at him suspiciously, but curiously, too. “What are you talking about?”

“I happen to own a certain stallion named Flash Lightning—sired by Flash in the Pan, out of Heat Lightning.”

“Heat Lightning? The Heat Lightning?”

“If you mean the grand champion barrel racer from Sulphur Springs, that’s the one.”

“How did you come by this horse?”

“His leg was shattered in a freak accident at a horse show I was at. They were talking about destroying him— his competition days were obviously over. But I couldn’t stand to see such a beautiful animal destroyed, so I bought him and rehabilitated him. He’s still lame, but I don’t think that would interfere with his other capabilities.”

Jake could almost see the wheels spinning in Laurie’s mind. “How come I’ve never heard of this horse?”

“He didn’t have much of a chance to earn a reputation for himself before his accident, but he showed a lot of potential. And I’ve never offered him up for stud because I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.”

“But you’d let me use him…for free?”

“Provided you give me the manager’s job. And, Laurie, Lightning is the spitting image of Flash in the Pan, right down to the white star on his chest. They could be twins.”