Made for Marriage. Helen Lacey

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СКАЧАТЬ and shrugged. “Don’t you mean talk at me?”

      He took a deep breath. “Did you ride that horse without permission yesterday?”

      She rolled her eyes. “I told you what happened.”

      “Was it the truth?”

      Lily shrugged. “Sort of.” Her head shot up and she stared at him with eyes outlined in dark, smudgy makeup. “Is she blaming me?”

      No, she’s blaming me. And probably rightly so if the look on his daughter’s face was anything to go by. Noah knew instantly that he’d overreacted. Clearly. Stupidly.

      Noah suddenly felt like he’d been slapped over the back of the head. I never overreact. So, why her? Evie’s words came back to haunt him.

      You like her.

      And he did. She’s beautiful, sassy and sexy as hellfire.

      But that wasn’t really Callie Jones. It was an act—Noah knew it as surely as he breathed. How he knew he wasn’t sure. Instinct maybe. Something about her reached him, drew him and made him want to know her.

      Lily’s eyes grew wider and suspicious. “You’ve seen her again, right?”

      He wondered how she’d know that and thought it might be some fledgling female intuition kicking in. “Yes, I have.”

      She huffed, a childish sound that reminded him she was just thirteen. “Is she going to give me lessons?”

      “I said we’d find you another instructor.”

      Lily’s expression was hollow and she flicked her black hair from her eyes. “So, she won’t?”

      “I don’t think so.”

      “Couldn’t you ask her?”

      Good question. He could ask her. Lily wanted her. Lily never wanted anything, never asked him for anything. But she wanted Callie Jones.

      “Why is it so important to you to learn from Callie? There are other instructors in town.”

      She cast him a scowl. “Yeah, at the big training school in town. It’s full of rich stuck-ups with their push-button ponies.”

      “How do you know that?”

      She chewed at her bottom lip for a moment and then said, “From school. The Pony Girls all go there.”

      Pony girls? Noah felt completely out of touch. “And?”

      “The Trents,” Lily explained. “Lisa and Melanieeee. They used to go to her school. She kicked them out a couple of months ago.”

      Melanie Trent. Lily’s ex-best friend. And now her nemesis. “Why?”

      “They were caught smoking in the stables,” Lily supplied. “Big mistake. Anyway, I know that she lost some of her other students because of it. You know what the Trents are like. They don’t like anyone telling them what to do.”

      Noah did know. Sonja Trent, the girls’ mother, had worked reception for him a year earlier. He’d given her the post as a favor when her husband was laid off from his job at the local sugar mill. Two weeks later she left when Noah had made it clear he wasn’t interested in having an affair with her. Sonja was married and unhappy—two good reasons to steer clear of any kind of involvement.

      “Did you know she was some big-time rider?” Lily said, bringing Noah back to the present. “Like, I mean, really big time. Like she could have gone to the Olympics or something.”

      He tried not to think about the way his heart skipped a beat. “No, I didn’t know that.”

      “If she teaches me then I’ll be good at it, too. Better than Melanie. Way better. And maybe then she won’t be so stuck-up and mean to Maddy all the time.”

      Maddy Spears was Lily’s new/old best friend. Friends before Melanie had arrived on the scene and broken apart because Maddy was a quiet, sweet kid and not interested in flouting her parents’ wishes by covering her face in makeup or wearing inappropriate clothes.

      “I could apologize,” Lily suggested and shrugged her bony shoulders.

      That would be a first. Noah nodded slowly. “You could,” he said, although he wasn’t sure it would make any difference to the situation.

      “I really want Callie, Dad,” Lily said desperately.

      You’re not the only one. He cleared his throat. “I don’t know, Lily….”

      Noah wasn’t sure how to feel about Lily’s desperation to get lessons from Callie. Other than his sisters and mother, Lily hadn’t let another woman into her life since Margaret had walked out.

      Neither have I.

      Lily didn’t trust easily.

      Neither do I.

      “We’ll see. Go and get washed up,” he told her. “And maybe later you could help me with dinner?”

      She grabbed the screen door and flung it open. “Maybe.”

      Her feet had barely crossed the threshold when Noah called her name. She stopped and pivoted on her Doc Martens. “What now?”

      “Whoever you have lessons from, you have to follow the rules, okay?”

      Her lips curled in a shadow of a smile. “Sure thing, Dad.”

      Noah watched his daughter sprint down the hall and disappear into her room with a resounding bang of the door. Okay … now what? But he knew what he had to do. He had to see Callie again. More to the point, he wanted to see her again. And he wondered if they made bigger fools than him.

      Callie unhitched the tailgate and took most of the weight as it folded down. Indiana and Titan snorted restlessly, sensing the presence of other horses being unloaded and prepared for the Bellandale Horse Club show that day. Bellandale was a regional city of more than sixty thousand people and the event attracted competitors from many of the smaller surrounding townships.

      Fiona Walsh, her friend and student, led both horses off the trailer, and Callie took the geldings in turn and hitched them to the side.

      “I’m nervous,” Fiona admitted as she ran her hands down her ivory riding breeches.

      Callie unclipped Indiana’s travel rug. “You’ll be fine. This is your first competition—just enjoy the day. You and Titan have worked hard for this.”

      Fiona’s carefully secured red hair didn’t budge as she nodded enthusiastically. “Thanks for the pep talk. I’ll go and get our stalls sorted.”

      Callie organized their gear once Fiona disappeared. Both horses were already groomed, braided and ready for tack, and by the time Fiona returned Callie had saddles and bridles adjusted and set. It took thirty minutes to find their allocated СКАЧАТЬ