The Mighty Quinns: Logan. Kate Hoffmann

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      SUNNY STARED UP at the ceiling above her bed. She measured her breathing, trying to fight back the surge of tears that had been threatening for the past hour. Grabbing her pillow, she hugged it to her body, but nothing seemed to ease the emptiness inside of her.

      Her thoughts wandered back to the argument she’d had with her father earlier that evening. He’d phoned from Sydney to check up on her plans to participate in an equestrian event that weekend in Brisbane. When she told him she had no intention of riding, the call escalated into a cold recitation of all of her flaws as both a daughter and a human being.

      She pinched her eyes shut, cutting off the source of her tears. Nighttime was the worst. Her mind just wouldn’t shut down. The same things replayed over and over in her head, and though she tried to make sense of it all, she couldn’t.

      She’d worked for years to get to London, to be a part of the Olympics and to show her father that she could be just as good as the son he’d always wanted. All the training, all the travel, competing in equestrian events all over Australia.

      Three years ago, she’d stepped up to international competition, all with an eye to the Olympics and her crowning achievement, a gold medal in show jumping. When she made the world team two years ago, her father had been delighted but reserved. When she made the Olympic team, her father had been proud, ecstatic even. And that’s all she’d ever wanted from him. Just a simple recognition that she was someone worth loving.

      But what had come next had been so unexpected. She’d landed in London with a strange sense of foreboding, a dark cloud hanging over her. The pressure to succeed just seemed overwhelming at times and she found herself fighting off panic attacks.

      One stumble in the qualifying rounds had led to another and by the time the preliminary competition was over, Sunny’s confidence was in shreds and her hopes for a medal were gone. She had hesitated when she should have been aggressive; she had tried to make up for her mistakes by taking silly risks. And her sweet horse, Padma, didn’t understand what she was supposed to do, the unfamiliar signals causing the mare to react nervously and refuse gates that she’d always nimbly jumped over.

      A tear streaked down Sunny’s cheek and she brushed it away. Who was she if she wasn’t an equestrian? Where was she supposed to go from here? She wasn’t prepared to do anything but ride. Her life was a total car wreck with no one there to help her fix it.

      With a long sigh, she closed her eyes. The image of Logan Quinn drifted through her thoughts and she groaned softly. She’d been thinking about him all night long. If he knew who she was, he didn’t mention it. And if he didn’t, then he must have been living on another continent for the past six months. The media had been brutal right after the games, with all sorts of rumors about partying and drugs and men.

      None of it had been true, but that didn’t make it any less painful. She smiled to herself. It had felt good to talk to Logan, to tease and laugh again, as if nothing had happened. Part of the attraction was his body, lean and muscled, hidden beneath faded, comfortable clothes. And he had that rugged, self-assured look about him, as though he could survive for a month in the outback with just a paper clip and a piece of string. He had a quiet confidence that was reassuring.

      For the first time in months, Sunny found herself interested in something other than her own troubles. And though seducing a handsome stranger probably wouldn’t change her situation all that much, it would be nice to feel close to someone. It would give her something else to think about at night other than all her failures.

      Sunny rolled onto her stomach and pressed her face into the pillow. What if he wasn’t interested? What if he didn’t want anything to do with her? Leave it to Sunny Grant to fail on both a worldwide and a personal scale.

      Sunny sat up in bed and tossed the pillow aside. She had to stop doing this to herself. It was time to move on. She’d made mistakes and hadn’t been prepared to handle the pressure, but there was no going back and fixing it. If she ever expected to be happy again, she needed to—

      “I need to get out of this house,” she muttered, raking her hair away from her face.

      Scrambling out of bed, Sunny grabbed a robe and shrugged into it. Silently, she slipped out of her room and hurried down the hall. The house was dark and only the dogs, Wendy and Whip, noticed her passing, their heads rising as she opened the kitchen door.

      She drew a deep breath of the warm night air, then ran across the damp lawn to the stables. A yellow bulb on each end of the building offered a faint light and she hurried to Padma’s stall and pulled open the door.

      The horse turned and looked at her with her big brown eyes. Sunny hadn’t ridden her in the three months since she’d returned from London, knowing how she’d failed. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, tears filling her eyes. “I’m so sorry. You’re the only one who has ever loved me, unconditionally and without any expectations. And I let you down. I embarrassed us both.”

      Her father had talked about selling Padma after Sunny had vowed never to ride again. The horse was well trained, an experienced competitor in the prime of her jumping career. But she was still here, in her usual stable. Though her father could be cold, he wasn’t entirely heartless.

      “You’re going to be just fine,” she murmured, stroking the white blaze on Padma’s forehead. “I need to take a little more time away and then I’ll be back and we’ll start all over again. I promise. We’ll get back to the top and get our gold medal.” She pressed her face against the soft muzzle of the horse, then gave her a kiss. “And this time, I won’t mess it up. You’ll be proud of me.”

      She stepped out of the stall and pulled the door closed. When she turned, she saw a figure standing in the shadows. A gasp slipped from her throat, but when he stepped into the light, she recognized Logan Quinn.

      “You scared me,” she said.

      “Sorry. I didn’t mean to. I was just checking on Tally and heard you talking.”

      He was dressed in just his jeans, the top button undone. Like her, his feet were bare. He’d shoved his hands in his front pockets and he watched her warily. “It’s late,” she murmured.

      “I couldn’t sleep. It was too stuffy in the campervan.”

      “Me, too,” she said.

      “It is kind of warm tonight. I thought maybe we’d get some rain.”

      She smiled to herself. He looked so sweet standing there, his dark hair rumpled, his chest bare. Though he looked as if he were in his late twenties, he had a boyish quality she found undeniably attractive. “Are we really talking about the weather?”

      “No,” he said.

      Sunny held out her hand. “Come with me.”

      He tucked his hand into hers and walked with her toward the house. “Where are we going?”

      “You’ll see,” she said.

      There was a formal garden in the rear of the house, surrounded by a tall iron fence. She unlatched the gate and then stepped aside, motioning for him to enter. They walked along a narrow brick path and, suddenly, the lush greenery disappeared and he found himself staring at a huge swimming pool.

      “Oh, hell. Now, that’s a nice-looking pool.”

      “Come on. СКАЧАТЬ