“Adrienne—” he started at the same time that I said, “Marcus—"
The tension eased further as we both laughed, then I nodded at him to continue.
Rubbing his face with both hands, he groaned. “I’m so sorry about yesterday. I couldn’t believe I was seeing you—finally—and pressed down a little on the accelerator by accident. I didn’t mean to scare you and your family by yelling either, but it just kind of…” he looked to the side, then sighed. “It just kind of came out.”
“No, I’m sorry. I fucked up first.”
He looked slightly vulnerable as he lifted his eyes from where he’d been staring at the ground. “Why’d you stand me up?”
The sun was beginning to get to me, even at this early-ish time of day, and I looked around for a shaded place for us to talk.
Reading me accurately, he put his hand on the base of my back and guided me toward a pretty outhouse. Inside, it looked like a high-tech office, totally at odds with the rest of the place.
“Whoa, this looks like NASA’s command central.”
It even had air conditioning!
“This is mine and Remy’s office. The science stuff goes on in the back, and the veterinarian spends a lot of time in here with us as well as the genealogist.”
I sat down in a soft leather chair and sighed when the coolness of its surface surrounded my ass and legs. I’d gotten the feeling back in it after the long drive yesterday, thankfully.
“The what?”
“Genealogist. They look at the DNA and histories of each horse. Once we have that information, we can pair them up to create either award-winning offspring or ones built for the speed of racing or showjumping. Five of the offspring we’ve produced have been in the Olympics for showjumping.”
“That’s impressive,” I said quietly. “I just thought the horses did the dirty, and then the babies either liked running or didn’t. I had no idea so much went into these things.”
His mouth lifted into a grin when I’d said ‘did the dirty,’ and by the end, he was laughing quietly.
“There’s that, too, but a lot of trainers and owners prefer a good lineage, especially for future generations from the horses.”
“What about if they inbreed?”
He looked surprised by my genuine interest. “That’s what we work to avoid. Obviously, in the wild, we can’t stop horses from doing it, and the foals can suffer from congenital disabilities as a result. By having the lineage of each horse clearly mapped out as far back as we can go and then recording their DNA here, too, we do our best to avoid anything like that happening.”
Leaning in, I whispered conspiratorially, “But has it ever happened accidentally? You can tell me. I’m good at keeping secrets.”
This time his laughter was audible, but it also made my brain flatline. “Not since I’ve been in charge here, no, and I’m certain my grandad would have made sure it didn’t happen before me.”
This was interesting to me. “Your grandad used to run this place? Did he retire?”
Pushing his desk chair toward me until he was only a couple of feet away, he shook his head as he sat down. “No, he has a similar operation in Texas, but when I went to him with the idea when I was sixteen, we came up with the idea of me opening one in Florida, too. I used to love spending time on his ranch when I was little and was fascinated by the DNA aspect of what was going on.”
“You started running this place when you were sixteen?”
“No,” he snickered. “I got a job at the veterinary practice near my parents’ home in Orlando when I was twelve. It was really young, I know, but I’d go out on calls to the farms with the vet, and it involved horses a lot of the time. I paid attention, but I knew I didn’t have it in me to go to college and get a science degree, so I applied myself to learning as much as I could independently. Then, when I was sixteen, I spoke to Gramps and explained everything, and showed him all of the research and work I’d done. He was impressed and agreed to back me with this place.”
I frowned at a nugget that stood out in his impressive story. “You didn’t have it in you to go to college and get a science degree?”
“My brother’s the smart one, not me.”
I looked around the room in amazement. “Seems to me you’re plenty smart to have this going and for it to be even a little bit successful.”
He lifted a shoulder, looking slightly embarrassed by the comment. “I enjoy what I do.”
Wanting to lift the mood, I raised an eyebrow. “You enjoy working with horse porn?”
It worked. Marcus burst out laughing so hard, the wheels on his chair moved slightly, bringing him close enough for our knees to bump together.