Jace was good, too. She’d seen him ride, but since he bought the horses, he hadn’t ridden them like he had when he was a wild teen. Kelly made a snap decision. In fact, she made two. Sitting her coffee on the desk, she opened her desk drawer and pulled the envelope out. The one she’d been hiding. Putting it in her pocket, she went to the closet and took one of the riding helmets. What Ari and Jace wore were the soft ones. They weren’t going to do any serious riding, but they made sure Ari knew he needed to protect his head.
Moving quickly through the house and out the patio door, Kelly waved at the two guys and headed their way. Jace stopped and both climbed to the ground.
“Hi, Kelly. Are you gonna ride with us?” Ari asked.
“No,” she said. She looked at Jace. “You dad is going to show us how well he can ride.”
“What?” Jace looked confused.
Kelly offered him the helmet. “I know you want to ride how you used to. With Ari, you can’t, so Ari and I will stand over there.” She indicated outside the fence. “And you can chase the wind.”
A smile slowly split Jace’s face. He hesitated only a second before exchanging the helmets with her. Kelly took the soft hat and reached for Ari’s hand.
“Come on,” she said.
The two of them walked to the fence. Ari’s wiry little body slid through the slats. He propped his arms along the middle slat, while Kelly climbed over it. When they were safely out of any danger, Jace gave them a wave and took off. She and Ari watched as Jace flew across the field. He bent forward, lowering the wind resistence and rode as if he was the lead jockey in the Kentucky Derby.
“Wow,” Ari said. He jumped up and down, taking tiny steps and clapped his hands. “Can I do that?” He didn’t take his eyes off his father. Kelly didn’t, either.
“Not immediately,” she told Ari. “You have to get a lot taller and learn to ride by yourself.”
“I’m gonna hurry.”
Kelly laughed. Jace rode and rode. He rounded the fence with precision. She loved watching him. He and the horse rode as one, each in sync with the other. Kelly thought he was truly poetry in motion. He rounded the second fence and headed for them. The sound of the horse’s hooves grew louder as he came closer. Kelly remembered this sound. She knew it intimately, knew the feeling of controlling a thousand-pound animal. Jace knew it better than she did. He was masterful.
As he rode by her, she felt the wind against her face. The smell of man and horse lingered after he headed for the front fence again. Completing three more revolutions, he slowed the mare, walking her around the track until she cooled down. Then he slid to the ground in front of them.
“Dad,” Ari said, wiggling through the fence. “Will you teach me to do that?”
Jace lifted him in his arms. “One day,” he said. “But we have to take it slowly, okay?”
“Okay,” Ari replied, smiling.
Kelly knew he didn’t understand the concept of time yet. He didn’t understand that it would take him years to learn to ride like Jace did. But his enthusiasm would hold until that happened.
“Thanks,” Jace said, keeping his gaze on her. “I missed doing that.”
She nodded. Her heart thumped and she felt as if he was holding her, even though they were on opposite sides of the fence.
“I have a surprise for you,” Kelly said. Summoning her courage, she pulled the envelope from her pocket and handed it to him.
“What’s this?”
“It’s where you can find your brother.”
* * *
JACE STARED AT what Kelly was holding. Glancing at her, she pushed the envelope closer toward him. He took it and quickly pulled out a single sheet of paper. He read it three times. This was what he wanted. He wanted to find Sheldon and now he knew where his half brother was.
“Have you read it?” Jace asked.
Kelly nodded. “It was addressed to me.”
“He wants me to contact him.”
“Are you going to?”
Jace didn’t immediately answer. This was something he wanted from first finding out that the Kendall had been sold. He wanted to confront Sheldon, wanted to know if there was anything they could do to retake the property. And now he had a method of doing that.
Yet, now he was hesitating. There were other factors in play that he hadn’t anticipated, mainly how he felt about the woman standing before him.
“Jace?”
“I’m not sure.” Jace spoke the truth. He couldn’t tell her what he was going to do. He didn’t know.
* * *
THE FACT THAT his half brother was alive and living in North Carolina wasn’t the only interesting information Jace had found out today.
Jace paid for and collected Ari’s bowl of ice cream and his own milkshake and found a booth in the back of the ice-cream shop for him and his son.
“Aren’t you gonna have ice cream, Dad?” Ari asked.
Jace smiled. “Not today. I’m going to drink the milkshake.” Jace preferred coffee, but the only decent cup he’d had since leaving Colombia was the one Mira made several mornings ago. Jace carried the papers he’d found earlier in the attic. He’d had them for hours, but wanted to read them in solitude and at the Kendall there was every chance Kelly could walk in on him.
Jace opened the envelope with the papers he’d found; they’d looked to be copies of the mortgage transfer documents. Kelly had told him nothing was locked. Maybe some places should be.
Jace hadn’t been part of many contracts. Much of the information in them was Greek to him. He needed to make sure he followed through, though on any opportunity that presented itself. Ari deserved nothing less.
“Jason, Jason Kendall. Oh, man, it is you.”
Both Jace and Ari looked up. A man in a dark suit and white shirt stood in front of their booth. “Douglas, Doug Thurston,” he grinned, pumping Jace’s hand.
“You’re the last guy I expected to find here,” Doug said. “Are you back or just visiting?”
“I’m here for a while,” he answered. Gesturing at Ari, whose eyes were wide and staring at the new arrival, he introduced them. “This is my son, Ari. Ari, this man is an old friend of mine.”
“Hello,” Doug said and offered his hand. “How old are you?”
Ari put his hand in the larger one and said, “I’m four.” He emphasized the word four saying it louder than anything else and holding up three fingers.
“Four, you’re a really big boy.”
“And I help my dad all the time,” he replied.
“Great. Do you hire out?”
Ari looked confused. “It was a joke, Ari,” Jace said. Ari went back to his sundae.
“What are you doing here?” Jace asked Doug.
“This is still the best ice-cream store in three counties,” Doug said. “I’m on my way home and thought I’d stop in and get some of that—”
“Nutty Black Cherry,” they said simultaneously.
“It’s still a favorite.” Doug grinned.
“Sit down a moment.”
Doug signaled to the clerk, then slid into the booth with Jace. “What are you doing now?” Jace asked.
“You’ll never believe it, but I’m a lawyer.”
Jace stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. “The terror of Duchess County is now an attorney?”
“Three-piece suit and all,” Doug said, indicating his clothes. “I live over in York now.”
“Married, children?”
“Wife of six years, baby girl, eleven months, most gorgeous child on earth.”
Jace smiled. “And your practice. Are you with someone or on your own.”
“I struck out on my own two years ago. Things are going well.”
“Glad to hear that,” Jace said and he really meant it. The two of them were lucky to have survived their reckless teenage years. The last sheriff who caught them had wised them up—thankfully—telling them their choices were to either end up dead or in jail. Jace didn’t take him seriously, at first, but decided to give school a try. It would get him out of the Kendall and his father didn’t care. The old man was always willing to pay for him to go away. And despite his delinquent talents, he was a good student. Doug must have gotten the message, too. They each went their own way and the sheriff’s prediction remained untrue.
“So what are you doing?” Doug asked.
“I spent several years in South America, but I’m back at the Kendall. I’m helping get the place in order.”
“I heard it was sold to Kelly Ashton of all people.”
“Why of all people?” Jace asked.
“You don’t remember her? The little kid who used to sit on the fence and watch us. She was always there, looking over the horses and wishing she could ride one.”
“Sheldon probably wouldn’t allow it,” Jace suggested.
“It wasn’t him. Your old man would holler at her every time he saw her. She’d hide among the trees. I knew she just wanted to be part of the place. She was like you, Jason. She loved the horses.”
“There were no horses left at the Kendall when I arrived,” Jace said. “Apparently, they were all sold before the place was.”
“What a shame. It would be fun to tear through the county again on horseback.” Doug chuckled. Jace knew he was reliving the past. For a second, Jace thought of riding. He could almost feel the unique exhilaration he felt for the second or two he and horse were airborne.