Sunrise Canyon (New Americana 1)
Jake was still reeling from the story she’d told him, but he feigned indifference. “As long as I’m getting paid, I’ll do whatever. But I don’t know a damn thing about horses.”
“Well, you can learn. All you need to do is stay one step ahead of the students. Let me get a few things and meet you in the kitchen for chocolate milk and donuts. We can take some notes and go over the plans for tomorrow.”
As Jake watched her stride back down the hall, he couldn’t help wondering what lay beneath that coldly efficient manner of hers. She had just told him a gut-wrenching story, one that had left him shaken to the core. Then, as if nothing had happened, she’d simply shifted gears a
nd moved on to the next order of business.
If he could see into the depths of her soul, would he find a hidden cache of warmth and vulnerability? Or would he only see more of the same, all the way to her frozen, protected heart?
* * *
Dawn’s first light crept over the Santa Catalinas, brushing the desert foothills with shades of mauve, violet and gold. Mourning doves, nesting in a mesquite thicket, woke to fill the air with their gentle calls. A jackrabbit, its huge ears as long as its body, scampered down to a streambed for a morning drink. A Gila woodpecker drummed on the ribs of a giant saguaro.
Dressed for the day, Kira walked out to the paddock. For a few moments, she stood by the fence, sipping her coffee and watching the horses. She’d told Jake to meet her out here at first light, but there was no sign of him. If he didn’t show up in the next five minutes, she would have to go and roust him out of bed. That would be awkward, to say the least.
From the moment Jake had shown up here, she’d known that the details of Wendy’s death would come to light. Over and over, she’d rehearsed the story in her mind—every word true, or at least as true as it needed to be. As for the rest, what Jake didn’t know was best left unsaid.
She’d been brutally honest about the coffee stop that had put her car in the wrong place at the wrong time. For that, if Jake needed somebody to blame, she would accept the burden. It was the least she could do.
Last night, after the painful revelation, she and Jake had spent an hour in the kitchen, going over the plans for today and what he needed to know. The subject of the accident hadn’t come up again. It was as if a door had been closed. She could only hope it would never be opened again.
Except maybe by Paige, when she was old enough to ask questions.
Paige was another worry. Kira could sense that Jake and his daughter were already bonding. With Jake filling in for Dusty, the two of them would be spending more time together. Kira felt powerless to stop what was happening, but one thing was certain: if Jake broke his little girl’s heart, she would never forgive him.
She glanced at her watch. Jake’s time was up. If she had to march into his cabin and drag him out of bed by one leg, so be it.
She was turning to go, when she heard his voice.
“There you are! I was wondering when you were going to show up!” He was coming around the barn, fully dressed, pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with hay. “I was just about to give these babies their breakfast,” he said, glancing at the horses. “As long as you’re here, you can lend me a hand.”
Kira’s gaze took him in. He was wearing worn jeans, a khaki-colored tee, which outlined his muscular arms and chest, and a battered straw hat somebody had left behind in the tack room. He looked fit and relaxed—except for his eyes. They were rimmed in red and framed in shadow, a sign that he’d spent a sleepless night.
“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to pitch in and help?” He spoke in a teasing tone.
Kira pulled on her work gloves. “Tell you what. Let’s put the hay in their stalls. Then we can bring the horses inside.”
“Have you checked on Dusty this morning?” Jake asked her as she walked beside the wheelbarrow.
“I called first thing. He had a calm night, and he’s resting. All good, I suppose. I’ll be taking a break to visit him later. For now, let’s get to work.”
Since the horses had spent yesterday and last night in the paddock, the stable was already clean. The students could shovel out the paddock, then go into the stalls to practice brushing and grooming their horses.
It was a well-designed and well-equipped stable. The open-topped box stalls were roomy enough for a horse to move around or even lie down in the straw. Each stall had a feeder, a place for a water bucket and a post on either side with a metal ring for cross-tying. In addition to the stalls, there was a tack room, a room for veterinary care and an area with a hose and a drain, where a horse could be bathed.
This morning the stable was clean and quiet. Kira found an extra pitchfork and helped Jake pile the sweet-smelling hay into the feeders. When he went back to the hay shed for more, she used the time to fill the water buckets and get eight soft nylon halters and leads out of the tack room. She tossed these over the gate of an unused stall.
Jake was back a few minutes later, wiping hay dust off his face. “Paige said that somebody found a dead rattlesnake in the hay. Is that true?”
“We’ve found more than one.” Kira forked hay into a stall and moved on. “The snakes like the hay fields because there are plenty of mice there. A few unlucky ones get picked up by the baler. But in case you’re wondering, no, we’ve never found a live one.”
Jake shuddered. “Sorry, I can’t stand snakes.”
She gave him a smile. He was standing close, reaching past her to fill a feeder with hay. His body smelled of clean sweat and the lavender soap stocked in the guest cabins. Kira had never thought of lavender as a masculine scent, but on Jake, it was. The thought flitted through her head that he could wear Chanel No. 5 and still smell like a man.
Not that she was attracted to him. He was too raw, too edgy and dangerous to be her type. The few men she’d been involved with had been cultured and highly educated. Still, she found herself inhaling Jake’s nearness, her senses swimming in his male aura.
Heavens, what was going on with her?