Her Small-Town Cowboy (6 page)

“Everyone thought you were really cool when you came in for show-and-tell. Especially Peter.”

“The boy whose dad died last year?” She nodded, and some of the skepticism left his eyes. Lily understood that he felt a kinship with the fatherless boy, and her estimation of the reserved horse trainer rose a few more notches.

Maggie tsked in sympathy. “I remember hearing about that. Such a tragedy for those children to lose their father so young. I’m sure we can find a way to do something for Peter, at least.”

“Well, we can’t tell him yes and the others no,” Mike pointed out in a resigned tone. Sending Lily a “help me” look, he went on. “If we offer him lessons, we have to do the same for everyone in Abby’s class.”

She’d love to give him an out, since he was making no secret of the fact that he wasn’t totally thrilled with the idea. But Lily knew how much it would mean to several of the children, not to mention Abby. Playing host to her friends at the farm would turn her into a minor celebrity, and despite his standoffish demeanor Lily suspected Mike might actually enjoy it. “That’s the best approach with kids. That way no one feels left out.”

“You should come, too, Miss St. George,” Abby breathed excitedly. “You could keep us all quiet and in line, just like you do when we’re at school. And Daddy can work with the horses, ’cause he’s good at that.”

While Maggie didn’t say a word, her hazel eyes glimmered with her opinion. Abby’s glowed like a clear sky, but Mike’s were a murky blend of blue and gray. The color had more than a tinge of warning to it, and Lily was inclined to take it seriously.

“I don’t know, honey. That’s a pretty big commitment for your father and me to make when we’re already busy with other things.” By Abby’s puzzled expression, Lily assumed she’d used a word beyond the girl’s six-year-old vocabulary. “What I mean is, we wouldn’t want to get started and then have to disappoint you and your friends because it takes too much time.”

“You could just do a few lessons,” she argued, her eyes beginning to well. “I’ll help, I promise.”

“I don’t mean to sound greedy,” Maggie said, “but the money would come in handy around here. If enough children sign up, maybe you could even take a few less wedding jobs,” she added, giving her son a prodding look.

A glint of humor warmed his eyes, and he shook his head with a good-natured grin. “You sure know how to hit a guy where he lives. Why don’t you two schemers wait in here while I talk to Miss St. George outside?”

Lily appreciated him giving her the chance to flee if she chose not to sign on, so she excused herself and followed him to the door. The screen creaked as he opened it and held it open for her to go out ahead of him. When they reached the far end of the rambling porch, he leaned back against the railing and folded his arms with a sigh. “Sorry about that. I had no clue that was coming.”

“A Kinley tag team,” she commented with a light laugh. “They’re good.”

“Tell me about it.” After a moment, he went on. “Look, if you’re not into this, it’s really no big deal. Riding herd on a bunch of rug rats isn’t my first choice of things to do, so if it never happens, I’d be okay with that.”

Something in his voice tipped her off, and she tilted her head with a smile. “You’re a terrible liar. The minute Abby started tearing up, you decided to go along and give her friends riding lessons.”

“Yeah,” he grumbled, staring up at the bead-board ceiling of the porch roof. Coming back to Lily, he went on in a wry tone. “When they handed her to me at the hospital, I knew there’d never be anything I wouldn’t do for her. Sappy, huh?”

“Sweet,” Lily corrected him quickly. “I guess that makes her Daddy’s girl.”

“You must know something about that yourself.”

“I used to.” The words slipped out before she could stop them, and Lily cringed at the slicing bitterness she heard. Attempting to blunt the edge, she continued. “Dad and I don’t see eye to eye on too many things these days. You must know what I mean. I’m sure your father wasn’t too excited about you leaving the family business to strike out on your own.”

“Actually, he was. We worked well together, but he always knew I’d have to make my own way eventually. After Abby was born, he and Mom came out to visit us at the ranch I managed in New Mexico.” Pausing, he gave her a sad smile. “He said he admired me for being my own man and making a good life for my family. I was never prouder in my life.”

“That’s wonderful. Good for him.”

Lily couldn’t help envying Mike’s solid relationship with his father. With the St. Georges, sons went into the family business, and daughters were expected to marry someone of the proper standing to join the fold. Natalie had lived up to her obligation, but Lily simply couldn’t bring herself to stick with the plan. Everyone but her generous grandfather considered her one step shy of a straitjacket, but she was pretty sure her plucky great-grandma Katie was up in heaven cheering her on.

“Doing your own thing isn’t easy,” Mike said, “but I can promise you it’s worth it.”

He gave her a sympathetic look that told her he’d picked up on things she hadn’t meant to tell him. She wasn’t sure what to make of his perceptiveness, but in that brief moment, she got a glimpse of what Abby must see in him. A serious man with a dry sense of humor who loved her with everything he had and would find a way to give her the moon if she asked him for it. That’s how he must have been with his wife, Lily knew instinctively. And again, she couldn’t help wondering what had gone wrong between them.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“This ain’t my first rodeo, sweetheart,” he informed her with the scowl he so frequently used. “That look you’re wearing means trouble with a capital
T
.”

“It’s none of my business.”

“That never stops any woman in this family.” His tone was less cynical now, but only slightly. He gave her a “go ahead” look, and she decided this was as good a time as any to satisfy her curiosity about his divorce once and for all.

“I’m just wondering about you and your ex,” she began awkwardly. When he didn’t respond, she took it as a prompt for her to continue. “You mentioned her earlier, but you didn’t say much. Was it a friendly split?”

“It was pretty one-sided. Dana left us when Abby was a year old, and beyond getting her signature on the divorce papers, we haven’t heard from her since.”

Delivered in a monotone, those words were devoid of emotion, but there was plenty of it crackling in his eyes. Bitterness and disgust battled for space, and the harsh set of his jaw told her precisely how much that betrayal still angered him. Lily had never met the woman, but she was human enough to acknowledge that she pretty much hated Dana, too. “That’s awful. My parents are divorced, but they both always made sure I knew how much they loved me. How could Dana abandon her family like that?”

“If it was just me, I could’ve taken it,” he explained in a low voice seething with rage. “We had our problems, but that was no reason for her to walk out on her own child the way she did. I’m just glad Abby doesn’t remember any of it. I don’t know how I’d explain it to her.”

Lily was beginning to see how his mind worked, and she had to admit she was impressed. His anger wasn’t for himself, but for the daughter he cherished. Lily had run up against more egotistical men throughout her life than she cared to recall. Finding one who put others before himself was a refreshing change.

Putting that very personal observation aside, she got back to why they’d come out here in the first place. “So, about me helping with the riding school.”

He shrugged. “Totally up to you. I’m good with a partner or going solo.”

His intent to do the lessons with or without her help belied his casual indifference. Something told her that he was the kind of guy who feigned carelessness to avoid giving people too close a look at his heart. Which, judging by his gentle treatment of animals and children, was a lot bigger than he probably cared to admit.

“Well, let’s try it for a while,” she finally decided. “I can at least get you started until you and the kids are better acquainted with each other. After a couple weeks, you might be fine on your own.”

“Or hopelessly insane. Could go either way.”

Laughing, they shook hands to seal their arrangement.

* * *

“Y’know, you’re gonna make my daughter’s day.”

“Should we go tell her the good news?” Lily asked with a smile. She’d tensed up at one point while they were talking, and he got the feeling their conversation had plucked a nerve for her. He hardly knew her, but he hated to think he’d done something—even inadvertently—to upset this sweet-natured woman.

“After you.”

The second they were back in the kitchen, Abby’s face lit up as if it was Christmas morning. “We can really do lessons?”

“Sure,” he agreed with a mock growl. “What else’ve I got to do all summer?”

“Thank you, Daddy!” Launching herself at him, she wrapped her arms around his waist in the kind of hug he’d never get enough of if he lived a hundred years. Then, to his surprise, she reached out one hand and pulled Lily in, too. Beaming up at her new friend, she said, “And thank you, Miss St. George. Having you here will make things so much better.”

Lily tilted her head in obvious confusion. “For who?”

“All of us,” Abby announced confidently. “And I promise to help with everything. I’ll tell all my friends, and we’ll make tons of money to keep the farm running. Right, Grammy?”

She glanced over at the woman still seated at the table, hands folded in front of her in a pose Mike knew all too well. She’d been praying, and he fought the scowl threatening to break through. She knew exactly how he felt about all that religious nonsense, but she’d gone over his head and directly to God, who’d made it clear that He’d lost interest in Mike long ago.

“I was thinking,” Lily began as she and Abby sat side by side on the bench, “we could design a logo for our school. Then we can print up flyers and maybe get some T-shirts made for the students. They’d enjoy having them, and when they wear them around town, other people will notice and get interested in taking lessons, too. If we get enough students, we could even have a horse show at the end of the summer. That would bring lots of people to the farm to see the great work you’re all doing with the animals here.”

Mike wasn’t sure how they’d gone from a few lessons to a full-blown circus, but he had to admit her idea had merit. Not only would it give the students something to work toward, when their families attended the show Gallimore Stables would get the kind of exposure it needed so desperately. He’d been racking his brain for months for a killer idea, and Lily had come up with a winner in the space of a single conversation. Amazing.

“That’s a great suggestion,” he commented with none of his usual reservations. “It could be just the thing we need to help us get back on track.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Giving him a grateful smile, she focused back on Abby. “Do you have any ideas for our logo?”

“Sure!” Popping up from her seat, Abby fetched a stack of blank paper and her tub of crayons from the rolltop desk in the corner. One of the many antiques his mother had lovingly collected and restored, over the years it had been everything from the farm’s bookkeeping space to storage for an endless jumble of paperwork. Now it was Abby’s art center, with her latest projects proudly displayed on the corkboard behind it.

“I don’t think Lily meant now,” Mike cautioned his energetic girl as gently as he could.

“No time like the present,” Lily corrected him with the kind of chipper tone that would have come across as forced from anyone else. With her curly ponytail and sparkling blue eyes, though, it suited her perfectly.

Uh-oh,
he thought glumly. That was no way for him to be thinking about his daughter’s teacher. And new business partner. When that realization struck him, he sat down and gazed across the table at Lily. “Before we get all caught up in this, I think we should discuss the setup for this school.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, fingertipping through the crayon box until she found the right shade of green for the grass she was sketching.

“We’ll be making money from the lessons,” he explained, not sure why it was even necessary. To him, the reason for laying everything out on the table was a common-sense leap anyone should have been able to make on their own. “You’ll be doing half the work, so you should get half the profits.”

Without any delay to think it over, she said, “Tell you what. I’ll take twenty-five percent and free lessons for myself.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

Lifting her eyes from her drawing, she shook her head. “Totally serious.”

“You’re not much of a businesswoman, are you?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Not a bit.” She gave him a sweet smile that had an unsettling edge to it. “Is that a problem?”

“Not for me, but you might change your mind later on.”

“I know what I’m doing, Mike,” she assured him in that musical drawl he’d admired the first time they met. “It’s not easy being in a new place and not knowing anyone. It might sound corny, but spending some of my summer here on this beautiful farm will be a dream come true for me.”

Stunned by the revelation, he stared over at the slender young woman who’d dropped into his life in the strangest way he could possibly imagine. Sincerity shone in her eyes, and he felt something rustling inside him, as if it had been asleep for a long time and was starting to wake up again.

Doing his best to ignore that, he tried to look cool. “Okay, then. Works for me.”

“This is supposed to be Gideon,” Abby said, angling the picture for their guest to see. “I can’t get his head right, Miss St. George. Could you help me?”

“Absolutely.” Lily took the page and adjusted the lines into a stylized horse’s silhouette. “When it’s just us, you can call me Lily. As long as that’s okay with your father and your grandma.”

“Wonderful idea,” Maggie approved, nodding as she got to her feet. “I’ve got laundry to tend to, but when I come back, I’m curious to see what sort of ideas you three come up with.”

Mike knew that tone, and it had nothing to do with the usual “work first” advice she’d doled out to him and his siblings all their lives. He was as far from an artist as you could get and would be little to no help with designing a logo for the riding school. Which she knew perfectly well. That could mean only one thing, and he wasn’t thrilled about her pathetically transparent attempt to throw Lily and him together.