Generally, when Clay worked for anyone, he tried to stay in the background unless his specific skills were called upon; he never pushed his way into the personal lives of his employers or their families. But after he congratulated her for her wins and consoled her for her losses, Isabel began to seek him out. He gave her the emotional support she so desperately craved. And after about a year of brief meetings, she seduced him.
“Your father will fire me for this. Or kill me,” he had said before succumbing to the seduction.
“No, he won’t. He only cares about the horses, not who I dally with.”
It had taken Clay a very long time to learn and accept that truth, and to understand that even though they’d married, Frederik still considered him a mere dalliance. While Isabel was so like a hurt little girl, he gravitated toward her, prepared to offer comfort. Eventually, he could see that she needed so much more—a partner who could give her the kind of insight he had, a person who could tell her whether the training was working or if the horse would be a good candidate for a certain race or type of competition. He could help her win more often. But by the time he actually understood the complexity of her relationship with Frederik, he had married her, pledged his life to her. The marriage was at her insistence and with her hardheaded father’s partial blessing.
Partial because Frederik had said, “There’d better be a prenup! I’m not going to have some blacksmith part me from my money!”
Clay had shrugged and answered, “Aside from my wage, I don’t want anything from you.”
But Isabel fought her father and said, “No! Clay said he doesn’t want the family money and that’s good enough for me!”
It was years before Clay understood—every decision Isabel ever made was in reaction to her sick and alienating relationship with Frederik. Isabel might indeed have loved Clay, but she had married him to rankle Frederik, to get his attention. And while Clay thought he should have been angry with her for putting him in the middle of that twisted relationship with her father, instead he felt profound pity. He knew how needy she was, how much she hurt, and he did all he could to reassure her.
But that relationship was unhealthy for both of them and had to stop sometime.
“Leave Diamond with me, Isabel. I’ll give her a workup and have Nathaniel look at her. He might recommend an MRI….”
“I brought the films,” she quickly supplied.
“Excellent. Leave them with me and come back tomorrow. We’ll have a full report and recommendation.”
“Leave?” she asked. “Can’t I stay here?”
“You mean, park your trailer here?” he asked with a lifted brow.
“No, I mean…can’t I stay with you?”
“We’re divorced, Isabel.”
“That didn’t seem to matter to you before,” she said, smiling very shyly for a forty-four-year-old woman wearing a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of upkeep.
“It matters now, Isabel. I’ve met a woman I care about. I don’t think she’d appreciate a little ex-wife maintenance.”
She stiffened and glowered, insulted. Apparently, the truth angered her, even though that was clearly the reason she was here. Isabel wanted to get laid, preferably by someone she trusted. If this visit had really been about the horse, she would have sent a trainer or at least had a hand drive her. Isabel didn’t usually take off on long trips alone, pulling a trailer. In fact, Clay realized, he might not find a problem with the horse at all.
“I won’t cross that line,” he said to Isabel. “I wouldn’t have done it to you and I won’t do it to her.”
“I see,” she said curtly. “Well, now. So, will it insult your new woman if I park my trailer on the property?”
He tilted his head and peered at her. He couldn’t believe there was still more to learn about her after all this time, but sure enough—she was behaving exactly as her father would. Frederik would cajole what he wanted and if he didn’t get it, he’d throw a little temper tantrum, and people would scramble to please him.
“Fine,” Clay said. “Pull down the road to the east pasture. I’ll tell Nathaniel who’s parked there. As for me, I won’t be here tonight. I’ll put Diamond in a stall and I’ll be back early to tend to her.”
“Clay…”
“No, Isabel,” he said, shaking his head. “You must know that we can’t continue. Not if either one of us is to have an authentic life.”
“I thought it was pretty authentic!”
He shook his head. “I was a placeholder, that’s all. But we both deserve something better than that.”
Fourteen
Clay knew it was important to explain to Lilly about Isabel, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it until their business with Diamond was finished. He also knew if he stayed in his quarters he would be faced with Isabel again, and there would be a very uncomfortable confrontation.
He explained to Nathaniel who was staying in the fancy horse trailer. “She could stay in the house with me and Annie,” Nathaniel said. “I’d be happy to extend our—”
“It’s complicated, Nathaniel. I think there’s more to this visit than the horse. If it’s okay, I’m not going to spend the night here tonight.”
“Of course, that’s fine,” Nate said. “I’ve got your cell number.”
He went to Lilly’s little house; he was so comfortable there. He was content with the veggie-bean chili, rice and tortillas she made for them. They went to bed together and made love, but languidly, slowly, sweetly. He told her he was tired. He teased that she was wearing him out. And while he held her close as she slept, he prayed that he could be finished with the difficult part of his past and move ahead with Lilly, because she was all he had ever wanted.
In the morning he got up and dressed early.
“I can get up, too,” she said sleepily. “I’ll drive out to the stable and have a short ride before work.”
“Sleep, sweetheart. We’ll ride later. I have so much on my schedule today and I want to be free of it so I can concentrate on you.”
She smiled and snuggled in the sheets. “I like the sound of that,” she murmured.
That morning Clay was surprised by two things. There was a problem with the horse—one that explained the occasional limp or hitch in her gait. The mare’s MRI showed a very slight bowed tendon, often seen in race-horses and sometimes caused by overtraining.
Clay wondered if his replacement at the stables was trying to prove himself, and in so doing was pushing the horses too hard.
The other thing that surprised him was that Isabel didn’t show herself all morning. She was obviously there—the truck and trailer were still attached and parked on the road to the east pasture. But she didn’t come to the clinic to confer with the doctor.
“Tell her the injury is minor,” Nathaniel said, “but this horse can’t train for at least three months. To be safe, longer. She needs more turnout time, less time in the stall. And that’s all I’ve got for her.” He handed Clay the large folder of MRI films.
“What’s the charge?” Clay asked.
“Come on. It’s your ex, man—it’s on the house.”
Clay sincerely wanted to argue that Isabel had more money than God and could certainly pay, if only for the inconvenience. But he kept quiet because the most important thing was to pack her and Diamond up and get them on the road home.
Throughout the morning he wanted to go bang on that trailer door and tell Isabel it was time to get the show on the road, but he resisted, sensing that’s what she was hoping for.
It was just after noon when Nathaniel got a call about a nearby rancher’s horse. “Sounds like colic,” he explained to Clay. “Can you give me a hand?”
Clay looked at his watch.
“Got an appointment?” Nate asked.
“Sorry. I should have dealt with Isabel, but I’ve been putting her off. I’d like that to be behind me before Lilly comes by with her delivery later.”
“I just might want a hand with the injection and mi
neral oil. We’ll go in two trucks and after we get the gelding dosed, I’ll have the owner walking and watching him. Shouldn’t take too long, then you can come back here and take care of business.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, Nathaniel. It’s just that…”
“I’ve never had an ex-wife. I’m sure it’s complicated.”
“You have no idea,” Clay said. “Let’s go.”
Because the weather was exceptional, Lilly rushed through her deliveries. She hoped to get to the last one at the clinic a little on the early side today; a ride sounded like a perfect plan, whether Clay was available to join her or not.
When she pulled into the clinic parking area and found an amazingly beautiful late-model truck and horse trailer, it made her briefly happy—it would be good for Nate’s practice if his clientele included wealthy horse people. It wasn’t until she noticed the woman pacing along the length of it that she realized both Clay’s and Nate’s trucks were missing from the front of the barn. Lilly was instantly taken with the woman’s beauty, but not surprised. Wealthy women who owned expensive horses tended to be richly dressed and gorgeous.
She backed in and went about her duties, dropping the tailgate, opening the barn doors, hefting the bales and feed, putting them away in the feed room. Since there was no one there to sign off on the delivery, she folded the paper in half and slid it under the office door—she could pick up the signed copy when she was there next. To do that, she walked past the woman. On her way back to her delivery truck, she paused. “I guess the vet isn’t here, but did you try the house? His fiancée might be home, might be able to tell you when to expect him back.”
“Fiancée?” she asked, smiling. “Nathaniel is engaged?”
Lilly nodded. “For a while now. He met Annie almost a year ago and they’re planning a spring wedding.”
“That’s wonderful,” she said, smiling. “Good for him! But I won’t bother her. I was actually waiting around for my husband.”
“Husband?” Lilly asked, stunned.
“Well, technically ex-husband,” she said with a laugh. “He’s a tall Native American by the name of Clay Tahoma. We divorced before he took this position. But aside from his move up here, nothing has really changed between us. We at least talk every day.”
Lilly’s smile was weak. “How nice for you both,” she said. And her brain turned over the at least. Since she’d become intimate with Clay he hadn’t left town. And Annie was a friend—if Clay had had female company here, Annie would have told Lilly.
Yet here was a woman who believed her ex-husband was still her husband in almost every sense of the word.
“Of course I had another reason for coming so far to see Clay,” she went on. “Clay’s the best—we hated to lose him at our stables. But if he’s the best then the vet he chose to work with must also be the best. And I have a lame quarter horse that the vet my stable has on retainer can’t fix. Clay loves that horse. She’s worth half a million dollars. She has many more wins in her if she gets treated. So,” she said, grinning, “I get the horse treated properly and I get to spend a couple of nights with my husband.”
First Lilly’s stomach did a flip—a couple of nights with Clay? Then she got stuck on that figure: half a million. She tried some quick math—had she earned that much in ten years? More to the point, would she earn enough to equal the cost of this truck and trailer in a dozen years?
“Clay should be back before long,” Lilly said. “It’s unusual to have everyone away from the clinic for long.”
“Thanks, dear,” the beautiful blonde said.
“Sure,” Lilly said, heading for her truck. As she did so, something nagged at her. She turned back to the woman. “Where’s the horse?” she asked.
“Oh, she’s in the stall. I got here yesterday—Clay already looked at her, we spent some time together and Nate was going to read the MRI study that was done. And I might stay a few days, depending on Clay’s schedule.”
“Ah,” Lilly said, putting her hands in the back pockets of her jeans as she backed away.
He was different last night, she thought. Tired. Slow. Maybe not interested? Maybe well satisfied by the blonde with the expensive gear and winning horse?
No. No, surely not.
But after she drove away, she took an unnecessary turn down a country road, pulled off to the side and tried to think it through. To get her bearings.
He said he’d been divorced a couple of years; she assumed that was the end of the relationship he’d had with his wife. He’d been different last night, but still loving and sweet. But the woman…the ex…she was irresistible. Did the woman, whose name she didn’t even know, still have a hold on him?
Lilly didn’t know how to answer these questions or how to find the answers. After about an hour of thinking it through she decided to go back to the clinic, even if it meant confronting Clay while the woman was still there. Whatever the challenge, she needed to know what was going on.
When Clay pulled into the clinic, he saw Isabel’s truck and trailer, but she was nowhere in sight. He parked and found her leaning into one of the small paddocks, looking at Streak. She turned toward him.
“What an incredible horse,” she said. “What’s his story?”
“He came to us a difficult, unfinished stud colt,” Clay said. “Let me bring him in and I’ll talk to you about Diamond.” He got the bridle and lead, put Streak in the stall, and stood in the aisle between the stalls. Isabel followed. She stayed quiet and back while he took care of the horse and put up the tack. Then he brought Diamond out of her stall. He explained about the minor training injury that Nathaniel had seen on the MRI and confirmed with examination. “Is it possible her trainer overworked her? That’s the most common cause, and it’s usually in a younger horse.”
“Possible,” she said with a shrug. “I usually pay close attention to detail, but lately… I admit, I’ve been a little lost without you at the stable….”
He tried to ignore that and said, “Well, the cure will cost you—she can’t train for at least three months,” he said. “Which means she won’t race.”
“How’d he see it?” she asked. “My vet didn’t—”
“You could use a sharper, more conservative veterinarian. And why a stable as rich as yours doesn’t have an orthopedic specialist on retainer is a mystery to me. Nathaniel spent some time at an equine orthopedics clinic, studying for a specialty. If a horse like this doesn’t work for a living—”
“Can we please talk about…us?”
He was caught off guard. He gave Diamond a stroke. “Isabel, there really is no us.”
She moved closer to him. They both stood beside the magnificent mare. Clay was tall at six-two, but Isabel was a good five-eight in her bare feet, and in boots she stood up to him admirably and could look in his eyes.
“I didn’t realize how much it would hurt when you left,” she said.
“And it also hurt while I was there. You needed that divorce to appease your father.”
“Not just my father, Clay. You were so unhappy.”
He let a huff of laughter escape. “Was I the only one who was unhappy? Come on, Isabel—we came from different worlds and couldn’t live together in either of them. I couldn’t make it in that mansion, inside your social life. I did put a tux on for you on several occasions. But for your part, you’ve never seen the inside of a reservation.”
She laughed and her eyes actually sparkled. “Yes, a tux, with all that hair flowing down your back. You stood out, that’s for sure. If it was your intention to be different…”
“Here’s where we parted company from the start. I’m not different. I’m Native. There isn’t anything about me that’s contrived to fit in.”
“And yet, we fit together so well…” she said in a sultry voice.
“For a while it seemed as if that was the case. Isabel, I think you chose me to challenge your father. You have a long history of love affairs that haven’t work
ed for one reason or another and Frederik hated all of them. I don’t know if you’ve spent a lifetime trying to meet his expectations or trying to provoke him. Whatever the case, I don’t want to be a part of it anymore.”
“But I love you,” she said softly. “And you said you’d always love me.” A tear spilled out of her eye and rolled down her beautiful, smooth cheek.
He put his big hand on her cheek and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Of course I’ll always love you, but…”
He heard a gasp from the stable doors. Clay turned to see Lilly standing there, her hand over her mouth, her blue eyes wide. “Lilly,” he said.
She backed away. Then she turned and ran. Before he could get to the doors, she jumped into her grandfather’s delivery truck, started the engine and roared out of the clinic compound. Of course she didn’t wait long enough for him to follow her, to speak to her. He hung his head and said, “God!”
“Oh God, is right!” Isabel said from right behind him. To his utter astonishment, he heard her laughter. He turned to see her face alight with amusement. “Clay! Did you hook yourself up to a little Indian girl? I knew it!” And then she laughed as if highly amused.
His eyes and nostrils flared and he took a giant step toward her. “She is not a girl! She’s a Hopi woman!” he said in a low, menacing tone. “She is Native American! Of indigenous people! I want you to take your horse, your diagnosis and recommendation and go home now. And if you want help for your horses again, make an appointment and send one of your hands!” He strode away from her and the stable, digging in the pocket of his jeans for the keys to his truck as he went.
As Clay was pulling away from the clinic, Gabe was arriving in his little green truck, having just passed Lilly, who was flying down the road at high speed. Clay never looked at Gabe; never waved, never slowed. And even before the attractive blonde stepped out of the barn, he knew who the fancy truck and trailer on the property must belong to. And he knew something bad must have happened.
He parked his truck and got out, approaching the woman.