She climbed into bed and hugged the pillow close again. There was no doubt about it. If she intended to survive Jake’s visit to Hickory Hills, she was going to have to keep her emotions in check. She was in danger of losing a lot more than her heart if she didn’t. They still had yet to discuss how they were going to raise Mandy, and considering the high-handed way he’d relieved her of most of her duties, she might end up losing her job.
But as she lay there thinking about how it felt when he touched her, held her, she knew that keeping her wits about her was going to be all but impossible to do. She was falling for him all over again and there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to stop it.
Chapter Six
“Where’s Heather?” Jake asked when he walked into the kitchen and found Clara feeding the baby breakfast.
“Tony called. There was a problem down at the stables with one of the horses and he wanted her to come down to assess the situation.” The housekeeper shook her head. “He knows Heather would never forgive him if he hadn’t let her know about it.”
Jake frowned. He’d put Tony in charge to free Heather from having to deal with this sort of thing until after the race. “Is there something wrong with Dancer?”
“No. I think she said one of the other studs has a really nasty cut on its pastern.” She spooned a mouthful of cereal into Mandy’s open mouth. “Heather’s almost as good as a vet when it comes to taking care of horses and I’m pretty sure Tony wanted her to take a look at the injury to see how bad it is.”
Clara might as well have been speaking a foreign language for all he understood about where the horse was injured. “How did she learn so much about horses?” he asked as he grabbed a mug from the cabinet, then poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Bless her heart, she learned from the best,” the housekeeper said, smiling fondly. “Before he died five years ago, her dad, George, was the manager here. From the time she was old enough to walk, she followed him around like a shadow and soaked up everything he knew about horses.”
Fascinated by the details he was learning about Heather, Jake leaned against the kitchen counter. “What about her mother? Is she still around?”
Clara snorted. “No, and I say good riddance. She was a wild one, always looking for a good time. She took off when Heather was six and they never heard from her again.”
It sounded to him like Heather’s mother and his father were a lot alike—narcissistic and completely irresponsible. “I think I’ll walk down to the stable and see what’s going on. Would you mind watching Mandy until Heather and I get back?”
“Not at all.” Clara grinned as she wiped the baby’s face. “Take all the time you need. The only thing I have to do this morning is come up with another list of chores to keep Daily busy after he finishes mucking out the stalls.”
Chuckling, Jake wondered how much longer the woman was going to make the boy suffer for his lapse of judgment. “I have another project that I’d like his help with. Do you think you could pencil that in on the schedule for tomorrow?”
Clara nodded. “Will you need him all day?”
“Probably several days. Will that be a problem?”
“Not at all.” She smiled. “What have you got up your sleeve this time?”
“When we moved Heather and the baby, I noticed the carriage house could use a fresh coat of paint and some new carpet.”
As Jake left the house and walked the distance to the stables, his thoughts returned to Heather and he couldn’t help but wonder how she’d slept the night before. If he was taking bets, he’d wager that she hadn’t gotten any more sleep than he had.
Entering the stable, he followed the sound of a loud commotion. What had been so important that Tony felt the need to call Heather?
“Hold him while I get him tranquilized.”
Jake automatically turned at the sound of Heather’s voice inside one of the stalls and it felt as if his heart came up into his throat. As he watched, she, Tony and another groom jumped back just in time to keep from being kicked by a very large, extremely agitated horse.
“Heather, get out of there.” He tossed the coffee cup onto a pile of straw and reached to open the stall’s half door.
“Don’t you dare open that door,” she warned. “Just stay back. We’ve got this under control.”
It didn’t appear that they had everything in hand. It looked as if someone was about to get seriously hurt. The thought that it might be Heather had his heart hammering so hard that he thought he’d surely end up with a few cracked ribs.
When Tony and the other man finally caught hold of the thoroughbred’s halter, Heather moved swiftly to jab a long needle into the animal’s shoulder. The horse lurched to one side, then kicked the back of the stall with a blow that Jake knew for certain would have killed someone had it connected with one of the humans inside the enclosure. But just when he thought all hell was going to break loose, Heather and the grooms managed to open the half-door and escape.
Fear ignited an anger in him that quickly flared out of control and he was itching for a confrontation. “What the hell do you think you were doing in there?” he demanded when she stood safely in front of him.
“The job you pay me to do.”
He stubbornly shook his head. “I pay a veterinarian to attend injured horses. And if the size of his bills are any indication, I pay him quite well.”
As he and Heather glared at each other, Jake noticed Tony and the other man hurrying toward the far end of the barn. They apparently decided that retreat was the better part of valor.
“For your information, the vet is on the way.” Her aqua eyes sparkled with anger and he didn’t think he’d ever seen her look prettier.
“Then why were you in the stall? Why didn’t you wait for Dr. Pennington to get here?”
“Because Magic needed a sedative immediately,” she shot back. “We couldn’t run the risk of him making the injury worse.”
“I don’t care,” he said angrily. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
“I’ve been around horses all my life and I know what I’m doing,” she insisted. “Besides, that horse is a full brother to Dancer and almost as valuable as he is. His stud fees alone are going to make you a fortune once he’s retired from racing.”
Reaching out, Jake took her by the shoulders. “Don’t you understand? It’s not about the money, Heather. Your safety is far more important to me than any money I could make off of a damned horse.”