Promise Canyon
Page 33

"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 mineral 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 fiancee might be home, might be able to tell you when to expect him back."
"Fiancee?" 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 worked 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.
Her smile was bright and welcoming; she held her arms wide for an embrace. Both things were a first. "Well, hello, young man! It's been a while since I've seen you."
He really didn't want to touch her. Isabel had always repelled him. But not knowing what had gone on between his father and former stepmother, he allowed her to embrace him, kiss his cheek, give his dark hair a pet. When she touched him he realized that's what bothered him most--she made him feel like a pet.
"You're looking well," she said sweetly.