“Fine, you have two minutes.” She actually looked at her watch like she was going to time him.
“It won’t take that long. Close your eyes.” Again, she gave him the stink eye, and he only cocked a brow at her. When she finally did, he grinned. “Now, picture New Double. You’re getting readyto take Champ out on his first ever run, his virgin run. The track is ready, you are ready, Champ is ready. You climb onto his back, look over at your trainer, and who do you see standing there.”
Her eyes popped open. “Holy shit, New Double doesn’t have a trainer. However, to answer your question, I saw Pedro standing there, and you. He was talking to you and showing you things on a clipboard, and the stopwatch.”
“Okay, now that I have your attention, how would you feel if I called Cole, and you called Naomi. Do they know Pedro?”
“Cole might, but I don’t know if Naomi would. She was into the rodeo, not racing. I see your point. I could ask her something like who she would want as a trainer, or along those lines.”
“Exactly. The only thing is, would Pedro want to move to Colorado?”
“Since I haven’t told him about Champ yet, we can save that as our ace up the sleeve. Now that you put the idea in my head, I’ll tell him about New Double.”
“One thing,” he reached out to stop her before she opened the door. “Remember, he’s going to have to pass a background check. To get it started we might have to take a photo of his license and social security card to send to Cole, so he can get it to Duane. Then Duane will send the information on to Jake.”
“Who’s that?”
“Jake Cogburn, he’s in charge of Brotherhood Protectors. They are all former military people that, well, from my understanding, they protect people. Before Duane started working for Erin, Jake did all the background checks on the new hires.”
“Got it. Why don’t you call Cole, I’ll go out and tell Pedro to hold on, and that I have a call to make. Keep him busy. I’m not keeping this a secret, I just don’t want to get his hopes up if Cole doesn’t need a trainer.”
“I agree.” When she went to leave, she looked at him with a grin, and as he lowered his head, she rose up on her tiptoes, and they kissed briefly, then looked at each other in shock.
“I liked that,” he said. “Now, one question.”
“What’s that?”
“What’s Pedro’s last name?”
“Oh,” she giggled. “Alvarez.”
“Thank you,” he said as he kissed her again, then grinned at her stunned expression. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and looked at her flustered expression with a raised brow.
“Oh, sorry.” She hurried out, and he dialed the phone.
“Cole,this is Shay. I’m going to get right to the point. I’m fine, I’m healing, and we’ll be ready to leave Kentucky on time as planned.”
“Okay, then why are you calling me?” Cole chuckled into the phone.
“Quick question, do you have a trainer for New Double? Someone to work with Faith?” Shay nodded when he heard Cole release a giant sigh.
“Unfortunately, no. Or maybe I should say not yet.”
“Are you familiar with some trainers?”
“I am, I’ve been out of it for the past year since the move to Colorado, but I still know people, why?”
“What about a man by the name of Pedro Alvarez?”
“Fuck me, Shay.”
“What? Wrong person?”
“No, if I could get Alverez, and he worked with Faith, New Double would be on the map. But I heard he retired and left the country.”
“What if I told you he’s back, that he’s sitting at the kitchen table here at Faith’s house in Kentucky, and he came knocking on her door, looking for a job.”
“Then I would call you a fucking liar.”
