Harry chuckled. “No. The closest I’ve ever been is Ascot, but I wouldn’t go to something like that now. I can’t deal with using animals for sport.”
“Vegan, are ya?”
“No.”
“Then you’re a hypocrite,” I said. “Just like the rest of us. There ain’t no point bitching about the races when we’re all eating bacon butties and swanning around in leather.”
“I take it you’re not a vegan either, then?”
“No. And I don’t like racing—horses, dogs, whatever—so I’m lumping myself in that boat too.”
“You can paddle. I’m not much of a swimmer.”
“That’s ’cause you weren’t born by the sea. Newquay babies are born on surfboards.”
Harry’s tentative grin brightened a notch. “You surf?”
I shrugged. “It’s not a world away from riding a horse.”
“I can’t do that either.”
“Well, that we can help you with. Sold my boards on eBay, but we’ve got plenty of horses.”
“You don’t surf anymore?”
“No.”
I braced myself for Harry to ask me why, but he didn’t. He merely straightened up and fixed me with one of those piercing gazes that made me feel stark naked. “I’d like to ride. Emma said she’d teach me, but I won’t hold her to it.”
“You should. She’s a good teacher. We had a slapdash riding school once, before, well... before things changed.”
Harry nodded. “Then maybe you will again. Nothing stays the same forever, does it?”
I had no reply to that, but it turned out that I didn’t need one. Harry touched his fist gently to my shoulder and moved on, jogging into the sunset and leaving a strange fire in his wake. It started where he had touched me and crept slowly through my veins, lighting up my nerves. The sensation reminded me of Deep Heat ointment, but better—fuck, this was better. And terrifying, because it had been a long time since a bloke had last made me feel like the world was on fire, and I didn’t have time to nurture an unrequited crush on my houseguest.
I tore my gaze from Harry’s retreating figure and rubbed my shoulder, staring hard at Shadow, like the big black horse could gift me my focus back. But even when he did, I didn’t feel any better. Shadow had been Grandpa’s horse, but he remained on the farm because of Jonah.
Because as long as Shadow was here, there was still a chance that my father would come back and be the horseman I saw in my dreams and the father he’d been before he’d burned our lives to the ground.
Chapter Four
Harry
“Are you sure you don’t want breakfast, sweetheart?” Sal waved her frying pan at me. “It’s no trouble, honestly.”
I backed away, clutching the green smoothie I’d managed to whizz up before she’d caught me and threatened me with a bacon sandwich. “Thank you, but I’m good. Got lots to do today.”
“You say that every day,” Sal retorted.
And she wasn’t wrong. Despite being an early riser in the city, in the week and a half I’d been at the Farm, I’d been the last one up every single day—meaning it was a rare morning that I cobbled my breakfast together without having to dodge Sal’s cholesterol train.
“It’s true.” I spread the hand that wasn’t clutching the smoothie and took another step back. “I didn’t come here for a holiday.”
“Holiday? What’s that? It’s only the young ones around here have time for that nonsense.” Sal finally disarmed, dropping her pan on the stove. “All right, luv. I’ve got the donkeys to do, but I’ll bring you some tea in a little while.”
It was a fair compromise now I’d convinced her that I didn’t need three sugars dumped in the builder’s brew she doled out every couple of hours, and I retreated upstairs, leaving my bedroom door ajar to save her the trouble of knocking. I went to the desk and opened my laptop. The planning software I’d been fudging the night before was there to greet me, and I nearly slammed the laptop shut again. The software was supposed to remind me of all the wonderful notes I’d left at home, but it had, so far, failed.Chapter Two—Your Mind is a Machine.What did that even mean?
I sat down and spent an hour or so trying to find out, but it was hard to concentrate at this time of day. Early morning meant mucking out, and the yard below was a hive of activity. Joe, George, Toby, and the girls—they were all there, except Emma. She didn’t come to the yard every day.
