LITMIR.BIZ

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with Garrett back in his office. He sure as hell hoped it wasn’t an act.

      After a bit of chitchat, the old cowboy returned to work, leaving Garrett and Meagan alone once again.

      “Tom seems really nice,” she said.

      “Yeah, he’s as loyal as they come. He knows about your criminal history. I discussed it with him ahead of time. But he isn’t going to hold it against you. The only thing that matters to him is that you do your job.”

      “Do the other employees at the stables know?”

      “I haven’t told them and neither has Tom. Nor do we plan to.” Garrett didn’t want it getting around. “But it’s public record. So they might find out on their own. Or someone in HR might mention it and get tongues wagging. People gossip, even if they’ve been warned not to.”

      They stopped in the breezeway of the barn, and Garrett rolled up his shirtsleeves. He’d left his jacket back at his office, but he was still wearing his tie. He had a huge collection of them. He kept them in his closet, organized by color, the same as his suits.

      Meagan’s skirt was flowing softly around her ankles. Everything about her looked soft and touchable. Not that he ever intended to touch her.

      She turned to pat the neck of a big bay gelding poking his head over his stall.

      “That’s Ho-Dad,” Garrett told her.

      She smiled. “That’s an interesting name for a horse.”

      “It’s an old surf term. It refers to anyone who pesters them when they’re on their boards, and Ho-Dad likes surfers, sometimes a little too much. He would probably go surfing himself, if he could.”

      “Oh, that’s cute.” Her smile widened. “Can’t you just see him out there?”

      “In a wet suit? That wouldn’t be a pretty sight.” Garrett just wished that Meagan wasn’t so damned pretty. He didn’t need the distraction.

      She gave the bay another affectionate pat, and he noticed how gently she handled the animal. Ho-Dad was enthralled with her already.

      “Do you like to ride?” Garrett asked.

      “Surfboards?” She laughed a little. Ho-Dad was craning his neck to get closer to her. “Oh, you mean horses? I haven’t ridden since I was a kid. Ivy loves being in the saddle, though. Tanner puts her up on his horses with him. It’s been good for me to see her enjoying it so much. It was tough for me when I was little.”

      “What was? Being around horses?” He was curious, far more than he should be. But he still wanted to know exactly what she meant.

      She turned away from Ho-Dad, giving Garrett her full attention. “Yes, being around horses became difficult, especially after my baby sister died and my parents got divorced.”

      “You had a sister?” As far as he knew, his mom hadn’t uncovered that bit of information. If she had, she would’ve mentioned it to him, particularly with how determined she was in this whole forgive-Meagan affair.

      She took an audible breath. “It was a terrible time for my family. Mom fell apart, and Dad got even meaner.” She glanced at the gelding. “Dad never appreciated horses the way Mom did. In fact, he hated that she and us kids shared the interest. So after the divorce, I took less of an interest in horses, hoping that Dad would be nicer to me. But it didn’t make a difference. On occasion I still rode with Mom, just so she didn’t feel so neglected. Then, as time went on, I stopped riding altogether because Dad was still trashing us for it.”

      Garrett had never really thought about the kind of childhood Meagan might’ve had. But it wasn’t his concern. Still, it bothered him that her dad seemed like such a prick. “Your old man sounds like a piece of work.”

      “I never should’ve tried to be a daddy’s girl. Not after how he treated my mother.”

      Garrett debated whether to tell her that his mom and her mom had been loosely connected, that they’d actually belonged to the same Native American women’s group when they were younger, even if they’d barely known each other.

      No, he thought. He wasn’t going to say anything. His mom was already making too big of a deal out of it, and he didn’t want Meagan blowing it out of proportion, too.

      She cleared her throat. “None of us have anything to do with Dad anymore. Not me or my brothers. I’m not even sure if he knows that I went to prison or that I have a daughter. But he probably wouldn’t care, anyway.”

      “You should start riding again and stick with it this time.”

      “That’s what Tanner said. But he’s biased, especially with how much Ivy loves it.”

      “I keep my horses here. They’re on the other side of the barn. I ride nearly every day, so you’ll be seeing me around, sometimes in the mornings, other times in the afternoons, depending on my schedule. You can ride here, too, if you want to take it up again. That’s a perk that comes with working at the stables. You can use any of the horses that belong to the hotel.”

      “Thank you. I’ll think about it.” She smiled at Ho-Dad. He was pestering her to pet him again.

      After the tour ended, Garrett and Meagan went back outside, with the grass beneath their feet and the sun shining through the trees.

      She glanced around. “It’s so pretty here.” She looked higher up the hill. “Oh, wow. There’s a house up there, all by itself.”

      Well, hell, Garrett thought. He couldn’t very well leave his home out of this. She would find out sooner or later that he resided on the property. “That’s where I live. I had it custom-built.”

      She glanced at him and then back up the hill. “I should have guessed it was yours. It’s like a castle that overlooks your kingdom.”

      He downplayed her words. He didn’t like to think of himself that way. “It’s just a beach house.”

      “Well, it looks spectacular, even from here.”

      Garrett didn’t thank her for the compliment. Someday he hoped to have a wife and kids to live there with him. Only he’d yet to find someone who loved him for himself and not his money.

      But that was the last thing he wanted to think about, especially while he was in the presence of the beautiful young woman who’d ripped him off. He wasn’t going to let her sad story sway him, either. So she’d had a troubled childhood. So had he, but he hadn’t become a criminal. Or an ex-con or whatever the hell she was now.

      He took her back to the hotel, and they parted ways, with Garrett doing his damnedest to forget about her.

      But when he returned to his office, she was still on his mind, burning a fiery hole right through it.

       Two

      What a day, Meagan thought. But she’d gotten through it. She’d seen Garrett and secured her new job. Still, she was feeling the aftereffects of having been in his company.

      And now she needed to go home and decompress. These days, she lived in a guesthouse on Tanner’s property, a far cry—thank goodness—from the correctional institution.

      She climbed into her car and pulled out of the parking lot. Once she got on the main road, the traffic was heavy, the sights and sounds quick and noisy. Meagan had grown up in LA, but, since she’d gotten out of prison, she felt like a tourist, gawking at the city that surrounded her. Being free was a strange and wondrous feeling. But it was confusing, too. Everything felt different, somehow.

      When she arrived at her destination, she parked in front of the main house, a bungalow built in the 1930s, where her brother and Candy resided. With its stucco exterior, brick chimney and stone walkway, it had tons of curb appeal.

      Meagan’s place, a

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