LITMIR.BIZ

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knots. She’d wish for things she shouldn’t ever wish for.

      Like another touch from his hands.

      She loved it when he brushed her cheek just now. She loved the tingle in her skin and the clench of her belly and the heat in her veins. She loved the powerful response as much as she loved the newness of it. It was the first good thing she’d felt in so long.

      In years.

      “No,” she blurted. “I can’t. I’m sorry, but I have obligations at home. It’s Zoe’s night out tomorrow.”

      He regarded her steadily. “Switch nights with her.”

      “It doesn’t work that way.”

      “No?”

      She felt like she was falling, tumbling forward into the warm gold-brown eyes, tumbling headfirst into emotion, and emotion was all wrong for her. Emotion meant trouble. “No,” she whispered, her voice faint even to her own ears.

      “Then I won’t go, either.”

      “No—”

      “Yes. If you won’t go with me, I don’t want to be there. It’s you I want to be with. Not the Lindleys.”

      Looking at him, looking into his face she almost changed her mind. It would be amazing to go to the formal party on his arm. He’d look incredible in a tuxedo. He’d break every woman’s heart.

      Daisy swallowed, her throat dry as sandpaper. She needed to get out of here. She’d do something stupid soon. Say something stupid. Maybe say yes, maybe say kiss me, maybe say touch my cheek and make me feel beautiful again.

      “I’ll call you when I have the paperwork in order,” she said, voice husky, heart thudding hard, too hard. She wanted to cry and she didn’t even know why. Nothing was wrong. Everything was fine. Kentucky Kiss would get them out of debt, and life would go on.

      “Okay.” He smiled, and then he lifted a strand of silver-gold hair from her cheek and carefully tucked it behind her ear. “Call me when you’re ready.”

      She sucked in air, her chest on fire. “I will.”

      But as she drove home, wincing with each shift of the transmission, she knew she’d never call him. She’d finish the business arrangements, and that would be the end.

      Daisy was smart enough to know when she was in over her head, and with Dante, she was definitely in the deep end, woefully out of depth.

      Reaching the drive leading to the house, Daisy changed gears yet again. The truck’s old manual transmission required rigorous shifting, and each throw of the stick sent shooting pain through Daisy’s right hand. If you think you hurt now, she told herself, just imagine what it would be like to get involved with him. Don’t do it. Keep your distance. Focus on the business.

      The sunlight was waning fast as Daisy entered the house. Warm gold light shone through the lacy dining room curtains and gilded the fading cabbage rose wallpaper. In the red-gold light the full-blown roses looked almost real. Daisy stopped to touch one dusty pink rose.

      “Daddy never liked this wall paper.”

      It was Zoe. She’d entered the dining room behind Daisy. Daisy turned to look at her sister. “But it was Mom’s wall paper. Mom picked it out before you were born.”

      “So Daddy never changed it.”

      “Dad never stopped loving Mom.” Daisy’s voice throbbed with emotions she rarely let surface. Dante had stirred something to life in her, and she was finding it difficult to stamp it back down.

      Gently she traced the outline of a lavender rose. The blossom’s edge curled like lettuce. Soft, wavy, delicate. But beneath those fragile petals lay sharp dark thorns.

      Just like life.

      Daisy faced Zoe. “I’m selling Kentucky Kiss. Count Galván is buying her for six hundred thousand.”

      “Daisy, you can’t do that.”

      “We’ll be able to afford some help for Dad now,” she continued as though Zoe had never spoken. “I’ll also look for a trainer to work with Miracle Baby. Miracle Baby is the answer. If he goes high at auction—”

      “Daisy, you can’t sell Kentucky Kiss.”

      Daisy felt like she’d swallowed a bucket of nails. “I’m all right with this.”

      “There’s got to be another way.”

      “If we’d gotten the insurance settlement things might have been different, but … “ Her shoulders lifted, fell. “But we didn’t get it.”

      “We still might.”

      “Zoe, they think we set the fire. This will be tied up for years in court. We can’t wait. If we keep bouncing checks, if we can’t bring on another trainer, we’re dead in the water.”

      Zoe shut her eyes and pressed her palms against her forehead. “This is bad,” she whispered.

      “It could be worse, though. We could have no options. We could be on the streets—”

      “You can’t sell Kentucky Kiss to Count Galván.”

      “Of course I can. She’s my horse. It’s my decision.”

      “Then get the count to wait a year. He has to wait.”

      “Dante’s not going to wait. We’ve already made him wait for payment on the stud fee. He’s done waiting.”

      “I don’t think he has a choice,” Zoe answered in a small voice. “I’ve promised Carter Scott he could breed his new stallion with Kentucky Kiss next year.”

      Carter Scott, a former customer who’d asked Daisy to marry him once. “What?”

      Daisy rarely raised her voice. She didn’t need to raise her voice, but she couldn’t help it at the moment. She was shocked. Beyond shocked. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

      “I wish I was.”

      “Zoe, she’s not your horse. You don’t run the farm. You have no right to make arrangements for our best dam. What on earth would possess you to do such a thing?”

      “Dad. I did it for Dad.” Then she explained, hesitantly reminding Daisy about the new study the university hospital was doing on Alzheimer’s.

      Daisy had discovered the new treatment, one so controversial that health insurance wouldn’t touch it. But despite her best efforts to raise more cash, including getting a second mortgage on the farm property, Daisy couldn’t scrape up enough to allow him to participate.

      It had been a devastating realization, and breaking the news to Zoe had been awful.

      “I couldn’t accept no,” Zoe continued faintly. “I couldn’t accept that he wouldn’t get help because we didn’t have enough money.” Tears trembled on Zoe’s lashes. “I couldn’t let the opportunity slip away.”

      “You entered Dad in the hospital program?”

      “Carter Scott gave me the money in advance for breeding his stallion with Kentucky Kiss. He’ll own the foal, and he’s agreed to pay all boarding and medical fees.”

      “How much money did he give you?”

      “Two hundred and fifty thousand.”

      Daisy pressed her knuckles to the wallpaper. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? On top of the fee they already owed Dante?

      The mountain of debt staggered Daisy. For a moment she couldn’t think. She just knew she couldn’t do this anymore. She couldn’t keep juggling bills and problems and mistakes and keep it all together. It was too much. The stress of it was just too much.

      She heard a strange low buzzing in her ears. Like static on a radio.

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