Free Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse by Kate Sherwood Page B

“Dan, we know all this. I mean, I’m sure you know the horses better than we do, but we did check them out before we made the offer.”
    Dan nods, pulling out the other photographs as he speaks. “Okay, and that’s what’s confusing me.” He fans the photographs out over the table. “Because these horses? These are excellent horses. And the way I look at it, if somebody has more money than God, and is genuinely interested in eventing, and that person sees these horses? That person will not be able to stop himself from buying them. They’ve been handpicked, carefully trained… this collection of horses is an eventer’s wet dream.” Dan pauses and shakes his head a little. “I’m only interested in working for somebody who has a genuine, strong interest in eventing. I’m only interested in working for somebody who would buy these horses even if he wasn’t sure exactly who was going to be training them.” Dan looks up from the photographs and sees Evan staring at him intently. Jeff is sitting back in his chair looking almost amused.
    Dan decided he needs to wrap this up. “So, you can see why I’m confused. You say you’re genuinely interested, but you’re going to pass on horses like these just because you’re not sure who your trainer is going to be? It doesn’t seem right to me.”
Evan leans forward and squints a little at Dan. “So, are you saying that if I buy these horses you’ll definitely come and work for me?”
    Dan shakes his head. “No, I’m saying if you don’t buy these horses, I definitely won’t. If you do buy them… I’ll give it some serious thought.” Dan decides to be a little more generous. “The job sounds a lot better than I thought it would,” he admits, “and I do appreciate the flexibility in terms of my commitments here. I just….” He drops the businesslike facade and finds himself speaking to Jeff instead of Evan. “I just don’t know which way’s up right now. It’s been an insane few days, and if I have to rush into a decision, I’m going for the option that keeps me as uncommitted as possible.” Dan turns his attention to Evan. “So if you need an answer right now, the answer is no. If you’re willing to wait a while, and if you’re interested enough in the sport to invest in a damn fine string of horses….” Dan shrugs, and then stands up and holds out his hand. “Thanks for lunch and for the interest.”
    Evan and Jeff both stand and shake his hand, and Jeff smiles at him a little. “We’re in town for another day. I’ll give you a call to let you know how things are progressing.” Dan nods, and Jeff continues in a softer tone of voice. “And, I don’t mean to step over a line, but… you have our sympathies.” Dan just nods again, and then he has to get out of there. All the horse talk had distracted him from thinking about Justin, but now it’s threatening to take over again.
    He heads out into the spring air and calls Robyn, as she had insisted he do. She had loved the plan and had been the one to e-mail the photographs to the copy place. She deserves to know that Dan hadn’t been laughed out of the restaurant, at least.
    When that’s done, he finds himself at loose ends, again. He’s not scheduled to work that night or the next, so he has literally nothing to do for the next fifty-two hours. He can’t remember the last time he had that sort of freedom, and it scares him a little. When he gets to the truck he climbs in and points it toward Willowbrook. He finally has some maybegood news to tell Justin.

Chapter 8
    D AN sits in his usual chair, in his usual pose, leaning forward with his arms braced against Justin’s bed. He’s just told Justin the whole story, the sale of the horses, the job offer, the counter offer… but there is one more thing he needs to explain.
    He takes a deep breath before he continues. This is the hard part. For once, Dan is almost glad that Justin can’t hear what he’s saying.
“The thing is—I