Free Secretariat Reborn by Susan Klaus

this.”
    Christian stroked her head, and after Kate drifted to sleep, he changed the channel to Discovery. An hour later, she woke and spent an enormous amount of time in the bathroom, getting ready for the evening.
    Before sundown, they left for lower Miami Beach. Colorful Art Deco buildings lined the streets, and the couple took in the local food, dining in a Cuban restaurant. Afterward they hit the posh nightclubs that bustled with young people and blaring music. They drank mojitos and danced into the night. Kate was in her element, flirting and fast becoming friends with an ethnic blend of strangers.
    At midnight, Christian suggested they leave, since he had to rise early, but Kate brushed him off. By one o’clock, though, he insisted. “Kate, we have to go. As it is, I’m only going to catch a few hours of sleep.”
    “You go back to the hotel and get your beauty rest,” she sniped, her words slurred. “I’ll get a cab.”
    If they had been in Sarasota and among friends, he would have walked out and not argued, but here, he wouldn’t dream of leaving his intoxicated girlfriend with this crowd. He took her arm. “Come on, Kate. We’re leaving.”
    She pulled, attempting to get free. “Let go of me, Chris.”
    A tall Jamaican man with beaded dreadlocks migrated to Kate’s side. “Hey, mon,” he said to Christian, “de lady wants to stay withus. Let go of her.” Several of the man’s friends moved in, encircling them.
    “That’s right,” Kate chimed in.
    Christian held on to her and grumbled, “Shut up, Kate.” He straightened to his full stature and glared at the Jamaican. Having a long, rough day and then several cocktails to give him blind courage, Christian was pumped up and ready to punch someone. “She came with me, and she’s leaving with me. And, mon,” he mocked, “you don’t want to fuck with me.”
    The black man tilted his head, analyzing Christian and his incensed demeanor. A cocky grin slowly emerged and he said, “No problem, mon, no problem. She’s yours.”
    Christian escorted Kate through the packed dance floor and outside, with her bitching all the way. Her griping continued on the ride back to the hotel and stopped in their hotel room only when he screwed her so he could get some sleep.
    The room phone rang, and Christian, half awake, fumbled to answer it, knowing it was the hotel clerk with his five o’clock wake-up call. His head in a fog and hurting, he staggered from the bed and entered the bathroom. With no time to shower and shave, he splashed water on his face and threw on his clothes.
    He glanced at Kate before leaving. She was still passed out cold. He no longer saw the gorgeous woman he had fallen for months earlier, and the trip that he had hoped would bring them closer, was instead driving him away.
    In the dark, he drove to Price’s barn. The place was alive with horses coming and going with their grooms and riders. He found the trainer in the shed row, talking on his cell phone, stopping only to shout out orders in Spanish to the men.
    Christian waited patiently nearby and watched five horses and riders walk in a wide circle around a tree within the courtyard, warming up before going to the track.
    Price closed the cell phone. “Mr. Roberts, Jorge told me youwere here. Your colt breezed a few days ago, but had I known you were coming, I would’ve waited. In the future give me a heads-up when you decide to drive down.”
    “I’ll do that,” said Christian. “Jorge said the colt is doing great, that the exercise rider called him a Cadillac.”
    “These grooms, they slay me.” Price cackled. “They tend to exaggerate, especially with a new client. You want information on your horse, you ask me. He worked a thirty-eight and change on a fast track, about average.”
    Christian rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “That’s odd. My father breezed Hunter before I brought him down and said his time was better than that. Dad wants him in maiden special