Free Home to Hope Mountain (Harlequin Superromance) by Joan Kilby Page B

is.” Hayley shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it.” She’d racked her brain all night on possible sources of funding and had come up with nothing but a headache. “Thanks again. I’ll see you Wednesday morning.”
    Molly walked her to the door. “I’m so glad we’ll get to spend more time together. Ever since Leif...Well, it isn’t the same without you around. At least with you, Rolf and I can talk about our boy and remember all the good times we had.”
    “Yeah.” Hayley’s smile faltered. Maybe Jacinta had a point. Sometimes with Molly and Rolf, she felt as though she was living in the past. She’d loved Leif and wanted to honor his memory, but some memories hurt.
    Occasionally, in the morning before she was fully awake, she would forget what had happened and reach for him only to find the other side of the bed cold and bare. She’d open her eyes and see the roller door and the tools hanging on the walls, and reality would crash in on her. All that kept her going some days was her and Leif’s dream of building a full-time dude ranch. She loved the horse therapy, but she’d held that other dream so long it would feel like failure if she didn’t carry it out.
    “Stay for lunch?” Molly said. “I made Thai green curry for today’s special.”
    “Tempting, but I can’t. I’ve got another stop to make this afternoon.” If she wanted to keep her dream alive, she had to swallow her pride and take care of her horses. Simple as that. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

CHAPTER FOUR
    H AYLEY PASSED HER own driveway and carried on to Timbertop. Entering Adam’s green and leafy forest she felt like Dorothy leaving black-and-white Kansas and landing in the colorful land of Oz. The untouched bush was so beautiful it almost hurt.
    She pulled up in front of the two-story log home and sat in her truck for a moment, taking in the house, barn, detached garage and guest cottage. A wave of resentment washed over her. Every building was intact, untouched by fire. The paddock was lush with tall grass, watered by winter rains. Then she remembered the paddock and barn were empty and her resentment was tempered by sadness for Summer’s horse, Bailey.
    She climbed down from the truck and headed toward the house before she chickened out. Shane jumped out and followed her, a perpetual shadow at her heels.
    Adam came around the side of the barn, a brush cutter balanced in his gloved hands. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing muscled forearms. With a smear of dirt on his square jaw and his dark brown hair windblown, he looked less like an office worker and more like a man who tended the land. “Hayley, what brings you out?”
    She removed her hat and pushed back the strands of hair that had come loose from her braid. “I’d like to take you up on your offer to graze my horses on your property. That is, if you meant it.”
    “I meant it. Better that than brush-cut the whole outdoors.” His gaze roamed over her and she was glad she’d worn her blue blouse tucked into clean, relatively new jeans and her good cowboy boots. “What made you change your mind?”
    “I...” she swallowed at the humiliation of coming cap in hand, then glanced at her hat, literally in her hands, and jammed it back on her head “...just hate to see good pasture go to waste. But I don’t want something for nothing. I’ll treat Summer in exchange for the feed.”
    “That would be great. But I insist on paying your usual fee. Did someone drop out of the Horses for Hope program?”
    “I can do it, is all.” What difference did it make what her reasons were? She didn’t want to tell Adam all the stuff going on in her life and let him inside her head. She might start crying again.
    “Okay,” he said. “Well, bring your horses over anytime. When could you begin the therapy?”
    “Soon. Tomorrow afternoon, even. I suggest alternating a day on and a day off. Give both horse and girl a rest.”
    “Wonderful. Come inside and have a