But something was happening nonetheless. Unless he was mistaken, Gracie’s light was piercing the darkness in him, bringing brightness to a place that had not seen it for a long, long time.
He did not allow himself to marvel at it. He thrust the feeling of warmth away. His darkness could put out her light in a millisecond.
And he’d better remember that when he was thinking about how beautiful Graham’s kid sister had become.
CHAPTER THREE
GRACE watched with absolute delight as the angels who had arrived dressed as cowboys rounded up the ponies. How could Rory not believe in miracles?
In less than an hour the whole disaster was not just repaired, it was practically erased.
It also took less than an hour to become very evident to her that Rory Adams might not know a thing about ponies, but leadership came as naturally to him as breathing.
“How about if you just sit this one out?” Rory had suggested with a meaningful look at her damaged footwear.
She could have resented how he took over from her, but frankly she was sick to death of ponies, and though it was probably a crime in the career woman’s manual, she reluctantly admitted it was somewhat of a relief to have someone take over. But not out loud.
Rory set up an impromptu command center, and she found, in her softened frame of mind, with him unaware of her scrutiny, it was nice to watch him.
Rory Adams was a force unto himself, pure masculine energy practically sizzled in the air around him. He came up with a plan, quickly, delegated, and then he pitched in. He was afraid of nothing: not ponies racing straight at him, not being dragged on the other end of a rope by a tiny pony that was much stronger than seemed possible.
From a purely feminine point of view, watching Rory was enough to make her mouth go dry. He was agile, energetic and strong. It seemed every muscle he possessed was being tested to its rather magnificent limits. Every now and then his shout of command—or laughter—would ring out across the field.
When a pony charged in her direction, he threw himself at it, glancing off its shoulder, but managing to change its direction.
And then he rolled easily to his feet—as if he had not just risked life and limb to save her—and kept moving.
It occurred to her that he protected in the same way he led. It came to him as naturally as breathing.
And it felt like the most terrible of weaknesses that it made her insides turn to jelly.
Within an hour the last of the ponies was loaded into the ramshackle trailer. The poop was scooped. The birthday banner was fished out of the pool. Serenity was installed in the backseat of her crew-cab truck, and Tucker, looking at home for the first time since she had met him, was sandwiched in between two large cowboys on the front seat.
“Clayton and Sam will drive their truck to wherever they want to go,” Slim said, addressing Rory. “I’ll follow in my truck.”
There was something in the way he was addressing Rory, with a respectful kind of deference, that gave her pause. A suspicion whispered to life inside her, and Grace could feel the pink cloud she had been floating on since the timely arrival of the cowboys evaporating beneath her.
“Anything else you need done, Mr. Adams?”
Mr. Adams? Grace tried to think whether there had been an exchange of names in the flurry of activity that had begun since those cowboys first rolled up. Certainly, she had not given her name.
She felt as if she was on red alert now, watching Rory even more intently than she had been when he was commanding the field. Maybe she didn’t know him that well, and maybe many years had gone by since she had seen him, but he simply was not the kind of man who would introduce himself as Mr. Adams.
It was the kind of thing Harold might have done: trying to one-up himself over simple, working men, but Rory would never do that.
She told herself it was impossible to know that given the shortness and circumstances of their reacquaintance, but it didn’t matter. Her heart said it knew.
Still, instead of feeling a soft spot for him, she reminded herself something was up, there was more going on here than met the eye.
Rory, catching her sudden intense focus on him, clapped the cowboy on the shoulder and moved off into the distance, where she couldn’t hear what they said.
But she was pretty sure that was a wallet coming out of Rory’s back pocket!
By the time he came back, any admiration she had felt about his camaraderie with the working man was gone. So was her pink cloud.
In fact, Grace felt as if she had landed back on earth with a rather painful thump. She should have never let her barriers down by admiring him, not even discreetly! Now she had to build them back up. Why was that always harder than taking them down?
The trucks pulled out of the park, the horse trailer swaying along behind them, with great clinking and clanking and whinnying of ponies.
And then there was silence. And Rory standing beside her, surveying the park and looking way too pleased with himself.
“That wasn’t a miracle, was it?” she demanded.
“I don’t know. Eight ponies successfully captured in—” he glanced at his watch “—under eight minutes per pony. Might qualify. Did I mention I’m no expert on miracles?”
He was looking at her, his expression boyishly charming, though there was something in his eyes that was guarded.
“I meant the arrival of Slim and the gang.”
He was very silent. And now he looked away from her, off into the distance. He wouldn’t look at her.
“It wasn’t even the garden-variety kind, was it?”
Silence.
“Why didn’t you say something instead of letting me prattle on?” Instead of letting me believe.
“Aw, Gracie,” he said, finally looking back at her, “you’re too old to believe in stuff like that, anyway.”
She blinked. “I’m old?”
“Not old as in decrepit.” His look was intense, and then he said softly, “Not at all.”
Grace recognized how easy it would to be charmed by him. And she recognized he was a man who had been charming his way past the ruffled feathers of the female species since he’d been old enough to blink that dark tangle of lashes over those sinfully green eyes.
And that after he’d been the one to ruffle the feathers!
“I just meant the last time I saw you, you were a little girl. You probably still believed in Santa Claus.”
“I was fourteen! I certainly did not believe in Santa Claus.” Though she had been hopelessly in love with the man who stood before her, imagining endless scenarios where he finally saw her. And that was probably exactly the kind of magical thinking he thought she was too old for now.
And he was right.
Somehow the hurt of being invisible to him all those years ago, and this moment of his debunking her desire to believe in miracles were fusing together, and she could feel her temper rising.
“What did you have to do with those men arriving?” she demanded.
“I saw you were having trouble. I made a phone call.”
“What kind of man can make a phone call and have a truckload of cowboys delivered?”
“You needn’t say it as if it were a truckload of bootleg liquor