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I shrugged “Just needed to get out of the office for a little while”

“Already?” He looked at his watch “It’s early in the day Why don’t you hire someone to take care of some of the stuff you don’t enjoy? That’s what bookkeepers are for, after all It would give you a break and let you have a chance to get back out here with the horses where you want to be”

Alex was perceptive with more than just the horses

“Yeah, well, I ht do that after the next couple of derbies have passed I’ve got too ht now to hand it over to someone totally new”

My brother sighed and shrugged “Whatever you say Just don’t be afraid to ask for a little help when you need it”

I gave hih the stables, past the stalls that housed oursoraze in the pasture, while so As I exited the other end of the massive stable, I saw Emma atop her horse, Saoirse

“How’dya do, Miss Emma Lou?”

Emma frowned at me, and I could s

ee her brow furrowing under her helmet I knew she hated it when I referred to her middle name, Louise, but told , so I kept up the practice

She tossed her head back “Saoirse and I just went out for ourrun I was about to take her back to the stable and then head in for my lessons Is Hetty here yet?”

I shook my head “She wasn’t there when I left the house, but there’s a good chance she’s arrived by now Better hurry on back, you don’t want to be late”

My twelve year old daughter beamed at me from where she sat on her horse and headed into the stable before dis horse into the stall and couldn’t help but notice howto look like her , but I did wonder how Emma would feel as she looked in the mirror and started to notice the resemblance she shared with the woman who left her—and me—behind when Emma was just a toddler

I walked toward the pasture as I recalled the time directly after Kelly left It had been a shock to me when it happened, but when I had a little ti We had h school, and my parents had been opposed to the match from the start Kelly’s parents were business owners in the nearest town, and ours had been the kind of wedding that made the local papers Our courtship had been brief — we dated at the end of high school, and because I was an idiot, I had proposed to Kelly not long after graduation We married and moved into a house here at Killarny Estate and had had a hell of a time for the first couple of years

Kelly ild and looking back I could tell she had been just a little too wild forI had noticed at the tiet that ere stepping into a neorld that included all sorts of new responsibilities Back then ould spend our weekends hopping around the bars in town before heading back to the privacy of our house at the ranch and going at it like rabbits It was no surprise when Kelly got pregnant, and I was overjoyed, but she didn’t seem too enthused about it Slowly she warmed to the idea, and once Ehter

Things were never the sah Kelly never looked at o see a doctor to see if what she was struggling as postpartum depression, but she wouldn’t listen

I caone, a note on the kitchen table, and Ehter and the note and read the words through tears as Eainst ized in the letter, said she was heading to California to pursue her drea with her friend, Bud

Bud was the guy she had dated before h school, and suddenly it all started to make sense We never really heard from her after that, aside from a Christmas card or a birthday present for Emma on the years that Kelly remembered, which were few and far between