of a schooling session when Tom and Tabatha had turned up. The horse had a sheen of sweat on its coat, the bay turned almost to black, the froth around its bit flecked with the deep green of new spring grass. He still had his phone in his hand, no doubt so he could call her again if she didn’t turn up in the allotted five minute window.
‘Here she is. Well, it was nice to meet you, after all I’d heard.’ And he’d launched the horse from stand still into a trot, then within a stride into a canter and straight at the nearest poles.
Here she is. Who? What? Lottie glanced over her shoulder at the bemused Tom, then back the other way to his daughter, who appeared as star-struck as she was dumbstruck.
Tabatha gazed after Billy with the look of adoration that Lottie had grown up with. ‘Gosh, he really is your dad, really your dad, so cool.’
‘And being a model is old hat?’ Tom spoke offhandedly, obviously used to being dismissed as useless by his daughter.
‘Being a model is so gay.’ She threw him an assessing glance. ‘Not that you are, but, you know, when I tell people you’re a model, well, they just assume.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, love you too.’
‘Well, y’know.’ She shrugged. ‘Billy is just SO cool. Do you think he’d let me ride his horse, Charlotte?’
‘Lottie.’ She corrected her automatically, then stared blankly over in Billy’s direction. ‘No, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t let you ride that one, and believe me you wouldn’t want to. So?’ She looked from one to the other. It had been a relief to see them here, and not some money-waving developer with a contract and pen in his hand. Not that the equestrian centre was Billy’s to sell of course. But… Billy seemed to think she’d invited Tom and Tabatha here, so what had given him that idea? She folded her arms and frowned, at a complete loss as to why she was there.
‘You said we could pop down and arrange some lessons, for Tab?’
‘Did I?’ It should have been getting clear, but it wasn’t. ‘Sorry, err I did, of course I did. Yes…’ She must have done, at some point over that meal, when he’d been pouring the champagne for her and Pip as though everyone drank it by the magnum.
‘Great place here.’ Obviously he wasn’t going to be put off.
***
Tom gazed around the indoor arena and couldn’t believe his luck. Fate had brought him to exactly the right place. Tabatha actually looked interested for the first time in weeks. He wasn’t quite sure why, as he watched Billy canter around the arena. I mean the man was portly, to put it politely. Or was stout more the word? He was all short arms and legs, though he undoubtedly knew how to stay on a horse. Even if at take-off he looked like he was going to get to the other side before the horse. And he’d been nice enough, but keener on riding than passing pleasantries. When he’d lifted his hat, it was to show off a mop of unruly sandy curls, damp with sweat and flattened to his skull, with the first trace of a thinning patch in the middle. His face was weathered, the crinkle around his eyes had to be from squinting not smiling, and the way he grunted at the horse reminded Tom of a grumpy farmer herding cows. But Tabby had said he was a medal winner, one of the best, so who was he to argue?
‘I’ll err, show you round, shall I?’ Lottie was still looking at them as though she hadn’t got a clue why they were there.
‘Can I stay here?’ Tab looked hopeful and Tom wavered. ‘And watch? That would be cool, wouldn’t it, Lottie?’
‘Lazy cow.’ Billy cantered a tight circle in front of them, scattering rubber as the horse fly-bucked bad-temperedly. He gave her a swift crack behind the saddle, which made Tom flinch. ‘Put that pole back, Lots.’ Lottie clambered over the small wall and put the pole back in its cup. ‘Now you’ll fucking do as I say and pick those feet up, you bloody donkey. Jesus Christ.’
Tom looked slightly alarmed. ‘Maybe not, better if you come with us, darling. I think Billy is busy.’
He felt better when he got his daughter away from the slightly alarming, very sweaty and profusely swearing Billy. And back on a par, when Lottie led the way into the calm and orderly yard. It was a pleasant surprise. After watching the gung-ho Billy, scruffy polo shirt flapping with every jump and saddle soap-stains on his breeches, he’d half imagined that the yard would be in disarray, with startled horses in every corner. But it was an oasis of calm. Which reminded him that, whatever his appearance had suggested to the contrary, the man was a world-beater. A champion. And Tab instantly looked grumpy with boredom, until Lottie started to introduce them to the horses.
‘This is Monty Jack.’ She stroked the velvet nose of a dark bay horse, the soft wicker echoing round the silent yard.
‘Gosh,’ Tab had her mouth open, ‘not the, not, this isn’t Monty as in…?’
Lottie laughed, and Tom felt himself smiling with her. ‘Yup, it’s the Monty.’
‘Wow, awesome. I saw him at Olympia, do you remember, Dad? Wow, when he did that last jump he was so amazing.’
Tom shrugged, trying to avoid saying no, Olympia had just been another day out, but Tab wasn’t listening anyway. ‘He was so brilliant in the Puissance. I mean, I was way back in the stands, but he’s here now. Mega, just, he’s… can I stroke him?’
They’d lost him, but his daughter was back to being interested again, which was good enough for him.
‘And this is Monty’s Mistake.’ Lottie had strode on to the next stable, obviously in tour mode, and got much the same reaction as before from Tabatha.
‘This place is just so cool.’
Who’d have thought anyone could be so interested in something four-legged that had big teeth at one end, hard hooves at the other, and excreted great piles of waste and smelly air constantly? But his daughter was transformed, so mission accomplished, even if it was easier than even he, with a bucketload of optimism, could ever have expected. Lord, if he could only keep her in this mood all the time. His concentration lapsed, a horse was a horse, all the same except they came in a variety of colours and sizes.
Apart from the odd wisp of hay in front of the stables, where horses had stood to chew and watch their neighbours, the concrete was as clean and tidy as if it had been constantly brushed, but there was no one in sight. The soft rays of spring sunshine filtered over the low roofs of the stable blocks, burnishing the old red tiles, dancing over the fading daffodils and the jaunty primroses and pansies. For some strange reason, Tom felt at peace. At home. Like he hadn’t felt since he’d walked out of the house they’d lived in since Tab had been born.
Even Lottie was relaxed here, she wasn’t looking at him like he was some alien that she was expecting to grope her with a third arm at every turn. In cut-off denim shorts, a faded polo shirt that had seen better days and her hair pulled through the back of a baseball cap, she looked the picture of health and a thousand times sexier than any woman he’d seen in a long, long time. She was also young, he reminded himself. And he wasn’t going to get involved with anyone. And definitely not the girl he was courting into taking his daughter in hand. Even if, with horse slobber on her shoulder, she still looked good enough to make him feel the first stirrings in his groin he’d felt in a long time. It must be all this bloody country air, he must have overdosed on oxygen and it was making him light-headed.
‘The thing is.’ The woman in question was staring at him with a clear, and unnerving gaze, and biting the inside of her cheek. ‘Well, I don’t usually give lessons.’ She sounded apologetic, like a doctor forced to give bad news. ‘I don’t know what Pip told you, but all these horses are, well…’
‘Unsuitable?’ Tom spoke gently, sinking down on to the worn bench outside the stable. Crossed his ankles and tried not to stare at her long legs, at the perfect dip of a waist. Which led to softly rounded breasts. ‘I could close my eyes.’
‘Sorry?’
She was staring, wide eyes with a hint