Read Online A Fair to Remember by Barbara Ankrum - Free Book Online

dreams?
    What are you waiting for ? Her mother had asked. She didn’t know. She had told herself that it was enough that once, she’d made the U.S. Team. That she’d competed at that level. Except for Kyle’s part in it, she’d loved it. She truly didn’t know if she even wanted that anymore.
    But the riding. Oh, the riding…
    Jake had said, “What the hell, Olivia? Riding was like… freaking breathing to you.”
    Once. It was. Now, it was the opposite. When she thought of getting on a horse, she lost her air. She looked like Jake had in that bar last night, like Kendy must have felt when that squirrel or rat or whatever it had been, snuck across her path.
    Jake was right about her being scared. She was. And it bled over into everything else—like kissing him.
    So it was enough that she spent her days around horses, teaching… training, helping horses like the one she’d worked with this morning.
    Something had happened to her the day she’d nearly died. And she couldn’t explain it to anyone. It was like she’d lost a limb and the phantom ache of it still blindsided her when she least expected it.
    *
    Ten minutes later, they circled in on what looked like an actual helicopter pad with a giant, green grass X marking the spot. And in the distance, no hovel of a mountain shack, but a beautiful, two-story, glass and wood structure with a creek running through it, that probably should, if it hadn’t already, found its way into Architectural Digest .
    Olivia was still gaping at it after Jake landed and climbed out of the pilot’s seat.
    “Not what you expected?” he asked.
    “I-I… no .”
    “I know. That’s pretty much everybody’s reaction when they see it. C’mon. I’ll help you out.”
    Holding Monday’s leash, they ducked under the rotors, then Jake went back to help Sammy unload the large box she’d shared the passenger compartment with.
    With a handshake and a few words between them, Sammy was back and lifting off to return to Livingston.
    The man who emerged from the house was tall, slender and not a day over sixty. He bore a striking resemblance to Jake’s late father, William with the same light brown-going-grey hair and the Lassen eyes, all smoky lapis-colored. He was thinner than Jake’s father, and a little Mr. Roger-ish, with a cardigan over a blue button-down. His jeans and hiking boots were essential Montana wardrobe for any local male. Deke wasn’t what she’d been expecting at all.
    She leaned close to Jake and whispered, “Old and not very steady, huh?”
    “Well, you know… it’s all relative.”
    “Olivia, I presume,” Deke said, clasping her hand in both of his in a tellingly firm handshake. “You’re every bit as beautiful as Jake promised. Welcome.”
    She blushed. Of course Jake must have cleared her visit with Deke first. “Mr. Lassen? So nice to meet you. And you’re much younger than I expected.”
    “I’m flattered you think so, but please call me Deke. ‘Mr. Lassen’ reminds me of pocket protectors and laminated nametags, which, as you can see, are annoyances I no longer contend with.”
    “Deke, then,” she agreed. “What a spectacular home you have.”
    “Thank you. It’s solar, green, and self-sufficient, but I’ll show you all that later.” He turned to Jake and enveloped him in a bear hug, clapping him on the back. “ Damnation, boy . Are you still growing?”
    Jake laughed. “Only if I eat here too often. And not in the way you mean.”
    Deke chuckled. “I’ve made lunch, so prepare to do just that.” He took Olivia’s arm and started for the house. “So, Olivia, are you fond of birds?”
    *
    After an amazing lunch of organic greens and a to-die-for homemade mushroom risotto, Jake followed behind as Deke showed Olivia the two story aviary he’d built into the house for a pair of falcons he kept, birds he’d raised from chicks after their being abandoned in their nest. They wore jesses on their legs for training, which Deke explained he