Read Online Beauty and the Brit by Lizbeth Selvig - Free Book Online Page B

vaguely familiar, with bright brown, David-colored eyes and wide handsome cheekbones nearly sculpted into adult handsomeness. Dark sable hair cascaded in gentle waves to his shoulders. He gave Bonnie a careless, friendly wave. Rio gave her a tap on the ankle with her toe. “Stop staring,” she whispered.
    Bonnie grinned for the first time in fifteen minutes.
    “Kim, hang on,” David said, as if he’d just had a brilliant idea. “Jill’s not here yet. Have you got a moment? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
    “Sure.”
    The passenger door opened, and a blond head appeared on the other side of the car. The girl looked to be about Bonnie’s age, but she was the bright, sweet-and-lovely, pretty counterpart to Bonnie’s dark, sultry beauty.
    “Do you still need me?” the kid named Dawson asked.
    “Nope.” Kim tapped on the car top. “Get out of here. Thanks for the ride. And I get the car tomorrow.”
    “Yeah, whatever.”
    Dawson waved again, the Focus exited in the tracks of the police car, and Bonnie, her cheeks pink, wordlessly watched it go. Bonnie’s discovery that batting her long lashes had a powerful effect on males was what had gotten her into trouble with Hector. Rio would have loved cloistering her somewhere far from the opposite sex, but since that was impossible, at least Focus-driving Dawson looked a whole lot safer than Hector or the Boyfriend.
    “Bonnie, I’d like to introduce you to Kim Stadtler.” David’s proper manners were back. “Kim, this is Bonnie Montoya.”
    “Hey, Bonnie! Welcome to Bridge Creek.”
    “And this is her sister, Rio. They’ll be guests for a couple of weeks. Visiting from the city.”
    “Rio. That’s awesome,” Kim said. “I’ve always wanted a prettier name.”
    “Short for Arionna.” Rio smiled, unable to resist the girl’s unpretentiousness. “And I’ll trade you. Kim is pretty in my opinion. Rio’s just weird.”
    “Done! Nice to meet you, Kim,” said Kim.
    “I’m going to change for a trip to town,” David said. “Could you take Bonnie and Rio on a little tour of the barn? Introduce them to Jackson.” He looked at them. “If you don’t mind waiting to unpack.”
    “Sure,” said Kim.
    “Sure,” echoed Bonnie.
    Unlike with crazy Chief Tanned Hewett or whatever his name was, Rio felt welcomed by Kim. And she didn’t have to make a word of conversation as Kim and Bonnie fell into an easy chatter about their ages, horses, and the “awesome place” that was Bridge Creek.
    “Awesome” barely described the stable’s facilities. Kim led them through a twenty-four-stall barn with polished wooden stall doors, a neatly swept cement aisle, and fancy name plaques on each stall. Behind the barn, Kim pointed out two indoor arenas, one small and one much larger, and to the fields beyond the pastures filled with odd-shaped obstacles she called the cross-country course.
    They followed Kim along a lane between several paddocks and slipped through one of three gates along the lane where she introduced them to a beautiful, light-brown horse with dark-black legs and a white stripe down its face. Rio swallowed back her first twinge of envy.
    “This is Jackson,” Kim said.
    Fifteen minutes passed while Bonnie willingly let Kim instruct her in all things barn- and horse-related. She set her to work on Jackson’s dusty sides with a stiff-bristled brush, and Rio stood by reaching now and then for Jackson’s muzzle, letting him nibble at her T-shirt, forgetting about the life she’d run from for a few magical moments. She tasted, fleetingly but in person, the life she’d fantasized about for twenty years.
    “Omygosh! Isn’t this just the kind of barn we’re going to have?” Bonnie burst the fantasy.
    For one instant Rio wanted to shake her sister. Couldn’t she figure out how dead that dream was now? But she caught herself. There was no point in rubbing Bonnie’s nose in reality at this point. It would all hit the fan soon