“Don’t do that.Don’t let them convince you that you’re no good.”
“More like conniving and self-serving, but they did get one thing right.I’m definitely not good enough for Renn Walker.Do you know the worst part?I can’t even say with certainty that I wouldn’t have seen him as a new lotto ticket if I’d known he was a famous NFL player.”
“I’m on my way to meet you at the ranch.We need to do some damage control and talk about this,” Shelby said.
“You can’t fix everything, Shelby—some of us are just broken beyond repair.But look, I gotta go because people at the grocery store are starting to act like the paparazzi.”
She hung up and put her phone in her bag and pulled her shades back down.If she was going to have her picture plastered all over it wasn’t going to be with dark circles under her eyes and tears of embarrassment.
She decided not to return Renn’s call and just shot him a text saying she was sorry her reputation was tarnishing his.The truth was she didn’t need the bad press right when she was trying to make sales with the Beautiful Beasts, but the worst part was knowing now everyone knew she wasn’t good enough for Renn.And he must have agreed because he didn’t respond.
The media onslaught didn’t let up over the next few days as news of Renn signing with the Aces had the entire town in a frenzy.Finding out that one of their own was a famous football player, was big news.Never mind he’d never lived in Sandy Point, and no one had known he was related to the Harts until the media ran the story.The town was quick to claim him and admonish her for trying to trick him into a relationship.Which would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.
She would have just locked herself in her room but as luck would have it both her mares went into labor.So, between new foals, and the new horses she’d bought at the local estate sale, she was too busy to be sad.There was no time to worry about the media or what everyone in town was saying about her.
Each day she spent her time in the barn with her horses, hoping the stories would die down.It had been ten days since she’d seen Renn and she’d avoided just about everyone.Jeremy had been mad at first about what the media reported about her, but he followed her lead to ignore it, and they didn’t talk about it.
The only remnants of her time with Renn were the constant ache of knowing he wasn’t hers to hold on to and that his light was about to shine so bright he’d forget all about her.She also hadn’t heard back from Dixon or any of the other ranches that had initially expressed interest in mating their mares with Beast.But she had the cash from the sale of Thor to hold them over for at least another few months.Hopefully the bad press would be forgotten, and she could sell a few foals before she ran out of funds again.She just had to focus on training all the colts, and pray her plan worked out.
“Miranda, there’s someone here to see you,” Jer called into the barn.
She was finishing up her rounds checking on not one but three healthy male foals.At least the breeding gods had given her three more chances of growing the Beautiful Beasts stock.It was only seven in the morning so any visitor seemed strange, but her heart started to pound thinking it might be Renn.
She’d been unable to resist looking him up online each night and reading all the press coverage of his contract signing with the Aces.And in every interview, he denied any attachment to her or having a girlfriend.Which was what she’d said she wanted and still felt like a knife twisting in her back every time.
But instead of Renn the woman she’d met at the auction from Dixon ranch appeared in the barn, wearing worn jeans and cowboy boots.
“Good morning, Ms.Sutton, it’s nice to see you again.”
Miranda pulled off her working gloves and accepted the woman’s handshake, while trying not to smile too big.“Mrs.Dixon.”
“Hope you don’t mind the unannounced visit.We find it best to try and pop in to see the animals in their normal routines.”
“I don’t mind at all.You’re in time to watch me put the boys through their paces.”She nodded toward Beast and her other new studs she was working on training.
“Perfect, I’d love to help if you can use a hand.”
“You can do as little or as much as you like.My guess is you’d like to get a feel for how those two behave and then get your eyes on our new foals?”
The woman smiled and nodded.“Correct, we were excited to see your social media posts of them being born healthy and strong.”
“And I assume Thor has been living up to his name for you?”
“Yes, you did a fantastic job with training him.He’s settled in nicely at our ranch.”
For the next hour Miranda worked in companionable silence with the woman.Although she looked somewhat pampered based on her shiny nails and sparkling jewelry, she wasn’t shy about getting her hands dirty.She was eager to hear what the woman drove all this way for but knew she’d have to just wait and see.
“You’re very good at this.You have a steady but firm hand with the horses and a good eye for quality,” the woman said.
“My mama grew up on a horse farm, so I learned most of my technique from her.”She led the woman to see the foals and could see her genuine excitement and admiration in the way she studied them.
“Oh my, these boys are even more gorgeous than I expected.Your social media says you’re interested in selling one or two of the foals?”
“That’s right, I got lucky with three newborns and while I’m tempted to keep two, if the offer is right, I’ll consider it.These are my first-generation Beautiful Beasts to sell trained or untrained.”
“Have you considered taking on a partnership with any ranches?”the woman asked.
Miranda froze.The last time she’d tried a partnership she ended up engaged to a man twice her age and desperate enough to sell off land.
