Holiday shakes her head. “I don’t know yet. My stylist will send something for me. What about you?”
“I need to go shopping this week.”
I groan a laugh. “See, this is why I’m happy to be part of the team. I have jodhpurs and a shirt. I’m terrible at shopping. Ask Story.”
She diplomatically stays silent, but her smile as she twirls her pasta noodles and forks them into her mouth speaks volumes.
“It’s exactly why I have a stylist, because my brain would explode if I didn’t. I have a lot of engagements this summer, and the press picks apart everything I wear. I’ve learned to let someone else deal with it.”
“I’d happily hand my wardrobe over to someone else to deal with.”
Clementine’s hand shoots up, almost knocking over a bottle of wine, which Hendricks manages to catch just in time. “I’ll do it.”
Not one part of her expression makes me think she’s joking either. And the conversation continues like it began, bouncing from subject to subject, such that I have a hard time keeping up. But I can’t help but also feel grateful for how much they’re trying to include me. It doesn’t feel awkward because everyone here knows this thing between Miles and me is temporary.
“Are you surviving?” Miles whispers to me, breaking away from the bickering with his brothers.
“Actually”—I lean in, matching his lowered tone—“I’mthriving.”
He returns to his squabble with a loud laugh, but reaches for my hand under the table, where it stays. It’s a pattern that repeats as the night goes on—Miles checking in.
And much like Miles himself, it’s a surprise, because I half expected him to leave me the second the front door closed.
The assumptions I've made about him are proven wrong over and over again, and as more layers of his personality peel away, I see a man who’s not only someone I respect as a polo player, but someone I could see becoming a friend. If I think about it, I’ve not once seen Miles behave in a way that’s less than gentlemanly and respectful. He’s so down to earth . . . his whole family is. Even his mother who’s been nothing but sweet to me.
Lando I’m still undecided about, however.
And when it’s finally time to leave, I say goodbye with a full heart and promises to see Clementine, Haven, Story, and Holiday again soon. We make plans for them to come and watch our matches.
We drive away with them waving to us on the doorstep, like we’re a real family.
And I have to remind myself that’s not the case. It’s all pretend.
Even though it doesn’t quite feel like it.
CHAPTER 15
Miles
For the next two weeks, it’s a whirlwind of polo matches.
We win more than we lose. We draw twice. And in total, we rack up fifteen points, putting us at the top of the leaderboard. In contrast,Los Tigres Luchadoresearn twelve, putting them in third place.
When we’re not playing, we’re training. The six of us work together to become a lethal opponent to anyone who has the misfortune of playing us. According toThe Daily Polo Newswebsite, the Foxleigh Flyers is the team to beat.
But it’s Ruby who’s made the most improvement.
Granted, that could be because she’s had the most to learn, but the woman who lacked confidence on her first day of training has been replaced by a self-assured polo player busting her arse harder than any of us.
And fuck me if it isn’t the sexiest thing I’ve ever witnessed. For the past month, I’ve spent twenty-four seven with a woman, and I’m not mad about it.
It’s something I mull over whenever I get a precious few minutes to think. Why, out of all the women I’ve had in my life, is it Ruby Lanson who’s stuck?
Like now, as I look over at her, knees positioned between mine, headset on, and peering out of the helicopter window as we pass over the Oxfordshire hills, on our way to the Gloucester Park polo ground, the ancestral home of the Duke of Chatham, and it feels so . . .right.
Sixteen of our horses arrived yesterday so they could acclimate in their stables overnight, and we should be with them in less than thirty minutes. Reports from the grooms indicate they’re all looking good.
The Chatham Cup is the first high-stakes match in the British polo calendar, and it’s important for many reasons.
