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“Showing off?” I asked as I cocked my eyebrow at him.
He swung down off the saddle and gave the horse a pat. “This bastard is ready to run!”
Clement certainly looked like he was ready for it. His eyes were wild, but it was clear that he was happy after his morning run with Jake.
“Think about how fast he’s going to be with one of the jock
eys on him!”
I nodded. “We’re taking him to the Waters derby, right?”
“Yup, just a couple of weeks away now.”
I noted to myself that I needed to check that out on the calendar. There was still a lot left to do in preparation, and we weren’t sure how many horses we would be taking. Clement was certainly on the top of the list, but I knew we needed to have a few backups. Killarny Estate had always been top of the pack as far as producing some of the fastest race horses in the country, but ever since my father had packed it up and gone to Costa Rica, it felt like we had lost some of our edge. I had no idea what it was Dad had that we didn’t quite have down yet, other than the forty years of experience. What I did know was that it was crucial for us to win this derby. Things were tight, and if we were going to turn them around and maintain things the way they were around here, or if we were ever going to have any hope of making Killarny the very best again, we had to win the Waters derby.
“You coming?” Jake asked me as he brushed his reddish-brown hair back out of his face and wiped his brow with the back of his sleeve.
I looked at him bewildered. “Of course I am.”
He shrugged. “Don’t act like it’s a given. You haven’t been there in years.”
“Yeah, well…now I don’t really have any choice, do I? Dad is still in Costa Rica, and I don’t know the next time he’s planning on coming back, so I’ve got to be there to represent the ranch. And I think Emma would enjoy the trip to Tennessee, so yeah, I’ll be there.”
“You’re not nervous, are you?” Jake winked at me, and I frowned in response.
“Why would I be nervous?”
“Because,” he began, pausing to spit on the ground. “Little Sara Waters is going to be there. I wonder if she is going to follow you around like she always used to when we were kids.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sara Waters is thirty by now. I am sure she has got better things to do than chase around a nearly middle-aged man with his twelve year old daughter in tow.”
“Hey now, don’t write yourself off just yet. You’re only a year or so older than her, right? I bet she would be champing at the bit to get a piece of a Killarny brother.”
I shook my head and started off back toward the stable, Jake following behind me with Clement.
“Then she can have her pick of the other four. Hell, she can have both Stephen and Sam if she wants them.” I stopped and looked around. “Speaking of that, where are the twins?”
Jake shrugged as he continued toward the stable. “Who the hell knows. They’re out every night of the week. Probably still in bed.”
I knew he was kidding about the last thing. If we had been taught anything as kids, it was that getting up early in the morning was the Killarny way.
“Okay, well. I need to go find them. I’ll get back to you about the Waters derby. We need to talk about some logistics getting there, but it can wait until later.”
As I walked off toward the other barns to locate my two youngest brothers, I couldn’t help thinking about what Jake had said regarding Sara Waters. I hadn’t seen her since we were practically teenagers. It must have been a decade or so. I wondered what she looked like now and if there was a chance that we’d get some time alone when I was at her father’s derby in a few weeks.
Chapter 2
Sara
“Sara?”
I looked up from the top of my reading glasses that I used only when I was working on my laptop. They were sliding down my nose, and I pulled them off my face and rubbed the bridge of my nose as I looked at Elsie, my father’s secretary, standing in the doorway of my office.
“Yes?”
“Your father would like to see you. He said he’s got a few last minute things to go over for the derby.”
Of course, he does, I thought as I flashed Elsie a smile and a nod. He was waiting until two weeks before our derby to go over something that I had a feeling would be of utmost importance and require my immediate attention. It was the typical stunt my father always pulled this time of year.
