AllFreeNovel
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“Now what?” she asked, thinking there was nothing better in the world than being on a horse with the handsome cowboy alongside her. “Can I trot a little bit?”
“Nope, not until you go to Kincaid’s Western Wear store and get the right boots and ridin’ jeans.”
“I know about the special britches for English riding, but I thought jeans were okay for western.”
“Regular ones like you’re wearin’ will chafe your skin, and if you’re serious about learnin’ how to jump, you’ll need those other britches and boots as well. Regardless, all you’ll do today is get comfortable steerin’ and stoppin’.”
“I already am. Can’t you tell?”
“Sure, but you don’t wanna run before you can walk. Especially when it comes to horses. We’ll amble around the ring for a while and talk.”
“About what?”
“Tell me how your father ended up here in Elk Valley. He seems like a city fella, and aren’t you happier livin’ with all those restaurants and clubs around? Don’t you miss it?”
“I did at first, but right now there’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she replied with a happy smile.
“Good answer. But how did he end up in Elk Valley?”
“A while ago a friend of his, William Clarkson, wanted to build a housing development here. He and dad have had projects together for years. When Dad came to check it out, he saw the opportunity for a lumber yard across the river, and that’s how it all started.”
“Wow, that’s quite a story.”
“A very short version.”
“How did he get into the lumber business?”
“He paid his way through college as a construction worker, and ended up buying a lumber yard that was going under. I’m not sure how he managed that, but regardless, after he graduated he began building houses. Whenever I ask him how he made his business so successful, he always just says he worked his ass off.”
“Why did he decide to move out here?”
“Ah, that’s where The Bitch From Hell comes in.”
“You really like to call her that, don’t you, Ellie?”
“Yes, Noah, I really do,” she replied, raising her eyebrows as she looked back at him. “If the shoe fits…anyway, there was an article in the paper about the mansion being sold for a song because a murderous gangster had been assassinated there. She suggested it to my dad, they came out, and dad got the price down even further. It actually made sense. He’s developing the area around the lumber yard and has to spend a great deal of time here. At some point he’ll probably sell that house and make a bunch of money.”
“I see.”
“Now you’re wondering about my mother,” she said with a sigh. “You’re just too polite to ask.”
“You’re right, but you don’t have to tell me.”
“While dad was building his empire he was gone all the time, and I mean, all the time. My mother has a passion for sailing and virtually lived at the yacht club. After I graduated from high-school, she filed for divorce, bought a fifty-five foot catamaran, and sailed away.”
“Ellie!”
“She hugged me and cried a lot, but she still left. She spends her life on the ocean. She asks me to join her all the time, but I get seasick just walking down the wharf.”
“Where did your father meet Bethany?”
“I have no idea.”
“Interesting…” Noah murmured.
“What is?”
“Everything, especially the house being Bethany’s idea.”
