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He glances over at me in surprise.
“For helping me with this.”
He nods stiffly, glancing over his shoulder toward the manor house. “You work for Uncle Bill, don’t you?”
I chew my lip. I have no idea what I’m supposed to say, so I nod and say nothing.
“How come you’re here?” he tries again, and I shrug.
“He asked me to be.”
Timothy studies me carefully for a long, silent moment, like he knows I’m not telling him the whole truth, but he doesn’t push the matter, grinning instead.
“Are you enjoying it?”
It’s my turn to glance over in surprise.
“The horseback riding?”
Oh, that. Yeah. I guess I am.
“Now that I’m about seventy percent sure I will not fall and die; it’s not too bad.”
He flashes me a toothy grin, his eyes crinkling attractively. Ugh, not a good idea, Angie. Not a good idea at all.
Chapter Three
Timothy
Shit. It’s almost nine. I’m not about to be chewed out forbringing Angieback late. “We should head back. Uncle Bill will be waiting for you.”
“Oh! Is it almost nine already? I lost track of time!”
She sounds guilty, and I grin at her. She’s not the chattiest person – probably why Uncle Bill likes her – but she opened up a little bit. Well, she told me she studied business management at NYU, and met Uncle Bill in New York, so I’m counting that as a win.
As the stables come into view along, Uncle Bill is waiting for us, seated on Merchant, his thoroughbred. He beams at Angie when he sees her riding beside me. She glares back at him – brave girl – and glances up at me, the hard look melting away to something a little more vulnerable. Oh. Stopping. Right. Almost got the wrong idea there. It’s not my fault. Her ass in those jodhpurs? It should be illegal.
“Keep your elbows at your sides, and pull back, so her head comes to her chest, and she should stop.”
Angie nods, carefully following my instructions. Buttercup mainly ignores her and stops because Jasper pauses. Her grip on the reins is enough that when I move off to ride up to Uncle Bill, Buttercup stays where she is. Uncle Bill nods as I pass him back to the stables.
“Thank you for showing Angie the ropes. I could tell she was nervous about it last night.”
I nod to him, halting Jasper at his side. He studies me for a beat. “I want Angie to feel welcome here. That girl last night didn’t treat Angie well. That’s why she’s gone. Understood?”
Fucking hell. I nod at him. Yeah, got the message loud and clear. Whoever Angie is, she gets the royal treatment, or your life will get messed with. I’ll pass the message along to the other boys.
Uncle Bill rides off, and I turn to watch them as I approach the stables. They’ve started back along the path that Angie and I rode along, their heads tilted together, deep in conversation. I quickly dismount, handing Jasper’s reins to the groom, and hurry back into the house. When I enter the dining room, the other four and the girls are still at breakfast.
“Out,” I tell Sarah and Tiffany. They grumble but leave all the same. I grab a coffee as the doors swing closed behind them, dropping into my assigned seat as my brother and three cousins turn to me expectantly.
“Did she tell you who she is?” Max drawls. I fucking wish. I have more questions than I did before. I shake my head.
“She said she worked for Uncle Bill but didn’t say what she did for him. He said Robyn had to leave because she didn’t treat Angie nicely.”
David sighs, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “Well, she wasn’t invited because she was a nice person. She was invited because her tongue was fucking magic.”
I roll my eyes at the same time Beau and Ryan grin over at him.
