Giving Chase (A Racing Romance) (Aspen Valley Series #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

behind her, followed her gaze and saw the girl’s legs shiny with liquid beneath the street lighting. Feeling guilty, she gave a sigh of relief that it hadn’t happened thirty seconds earlier.
    *
    In the face of everyone’s semi-panic, the receptionist inside the maternity unit was amazingly calm. Frankie supposed if she threw a wobbly every time a labouring woman staggered in, she probably wouldn’t be that suited to the job. With Emmie and Billy ushered through to the birthing suite, Frankie took a seat beside Pippa in the stark blue bubble-like foyer. Jack continued to pace up and down.
    *
    Long minutes ticked by with the silence interjected by muffled groans and wails and frantic buzzers being pressed like an overenthusiastic quiz panel. Four more mothers-to-be tottered in and were led into the torture house. Frankie grimaced and swore that she was never going to have children.
    ‘I wonder if that’s Emmie,’ Pippa said, concerned etched across her face as a particularly wretched groan pierced the walls.
    ‘Poor kid,’ Jack muttered. He fixed Pippa with stern blue eyes and held up a finger. ‘All that oohing and aahing you were doing over Emmie’s bump and the baby clothes? Do not get any ideas, okay? I’m not putting you through this.’
    Pippa gave him a loving smile and reached out her hand to give his a squeeze. A nother blood-curdling scream breached the walls and Jack swayed.
    ‘I’ve got to get out of here,’ he said and strode out into the night.
    Frankie and Pippa sat in silence for a time, both listening to the activity from beyond, both accompanied by their own thoughts. With every scream, Frankie became more and more certain she would never become a mother. She was sure Pippa must be feeling the same.
    ‘He’ll come round to the idea eventually,’ Pippa broke the silence.
    Frankie looked at her in disbelief.
    ‘You mean you still want to have children after sitting here for an hour listening to all that racket?’
    Pippa nodded.
    ‘Not right now, I’ll give you that. But when the time is right. I think Jack will be an amazing father.’
    ‘He seems very protective,’ she said cautiously. ‘Of you, naturally. But of Emmie too, and well, isn’t she just an employee?’
    Pippa smiled.
    ‘You’ll find out soon enough that Jack has a rotten temper but he is very fair—you can ask any of the Aspen Valley staff. He might chew their ear off occasionally, but they’ll all admit that they probably deserved it at the time. And when they find themselves in a jam, Jack is right behind them.’
    Frankie nodded in agreement.
    ‘He’s been very fair to me. There’s not that many trainers who’ll take on a female jockey.’ She grinned, reliving the moment when Jack had offered her the job. ‘It feels like a fairy tale that not only have I been given a chance, but I’ve been given the chance by one of the top trainers in the country.’
    ‘Have you always wanted to be a jockey?’
    ‘I guess so,’ Frankie replied with a shrug. ‘My dad used to be a jockey and my brother was as well. It seemed the natural thing to do. Do you ride?’
    Pippa laughed.
    ‘No. I haven’t sat on a horse since I was about six and that was at Brighton Beach.’ She flashed Frankie a proud smile. ‘I do have a horse though that Jack trains. Peace Offering.’
    Frankie forgot how to breathe. She stared at a beaming Pippa.
    ‘You own Peace Offering?’ she gasped.
    Pippa swelled with pride.
    ‘Yes. Have you heard of him?’
    ‘Of course I’ve heard of him! He nearly won the Grand National last season but got brought down by a loose horse while leading at the last.’
    ‘He’s favourite for the next one too,’ Pippa grinned.
    Frankie could feel her heart thumping inside her chest. The Grand National . Sitting next to the favourite’s owner, this was the closest she had ever been to it. She could almost taste it. From riding claimers for a trainer going out of business last month to now working for the yard