Home to Hope Mountain (Harlequin Superromance) Read Online Free PDF Page B

skin to a taut butt and sharply defined quads. No, not middle-aged. More like prime of his life.
    Adam propped the bike against a tree. “I’ll walk.”
    She doubted he would want to do that for long, either. Well, he would find out. With a nudge of her heels she turned Bo toward home.
    Adam kept pace, making sure there were a couple of yards between himself and Bo. “That’s a big horse.”
    “He’s half Clydesdale. Eighteen hands and as comfy as a couch.” She patted the smooth golden coat below the white mane. “You’re a good old boy, aren’t you, Bo.” Poor beast had been a mess when Ian, the Horses for Hope coordinator, had sent him to her. Bo’s coat had been falling out from mange, and he’d been so skinny his ribs had showed. With a lot of TLC, he’d recovered.
    They ambled along in silence for a few moments. Hayley tilted her head, listening to the clear, ringing call of a bellbird. Leif’s favorite. Adam, struggling to watch where he put his feet, didn’t even seem to notice. “Have you found a therapist for Summer?” she asked.
    “No, I’m still looking.” Adam avoided a muddy puddle in a depression between the ruts. “Have you changed your mind?”
    “No one’s dropped out of the program, if that’s what you mean.” He didn’t seem the kind of man to go for alternative practices. Maybe he didn’t realize certain things about her. “I’m not a qualified psychologist, you know. I didn’t go to university, and I don’t have any letters after my name.”
    “But you get results.”
    “Yes, I get results,” she conceded. “Why don’t you buy her a horse? It might not fix all her problems, but it would help. Give her something to focus on besides herself.” She didn’t know what she would do if it weren’t for Shane and her horses. She’d probably need therapy herself.
    “Can’t do that. We’re not staying in Hope Mountain,” Adam said. “I hope to sell Timbertop and move back to the city before Christmas.”
    Good. She didn’t want him bringing his city ways and his handsome face into her woods. But if she felt like that, why did she also feel disappointed?
    “Summer’s not happy about the idea,” he went on, a troubled frown creasing his forehead. “I don’t understand why, really. She’s only been here a year or so.”
    “She’ll miss her friends. And maybe she’s fallen in love with the area.” He looked skeptical. Hayley shook her head. “You haven’t actually lived in Hope Mountain, have you? I understand you used to come out on weekends occasionally, but that’s not living here, that’s just visiting.”
    He threw her a glance filled with suppressed annoyance and chagrin. Had she hit a sore spot?
    Diane had thrown a divorce party last year. Hayley and Leif had been the only locals, and she’d felt uncomfortable. But Diane and her friends regularly went on trail rides, so she supposed Diane was being polite.
    “Even if you don’t want to live here, Diane will be back eventually, when her mother gets better,” Hayley said.
    “I’ll have to discuss it with her. She hinted before she left that she may not want to come back.”
    “Seems a shame to take Summer away, though.”
    Adam stopped walking and planted his hands on his hips. “Yes, but this is where my sweet, smart, sunny little girl has inexplicably gone haywire and turned dark and miserable.”
    “She’s, what, about fourteen? That’s a tough age.”
    “I don’t believe it’s typical teenage blues. I know I haven’t been around much, but I’m her father. I can tell something is eating away at her.”
    “Losing her horse to the bushfires?” Hayley still felt the ache in her own heart when she thought of her dead horses—Ranger, Lady, Sham, Smokey and Bella. They’d been part of her family. Even after nearly a year she still missed them.
    “Maybe it’s that. I don’t know. She won’t talk to me.”
    “Patience,” Hayley said. “Maybe you just need time to reconnect with her,