Leaping Hearts Read Online Free PDF Page A

stretch for any rider and new mount to forge a relationship, even if the rider was working with a compliant horse and had years of competing under her belt.
    “I’m warning you,” Peter said to her before turning to go. “Don’t try to bring that horse into my stables.”
    “Our stables,” she corrected.
    But the man had already started walking away, delicately sidestepping a pile of hay in front of another stall and then yelping as a curious muzzle reached out to him.
    “Damn animals,” he muttered.
    A.J. turned to Devlin and, as her eyes traveled across his wide shoulders, she momentarily forgot her frustration. She noted that his hair just brushed the top of his collar, the silky waves breaking against the flannel, and she wondered what it would feel like. Her fingers curled the baseball cap into a ball and her heart began to pound with a crazy anticipation.
    Aware her cheeks were flushing, she cleared her throat and said, “Don’t you think it can be done?”
    Devlin regarded the hope in her face with nostalgia. Thinking back, he could dimly recall the emotion in himself. He was less than ten years older than she but felt ancient looking into the crystal blue of her eyes.
    What color is that? he wondered. Sky blue?
    He felt a stirring in the boiler room of his body and had to look away from her face to somewhere safer. Watching her fiddle with the hat, he caught a glimpse of the logo and frowned.
    Devlin had always had an aversion to the kind of moneyed,restless people who were sometimes attracted to the horse world. Although all of the wealthy elites weren’t bad, he couldn’t abide the ones who played at the sport just because they thought it was glamorous. That was the way horses got mistreated or injured.
    And, however unassuming the woman in front of him looked in her blue jeans and barn jacket, he knew more about the wealth of her family than about her riding skills. Watching that logo twist and turn in her hands, he was more than tempted to brush her off and walk away. Her father’s greenbacks aside, the last thing he wanted was to comment on the hopes and dreams of another rider. He’d had a bad enough year trying to deal with losing his own.
    In the end, Devlin got caught again in her eyes and couldn’t deny her an answer. Looking into that blue, he found that something inexplicable happened to him. He felt cleansed, somehow. Less cynical, less tired of life. It made him want to get closer to her.
    “I don’t know you or the horse well enough to say,” he answered cautiously. “Hard work and training will probably get you both over the fences, assuming he doesn’t throw you just for the fun of it. But winning? That takes teamwork and you can’t teach it. In horses or people.”
    Her face registered trepidation but then switched to optimism.
    “I need a trainer,” she declared.
    Devlin felt a physical shock as he figured out where she was heading. “With what you can afford, you’ll find one, I’m sure.”
    “I want you.”
    “No, you don’t.”
    “But you’re the best and I want—”
    “You want a miracle worker. And I ran out of miracles at last year’s Qualifier.”
    She reached out, touching his arm. He was stunned at how the soft touch affected him. It was like getting burned except he liked it. He pulled away sharply, even as he was curious about the sensation.
    “Please, I can pay—”
    “Money doesn’t solve everything,” he said.
    Before he lost his wits again, he turned and walked away, his limp more pronounced than usual.
    Standing in front of Sabbath’s stall, A.J. let him go, feeling bad. She’d clearly offended him, which was the last thing she’d intended. It had seemed like a really good idea, though. Who could be better than he to help her turn the horse around?
    She leaned back against the stall door and remembered McCloud’s story. About ten years ago, out of nowhere, he’d erupted onto the jumping scene, becoming an overnight success. Even though he