Her Billionaire Secret Romance Page 6

  He walked over to watch Sparks as they finished washing off today’s sweat from his glistening hide. “I’ll take him back. I want to check out that cut.” He took the lead and walked Sparks back to his stall.

  Charles stooped down. “Okay, boy, let me see that cut.” He rubbed his hand over the wound and smiled. It looked good and was healing nicely.

  Jack came over to look. “You did a good job with that, Charlie, did you ever think about going into that field?”

  “All the time, Jack, but it’s not a welcome idea at my house.”

  Jack leaned back against the wall. “Well, I have found that doing what you love makes all the difference in life.”

  “Do you like what you do here?” Charles liked what he’d said. It was good to get some verbal support for his thinking.

  “As long as I am around horses, I am a happy man.” He smiled and headed back outside with another horse.

  Charles got up and went to the tack room to wash his hands. I need to get packed for this next week. When he arrived in his room he smiled. Thank goodness for Marcie, She had already packed his suitcase. It was satisfying to look around at his well-kept room, none of which he could take credit for. His bed was always made when he returned home, and his room was cleared of clutter. He checked out what was in the suitcase and made some exchanges. If he left it up to his mother, she would have him wearing Dockers and worse all the time. He had a closet full of clothes at school that he never wore.

  Charles laughed at the thought. He had to buy his own jeans, and he was happy to do that. His sister, Rach, often stopped by with a shirt she’d found for him. These were the clothes he packed into his suitcase, removing the Dockers and other high-end riding apparel. He did pack his riding boots, however, and one tight-fitting jockey outfit with a helmet and his cowboy hat. Surely he could wear that in Texas without getting looks.

  The day to leave arrived. At breakfast, Charles loaded up on his favorites. He had no idea what he would be fed at the camp. “I am excited to go to this camp. I think it will be fun and something different for a change.” I just hope the food is good.

  His father looked up. “Well, we are willing to do anything if it will remove the stain from this year’s race.”

  Charles looked up, shocked at what his father had said, and then his dad laughed. “Just joking, son.”

  “Who knows, I just might learn some tricks. And with Sparks in training this year, I have a good chance.”

  “Chance? You will cream the girl if you put forth any effort at all.” His father looked over at his mom.

  “I don’t know, Dad, Eliza is very determined. She’s planning to up her training this year as well.”

  “You will be fine, son. You can be just as determined. Have a good break. Texas will be fun for you, I think.” His father got up and left the room.

  His mother leaned over. “How do you know she is training harder now, Charlie?”

  “She told me at the race.” Charles knew his mother was just checking on his interests in girls. She always told him that the guiding hand of a mother was needed at the onset of the pairing-up season of life. He wondered what she would think about his interest in Eliza.

  Chapter 7

  Eliza rolled down the window of the limo. “Ah, this warm moist air feels so good on my skin.”

  The driver laughed. “Not all of my clients feel the same as you, miss.” He turned on the radio to a country western station. “Now if you can abide this music, I would say you are halfway to becoming an adopted Texan.”

  Eliza sat back and listened. The song was about Old Betsie, the favorite family cow. She raised her eyebrows, not sure if she could claim adoption yet. But she determined she would listen all the way to the ranch. As they drove into the ranch, Eliza looked a little worried, but the driver laughed.

  “Listen, miss, I have driven quite a few folks to this place, and in spite of the looks it’s one of the most sought after five-star resorts for those who want to hide out a while and enjoy ranching.”

  “Well, it sure fooled me.” They drove up and stopped in front of the ranch house. A happy-looking woman came out onto the porch.

  The driver helped Eliza with her luggage. “Y’all have fun!”

  “Thanks, I hope to.” The limo drove out the long curved driveway lined with white board fencing to the gate.

  “Hello, welcome to the Rio Lago Ranch. You can call me Mary, and this is my husband, Henry.” Eliza took her hand. “You will be working mostly with Carson, our ranch manager, while you are over at the riding school. But if you need anything, we are here and are more than happy to help.”

  “It’s very beautiful here with the lake and woods. I am excited to get started.” Eliza followed Mary and the bellhop into the lobby. Once she stepped inside, she sucked in her breath at the beauty of the room. “This is beautiful.” A large floor-to-ceiling river stone fireplace was the central focus of the room. Beautiful wood beams ran across the ceiling. Gorgeous leather furniture was arranged into four conversation areas. Everything was Western motif, and Eliza chuckled with glee. She was on a ranch in Texas, and it looked like it. She thought back to some of her Western novels and smiled even bigger. I have entered another world.

  Mary shook her head and chuckled. “Come with me, I will take you to your room myself. Are you meeting friends here?”

  “No, I’m here by myself. I need to improve my racing skills, and this sounded like a fun way to do that.”

  “Well, knowing Carson, there is going to be some work required with all of that fun you’re expecting.”

  “I don’t mind work at all. I plan to work hard.”

  The room was wonderful with many large pillows stacked on a huge, high bed. There were French doors to a deck that was shared with other rooms. Eliza looked out. “What time do I meet with Carson?”

  Mary fluffed up the flowers in the table vase. “After dinner he will have a meeting with all the camp participants. You have a lot of time before then.”

  “Oh good, I want to explore.” Eliza grabbed the room key and headed back downstairs. On the porch, a beautiful English setter hobbled over to greet her. “Hi there, girl.” The dog sniffed her thoroughly and then walked over to a thick rug and lay down.

  Mary walked out onto the porch. “This is Freckles, our setter. She’s got some years on her, but she still stands guard on the porch.” Mary petted Freckles. “Carson’s dog, Aussie, just had puppies two months ago. I’m sure he would let you see them if you’re interested.”

  “I’d love to, but I think I’ll walk around the lake first.”

  Eliza walked toward the covered bridge. She took a deep breath and noticed there were flamingos sitting on the railing. “What in the world are flamingos doing here?” She sat down on the bridge bench and studied them for a while. She had never been this close to them before.

  There were three of them, with a big grey-black bird sitting on the end. She tried to see around the flamingos to get a better look at it. One of the flamingos jumped down to the lake’s edge and Eliza exclaimed. “It’s a turkey! How funny is that? Three flamingos and a turkey! It could be the name of a western band.” She laughed as she got up and walked through the bridge to the road around the lake.

  It was so beautiful here in the country. Her mind drifted off to all those imagined places in the books she’d read. This one was unique. The lake was lined with trees and the back side of the lake sat on the edge of a thickly foliaged forest. She took her time walking around the lake. Huge bullfrogs were jumping into the lake with a loud croak ahead of her, making a significant splash. “I’m not that scary, guys.” Ducks that acted like they regularly got fed bread crumbs swam along, following her and looking for food. They were noisy. “Quack, quack, quack,” she called, and the ducks responded with even more vigor. Eliza laughed, and her heart filled with the joy of being in the country. She felt free and at peace. As she reached the far side, she sat down on a bench to enjoy the view. Looking across the lake, s
he noticed another limo drive up to the ranch house. A tall man got out, but she was too far away to see him clearly. She hoped they had more than two camp participants.

  The ducks gave up and returned to their underwater foraging. Graceful geese swam lazily by. Alarmed, she watched a brown head lift out of the water, swimming along the shoreline. Could that be a water moccasin? As it reached a floating log, a large turtle climbed out of the water to sit on the log. “Phew, not a snake, but there are probably snakes here for sure.” There was a paddleboat on the other side of the lake with canoes and a small sailboat. This was going to be fun. She got out her cell phone to call home.

  “Hey, Mom, I’m here. This place is cool. There’s a small lake with sailboats and canoes. I haven’t seen the horses yet, but after dinner they will begin the program. My room’s amazing. It reminds me of Grandma.” She laughed. “It’s not old fashioned, but it’s full of lace and fluffy pillows.”

  Her mother reminded her of all the normal safety tips and then said goodbye. “I love you too, Mom, bye.” She was an adult, but her mother never missed an opportunity to share her life’s wisdom. Eliza smiled. I’ll probably be forty, and my mother will still be telling me to look both ways before I cross the street.

  She looked up and saw that the very tall man was also walking around the lake. Oh great. Well she might as well meet the guy since they would be spending a week together at this camp. Hopefully he was nice. Why were all boys so dang tall? I might as well practice my Texan. He couldn’t see her yet, so she cowardly decided to step back into the woods to hide. Once she saw him, she’d decide if she wanted to make his acquaintance. She backed into the woods carefully until she was far enough behind the trees to be hidden. As he got closer, she almost choked from taking in her breath so fast. It was Charles. Sharp pinpoints of fiery pain shot through her feet. She shook her legs and madly brushed against her feet at the tiny red ants that seemed to be swarming on her skin.

  She screamed and started jumping and running around. Charles came running into the woods and told her to stand still. He took off his bandana and started brushing the ants off with it. “Come over here to the road where there is more light.”

  Eliza took his hand and let him pull her to the road. This is horrid. Eliza wished she could disappear somewhere. He brushed off what she hoped was the rest of the biting ants.

  Eliza looked down at him as he was checking her legs for more ants. “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I could ask you the same question.” He looked up, challenging her with a smile.

  “It is my own business why I am here.”

  Charles took her hand. “Come and sit here for a while. I have some antihistamine in my pocket. You better take two; it will help with your body’s reaction to the ant bites.” She was already getting red welts. “It’s lucky I brought this along, I was planning to use it for mosquito bites. Didn’t you read up about this place? These are fire ants everywhere, and you have to be careful—they carry Staph.”

  Eliza bent down to check her legs. The red welts were horrid looking, and it still hurt. She wished she had some spray to stop the itching. She sat up and leaned back, looking at him.

  Charles continued. “I’m here because my riding coach convinced me to come. I had to do something so my family would believe I was at least trying to make a good showing at the horse race. We do raise horses, after all; it’s pretty bad if we can’t even win a county race with them. They are all quite humiliated at my last performance.”

  “Well, I can understand why.” Eliza chuckled a little but then frowned. “But this was going to be my extra training so I can keep winning. As you know, we also raise horses professionally. And I don’t expect to make it easy for you to get that date either.” Eliza eyed him, teasing.

  Her feet hurt, and itched, and the red welts started to look like large and angry blisters. It took everything in her not to scratch at them to stop the discomfort. All she wanted was to get ready for that stupid race. Suddenly Charles being there with her was too much. “This ruins my plan. Who told you I was coming here?” She swallowed the pills he’d handed her. All that practice, years of working with Tandy, coming home every week to better her racing. She’d put in some serious time and sacrifice just for this race. And just when she thought this camp would give her the extra boost she needed to guarantee a win next year, Charles showed up and ruined everything. Her legs started throbbing, the swelling increased. What if she was allergic? Her eyes welled with tears. Oh please don’t start crying.

  “Oh no, hey, now, it’s okay. It will go away. Eventually.” Charles wiped her tears and looked deeply into her eyes. “Would it be that bad to go on a date with me?” Charles chuckled and brushed another tear that had made it down to her lips. He cupped her face in his hands. “You’re beautiful.”

  She sucked in a breath, searching his face. Then tried for a weak smile.

  He studied her mouth, brushed at the last tear. Then he slowly leaned in and softly kissed her.

  Her stomach flipped and she closed her eyes in wonder. But then he pulled away and the tingling wore off.Eliza sat up, indignant. “Hey, you stole my first kiss!” She frowned. “And that is not how I envisioned it would be.”

  “Who waits until they are twenty to have their first kiss?” Charles looked puzzled. “But, hey, if it was that terrible, I’m sorry, I don’t know why I did that.” His face flushed, looking at his toes, then he glanced back up into her face. “If you don’t mind my asking, was it…terrible?” He raised his eyebrows.

  Eliza frowned, but then her face softened. “That’s not the point. It didn’t happen at all like I had hoped. I have been saving this moment for years now until someone worthy showed up.” She huffed. “You know, I was right not to like you.”

  “Look, I’m sorry, tears were running down your face and you looked pale, I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “Well, that’s romantic.” Eliza scoffed.

  “Maybe we could try it again.” Charles teased, raising his eyebrows.

  “No!” Eliza slapped at his arm.

  Charles laughed a little, flushed. “Listen, this looks like a cool place. Let’s just have fun, learn what we can, and enjoy this time. There’s the lake and lots to do here.”

  “Well, it’s a muddy lake. There are probably snakes in it.” She sighed. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s not exactly the Lake of Shining Waters.”

  Charles looked over at her and raised his eyebrows. So she’d also read about Anne with an e. Did all girls read those books? “No it’s not, but maybe if we tried we could find the White Way of Delight.”

  “What? You read Anne of Green Gables?” Eliza was amazed. “How can this be?”

  “I’ll tell you later, maybe. Let’s go around to the stable and meet the manager.”

  Eliza was talking to herself as she followed him around the lake, shaking her head. “A boy who read Anne of Green Gables.”

  He turned back and looked over his shoulder. “So, do you like me better now?” He laughed.

  When they walked into the stable, Carson looked up from his work in one of the stalls. “Hi, I’m Charles Harrington, one of the camp participants. This is Eliza Stanton.” Charles reached over and shook Carson’s hand.

  Carson took one look at Eliza’s legs. “Oh boy, it looks like you found the fire ants. I have some ointment for that, come on into the tack room.”

  They both followed Carson into the tack room. Charles was impressed. “Wow, this is very nice.” Eliza followed him in. There was a nice, comfy-looking leather sofa and an intricately carved wood desk, with shelving on the walls and a lush carpet in the center of the room. It reminded him of home. Over to the side were the saddles and tack. A door led to a large storage room with more tack and ointments, and this is where Carson went. “Why don’t you sit right here..” He pointed to the sofa. “I have just the thing.”

  Eliza sat quietly. Carson returned with a large jar of some kind of ointment. He generously
applied it to each bite. “Now, don’t shower this off tonight. Just keep it on until tomorrow morning and if I’m right, the red spots will be gone.”

  “She did take some antihistamine right after the bites,” Charles added.

  “That will help, but this stuff draws out the poison, so hopefully she won’t need the antihistamine.”

  Eliza could hear soft whimpering. “Is that the puppies?”

  Charles looked up, smiling expectantly. “You have puppies?”

  “Yes, Aussie did us proud. We have twelve pups. Come on back here.” They followed Carson back into the closet area that connected to an indoor stall through another door.

  As soon as they stepped into the stall, twelve little puppies came tumbling over to see them. Eliza crouched down. “Oh, aren’t they just the most darling things you’ve ever seen?” The puppies were crawling all over her, trying to reach up for a kiss.

  Charles laughed and sat down beside her. “Come here, little fellas.” The puppies crawled over to Charles, and the two of them sat surrounded. “What breed are these guys?”

  “These are Australian shepherds and the mother is straight from Australia from a good friend of mine.” Just then, Aussie came bounding in to check on her pups. She sniffed Eliza and Charles all over and then walked out. “Well, I guess you passed the test. I didn’t think she would have so many pups, so I am a bit overwhelmed and haven’t had the time to hold each one individually. If you two get some time off, would you mind coming in here just to hold them?”

  Eliza looked over at Charles. He raised his eyebrows. “Sure!”