Page 32 of The Last Second Chance
“Oh, holy fuck,” Joey muttered to herself.
The chestnut mare swung her head around and nuzzled at her pocket. Joey fished out a carrot from her stash and let the mare delicately nip it out of her gloved palm.
Jax approached to get a closer look.
“Jax?”
“Yeah?”
“What is Calypso’s Secret doing in my yard?”
“I heard a rumor that you wanted to start a breeding program,” he said, running a calloused hand down the mare’s neck.
“You didn’t.”
“You said I owed you an apology.”
“Jax.” Joey’s voice had the sharp bite of warning in it.
Damn right she wanted a breeding program. But she’d wanted it on her own terms. Terms that involved budgeting and starting with a broodmare less spectacular than Calypso. The horse in front of her—with the perfect white star on her nose and glossy coat—was levels above where she’d planned to start.
“If y’all want to move her out of the way, I’ll get the big bastard out.”
Joey shot Jax a murderous look. “Two horses? Two friggin’ horses, Jax?”
He took Calypso’s reins and passed them over to Carter. “You can’t have a broodmare like this and a middle of the road stallion.”
“Y’all might want to move back. He’s a handful,” the driver warned.
Jax dragged her back a few steps. “What did you do?” Joey hissed at him.
The stamping and snorting escalated from the front stall in the trailer. Joey heard a well-placed kick strike the wall and wondered if there was anything left of the little driver.
But a moment later, she saw spectacular smoky black flank grudgingly emerge at the top of the ramp. A silky black tail swished in irritation.
He was huge. And pissed.
Sixteen hands at least and all lean muscle and attitude. He picked his way down the ramp with a delicacy that belied his twelve hundred pounds. The second all four feet were on the ground, he tried to rear up. The driver kept his head and his grip on the bridle, expertly wrangling the beast.
The stallion tossed his head and pawed at the ground.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re a big deal. We know,” he said, swatting at the horse’s nose when he tried to take a bite out of his shoulder.
He certainly was a big bastard. A big, beautiful bastard. Joey was already in love.
But damn it. There was a budget. A plan. Maybe a decade down the road they’d be able to invest in a horse like this. Not now. Not with Jax’s bank account.
“Meet your stud. This is Apollo,” Jax said, stepping in to take the lead from the driver. Testing, the horse started to rear, but Jax stood his ground and had the stallion chomping apple slices out of his hand in thirty seconds flat.
“Apollo, huh?” Joey said approaching the horse. Brown eyes followed her and he tossed his head when she reached up to stroke his neck.
“As in ‘Apologies,’” Jax said with a wink.
“I’m going to murder you, Ace,” she told him succinctly.
Phoebe was too busy cooing over Calypso to hear Joey threaten her son’s life.
It was cruel, taking over her dream, shoving it along. Seven figures of horseflesh stood before her and he called it an apology. That was a hell of an investment to make for an ‘I’m sorry.’
