Seduction, Westmoreland Style - Brenda Jackson [5]
McKinnon cursed under his breath as he sat his coffee cup down. This wasn’t news he wanted to hear. Gale Beckman had come highly recommended from an outfit in Wyoming . He had taken the man on, convinced he could do the job, and offered him one hell of a salary to train Prince Charming, one of Sheikh Yasir’s prized possessions. Evidently Beckman had felt he’d met his match with the horse. Granted, Prince Charming had been in rare form yesterday, but still, in the world of horse-breeding you couldn’t expect every horse to be meek and biddable. Far from it. Most were unfriendly and aggressive at best, hot-tempered and volatile at worse.
“Where are we going to find another horse trainer this late in the game?”
Norris’ question reeled McKinnon’s thoughts back in. He and his best friend Durango Westmoreland had started their horse breeding business a few years ago because of their love for the animals. McKinnon handled the day-to-day running of the operation while Durango , who was still employed as a park ranger for Yellowstone , managed the books.
When Sheikh Jamal Ari Yasir, a prince from the Middle East who was married to Durango’s cousin Delaney, had approached them a couple of months ago about taking on the training of Prince Charming to ready him for the races this fall, they had readily accepted, not foreseeing any problems and thinking it would be a way to expand their business from horse breeding into horse training as well.
Successfully getting Prince Charming trained was their first major test in that particular area, and their success with that endeavor would assure the sheikh sent more business their way and provided good recommendations to his friends and business associates. But the while situation looked bleak since they really hadn’t made any real progress and valuable time was being wasted.
McKinnon leaned back in his chair. “I guess the first thing I need to do is place a call to my contacts again,” he said finally answering, although he was quick to think that his contacts’ reliability was on shaky ground since they had been the reason he’d hired Beckman in the first place.
“What about Corey Westmoreland’s daughter?”
McKinnon stiffened, pushed away from the table and stood. “What about her?”
“Well, you saw how she handled Prince Charming yesterday. She had that blasted animal eating out of her hands, literally. Do you think she might be interested in the job?”
McKinnon decided now was not the time to mention to Norris that Casey had been interested in the job—in fact, that had been her reason for showing up yesterday. Instead he said, “Doesn’t matter if she would be. You know my policy about a woman working on this ranch.”
Norris stared at him for a long moment before shaking his head and saying, “It’s been over four years now, McKinnon. How long will it take you to get what Lynette did out of your mind…and heart?”
McKinnon sucked in a deep breath before saying, “I’ve done both.”
Norris was one of the few who knew the full story about Lynette. He had been with McKinnon the night they’d arrive back at the ranch from rounding up wild horses in the north prairie to find that Lynette had packed up and left, leaving a scribbled note as to the reason why.
McKinnon’s brisque words should have warned the sixty-year-old Norris that this was a touchy subject—one McKinnon had no desire to engage in; but Norris, who’d known McKinnon since the day he was born, paid no mind. “Then act like it, son. Act like you’ve put it behind you.”
McKinnon cursed under his breath. “You actually expect me to ask Corey Westmoreland’s daughter to come work for me and live on his ranch? You saw her yesterday. She’s no bigger than a mite. Granted she handled Prince Charming okay, but what about the others to come after that? Some twice as mean. Besides, I need a trainer that I can invest in long-term.”
“I heard she’s moving to town to be close to her father. To me that speaks of long term.”
McKinnon’s gaze narrowed. Evidently Norris had asked questions of the right