opened and here come the tears she thought. Sophia really had no idea what she was crying about. No that wasn’t true; her heart was breaking for her little girl who would never know her father. Her heart also ached for the fact that she felt that she had sold herself out by settling with a man who she really knew was never in love with her. And she cried because she was responsible for so much and so many people. She cried for that fact that she was trapped with a huge responsibility she hadn’t expected. Eventually she stopped crying. “Tears don’t solve anything.” she mumbled to herself and reluctantly wiped the tears from her face. How awkward was this? This was not how the evening was supposed to go. She stood up from the table and glanced at Brandon. She expected that he would leave quickly and run for the mountains. But instead he stood and grabbed her hand, then started to walk to the entrance room where their boots were located. What was he doing? He turned towards her and asked “Do the stables have lights?”
“What… yes, why?” She replied.
“We need to check on Grace and her foal, don‘t we?”
“Yes” she said as she was hauled out the door and across to the stables.
Brandon was clearly not sure what he was doing. Crying women were not part of his agenda. In fact, crying women made him run for the hills, so to speak. But he found most women’s tears were part of a greater performance, a way to make a guy feel guilty enough to act in a way that he really didn’t want to. Sure I’ll stay. Of course you can move into my apartment. And the worst one a man can say….Yes I love you. All things he had managed to avoid. So why was he here, holding her hand, with no desire to let go? The answer might come to him later, right now he just needed to cheer her up. He was desperate to make Sophia feel better.
Chapter Eight
He stood at the stable door aware that now Grace had a new man in her life, so to speak, he had been made redundant. In fact Grace was giving him a “don’t come near my new man” look.
“Females are all the same” he found himself saying. Sophia looked at him, with questioning eyes. “I may not know much about horses but even I know she was batting her eyelids at me some hours ago. Now I‘ve been replaced and she doesn‘t want to know me. I’m heartbroken. “His expression was one of utter rejection but his eyes gave him away. Sophia couldn’t help but offer a rebuff as she entered the stall. “I’m sure that rejection happens to you on such a rare occasion you should relish the experience.”
“You’re very lucky you are inside that stable with a four legged hormonal body guard or you could be in a lot of trouble now” he said waving a finger at her.
“I’ll take my chances,” she said as she had finished checking over mother and son and exited the stable. He took her into his arms and she agreed with her little voice telling her she was really playing with an inferno. He bent down to kiss her only to pull away at the last second to ask ’Are they OK?” as he looked over her shoulder into the stable.
“Yes, they are fine” she barely had the last word out before his lips were on hers. This time she wrapped her arms around his frame. Was there any part of him that wasn’t put together perfectly? She wondered.
This man kissed her like she had never been kissed before. She leant into him and tried desperately to match him. She worried that her lack of practice would not hold her in good stead. She was up against a clear professional here but she had a smile on her lips that she must have been doing OK, because Brandon voiced what seemed an involuntary groan. Sophia was shocked when she leant in on him with the full length of her body that she was definitely having an effect on him. Eventually they parted, but his eyes seemed to penetrate into the depths of her soul. This was moving fast, too fast. If she looked at it on paper, they had kissed a few times, first base as some would say. But only hours ago she wouldn’t have been