Roping the Cowboy Billionaire - Emmy Eugene Page 0,9
of breeding that if she even so much as showed one ounce of that attitude, he wouldn’t let her come back.
Tam adored Bluegrass Ranch, and she couldn’t imagine not being able to come here. Therefore, she’d shelved her attitude and only gave it to him in the evenings, when he tried to come sleep on her couch.
She’d let him for the first two nights, but last night, she’d insisted she was okay. She was. She didn’t need a babysitter, especially one as tall, and as tan, and as tantalizing at Blaine Chappell.
He’d said he’d be her fake boyfriend at the hospital, and Tam had no idea what was going on. He’d refused her at first. Then driven over to say she’d forgotten him at the ranch—and then he’d kissed her.
Then he’d stood her up for dinner. Let a week go by. Said he didn’t need rules—especially ones about kissing. Gotten mad when she’d come to pick him up for their second date-slash-meeting. Let a few more days go by. Then he’d come to help her after her car accident.
She had no idea what was going on beneath that sexy cowboy hat, and she glanced at him as she approached the driver’s door, her smile still stuck in place.
A cowboy got out, and she said, “Welcome to Bluegrass, Mister Harvey. I’m Tamara Lennox, and I’ll be escorting you to the breeding pens today.” She stuck out her hand, and Wayne Harvey shook it.
“Mornin’,” he said pleasantly. “Will I see Spur or Duke inside?”
“Yes, sir,” Tam drawled. “I’m just here if you need anything. Can I get you somethin’ to drink? Sweet tea? Lemonade? Water?”
“I’ll take some water,” he said, starting toward the horse trailer.
Tam grabbed a bottle from the cooler at her feet and followed him. She handed it to him and said, “I’ll be takin’ the vitals on Barely Audible too. Mister Chappell is here to assist with your horse during the covering.” She indicated Blaine, who also wore a smile on his face. He should, too, because getting Barely Audible to stud was a huge feat.
He’d won the Triple Crown only three years ago, and Tam suspected he covered a lot of mares in the spring and summer.
“Blaine,” Wayne said, grinning for all he was worth now. He shook Blaine’s hand heartily and even pulled him into a quick embrace, clapping him twice on the back. “How are you?”
“Great, Wayne,” Blaine sad. “How’s your father?”
“Oh, he’s still kickin’. Yours?”
“About the same,” Blaine said. “We’re going to take Audible to the breeding shed and do the tease,” he said. “We’ve got Brand Spanking New who’s looking great from our ultrasounds waiting, and we’ll see how they like each other.”
“Too bad Never Going Home isn’t in heat,” Wayne said. “I know Audible likes her.”
Blaine chuckled, and the two of them opened the horse trailer. “She’ll probably be ready next week,” he said. “But you’ve got quite a busy schedule with him.”
“I swear, all we do is drive and cover. Drive and cover.”
Tam rolled her eyes, thankful no one could see her, as the two cowboys had stepped inside the trailer. Wayne wasn’t just driving and covering. The horse did all the work during the covering anyway. He was certainly taking some money to the bank in between all of that.
All for something that literally took less than a minute.
Still, when Blaine emerged from the trailer with the tall, dark bay, Tam’s breath caught in her throat. Barely Audible was a stunning specimen of a thoroughbred horse, and he definitely knew it.
He looked at her as he walked by, already tossing his head. He knew exactly why he was here, and she hoped he liked Brand Spanking New. She was a bit of a fussy horse, and when Tam met Duke at the door of the breeding shed, he looked up from his brood mare notebook. “She’s ready. Let’s have him go in on the side. We’ll just see how she reacts to him.”
Tam gestured for Blaine to take the stud to the side entrance, and she peered past Duke. “Is she being difficult?”
“A bit,” Duke said lightly. “She didn’t like Gravestone, which is odd, because they’ve mated before.” He looked back at his notebook. “If she doesn’t take to Audible, we can bring over The Mayflower.” He frowned at his book, which had a variety of letters and symbols in it that only he understood. “I’m ninety percent certain she’ll ovulate in the next forty-eight hours.”