'Don't worry about it. You have plenty of time to decide all that.'
'Thank you,' Diana returned with a sideways smile. 'And what about you? Have you already decided what
He chuckled at her impertinent question. 'Yep,' he said.
'What?'
'Rich,' he replied with absolute conviction.
Diana knew that he was a finance major at college, but the details of his objective were unknown. 'Do you have some sort of plan in mind?'
'I have some ideas.'
In the riding ring, Spence turned the horse toward the stable, and Corey knew her time with him was coming to an end even before Spence said, 'I have to get going.' She tried to think of something clever or witty to say, but whenever he was near, Corey could hardly think at all. 'I promised Lisa I'd pick her up at nine,' he added.
'Oh,' she said glumly, her spirits plummeting with this new piece of depressing information. 'Lisa.'
'Don't you like her?' Spence asked, looking surprised.
Corey marveled at the denseness of the human male. She positively
A month before, Corey's family had attended a charity horse show near San Antonio, and Corey had been surprised and elated to see Spence there. Since she'd brought her camera, she managed to get several excellent candid shots of Spence along with some fine shots of the horses. When Lisa led her horse back into the barn after taking a blue ribbon in the gaited-pleasure-horse class, Spence accompanied her, and Corey naturally followed at a discreet distance, hoping for a few more glimpses of him.
The huge barn was crowded with horses, grooms, trainers, owners, and riders, and Corey felt certain she wouldn't be noticed. Pretending to inspect the horses, she moved slowly down the gangway, pausing now and then as if to talk to some of the riders. She was almost directly across from Lisa's assigned stall when Spence passed her en route to get a Coke for his current flame. Corey turned her back quickly, and he didn't see her, but Lisa did. She marched out of her horse's stall and stormed up behind Corey. 'Why do you have to be such a pest!' Lisa exploded in a low, incensed voice. 'Can't you see that you're making a fool of yourself by tagging after Spence everywhere he goes? Now, go away and stay away!'
Humiliated and angry, Corey had returned to the arena and joined her family in the bleachers, but she'd kept her camera ready in case she saw Spence again. That turned out to be a very good thing because, although she didn't see Spence, she did see Lisa get thrown from her horse in the next round. As Lisa landed on her rump in the dirt with her hat off and her hair in her face, Corey had gotten that shot and several others. One of them became a favorite of hers, and it was prominently displayed in her room even though Spence wasn't in it.
Since Spence was still waiting for an answer, she shrugged and said mildly, 'Lisa isn't my favorite of your girlfriends.'
'Why not?'
'You'd probably think it isn't important.'
'Let's hear it,' he ordered.
'Okay, she's meaner than a two-headed snake!'
He laughed at that, and in a rare gesture of open affection, he put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. Corey knew it had been a brotherly hug, but she was so ecstatic that she almost overlooked a highly revealing sight: Diana was standing at the fence beside Cole, and his arm was so close to hers that they were nearly touching. What's more, Diana and the Haywards' sexy, uncommunicative stable hand seemed to be completely absorbed in their conversation.
It had seemed incredible to her earlier, but seeing them together that way was enough to convince her that no matter how ill-suited they seemed, or how well Diana had hidden it, she was in love with him. Corey immediately racked her brain for some way to prolong their time together, and in the process she hit upon a possible means to spend a little more time with Spence as well. 'Spence,' she burst out, 'could you give me a ride home?'
He shifted his glance from the couple at the fence to hers. 'Isn't Diana going to take you home when she leaves?'
'That was the plan,' Corey admitted; then she flashed him a conspiratorial smile and nodded toward her unsuspecting sister. 'It's just that I hate to break up their evening.'
His gaze narrowed on her face; then it sliced to Diana and Cole, and his expression went from disbelief to amused skepticism. 'You aren't actually implying that Diana is interested in Cole Harrison, are you?'
'You don't think it's possible?'
'No, I don't.'
'Why, because he works in a stable?' Corey held her breath, hoping her idol wouldn't betray the flaw of snobbery.
'No, that's not it.'
'Then why isn't it possible?'
He looked at Diana and shook his head, chuckling. 'I can't believe you haven't realized that Diana is the last girl on earth to go for the dark, brooding, earthy type. Among other things, he'd completely intimidate her.'
'What makes you so sure?' Corey asked, even though she'd felt exactly the same way earlier that day, when she first suspected how Diana really felt.
'My superior knowledge of women,' he said with an outrageous sense of male arrogance, 'combined with excellent insight.'
'Insight!' she scoffed indignantly, thinking of how Lisa Murphy was getting her claws into him. 'How can you talk about insight when you think Lisa Murphy is a cream puff?'
'We're talking about Diana, not Lisa,' he reminded her in a pleasant, but firm tone.
Since he obviously wasn't going to believe Diana was romantically interested in Cole, Corey thought madly for some other reason to explain why Diana should stay and Spence should take her home. Diana wanted to spend time with Cole, and Corey uttered the only feasible explanation that came to mind. 'Okay, but you're ruining the surprise if you make me tell you more than this: Diana got thrown a couple years ago, and she's been afraid to ride ever since.'
'I know that.'
Trying very hard to stick to the truth, she said, 'And Cole's been urging her to ride, but you know how Diana is—she doesn't like anyone to see that she's really nervous or afraid—'
Understanding dawned and Spence grinned. 'Diana's getting some private riding lessons!' he concluded— appropriately, if incorrectly. 'That's great!' He nodded toward his white Jeep Cherokee as they neared the couple at the fence. 'Get your things together, and I'll drop you off on the way home.'
Corey nodded and hurried forward in hopes of preventing Diana from objecting and spoiling Corey's ploy. 'Spence said he'd drop me off at home,' she said, giving Diana a pleading look that was so obvious that Cole had to bite back a smile. 'That way, you can stay here as long as you like.'
Diana stared at her in embarrassed dismay. Without Corey as an excuse, she couldn't and wouldn't linger with Cole; yet she wanted Corey to be able to ride home with Spence. 'Okay,' she said, deciding she'd leave immediately after they did.
While Cole took the reins of the sorrel and led the stable's newest resident back into his stall, Diana watched her sister and Spence get into his car. She waited until the Jeep's taillights vanished around a curve; then she went into the stable to get her purse and car keys. At the end of the long hallway around a corner, Cole was emptying the grocery bag of goodies she'd brought onto the sink counter beside his small refrigerator, and Diana walked back there to say good-bye. 'Thanks for the company,' she said.
'You can't leave yet,' he said, and Diana's heart soared. 'If you leave too soon, you'll end up passing them on the way home,' he added with a knowing smile. 'Which will completely confuse Addison and embarrass the hell out of Corey. Why don't you stay and share some of this food with me?'
It occurred to Diana that she could avoid encountering Corey and Spence simply by taking a circuitous route home, but since that evidently hadn't occurred to Cole, she accepted his invitation with a happy smile. 'I've already eaten, but I'll have a cookie for dessert with you.'
