remember if she had met Adam before he’d almost run her over this morning. Probably not. Molly was right. She’d have remembered a man like him. Not that she was impressed by expensive clothes and a hundred-dollar haircut.
Reluctantly, she accepted Adam’s handshake. It was firm and businesslike, but his warm palm and enveloping fingers reminded her how long it had been since she’d experienced a man’s touch. It felt so good that she pulled her hand away a fraction of a second too soon. “Yes, I’m Hayley.”
His dark eyes moved over her, openly assessing. “I understand you do some kind of therapy using horses.”
“Horses for Hope. It’s a government-funded program.” Hayley glanced at the girl hanging over the corral railing with her hand stretched out to Asha. The dapple gray snorted and tossed her head. “Careful. She’s not very friendly since the fires.”
“Summer, come and say hello, please. This is Hayley Sorensen and Molly Sorensen.”
The girl reluctantly left the corral and walked over, kicking up dirt with the toes of her black Mary Jane shoes. Her gaze flicked to Molly and she stopped short. She looked to her father. “I already apologized—”
“It’s just a coincidence,” Adam said.
“Don’t worry, dear,” Molly assured her. “As far as I’m concerned, that episode is in the past.” She turned to Hayley. “I see Rolf’s waiting for me in the truck. Think about what I said regarding the job, okay?” She gave Hayley a hug, nodded to Adam and Summer, then hurried off to the dusty red utility truck idling next to the garage.
Adam touched his daughter’s arm. “Hayley is the horse whisperer your principal was telling us about.”
“Hey.” Summer’s glance flicked briefly at Hayley, then returned to Asha. “She’s beautiful.”
“Summer’s horse, Bailey, died in the fires,” Adam said.
The sadness in Summer’s hazel eyes as she gazed hungrily at the mare told a story Hayley knew all too well. Over a hundred local horses had perished in the fires. “I’m so sorry. Did he get scared and jump the fence?” As far as she knew, Timbertop hadn’t been touched by the fires.
Summer shrugged and hunched deeper into her shoulders.
“We were referred to you by Tom Dorian from the high school,” Adam said. “I understand you work with troubled teens.”
Summer threw him a dirty look. “I’m not troubled.”
Hayley ignored that and spoke to Adam. “I work with anyone who’s been traumatized, not just teens.”
“I’d like to enroll Summer in your program. When’s the soonest she could start?”
“I’m afraid my client list is full. I suggest you ask your local doctor for a referral to a counselor. There are several practicing psychologists in the area.”
“You were recommended very highly. Could we put Summer on a waiting list? Someone might drop out.”
“It’s unlikely. Horse therapy can be a long process, sometimes lasting months.”
“Dad, forget it. She can’t take me. Sorry to bother you,” Summer said to Hayley and tugged on her father’s sleeve. “Let’s go.”
“If you find you have an opening...” Adam wrote his home and cell phone numbers on the back of a business card and gave it to her. “I believe we’re neighbors.”
“Don’t you live in the city? That’s what Diane told me.” Not that Hayley spoke to her a lot. Leif had usually taken her and her city friends trail riding.
“Diane’s temporarily in Sydney caring for her mother, so I’m staying at Timbertop for the foreseeable future.”
“So you’re commuting? That’s a long drive.”
“I might be taking a leave of absence.” Adam shrugged. “It could be worse. Spring is a nice time to be out here with everything in bloom—” He broke off, his gaze flickering around the charred clearing.
“I guess it’s spring over at Timbertop.” The simmering resentment in her aching chest got the better of her and she added, “My husband was a volunteer with the Country Fire Authority. He died while fighting the fires on your property.”
Just in case Adam didn’t know.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” His dark eyes met hers. “Thank you, I guess, although that hardly seems appropriate.”
She didn’t want his pity. She didn’t want his gratitude. And she didn’t want him on her property. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
Again Adam glanced around at the razed clearing, this time taking in the garage with the curtain in the window and her spare boots outside the door. “Would you consider taking Summer as a private client?”
He’d obviously summed up her situation as desperate. He wasn’t far off. But she wasn’t that desperate.
“My time is fully committed.” She felt sorry for the girl, but Adam Banks was a rich dude trying to offload his problem onto someone else. Sure, he was well-spoken, handsome and polite. It was easy to be polite when people kowtowed to you all the time.
“I’ll pay you double what you get from the government for your other clients.”
She almost caved. God knew she needed the money. And she would have liked to help Summer. A girl who’d lost her horse—how sad was that? But she was telling the truth when she’d said she was fully committed.
Soon the trail-riding season would be here and she would be even busier. Plus she wouldn’t be a good therapist if her anger and resentment toward Summer’s father spilled over into sessions with her. Hayley couldn’t tell Adam that, of course. He’d simply have to accept no for an answer.
“It’s not possible.” She turned and headed for the garage, Shane at her heels.
Shutting the door behind her, she went to the window over the sink and peered out. Adam took a step toward the garage but Summer grabbed his arm and pulled in the opposite direction. Only when they got into the Mercedes and started the engine did Hayley let out her breath. She didn’t know why her heart was beating so fast. All she knew was that she was relieved when his car disappeared over the rise.
CHAPTER TWO
“WHERE DOES YOUR mother keep the brown sugar?” Adam asked as he rummaged through the pantry. A barbecue sauce simmered on the stove.
No response from Summer. He glanced over at his daughter, sprawled on the couch in the great room across from the kitchen, her eyes closed. She was plugged into her iPod again.
The past two days had been stressful. Yesterday there’d been his aborted meeting with the Chinese followed by Summer shoplifting and encounters with the school principal, the café owner and the police. Then this afternoon he’d been unsuccessful with Hayley Sorensen. Diane’s frozen diet meals weren’t going to cut it tonight—he needed wine and red meat, stat.
The
