Giving Chase (A Racing Romance) (Aspen Valley Series #2) by Hannah Hooton Read Free Book Online Page A

Frankie side-stepped out of the way of his hooves. When he touched down, she was ready to grab the head collar.
    Beneath her firm hold, Ta’ Qali trembled. Fran kie trembled too. Her knees were weak with fright. It wasn’t because he’d reared; she’d had plenty of experience with horses rearing on her. It had been so unexpected though. What had brought it on? She gulped and looked at the Chifney clutched in her hand. Her gaze lifted to the doorway and the dark figure of Rhys Bradford limping away. Her eyes widened. Maybe he did have a conscience, after all.

Chapter 5
     
    That evening, energised by her first day at work, Frankie met Tom outside the Golden Miller. With a quick grin, she linked her arm through his and they entered the pub together. Apart from her father and Seth, she didn’t know any other male whom she trusted so completely. He was also the only guy she’d been able to maintain a platonic relationship with without being labelled a cock-tease. Even through their late teens there had been no slip up at any of the parties they had both got hammered at. Tom had moved from London with his elderly parents to Bristol in time to attend sixth form college with Seth. Both crazy about horses, Seth, at five feet eleven, had just snuck under the realistic height restriction for a jump jockey, but Tom, who at seventeen was already six feet tall, settled for the next best career: being a jockey’s valet. Now twenty-eight, Tom had thankfully stopped growing and had been Frankie’s best friend for the past ten years and flatmate for the last four.
    ‘They used an awful lot of pine to build this place,’ Frankie remarked as they approached the vacant bar.
    ‘ Pine -fully so,’ Tom replied. ‘Would you like a pine or a half-pine of lager?’
    Frankie snorted.
    ‘I think I’ll settle for a Pine-a Colada, thanks.’
    Once Tom had placed their order with Joey, the smiling barman, they leaned their backs against the bar in comfortable silence.
    ‘I know this place is new and everything, but why do you reckon it’s so quiet in here tonight?’ Frankie said.
    Tom gestured towards a poster on the wall.
    ‘Poker night. Whereas the Plough, I believe, is having a pool tournament tonight.’
    ‘Don’t tell Mum. She’ll be down here in a flash.’
    ‘A flash or a flush?’
    Frankie laughed.
    ‘God, you’re full of those homophobe things tonight.’
    Tom stared at her.
    ‘Full of what ?’
    ‘Homophobes— no, hang on, that’s not the right word. Homo– words that sound the same but mean different things.’
    ‘Homophones I think you mean.’ Tom cleared his throat and scowled at his feet.
    ‘Frankie, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you—’
    ‘Hey, Tom!’
    The pair looked round as his name was called. Donnie McFarland, Aspen Valley’s second jockey, raised a hand in greeting while trying to gather up four drinks. ‘Care to join us for some poker? We could use another player at our table.’
    ‘Thanks, but I don’t play cards .’ He gave Frankie a mischievous grin. ‘But Frankie here does.’
    ‘You play poker, Frankie?’ Donnie asked, somewhat sceptically.
    ‘What were you going to tell me?’
    ‘It can wait.’ He held up a finger when she opened her mouth to object. ‘Honestly. Now’s not the best time.’
    She hesitated again, this time looking at Donnie’s dubious expression. Her fortnightly game of Texas Hold ’Em with her mother was hardly hardcore enough to take on a table full of whisky-fuelled testosterone.
    ‘I don’t know—’
    ‘Go on, Frankie,’ urged Tom. ‘You’re always saying you want to be treated as an equal.’
    Rhys’s sexist remarks from that morning flitted through her mind. Squaring her shoulders, she beamed at Donnie.
    ‘Sure I do.’
    *
    While Tom remained behind waiting for their cocktails, Frankie followed Donnie round to the poker tables.
    ‘Look who I found lurking by the bar, lads! Frankie’s come to join us for some