His Other Woman: A Renny and Rachel Christmas Romance by Nancy MacLaren Read Free Book Online Page A

idiot!”
    “Yeah, why don’t you take her on then,” Renny said as he pulled a five from his pocket and handed it to Rosalie. She promptly put it down her dress into what could only be a training bra. The little hustler.
    “Hi, I’m Rachel,” I put out my hand to her.
    She looked me up and down but didn’t take my hand. “I know who you are,” she announced, “You’re Renny’s old girlfriend.”
    Conversation stopped. People looked amused, embarrassed and aghast. From the mouth of babes. I just looked at her, eye to eye, woman to woman and replied, “Actually, I’m his new girlfriend. Good game Rosalie.”
    “How do you know my name?” Suspicious little thing.
    “How do you know about me?”
    “Everyone’s talking about it, how Renny has this new girlfriend who is old enough to be …”
    Renny hopped up, “That’s enough out of you imp, take your winnings and go con someone else.” He patted her on the head, she smiled at him, turned to scowl at me and then trotted off looking for another victim, I suspected.
    “She’s charming,” I said, sarcastically.  “Now who did she remind me of?”
    “She’s a brat. Her mother died two years ago and her grandfather lets her run wild.”
    “Poor thing, where’s her father?”
    “Who knows?”
    “Oh.”
    “Don’t feel sorry for her Rachel, it won’t do either of you any good. She’s got tough blood in her and she’ll be fine.”
    I watched as she engaged a teen boy to play Ping-Pong. I felt sorry for him.
    Renny pulled me to my feet and gave me a big, sloppy, in front of everyone, kiss. Again, there was a cessation of noise around us but I am never very aware of my surrounding when Renny’s got his tongue in my mouth, exploring my dental work. God, he tasted good.
    He smiled at everyone and took my hand. We walked away from the crowd towards the stable. I hadn’t had a chance to see what was in the stable but I have always loved horses so I was keen to investigate. Renny had promised me a ride at some point.
    The place was immaculate but nothing can disguise the smell, the intoxicating smell, of horses. There were four, all housed in beautiful pens with their names engraved above them. Renny leaned into a bucket and brought out four apples, handing me two.
    We stopped at the first one, a smaller bay named Tilly. Renny put out an apple to her and she curled back her lips to take it. She was so gentle and quite beautiful.
    “Tilly here’s the grandma. We’ve had her forever. She was Garrett’s when he was little but I learned to ride on her too. She never took to Reade, don’t know why.”
    We moved to the next stall. A chestnut mare waited for us there, named Abigail. “This is Reade’s girl. Go ahead and give her the apple. I want her to take to you since she’s who you’ll ride tomorrow.’
    Tomorrow!  All I had to do was make it through the rest of the day without suicide or homicide interceding and I’d get to ride this gorgeous animal! I gave her the apple which she took without a qualm and I rubbed her nose as she munched. She eyed me with her enormous, brown eyes and she seemed to like what she saw. So did I.
    On the other side of the barn was another mare, this one almost pure white and bigger than the others. Her name was Felicia. Renny had me feed her too before telling me she was their Mother’s horse but only Garrett rode her now.
    Finally, we pulled up to a stall with no head poking out. The name above was Bastard. Must be a male.
    “Come here you bastard,” Renny growled as he held out the apple. From the dark corner came a pure black stallion, huge and scary as hell. He snorted, pawed the ground as though he would rush us before walking forward to grab the apple from Renny’s hand.
    He retreated before I could touch him but Renny whistled and he came forward for him to touch his nose.
    “This guy is mine. Dad told me he was a bad choice but I insisted. He cost twice as much as any of the others because he came from a