"Roberts, Nora - Irish Hearts 3 - Irish Rebel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts Nora)

His horses had done all he'd asked of them, made him proud at heart and plumper in the pocket. Seeing that they were delivered home and settled back again was the least he could do.
But right now he wanted nothing more than a hot shower, a shave and a decent cup of tea.
Though he'd have traded all of that for one more taste of Keeley.
Knowing it irritated him had him scowling in the direction of her paddock. The minute he was cleaned up, he promised himself, the two of them would have a little conversation. Very little, he decided, before he got his hands on her again. And when he did, he was going to-
The erotic image he conjured in his head burst like a bubble when he rounded the house and saw Keeley's mother kneeling at the flower bed.
It was not the most comfortable thing to come across the mother when you'd been picturing the daughter naked. Then Adelia looked over at him, and he saw the tears on her cheeks. And his mind went blank.
"Ah... Mrs. Grant."
"Brian." Sniffling, she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I was doing some weeding. Just tidying up the beds here." She tugged at the cap on her head, then she lowered her hands, dropped back on her heels. "I'm sorry."
"Ah..." Said that already, he thought, panicked. Say something else. He was never so helpless as he was with female tears.
"I'm missing Uncle Paddy. He left yesterday." She didn't quite muffle a sob. "I thought if I came by here and fiddled, I'd feel some better, but it's knowing he's not down at the stables, or up there. I know he had to go. I know he wanted to go. But..."
"Ah..." Oh hell. Frantic, Brian dug in his back pocket for his bandanna. "Maybe you should..."
"Thanks." She took the cloth as he crouched beside her. "You'll know what it's like, I think, being away from family."
"Well, mine's not close, so to speak."
"Family's family." She dried her face, blew out a breath.
She looked so young, he thought, and not like a mother at all, with her cap crooked on her head and her eyes drenched. He did what came natural for him, and took her hand.
For a moment, she leaned her head on his shoulder, sighed. "He changed everything for me, Paddy did, when he brought me here. I was so nervous coming all this way. New place, new people. A new country. And I hadn't seen Paddy outside pictures for years, or even been face-to-face since I was a baby, but as soon as I saw him, it was all right again. I don't know what I'd have done without him."
It loosened the fist around her heart to talk. Soothed her that he gave her the quiet that was an offer to listen.
"I didn't want to blubber in front of Travis and the children because they're missing him, too. And I was holding on pretty well until I came down here. This is where I lived when I first came to Royal Meadows. In a pretty room with green walls and white curtains. I was so young."
"I guess you're old and decrepit now," Brian said and was relieved when she laughed.
"Well, perhaps not quite decrepit, but I was greener then. I'd never seen a place like this in all my life, and I was going to be living right in the middle of it thanks to Paddy. If it hadn't been for him, I don't think Travis would ever have taken the likes of me on as a groom."
"A groom." Brian's brows lifted. "I thought that was a made-up story."
"Indeed it's not," she said with some heat-and an unmistakable touch of pride. "I earned my keep around here, make no mistake. I was a damn fine groom in my time. Majesty was mine."
Brian lowered himself until he was sitting on the ground beside her. "You groomed Majesty?"
"That I did, and was there to watch him take the Derby. Oh, I loved that horse. You know what it's like."
"I do, yes."
"We lost him only last year. A fine long life he had. I think that was when Paddy decided it was time for him to go home again. He's there by now, and I know what he sees when he stands out in front of the house, and that's a comfort. As you've been just now, Brian. Thank you."
"I didn't do anything. I fumble with tears."
"You listened." She handed him back his bandanna.
"Mostly because tears render me speechless. You've a bit of garden dirt here."
Keeley came down the path just in time to see Brian gently wipe her mother's face with a blue bandanna. The tearstains had her leaping forward like a mama bear to her threatened cub.
"What is it? What did you do?" Hissing at Brian, she wrapped an arm around Adelia's shoulder.
"Nothing. I just knocked your mother down and kicked her a few times."
"Keeley." With a surprised laugh, Adelia patted her daughter's hand. "Brian's done nothing but lend me his hankie and his shoulder while I had a little cry over Uncle Paddy."
"Oh, Mama." Keeley pressed her cheek to Adelia's, rubbed. "Don't be sad."
"I have to be, a little. But I'm better now." She leaned over, surprising Brian with a kiss on the cheek. "You're a nice young man, and a patient one."
He got to his feet to help her up. "I don't have much of a reputation for either, Mrs. Grant."
"That's because not everyone looks close enough. You should be able to call me Dee easy enough now that I've cried on you. I'm going down to the stables, do some work."
"She never cries," Keeley murmured when her mother walked away. "Not unless she's very happy or very sad. I'm sorry I jumped at you that way, but when I saw she'd been crying, I stopped thinking."
"Tears affect me much the same way, so we'll let it be."
She nodded, then cast around for something to say that would help relieve the awkwardness. She'd been so sure she'd be controlled and composed when she saw him again. "So, I heard you did well at Hialeah."
"We did. Your Hero runs particularly well in a crowd."
"Yes, I've seen him. He lives to run." She noted the bag Brian had set down. "And here you are not even really back yet, and you've had one woman crying on your shoulder and another swiping at you. I really am sorry."
"Sorry enough to make me some tea while I clean up?"
"I... all right, but I've got less than an hour."
"Takes a good deal less to brew a pot of tea." Satisfied, he started up the steps. "You've a class this afternoon then?"
"Yes." Trapped, Keeley shrugged and followed him up and inside. He'd been kind to her mother, she reminded herself. She was obliged to repay that. "At three-thirty. I have some things to do before the students arrive."
"Well, I won't be long. You know where the kitchen is, I expect."
She frowned after him as he strolled off into the bedroom.
Making him cozy pots of tea wasn't how she'd expected to handle the situation, she thought. She'd given it a great deal of consideration and had decided the best thing all around would be to maintain a polite, marginally friendly distance. That business the other night had been nothing but a moment's foolishness. Harmless.
Incredible.