She let out a huff of air and hoped neither of them noticed. She was grasping at straws. She’d decided to learn nails because the vocational high school offered it, and she’d have a skill with which to make a living. She didn’t have some huge dream to be a manicurist. She was good at it, true, but was it her life’s work? No.
If she could do whatever she wanted, she’d ride horses. That was what she loved.
And maybe that was from her father. She smiled.
“You look happy,” Harper said.
Happy? Meeting her real father, finding out her love of horses might have come from him? It sure hadn’t come from her mother. Karen wouldn’t know a horse from a cat. Yes, happy was a nice word. A glowing warmth caressed her skin. For a moment she’d forgotten about her ill-fated meeting with Blake Buchanan earlier.
Damn. Had to think about that.
“I’m doing all right,” she said. She turned back to Thunder Morgan. “Tell me about your place on the slope.”
“It’s a ranch house on about a hundred acres. I don’t need a lot of space for just me and a couple horses and a couple dogs. I have neighbors who care for the animals while I’m away.”
“When do you plan to start making wine?”
“I have to find a vineyard first. There are a couple small ones for sale. I’m looking into it. I have a little nest egg. Bronc bustin’ paid the bills. It didn’t make me rich, that’s for sure, but I can afford a small operation.”
“What kind of wine do you want to make?”
“Red, definitely. I’m partial to Rhone blends. You know—syrah, grenache, mourvedre.”
Amber shook her head. “You’ll have to excuse me. I was telling Harper just yesterday ay that I know absolutely nothing about wine. I like the taste of most of it, though. Especially reds.”
“I have a great little Rhone blend we can try tonight with our steaks,” Harper said, rising. “I’ll get it. And Amber baby, you’ll get your steak blue tonight.”
“You like your steak blue?” Thunder smiled. “A girl who likes her meat still mooing is a girl after my own heart.”
* * *
“I can’t believe you did that,” Amber said after Thunder left, “but I’m glad you did. He’s amazing.”
“And he’s your dad.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have believed it, except for the eyes. I’m a dead ringer for Karen otherwise. But those eyes of his. It was like staring into my own.”
“So, baby, when are you going to tell him?”
“Tell him what? That he’s my dad?” She scoffed. “I think around the fifth of never.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Of course I am. He’s got a life, Harper. A life that doesn’t include a twenty-two-year-old daughter he never knew he had. He’ll probably think I’m lying. I doubt he even remembers my mother.”
“You said so yourself. The eyes tell all.”
“Yes, but other than the eyes I don’t look a thing like him.”
“There’s DNA testing.”
“I couldn’t ask him to do that.”
“Why not? If he doesn’t believe you, that’s the one way to know for sure. For both of you.”
“He’s such a nice guy. I don’t want to screw up his life.”
“Who says you’ll screw it up? He never married. He’s retired now. He’s all alone. He might welcome the idea of family.”