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nose.
    “This is good,” he said. “Do you grow the mint?”
    “Yes, it’s refreshing on a hot night, isn’t it?” Carrie sipped from her glass and set it down on a coaster on the end table beside her chair.
    Jay clutched his chilled drink. The sides of the glass began to sweat and so did he. What would he say now? All of his confidence had dissolved like a scoop of sugar in a hot drink. He felt young. But for heaven’s sake, she was just three years older. It might as well be twenty the way his tongue was suddenly tied to the roof of his mouth.
    Maybe she sensed his discomfort. She appeared so cool, just as cool as the soft green of the wingback chair where she rested her head. She looked in control. So calm. Her eyes shifted as if searching his face for something. Jay bit his lip and offered a tentative smile. Their gazes locked once more. His heart began to beat double and then triple time.
    Carrie took a breath. “Don’t be upset about what happened back there in the restaurant.”
    “Easy for you to say,” he said with a toss of his head.
    “Well, in fact, it is.” She twisted her hands in her lap. “You must think that everyone who owns a horse at the stable has a lot of money.”
    Jay watched her, but didn’t say anything. Where was she going? She seemed to be apologizing to him when he was the one who needed to get down on his knees and apologize.
    “It costs so much to board and train a horse.”
    “And pay my salary.” Jay grinned, trying to ease the strain by poking fun at himself.
    Carrie nodded slowly. “Since Tate’s death, it’s been tough. With his life insurance money, I paid off the house, thinking I could make it on my teaching salary if I didn’t have a house payment.”
    She climbed to her feet and began to pace. Jay put his glass down on the tray and watched her. Leaning forward, he rested his arms on his knees and grasped his hands together.
    “I don’t know if I did the right thing. It’s so hard to know.”
    “You just have to do the best you can at the time,” Jay commented, caught by the tension in her eyes and the pucker of her brow.
    Carrie sighed. “It’s Tate’s business that has me troubled. I have a broker trying to sell it for me. If he can sell it within the month, I’ll have money to keep Doolittle for the rest of the summer show season. If not, I’ll have to sell Jesse’s pony.”
    “Whew.” Jay sat back. He knew what it meant for a kid to have his horse sold from under him.
    She turned to look at him, her face pale. “I don’t want Jesse to lose her horse, Jay. She lost so much when her daddy died. I want to keep her life as normal as possible. Losing Doolittle will break her heart.”
    It just about broke Jay’s. To see Carrie torn up about her daughter made his heart wrench. He rubbed a hand through his hair. He and his mom had often been almost broke, but all Martha had to do was say something to Carter. The money for the braces or the senior prom date had always trickled in. Maybe his dad hadn’t been there emotionally, but money had always made a difference in his life. He’d wanted for nothing.
    Carrie didn’t have that option. Jesse’s dad was dead. It was up to Carrie to provide for her child, and she was alone. For the first time in his life, Jay realized what it meant not having enough money. Ironically, he had plenty of money sitting in the bank. He could help out this courageous woman who stood before him, her wide eyes bright with unshed tears.
    She seemed to shake herself. “The only reason I told you that,” she said as she came to sit down beside him, “is to let you know that I’m not one of the typical well-to-do barn mothers. Don’t let what happened tonight bother you. It doesn’t bother me.”
    Jay rubbed his chin and surveyed Carrie’s face. “You were so quiet on the way home. I thought I’d ruined my chances with you, because I couldn’t pay for dinner.”
    “I was just trying to make up my mind if I should tell