The Regift Horse (Ocala Horse Girls: Book Three) Signed Paperback US Only

In Chapter One of The Regift Horse, we meet Evie as she's working at her friend Posey's Thoroughbred horse farm. When a cryptic message stirs her from her usual routine, Evie gets her first inkling that her life might be about to turn in a new direction.

THE REGIFT HORSE

I always take a break around three thirty. I’ll bring the horses back in at four, and I’m done feeding and out the door by five, so this is a nice time to pause, drink a Coke, and flick through my phone apps, looking for something interesting to distract me from my own life. Since my own competition dreams were squashed by a double-whammy of anhidrosis—that’s when a horse stops sweating—and a ligament injury that refuses to heal, I’ve been living vicariously through the Instagram accounts of people the eventing gods have favored.

Maybe it’s not the healthiest hobby, but I enjoy flicking through their full-color lives, guessing at their woes, reminding myself that underneath the bespoke breeches and jackets, a heart that has been broken is still beating. To be equestrian is to be battered, inside and out. I might have recalibrated my hopes and dreams, but I won’t give up the lifestyle.

That’s my usual routine, the Instagram scroll.

Today, for some reason, I check my email.

And to my surprise, there’s an actual email waiting in my inbox. Like, not just emails about saddle pads on sale or timeshare weekends for ninety-nine dollars, but an actual email from a real human. I thought these things were extinct.

“What’s up, cousin Madison?” I mutter, tapping the email. I can feel a frown across my forehead. Madison and her Aunt Rachel are my only family in Florida, but I haven’t seen either of them in several years. They live in Sarasota, over on the Gulf coast. And while Madison showed ponies when she was a kid, she hadn’t been what you’d call a horse girl in her entire adult life. She’s one of those people that did it as a hobby. I’ve never understood those people.

Her email is short.

Short and surprising.

"I know you never come to our holiday parties, but I think you’ll want to be at this one. My aunt met a guy named Malcolm Horsham at some charity thing not too long ago—"

My eyebrows are at the top of my head. Malcolm Horsham, the handsome eventing terror of Ocala? Looks like a pirate and treats his staff like one, too? Talk about worlds colliding. There’s virtually no reason my aunt would run into an eventing star like Malcolm. Just dumb, strange chance.

"She’s been really secretive ever since, but I’ve seen some emails and I think she might have bought a horse."

Unbelievable. Why don’t I have “maybe I’ll buy a horse” money? Why doesn’t my mom?

Yes, I can walk out to the side of the road, put my hands to my mouth, and holler, “Hello Ocala, I have room for a horse!” and fifteen trailers will appear, some with actual, sound, show prospects in the back. But I know Aunt Rachel isn’t picking up an ex-racehorse after a meeting with a big name like Malcolm.

Everyone wants the one thing they can't have. Except Evie, who wants two things.

Evie Ballenger has been living life to the bare minimum since retiring her heart horse. She's convinced herself that's enough, but when she gets a shot at an event horse which could rocket her into the big-time she always dreamed of, our ambitious horse girl can't leave well enough alone!

Plunged into the world of famous grump/trainer Malcolm Horsham, she stumbles over and over in her pursuit of riding glory...and the man who keeps slipping up and showing her his softer side.

Readers can't resist the sweet heat in this grumpy/sunshine romantic comedy!