Page 47 of Winning Winnie’s Hand

“Yeh,” Ava repeated. She drew a deep breath, clearly trying to gather her courage. “And we get to live with my uncle, too.”

Winnie glanced up to Matthew, then back down to the girls. “Well, that makes you even luckier! Do you joust on those big horses like he does, too?”

Ava gave another smile and shook her head, clearly losing her shyness by the second. “No, I don’t joust. But I do ride!”

“You do?” Winnie looked more than amazed. How did she do that? Act so genuine when she was so…fake? “I bet you are the best rider.”

“I am,” Ava said with no shame.

“Yeh, me too!” Lilly piped in finally, drawing on her sister’s strength.

“You, too?” Winnie said with excitement, shifting her attention to the little girl. “That’s amazing!”

“And I have my own horse!” Ava said with bright eyes.

“Yeh, me too!” Lilly repeated.

Winnie pulled on a look of surprise. “You both have your own horses?”

Ava continued. “No, I do, but Lilly has to share with Mummy ’til she’s old enough like me.”

“Yeh, me too!” Lilly said with all the excitement a three-year-old could muster.

Winnie laughed. Matthew had never seen such a genuine look on her face, and curse his inability to deny it, but the woman was gorgeous. Her gray eyes squinted playfully at the edges as she grinned, and her nose did this cute little scrunching up thing as she laughed.

It was infuriating.

As was how genuine she seemed with his nieces. How was she so good with children?

“Well,” Winnie continued, “you girls are so lucky to have so many family members to live with and so many horses to ride.”

Ava pumped her head up and down. “Do you have your own horse?”

Winnie’s smile faltered. It was only for a brief moment, but Matthew was sure of what he saw. What he couldn’t figure out was why she’d had that reaction to such a simple question.

“No,” Winnie said, her smile returning. “I once…” She seemed to think better of what she’d been about to say, shaking her head and beginning again. “Anyway, I’ll have to see you two ride sometime before I leave Foxwood, just so I can see how good you are.”

The girls nodded, the excitement in their eyes pushing Matthew to the edge. Why did they care about Winnie watching them? She was no one to them. Just a woman who’d managed to trick them, too.

His frustration mounted like a child throwing a tantrum until he spoke without thinking. “Yeah, we’ll see if you don’t leave too early for that.”

Char turned to look at him with a frown. Winnie merely rose from the girls with ease and faced him with an unreadable expression.

All right, maybe that had been a little too harsh. He just couldn’t help it. This woman had taken over every aspect of his life, and now, even his nieces liked her.

Granted, she was charming. She’d been charming sitting in her ridiculous Aston Martin stuck in the mud asking him to avoid scratching the green paint with his gauntlets.

“I hope you don’t mind my brother,” Char said, breaking through the silence his unkind comment had caused. “He’s not always a grump. Hopefully you get the chance to see a nicer side of him. He comes out every few weeks. You have to coax him from his cave, though. Like a yeti.”

Winnie laughed. “Thanks for the advice.”

Matthew’s irritation only grew.

Lilly tugged on Ava’s arm. “Ava, come pyay?”

Ava nodded. “May we play again, Mummy?”

“Yes, love,” Char said, and the three of them watched the girls run toward the football on the grass nearby.