Courting Chloe (Hudson Valley Heroes Book 1) by Victoria Lynne Page B

does this would make a killing in the city. She could charge five times these prices.”
    Chloe smiled. “I agree. In fact, I’ve been encouraging Olivia to market her work to some of the shops in SoHo and the East Village.”
    “Oh? You know her?”
    “Hmm-mm. Olivia Mater’s her name. She was a client of mine at the camp last year.”
    “Ah.” Ian’s expression cooled slightly. He set down the scarf he’d been holding. “She’s disabled?” There was politeness in his tone, but distance, too. Whatever enthusiasm he’d had for her work had been summarily extinguished.
    Chloe bit back a surge of irritation. “Blind, actually.”
    “Blind? But how—”
    “She has the patterns transferred into Braille. Her sight didn’t fail until she was nine, so she has an excellent color memory. She divides, groups, and labels the yarns when she buys them.”
    “Hmm.”
    “A disability is no longer a death sentence, Mr. Dowling. Nor does it diminish someone’s innate talent, personality, or intelligence.”
    His gaze pivoted back to her. “Hold on. Did I say that it did?”
    Chloe drew in a calming breath. Like a mama bear defending her cubs, she did have a tendency to overreact at perceived injustice, to lecture people. She recognized that unbecoming trait in herself and wasn’t proud of it. At the same time, it was hard not be indignant when so many of her friends and former clients constantly battled societal prejudices, both subtle and overt.
    “Not exactly,” she hedged, “but you might as well have. Your enthusiasm for Olivia’s work faded the moment you heard she was blind. I saw it in your face.”
    “Maybe I was just surprised.” He pinned her with a cool stare. “And maybe I need a little time and space to adjust to all this.”
    “This?”
    “This…” He slashed his palm through the air, the frustrated gesture encompassing everything and nothing at all. “You, the camp, the dogs... All of it. Maybe being here isn’t exactly my dream come true.”
    His dream come true? She bit down hard to block the sharp retort that sprang to her lips. Of course he didn’t want to be there. So what? While Ian Dowling might be singular in his ability to write a check large enough to bump him to the front of the line, that didn’t make him any different than anyone else.
    No one wanted to be there. No one in their right mind would ever want to lose a limb, lose their hearing or sense of sight, or suffer a devastating illness or injury. No one wanted to see a loved one suffer. Chloe sympathized. Really. But in the end, all the sympathy in the world wouldn’t change reality. There was still work to be done.
    She drew herself up and tilted her chin, returning his stare without blinking. This was the opening she’d been waiting for, and she wasn’t going to waste it. He wanted a little space? Too bad. She pressed in closer.
    “Look, if you want to sulk about being here, do it on your own time. Don’t waste mine.”
    “Sulk?” His dark brows shot ceilingward. “Did you just accuse me of sulking ?”
    “Use whatever word you like. Sulk, brood, pout—”
    “ Pout?”
    “Whatever.” She waved his objection away. “The precise term doesn’t matter. What does matter is your attitude. Coming here was your choice—and personally, I think it was a damned good one. In fact, I think you’ll be astonished by how much a canine assistant can help Preston. But writing a check isn’t enough. We’ve only got four weeks to make this work. That’s not much time. It’s important that you understand that most of the exercises we do are based on trust. You can’t fake it. You can’t hold back, make a half-effort and think that’s enough. I’ll know it, and so will the dogs. It would help me tremendously if you’d enter this process with an open mind.”
    “Fair enough. And while we’re on the subject of what we need from each other, it would help me tremendously if you wouldn’t be so quick to claim the moral