"I don't honestly care," Luke promised. "Meredith really does use that for Faith, so it's six of one and a half dozen of the other to me."
I pushed off the hay bale and stood. "Then I need to talk to Cessily about a girl's night. You two get back to whatever hot and sweaty shit you were doing." And I let my eyes run over Luke's bare chest first before moving to examine Cy. "Because it looks good on you."
"Kinda what I thought too," Cy agreed.
A little laugh slipped out as I headed back toward the house - and air conditioning! Those two were cute. I liked spending time with Cess. We were getting a dog. All of this was going to work. It might not be easy, but we would find a way to make it all happen. That, and I only had a few hours until Faith got home. I couldn't wait to tell her the "good news." Having something to work toward had helped me. It may have been a different thing, but it still made all the hardship feel like it had a purpose.
Chapter Nineteen
Faith came home that afternoon, tossed her bag on the chair, and headed up to her room. She huffed twice before she was out of sight. We were all waiting in the living room, thinking we were going to make it better, but she didn't seem to care. The guys all looked at me, clearly hoping I'd have some miracle to fix this.
I didn't, but I still pushed myself up and followed after her. By the time I made it upstairs, she was already in her room, so I tapped at the door. It took too long for her to answer, and when she did, it wasn't with a word. She just yanked open the door and glared.
"Want to talk about it?" I asked.
"Not really," she grumbled.
I tipped my head to her room. "Mind if I come in?"
"Sure." So she moved back, giving me room to pass.
I headed to her bed and sat down on it. "We were talking today," I started, accepting her request to not talk about it. "Ash said you never had a dog, but sounded like you want one?"
"Dogs stink and piss everywhere," she told me, moving to the chair in front of her mirror.
"Well, I know how to use a steam cleaner, and they don't stink if they have a bath. So, that means youdon'twant a dog?"
Faith's legs began to swing, her toes lifted just enough so her boots brushed the top of the rug. "Dad can't have a dog because he doesn't own his own place."
"Faith, do you want one?" I asked, knowing she was trying to avoid answering.
"Yeah," she mumbled. "But I got a horse, and that's close enough, right?"
"Well, in my opinion, they're not the same. Dogs can sleep in the bed with you, they fit in the truck with you, and they greet you at the gate when you get home. Horses? They hang out in the pasture and are good for riding, but not as easy to cuddle up with on the couch."
She almost laughed at that. "I don't want to be greedy, Violet."
"Well, I happen to like dogs too. So, I wanted to make you a deal. Well, we all did. Your dad, Ash, Cy, Cessily, and even Darnell. While you were at school, we talked about it, and we decided that if you can make it through this custody case, then we'll get the place ready for a dog. The guys will build a yard for it, we'll put up a gate so it can't fall in the pool, and we'll puppy-proof the house."
"But?" Faith asked. "Because that sounds like I have to do something."
"You do," I admitted. "You have to keep going to school, keep your grades at least decent, and stay out of trouble. If you can put up with all of that, we will put in the work to make sure you can have a dog. Does that sound fair?"
She shrugged, dropping her shoulders hard in the way that made it clear she wasn't completely convinced. "Did Ash tell you what we talked about?"
"Some," I admitted. "He told Luke some too, but he left out a lot. I heard it was pretty bad."
"They said I had sex with him," she hissed, trying to keep her voice down, but the emphasis took over. "They said I was so hard up that he was the best I could get, and that I'd probably begged for it, Violet!"
"And you know that isn't true," I reminded her, patting the spot beside me. "Faith, bullies say the worst things and spread rumors because they want to hurt you. Those girls have no idea what you've been through this summer. They can't even understand. They hear that someone took pictures, and they think about the selfies they take, but this is different. They've never been violated, so they have no idea how much it hurts."
She moved over to the bed, but her eyes were locked on her toes. "Do you know?"
"Not personally," I told her. "I've seen how it hurts people, though. That's called empathy, and it's hard for some people to learn."
"What did they pick on you about?" she asked.
"For being fat, and ugly, and for not having any friends, even though I had Cy and Ash. They said I was a loser whose mom didn't even want her. That's why I grew up at Southwind, you know. My mother didn't want me. She dropped me off here and left. My father hated that I was even born. My grandmother loved me, though. I didn't want her to, and I was so used to being unwanted that I didn't know how to take it, so when those girls said that, it was like they were reading my own mind."
