Ava gave me a reassuring smile. “You’ll be fine. Just tell us everything, and I mean everything, and we’ll see what we can do to help you out. Before all this went down, we loved y'all together. You’re great for her, Dean. My whole family thinks so…or thought so.” She reached out and squeezed my hand.
I nodded as Weston made his way back to the table with drinks in hand. I saw a small crack in his armor when I noticed he had three beers instead of two. He set one down in front of me. “Thought you could use another one, since that one is halfway gone.”
“Thanks, man.” I slid the beer to the side, and Ava met my gaze with a little smirk on her face that might as well have saidtold you so.
“Okay, let me call Walker to get him in on this conversation,” Ava said, grabbing her phone and FaceTiming her brother.
“Hey, Walk, I’m here with West and Dean. I’m going to prop the phone up against this napkin-holder thingy so you can see us all.” She positioned the phone so he could see all of our faces. I waved at the phone like a loser, but fuck, I was nervous. “Hey, Walker, thanks for meeting with me.”
He sat back in the chair he was in and crossed his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed, and just nodded. Okay, so clearly both brothers were still pissed, as Ava mentioned.
I cleared my throat to break the tension. “All right, I’m just going to lay it all out for you guys from the beginning.”
I spent the next twenty or so minutes detailing the timeline of events that had occurred from beginning to end. Walker’sbody language changed as the story went on, and he seemed a lot less angry toward me, asking a couple of clarifying questions along the way. Weston had his poker face on and didn’t so much as flinch or change his expression as I told the story. Ava was wide-eyed the entire time, hanging on every word as if I was telling the most interesting story she’d ever heard.
Once I finished, I pushed the blue folder toward Weston. He picked it up and began flipping through all of the documents. Walker spoke first. “Fuck. That is nuts. I never liked Noah, but if I ever see that fucker again, I’m going to beat his ass.”
Ava laughed. “It seems like Archer and Dean already took care of the ass beating.”
Walker smiled. “Thanks for standing up for our sister, man. I appreciate you going to this much trouble to prove your innocence. I’m still pissed at you for lying to her to begin with, but I now know that it all came from a good place. You made a mistake.”
“I know I fucked up, and I’ll do everything I can to get her to trust me again. But the things that Noah accused me of are not true. Period. I care about your sister so fucking much, and I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.”
Ava smiled at me, her eyes looking glossy with unshed tears. Weston looked at his sister and rolled his eyes. “You cry at literally everything, Ava.”
She scoffed and pushed him. “Do not. I just love, love.”
Weston turned his attention back to me. “I looked through everything you have, and it’s all pretty fucking crazy. I’m sorry you’re related to such a dipshit that went to these lengths tofuck you over. I’ve always been a good judge of character, and I was pretty pissed when I thought I ended up being wrong about you… Nice to see I’m still right.”
Walker barked out a laugh. “Seriously, West? You’re just happy you’re right? Not that he wasn’t lying and using our sister? Such a tool.”
Weston looked at the phone. “Shut the fuck up, little brother. Of course I’m happy he isn’t fucking over our sister.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry for these barbarians, Dean.” She shot them both a stern look. “So what can we do to help you?”
I took a deep breath in. “Well, it seems your sister has been doing everything in her power to avoid me.”
All the siblings laughed simultaneously. “That’s Addison,” they all said almost in unison.
“I have an idea of what I want to do, and it involves all of you.”
I spent the next several minutes running through the plan I had with them. They all thought the idea was perfect and were going to help me out. After talking through logistics, Walker had to get off the phone because he had practice early in the morning. Ava and Weston stayed for another hour or so, just drinking beer and catching up with me. It felt good to be here again with the James family. Now, I just needed to get back in the good graces of my favorite James sibling.
Chapter 28
Addison
Ithadbeenacouple of days since I arrived in Wellington with Cash and Dahlia for WEF. I found an amazing groom named Lacey who’d traveled with me to the show. She was twenty years old, just moved to Primrose Hill, and was completing her college degree in animal science remotely. She was looking for a training assistant / show groom position and ended up being the perfect fit. She was a skilled rider and helped me work horses when we weren’t showing. For shows, she traveled with me to care for the horses as well as ride any of them that I needed help with.
Being a one-woman show was a bit overwhelming at first, so having Lacey eased my workload quite a bit, and I was thrilled that I was able to afford her, given the success of my business. The long-term plan was that she would take over my children’s lesson program, since her dream job was being a riding instructor and trainer. She also shadowed me while I was training the younger horses. Lacey was like a sponge and soaked up everything I taught her.
Jessica and Heather had also decided to join us at the show as part of a girls’ trip away from their families. I was justappreciative of the support, since this was the biggest Prix I’d ever competed in, and my family wasn’t able to attend with everything they had going on.
I was sitting on a tack trunk outside of Cash’s stall, scrolling through my phone, when a voice I’d know from anywhere caught my attention. “Well, if it isn’t one of the youngest riders competing in the Grand Prix tonight.” I jumped up off my trunk and lunged into Eli’s arms. He squeezed me tight. “How’s my favorite duo doing? I heard that you had quite the round a couple of weeks ago in Evergreen River.” Eli walked over to Cash’s stall, and Cash popped his head out for Eli to rub him.
I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. I was so happy to see my old trainer. “I had no idea that you were going to be here this week. I thought you were here competing during the earlier weeks.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I brought some horses down the first couple of weeks and then took a few weeks off before coming back for the final weeks of the show.”
