Page 76 of Love, Lies, and Whiskey

“Yeah, when I was much younger. It was a lot of fun.”

“He was good, too,” Lucas bragged, surprising Doc, and by the look on Juliette’s face, surprising her, too. “He was the junior world champ five times.”

“Wow,” Layla said. She nudged Lucas. “I bet you can be a world champ if you try.”

Lucas sat up taller, eating up the compliment.

“He’s better than I ever was,” Doc said.

Lucas gave him a disbelieving look. “You thought I was that good?”

“Dude, you were awesome.” Doc could see him struggling with that praise, his lips twitching like he wanted to wear it proudly, but that big heart of his was holding it back.

“I think you’re both pretty great,” Juliette said.

“You have to say that. You’re my mom,” Lucas said, and they all laughed.

“I do not,” Juliette insisted.

“Whatever,” Lucas said. “Layla competes in horse shows, and she’s really good.”

Doc was impressed with his swift pivot, but the admiration in Lucas’s voice told him it wasn’t only a pivot. He wanted them to know she was special. As if her being there wasn’t like a neon sign.

“I would’ve loved to have competed when I was your age,” Juliette said.

“Why didn’t you?” Lucas asked.

“I didn’t have the time to dedicate to it,” Juliette said.

Doc squeezed her leg under the table, knowing the truth. Her father hadn’t allowed it, but she probably didn’t want to get into that with the kids.

“It does take a lot of time, but I love it,” Layla said.

“She has a competition in a few weeks,” Lucas added. “I want to go. Is that okay, Mom?”

“I don’t see why not. I’d like to go, too,” she said.

“That sounds like fun. My sister Sasha used to compete,” Doc said. “What’s your discipline?”

“Junior dressage,” Layla said, and went on to tell them about the events she’d won and how her whole family, including her grandfather and all of her cousins and aunts and uncles who lived in the area, tried to come to her competitions.

Doc hoped that one day Lucas would be able to say the same thing about their family.

Chapter Twenty-One

DOC SHOWED UP for the last half of Lucas’s riding practice and enjoyed the hell out of watching him interacting with the other kids as well as seeing him ride. He was surprised by how those little moments took hold of a part of him that he hadn’t realized was there for the taking.

He took pictures of Lucas riding and sent them to Juliette with the caption He’s amazing.

Juliette: Like someone else I know. She added a smile emoji surrounded by four hearts.

She’d met with the therapist that morning and had really liked her. She’d told Juliette it sounded like they were handling things with Lucas well, keeping open communication but not pushing. They had a lot of ground to cover, but Juliette would continue to see her weekly, and she was going to talk with Lucas about talking with her as well. Doc had been glad to hear she’d advised Juliette to take some time to think about the situation with her father and Ana before making any moves. He’d shared the information with his father and brothers last night after church, and they’d agreed that he needed to be careful so nothing could come back on Juliette.

Doc had spoken with his mother earlier to see if she had any advice about how to handle things with Lucas during their driving lesson this afternoon. She’d reminisced about what it had been like to ride in the car with him and his brothers when they were learning to drive and how different it had been from teaching his sisters. Apparently Doc and his brothers weren’t very talkative, had tried to play the music too loud and drove too fast, while his sisters would talk the whole time, pointing out cute boys walking by, only occasionally putting the pedal to the metal.

Doc sent the pictures of Lucas to his family in a group text.

Doc: That’s my boy.