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“Dad, you wouldn’t understand.” She rolled her eyes, then gave a little wave towards the door.
I panicked. Chloe was in the kitchen. Piper raced over to engage. I flushed bright red and waited for Chloe’s reaction. She stood in the kitchen in a pair of too-short-shorts and one of her brother’s campaign shirts. She didn’t acknowledge me, but allowed Piper to talk her ear off.
I texted:
ME
I panicked and I’m sorry. You can send her back to me whenever. It’s fine.
CHLOE
It’s okay. She’s fine.
She didn’t seem upset, at least. That had to have been a joke, then, right? She wasn’t propositioning me?
I didn’t know. What I did know was my daughter was all wrapped up on getting sisterly advice from this woman she’d grown to worship, and I wasn’t about to fuck that up. As much as I felt awkward, Piper adored Chloe. There was no part of me that wanted to give into some stupid base urge and complicate it.
Instead, I would tell myself there was no part of me that wanted it—all the way to Oklahoma.
15. THIRST TRAP
COLE
“What’s got you down?” Kevin plopped into the director’s chair by mine outside our humble row of stalls in Tulsa.
“A lot of things,” I said. “This is going to be Piper’s last western show. Mark my words. She doesn’t want to say it. She doesn’t want to disappoint me. But she’s done.”
“Really? She just made the finals for horsemanship in a huge class!”
“If you saw her on the back of that mare of hers in a dressage arena, you’d understand. The joy overflows when she’s working on horse dancing or whatever the hell it is. English reining? Either way, she’s happy there. Here, she’s good. She’s exacting. She’s technically perfect, but I don’t see that joy. I’m not going to force her.”
Kevin sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Nah. It’s just life. I’ve accepted it. I’m just preparing myself for the tears.”
Kevin chuckled. “And that’s it? Other than the tornado and all of that?”
“Yeah. Now, that I don’t want to talk about. I got our final assessment back and it’s bad. There’s no way I can afford a barn, an arena, and a house—not one of the caliber I want. Instead, I’m thinking about starting over and trying to find more land or something else. Don’t tell Piper.”
“That was your dream.”
I shrugged. “What can I do? I’m not about to dip into my retirement to invest even more into it. Besides, I’ve got two more clients up north. It’s weird. I want my own place back so badly, but it’s nice to just have clients and not have to attend to a colicking horse at 3 AM or to take an ice pick to my trough in January because the heater stopped working. It’s not my problem.”
“So what now?”
“I’m going to go with what the market wants,” I sighed. “A small hobby barn, immaculate paddocks, and a cute loft apartment. It will sell fast with the best ROI. A large property will kill any savings I had and offloading it will take three times as long.”
“You were supposed to retire there.”
“I bought the land when everything was different—to fill a hole in my heart. Instead, I discovered something else.”
He cocked his head. “What?”
“That if Piper and I have horses to ride and have each other, we don’t need anything else. No matter where we are, we’re together. And she’s not going to stick around to help me with any of this. I’d end up having to hire staff the more extracurriculars she does—and this school as a million.”
“Fucking north ‘burbs. You’re living like a prince.”
I snickered. “In a tiny pool house. Yeah.”
