Chapter 7

Pete

It had been no surprise to wake up and find that Sara had already left. She was used to derby life, and any kind of business that involved animals tended to create early risers. She must have been up, and out of the house before dawn, I thought as I looked out the window and saw that her car was no longer where Sam and Stephen had parked it the night before after they were able to bring it back to life.

I showered and got dressed, trying not to let my mind dwell on Sara Waters for any longer than absolutely necessary. I knew I would see her again in two weeks when we showed up for the derby, with or without the approval of Ken Waters, but until then I needed to focus on the things that had to happen around the ranch to make going to the derby possible. We needed to know how many trailers we were taking, the number of personnel that would be going with us, and Alex was going to have to decide for certain which horse was going to run.

Downstairs, I started breakfast, and as I was finishing up scrambling some eggs, Emma came bounding through the door.

“Back already?” I asked.

She nodded and dropped her bag on the floor. “Yeah, Dani and her mom had somewhere to be this morning, so they dropped me off on the way there.” She grabbed a piece of bacon and sat down at the table. “Where’s Sara?”

I looked at her a little surprised. “Oh, uh…she had to leave. She had to get back to the derby. Lots of work to do leading up to the big event. And you know it wasn’t in the plan for her to stay here in the first place. That just happened because her car broke down. She was ready to be on her way home, I’m sure.”

Emma got up and grabbed a glass from the cupboard then reached for the orange juice from the fridge. “Want any?” she asked as she poured herself a glass.

“No, I think I’ll just have coffee, thanks.”

She put the juice back and took a seat again. I could feel her eyes on me as I made us each a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit. When I set the plate in front of her, I could see that the wheels were turning in her brain.

“What’s going on with you?” I asked, genuinely curious about what was going on in her mind.

“I was just wondering when you were going to ask her out on a date,” she said without a pause.

I was taken aback but tried not to let it show. “Why would you think I was going to do that?”

She smiled. “See…you didn’t say you weren’t going to!”

I narrowed my eyes at her as I took a bite of scrambled eggs. She dug into her breakfast as well, and I waited until she had a full mouth before I spoke again.

“I didn’t say that, but…well, what would you think if I did?”

She shrugged as she finished swallowing a bite. “I don’t know why you don’t date. You’ve never ever brought anyone home. I mean…Dad, I know that you’ve been on dates, but I don’t think you’ve been on any in a long time. And you’ve never told me about them.”

I nodded. “Well, you know it’s a grown up thing, and relationships can be complicated. I’ve never wanted to get you involved unless I knew it was someone who was going to stick around…” I realized the words only after they had left my mouth.

Emma frowned. “You mean someone who isn’t like Mom?”

I sighed. It had always been important to me to never say anything disparaging about Kelly in front of Emma. If the woman ever acted like she wanted to have a relationship with our daughter, then I wanted the door to be open to the possibility. There was no need for me to share my opinion of the woman and the way she had abandoned both of us. It had never really mattered to me what Kelly thought about me or what kind of communication she wanted us to have, but I had always wanted her to have something with Emma. The fact that she had never been consistent and had hardly ever reached out over the years had been painful for me to witness, but I knew that it had to be so much more than that for my daughter who was missing out on having a mother in her life entirely.

“If I was going to bring someone around, I would want to make sure that it was the sort of woman that I thought would be a great role model for you. Someone who had some drive and knew what she wanted out of life. And I would hope that what she wanted would include the both of us. We’re a package deal, you and me. You know that, right?”

She nodded and smiled. Emma was still a young girl at twelve, but I was already starting to see a glimpse of the woman she was going to be and it was both exciting and terrifying. I knew that my daughter was strong, capable, and intelligent, and whenever I decided that I was going to date again, with serious intentions, I wanted it to be someone that she could look up to.

“I know, Dad. But for that to happen you’re going to have to actually go out on dates.”

“From the mouths of babes,” I said as I looked down toward my plate. “Okay, well now that I know that you want me to go on dates, maybe I can take it a little more seriously. I just want you to know that no matter who comes into my life, you come first. No matter what, I want you to be able to come talk to me and tell me what you think about things. This is early days still and who knows—I might not even find anyone. Maybe I’ll be a bachelor for the rest of my life.”

Emma wrinkled her nose. “Eww. Dad, no. You’re too young for that. You need to get out there and find someone. And I thought that Sara was really nice. She’s funny, and she seems like she is really smart. And both of you work with horses. It sounds like it could be a good match.”

“What do you know about good matches?” I asked as I gave her a look.

“Dad, I watch TV and movies. It’s not that difficult to figure out.”

I just smiled and shook my head and continued eating my breakfast. I wasn’t sure what I thought about my twelve year old talking about good matches, but I had to admit that she was probably right. Me hanging my hat up and not going out and dating for the last few years hadn’t been the greatest idea, not if I ever intended to get back out there.

We finished eating breakfast while Emma told me about her slumber party and her plans with her friends throughout the spring. It sounded like they were going to be pretty busy before the summer got started. Once Emma had finished breakfast she bounded away off to the stables for her morning ride with Saoirse and cleaned up the dishes, my mind returning to dating and the prospect of starting all that again.

Sara Waters though—that was another story. She was something entirely different. The attraction between us was palpable, and I wanted her—badly. I wasn’t sure if she was someone I would want to date long term because I really didn’t know the woman beyond the interaction we had had the day before and that had been fairly intense. Before that, we had only known each other as children, so there was a gulf between who we were then and who we were now. But I was willing to find out more about Sara, and I planned to get much more familiar with her soon.

Derby preparation continued at Killarny Estate and all of my brothers stuck to their individual tasks to get us ready to take our horses down to Tennessee. It was one of our biggest events of the year, and since we hadn’t been in the Waters Derby for the past two years since my mother’s death, this was a big one for us.

Going to the Waters Derby had always been a family affair. We would all load up in our trailers and head down to Tennessee for the week. There was an area for all the people with horses in the derby to park their trailers and RVs and it was like one big family reunion with some healthy competition thrown in for that entire week leading up to the race.

I hadn’t been to the derby in years though. My work had been primarily back here at the ranch and with Emma so young I had always kept close by, instead of hauling her down to the derby. It was strange, now that I thought about it, because we had gone to a lot of the derbies that were closer by, but I knew what it was all about when it came down to it. I didn’t want to see Ken Waters and if not going to his derby accomplished that, then that’s what I would do. I knew that what was between my father and Ken Waters was just that—between the two of them. But I couldn’t get the bad taste in my mouth to go away about the man. I despised him, and I never wanted to see him again.

Because I had stayed away it had been years since I had seen either him or his daughter, Sara. And now that’s all I could think about as I went over some of the paperwork that needed to be finalized before we closed up shop for the week and headed to the derby. Sara and her beautiful face and amazing body. God, how I had wanted her there in my study when she had been stranded at the ranch. I could have had her, too, but that wasn’t the right time. I don’t know what had come over me, but I didn’t want it to happen right there. Maybe it was because I wanted to punish her for what she and her father were trying to do to us. Or maybe it was something deeper than that. I didn’t often dive into my subconscious that way, but I wondered if I was holding myself back from Sara because I thought there might be more…or at least the potential.

But it was so early. Far too early to start thinking about things like that. I brushed the thoughts aside and picked up the stack of notes my secretary had left for me. Somewhere in the middle, there was a phone message from Sara buried amongst the others. It simply read:

“Bring your horse to the derby. I’m trying to work something out.”

I looked at the words over and over. Bring your horse to the derby. We were going to do it anyway, but getting the note from Sara was the kind of bolstering I needed. While I was ready to pack up and leave for the derby no matter what happened, it felt good to know that in some way Sara was trying to figure things out and would try to keep her father from causing a big problem for us. At least this way I could be fairly certain that when I arrived there wouldn’t be police waiting to escort us away.

I picked up the phone to dial my father in Costa Rica. He answered after the third ring and the line was a little fuzzy, but he seemed happy to hear from me.

“How are things going down there, Dad?”

He laughed, and I was happy to hear things were good. “Great, great. Just whipping up a pitcher of drinks for a party later. Is everything going okay back there?”

My father was always asking about the ranch now, but in the early days when he decided to go to Costa Rica, I felt like there was a level of avoidance. The man had lost the woman he had spent over half of his life with, and he was still coming to terms with what life would look like without her in it. After a couple of years of struggling to make things work here at the ranch without her, he decided it was better if he turned the ranch over to my brothers and myself to run. It was a single trip to Costa Rica that had changed his mind about everything. He had gone down there to clear his mind and instead he had found the sort of happiness he was looking for. While we all missed having him and his expertise around the ranch, I knew that he was doing the best thing for himself and he deserved that much. Besides, if there were ever any real issue, he would be back up here in a heartbeat to make sure everything was taken care of.

“Things are good now,” I gnawed on my bottom lip as I pondered whether or not to mention anything about Ken Waters and the drama surrounding the derby. If I didn’t say anything and something did happen, it would most certainly make it back to my dad, and I knew it was better to get it out of the way now. “Well, things are better now. It was hit or miss there for a minute. Had a bit of a run in with Ken Waters.”

My father went silent for a moment on the other end of the line. “What’s the problem? Do I need to come up there? Do I need to call him?”

“No, no. I think it’s all sorted. And it was less of a run in with Ken as it was with his daughter. He sent Sara to deliver a message instead of coming himself.”

I could sense my father’s disappointment in his onetime best friend. “What the hell was he thinking? And what was the message about?”

I didn’t soften the words. “He told us we couldn’t run in the derby. Tried to give us the registration money back.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope,” I said, and I was glad I was telling him now because he would have been furious to find out later.

“What’s his reasoning behind all this?”

I shook my head and sighed. “I think we both know the real reason for it all, but I’m not sure what he’s told, Sara. What I do know is that she doesn’t have a clue about the truth. Her father has sold her some pack of lies about us being involved in something illegal. I don’t know what…not that it matters, because none of it is true. But I thought for a moment she believed it.”

“Hmm,” my father muttered on the other line. “Sara is a really remarkable young woman. I would give her some credit if I were you. She is probably just following orders from her father, and I’m sure that up to this point he has never given her any reason not to trust him.”

“That may be the case; I just don’t know what she will think if she finds out…you know.”

My father sighed. “Pete, whatever she finds, if she finds anything, well…that’s between her and her father. I think you did right not to say anything. Ken is handling this poorly, and I’m afraid that he’s the one who will end up in hot water over it. At least with his daughter. She wouldn’t even be curious about anything if her father wasn't so goddamn underhanded about all of it.”

I nodded and looked at the stack of papers I needed to get to. “Okay, well, I just wanted to give you a heads up. We’ll be leaving in a week for the derby. Wasn’t sure if you were thinking about coming up for it?”

“Nah, not for Ken’s derby. He clearly doesn’t want to see me, so we’ll leave it at that. Let me know how things go.”

“Bye, Dad,” I said as I hung up the phone and got back to work preparing for the big day.

The time passed by quickly and before I knew it the day had arrived and we were on the road to the derby. Emma and I were in one of the trucks, hauling a trailer behind us. We were the last in the caravan of vehicles traveling from Killarny Estate, and I was glad for the time with my daughter. She was a chatter box as always and had lots of questions about this particular derby since she had never been to it before.

“It’s a pretty big deal,” I said. “And the prize for this one is huge. It would be great for the ranch if we could win it.”

Emma chewed her lip. “Do we need money?”

“Oh…damn.” I regretted my word choice. “No, it’s nothing like that. Well, everybody needs money, sweetheart. But it’s not like we’re destitute or anything like that. It’s just that things happen, the market changes, and sometimes you have good years while others are not as good. You know how things got after grandma passed away? Your grandad was really sad, and our focus wasn’t really on the business at the time. It’s normal for that kind of thing to happen when you experience trauma. But now things are back on track, and we’re doing well. It would be great for the ranch if we win the race not only for the money. It promotes us quite a bit and helps us get a little more prestige.”

Emma nodded and seemed to understand, but at this point, she was tired of talking to her old man. She picked up a book and turned her attention there, and the rest of the drive to the derby was pretty quiet.

When we arrived, I found myself holding my breath, waiting to see if anything unexpected was going to happen when we arrived at the front gate. There was an attendant there checking people’s credentials and letting trucks and horse trailers in one by one. I breathed a sigh of relief as the first of the Killarny trailers pulled across the cattle guard and headed up to the area where the ranchers parked for the week.

When it came to my turn, I held out my ID, and our registration information and the attendant, a young woman in her twenties gave me a second look. Maybe Emma was right; I was still young. But I probably shouldn’t be trying to pick up young women here at the derby. Not with Sara so close by. I still had my sights set on her, and I needed to give that a good college try. The young woman smiled and let us through, but I noticed her make a call on her walkie as we passed over the cattle guard with a rumble.

I parked, and Emma hopped out, immediately running to find one of her friends from another ranch.

“Don’t go too far…call and check in every once in a while!” I called after her, but I knew she was safe here amongst friends…and rivals.

I started to unhitch the trailer and secure it to its place on the ground. This would be our little home for the next week, and it was just big enough for Emma and myself, though I had a feeling she would spend a few nights with her friends in their family’s massive RVs.

“Hey, stranger.” I heard the voice come from behind me and I turned to find Sara standing there, a smirk on her face. Well, at least it wasn’t a boot to my shin after the way we had left things.

“Howdy,” I said as I finished up the task at hand before turning to give her my full attention.

“You didn’t have any trouble getting in?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, I suppose I have you to thank for that.” I smiled. “Thanks. What did you do?”

Sara cleared her throat. “Well, let’s be perfectly clear. My father still says you aren’t racing and he may be trying to pull something with the contract. I know he’s contacted our attorney. But as of right now you are still on the list to race, and I want you all to approach it that way.”

I ducked my head a little and shook it in dismay. “I haven’t even said anything to most of the guys. Didn’t want to get it in their head that it might not happen. That can mess with ‘em, you know.” I looked back up at her, and I could see that she was looking a little emotional. “Sara, I’m really disappointed in your father. He has no right in the world to attack us like this.”

She approached me quietly and placed her hand on my arm. “Pete…I know he doesn’t. I still don’t know what’s going on with him, but I promise you I am going to find out. I just hope that we can move forward and be friendly about things. Start fresh.”

I gave her a curious look. “You want to be friends?” Friends were the last thing I wanted to be with this woman. I wanted to scoop her up in my arms that very second and take her into the trailer where I could ride her until she screamed my name over and over again.

She nodded. “I think that would be best. It makes more sense that way and is a little less…dramatic. I hope you understand.”

“It felt like you wanted to be more than friends the other night,” I said quietly, but with an edge in my voice.

She stared me down. “You are one to talk, Pete Killarny. You really know how to treat a woman.”

And with that, she stomped off, and I was left standing, regretting that I hadn’t fucked her against the wall the first chance I had.