“Well,” she says while choking back tears and pulling me into a hug. “You’re family. No matter what the future brings, that will never change. You hear me?”
Her words have tears fill my eyes. I didn’t expect her to be this kind and compassionate after having convinced myself for the past ten years she hated me for some unknown reason.
I can’t believe my mother took away my family on purpose just to spite me.
Or maybe she didn’t want me to be happy having a relationship with Dad after she left him.
I wonder what I did to make her hate me this much, except being born.
Chapter Twenty
I stand in the center of the round pen, relaxed and patiently waiting. I don’t let my impatience or frustration overtake my mind. With my arms hanging at my side, I try not to make any sudden movements or even twitch. Even though it’s always these situations you have the sudden urge to scratch your nose.
But for the first time in four sessions of working with Lucifer, he’s stopped as soon as I asked him to and turned slightly into me. His eyes are fixed on me, and I can tell he’s debating on whether to take one more step in my direction. It’s been four days of playing horse games, six days since that first session where I followed Bob’s advice to treat him like a horse.
I count to five before I make a clicking noise with my tongue and draw my hips back, hoping this will coax him to come to me.
“Come ‘ere, handsome,” I whisper for good measure, trying not to spook him.
After another couple of seconds, I watch Lucifer sigh deeply, drop his head, and slowly walk toward me. Still not fully secure in his surroundings or me, I don’t move, but I can’t help a satisfied smile to spread.
He stops in front of me, lifts his head, and pushes his nose gently against my stomach. Still avoiding any sudden movements, I lift my hand to scratch his forehead. Happiness fills me at the show of trust.
This is why I love working with horses. Many of them don’t trust easily, but once you earn their trust you know you’ve accomplished something great. I can relate to that. It’s hard trusting others, but sometimes it’s worth taking the risk. And I’m beyond ecstatic Lucifer finally chose to trust me.
As the words, “Such a good boy,” leave my mouth I hear a noise behind me. It’s been quiet for the past hour while I was working with Lucifer. I made sure everyone knew not to disturb me while I worked with him. I didn’t need the added distraction of him being nervous because someone else was in the arena.
I slowly turn, annoyed at whoever went against my request.
I’m surprised at two things once I face the entrance to the arena. One, Lucifer hasn’t moved, his presence is still close to my back. And two, Bob is standing in front of me, a blinding smile directed at me.
“I see you took my advice with him.”
“Bob,” I say, excitedly. “What are you doing here?”
On any other occasion, I’d go to him and give him a hug, something he isn’t too fond of but always makes me feel better. But with Lucifer finally trusting me enough to not spook at a stranger in the vicinity, I don’t intend to jeopardize the progress we’ve made by acting impulsively.
“Wayne called me two days ago. He asked if Dakota and I would be willing to come here for a couple of weeks. Bring the horses so we can get some training in. Now that you’re cleared to start doing some physical activity.”
“Seriously?” I ask in surprise. The thought Dad would call him and Dakota never even occurred to me. My mother never understood my attachment to both of them, and why I preferred their presence over pretty much anyone else’s. Yet, Dad didn’t even blink to open his home to two complete strangers, adding what I assume are a couple more horses to feed.
High-performance horses with special dietary needs. Like having Whisky around isn’t complicated enough and making him go out of his way to provide for.
“Yes, seriously.” His smirk is smug, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he’s not saying. That my father loves me and would do pretty much anything to make me feel better. He could tell in the kitchen the day of the big blowout that I missed him and Dakota and did something about it.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You told me so.” I hate when he’s right about things like this. You’d think by now I’d listen to him. But the stubborn side of me doesn’t like not learning these things for herself.
“I also had a Kade Reed on the same call. Making sure to say we’d have a vet on hand whenever we needed while we’re here. Just like in Seattle.”
Oh, boy. What is it with the men suddenly in my life? Four days ago, the only one who I had to put up with was Bob. And then I had to go sleep with Kade, spill every single secret I used to hold close to my chest to my father, and now I have all three of them in one spot trying to take care of me.
Fun.
“Of course, he did.” I’m not surprised Kade was in on this scheme to get them here. It’s definitely something he would do, knowing how happy it would make me. Which means I can’t even be mad at either one of them.
“Where’s Kota?” I suddenly realize she’s not here with him.
“She and Maverick are having tea with your… with Lizzie and Lauren. Lovely people.”
“Kota brought Mav?” My voice rises slightly in shock,
