Lorelai’s shoulders melt toward her plush comforter like she’s swooning with me, a sappy smile on her face as we sit there for a second and bask in my words, in the wonderfulness that is Billy King. Then her smile falls. “Did you have to give an answer to Werner?”
“Oh,” I remember, smiling. “Yeah, I did. Christmas Day, I called him and told him I couldn’t do it.”
The color bleeds from her face, Lor looking as shocked as I would’ve been had any friend of mine done the same. But this was different, and Billy was special.
“Are you serious? You really gave it all up? The condo, the trainer, the chef, the housekeeper, the car, the bikes…”
“Yeah,” I admit, feeling more secure in my decision than ever. “I’ve had a lot of loves in my life, Lorelai. School, medicine, racing. I haven’t loved any of it as much as I love laughing with Billy. And I’m gonna marry him. Maybe not tomorrow or this year, but that is the man I’m going to marry. Because I already know: when I’m old and I’m dying, I’m not gonna regret the races I missed. I’m gonna regret the days I missed when I could’ve been laughing with him.”
She shakes her head, blinking rapidly. Then she freaks. “Are you keeping your contract?”
“Of course.” I set my water on her nightstand so I can take her hand.
To Lorelai, the idea of not being able to race is the absolute worst thing in the world. And it doesn’t mean she’s wrong or I am. We’re just different, and I like that about our friendship. We balance each other. It helps keep our priorities in check. Not that anything could change my mind about this.
“Nothing else is changing on that front, and we’re still going to figure out the image campaign. It won’t be as big now, and it’ll be a lot more complicated and will mean more travel probably, but I just…” I blow out a breath. “I haven’t told Billy yet. How do I tell him this, Lor? The last time I said the word ‘propose,’ he looked like I clocked him across the jaw.”
She snorts, shaking her head. “I don’t know, Taryn. Maybe make him dinner first? You are a really good cook.”
“Oh yeah, that’ll work,” I deadpan. “‘Hey, honey, I’m not moving to Germany anymore because I gave up my offer for you, but please don’t feel the need to get married anytime soon or anything. Pass the lasagna?’”
Her face goes sharp, her hand flying up between us. “Don’t mention Italian food to me. Or anything related to Italy in general.”
Jackpot!
“Why?” I drawl.
She gets up and heads toward her massive walk-in closet, flipping on the light. Then she disappears inside her safe space: racks of cocktail dresses, evening gowns, jeans and leather jackets, and tiny little designer tops that individually cost way more than my truck payment. I love shopping in her closet.
“What happened now?”
Hangers clink and clank, fabric swooshing and a zipper zipping. “So you know how both Luca and Piero retired, so Mason and I signed with Dabria Corse and we’re getting moved up to MotoPro?”
I sit a little more comfortably on her bed, getting ready to receive whatever bomb she’s gonna drop. “Yeah…”
A hanger clangs on the wood bar in the closet, then Lor sticks her head out, her voice black. “Francesco Lombardi is officially done, too. Massimo signed with Yaalon.”
My jaw hits the bedding, dumbstruck that her biggest rival is now teammates with my boyfriend. “No! MotoPro?”
“Oh yes.”
“Honey, I’m so sorry!”
She just can’t seem to get away from that guy.
“Well…” She creeps out of the closet, her hands twisting in front of her, and I wonder if this is the moment she’s going to admit her crush on him. “That’s not the worst part.”
I crack a smile, wishing I had popcorn for this. “What’s the worst part?”
“God, you’re gonna be pissed.” She tears her hands through her hair, sending my stomach flipping before it knots and locks halfway up my throat.
“Lor,” I say, my voice low.
“Okay, so, I swear to God I had nothing to do with this, and I thought you might not actually care that much because you and Billy were broken up, but now that I know what’s really been going on…” She bites her lip, her shoulders up by her ears, and did the heater kick up? I just started sweating, bad. “My mom’s really pissed at Billy. Like really pissed. He snuck Gidget out again the other night—”
“To come to my house! Gidget was in the barn with Aston the whole time!”
“Well, she’s told Billy to stop doing that before, and the thing is, she bought Gidget to be mine, but he’s not. He’s just not! And as much as she loves Billy, she says she can’t—won’t—pay to feed and stable a horse for a farmhand who doesn’t work for her anymore and who doesn’t respect her rules.”
I stare at Lorelai, praying she’s not saying what I think she is.
It’ll kill Billy. Like, drop him dead, on the spot.
She deflates, hugging her arms around her. “She’s selling Gidget.”
I leap off the bed, grabbing my purse and ripping out my phone. “When?”
“Like, today,” Lorelai says. “The guy’s supposed to be here in, like, an hour.”
“Are you fucking serious?!” I scream at her. “How could you not tell me? Or him?”
She sputters, looking a lot smaller than she normally does and nothing like the reckless racer who can kick my boyfriend’s ass if he’s not 100 percent focused on the track. “I thought we were mad at him!”
I dial Billy’s number, tearing my hand through my hair as it rings and rings.
“Hey, honey,” he finally answers.
“Where are you!” I yell, freaking the fuck out that he’s not already here and having no idea how I’m going to tell him this. How do you tell someone this? And over the phone?
“I’m…at the doctor?”
A whole new wave of horror strikes me straight in the center of my chest, my hand flying to my throat. “Why are you at the doctor? Are you hurt?”
“Nah. I, uh…” He clears his throat, then drops his voice. “I came clean to Frank about Smashbox. We’re getting my ankle checked to make sure I’m okay to go back to work, since I’m still limping.”
“Oh…”
The words cycle over themselves in my mind, settling on top of everything else I was supposed to say and now can’t remember. He came clean? And got his manager to take him to a doctor instead of blowing it off like it’ll probably be fine?
Pride melts through me, warm as each lap of hot air from the heater. He’s changed so much. But thankfully not too much. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he rumbles, a bit of a smile in his voice like he knows he did the right thing and knows I’m happy with him for it.
Lorelai swats at my arm.
Shit! She’s right. “Honey, I’m sorry, and I know he’s gonna be pissed, but you gotta leave and get to the ranch right now.”
“Taryn, I can’t—”
“Lynn’s selling Gidget,” I blurt out, my heart broken that I’m not next to him where I can hold his hand and promise we’re gonna find a way to fix it, though I have no idea how in the hell we’re gonna do that. “She’s pissed, Billy. She’s really pissed that you kept him out the other night, and the guy’s gonna be here in an hour. You gotta get here now!”
There’s no sound on the other end of the line.
I check the screen, and yeah, I’ve got full bars.
“Billy! Did you hear me? She’s—”
“Stall her.” His voice is so sharp, I almost wonder whether it’s Frank speaking. Until I hear him yelling in the background.
“Hey! Where are you going?”
I look up at Lorelai, ice flooding my veins and no idea how I’m supposed to do what he’s asking me. “Billy, I can’t! This is Lynn Hargrove we’re talking abo
ut!”
“Taryn, I don’t have my wallet, and I gotta go to the house first. Fucking stall her!”
The phone clicks, and I stare at the useless piece of equipment in my hand.
Christ!
I dial the next number, grabbing Lorelai by the arm and running out the door to her room.
“Where are we going?” she says as we stumble down the stairs and around the banister, my boots slipping on the great big rug in her living room.
“We have to stall your mom! Billy has to go to the house first.”
“Are you serious!” She rips open the front door to a blast of frigid January air, standing there as I blow past her and take off toward the barn, running for my life. “We can’t go up against her!”
“Hey, baby,” my mama answers, and if there is a God, my father will already be home from work. “What time do you think you’ll be home for dinner? I’m gonna go ahead and assume I need to set a place for Billy, too. Though he eats enough for three people.”
“Mama, I need a favor…”
Chapter 19
Billy King—Present Day
I don’t remember pulling in through the gate. I just know my tires are off the driveway and chewing through grass, and I’m flying way too fucking fast through the ranch in my beat-up old truck. It’s not as fast as my heart’s racing, my shaking hand laying on the horn as I slam the brakes and skid to a stop outside the barn.
“Wait!” I nearly fall out my door, slipping and stumbling on the icy grass before I start hauling ass for the barn, wind cutting my cheeks and blowing my hat from my head. “Wait!” Straight past Taryn’s father, waving me on like a third-base coach next to his truck with the horse trailer hooked up.
“Go, Billy! Go, go, go!”
Thank fucking God for her.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Lynn screams when I run into the barn, pointing the way I came. “You don’t drive that way on my ranch, and you don’t approach a barn like that! Get off my property!”
“That is my horse!” I roar right back at her.
Some guy I’ve never seen before has Gidget’s lead rope in his hand. It tears me apart almost worse than those pictures of Colton’s hands all over Taryn’s body. Lorelai’s standing in front of him, showing him something on her phone that he isn’t interested in but she’s just going on and on and on. Taryn’s standing between him and Gidget, hugging my horse’s neck and petting him, trying to keep him calm because I can already see him shivering and shaking like he’s scared, and I know he is. We all are.
My eyes flick back to Taryn. She isn’t wearing a jacket. It’s freezing.
“Gidget, it’s okay,” I tell him, calming my voice and trying to find a smile for him. He swishes his tail, looking between Lynn and the guy and me, and he doesn’t know what the hell is going on, but he knows it isn’t good. “You’re coming home with me, buddy.”
“Oh no, he is not!”
I ignore Lynn and go over to the guy, getting in his face. He isn’t that big, and he’s older, and I could take him if I had to. My right arm can throw a glove-cracking fastball that only my brother can catch, and my left can hold all solid muscle of me to a bucking bull for eight long goddamn seconds. “Give me the lead.”
He blanches, the color fading from the brim of his hat and down to his pressed jeans. The smell of fear and body odor and cheap beer starts pouring off him, because I’ve got him sweating where he’s standing, and his eyes flick toward Lynn over my shoulder.
“Give me the goddamn lead!”
He spooks and tosses the lead rope at my chest, and I give it to Taryn, looking her in the eyes and wishing I could say how thankful I am for her. She’s trembling to damn death, her eyes huge and afraid, and I brush a kiss to her forehead, breathing in summer peaches as I shrug off my jacket, putting it around her shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay. Don’t let go of him. No matter what.”
“Okay,” she whispers, threading one arm through a sleeve, then another. Then she tightens her hands around the lead rope, locking down on the second love of my life and getting ready for battle. She isn’t gonna let Gidget go.
I turn to face Lynn, who is glaring me into the dirt. “How much?”
She shakes her head, but it’s barely more than a twitch, her temper’s got her wound up so tight. “Nope. You are not getting him.”
“That is my horse. Everything he knows how to do, I taught him. Now you sell him to me right now!”
She leans forward, her voice dark with stubbornness and her eyes whipping me like the wind slashing through the barn, riling up the other horses in their stalls and a bunch of farmhands having a hell of a time settling them down while acting like they aren’t staring at us. “No.”
“Goddamn it,” I curse her. “Why not?”
“Because you’re not gonna take care of him, Billy!”
“Mom!” Lorelai screeches.
“Well, he’s not,” Lynn says to her, the resemblance between them uncanny when they’re spatting in identical blue jeans and Outback Trading Company jackets, their curly brown hair blowing wild around their faces, and two stubborn attitudes too big for this one damn barn. “Y’all are gone all the time racing. And Morningside’s Golden Chariot—”
“Gidget,” I cut her off.
“Gidget”—she glowers at me with those strict brown eyes of hers—“deserves better. He is a prize Akhal-Teke stallion with some damn fine bloodlines, and he should be on a ranch where he’s gonna be rode and shown and studded. And I’m sorry, Billy, I know you care about him, but you can’t give him what he needs. You don’t…you don’t even have any land to put him on.”
There it is. The curse of my whole borrower life.
Before I can feel the weighted punch of all my worst fears coming true, Taryn pipes up. “Yes, he does,” she says.
My head snaps her way, and her chin is high as hell, staring down Lynn Hargrove with my horse standing at attention next to her.
“With me. I have plenty of space, and Gidget is used to my stables already. Since that’s where he was the other night. With Aston.”
She’s breathing hard, but her voice didn’t shake once, and I’m so damn proud of her, I can’t even speak, not that I’d even know what to say. I look at Lynn to see if that did it, because Taryn is always right, and she always saves my ass when I fall short. And I know that isn’t fair, but I just can’t live without her. I wouldn’t make it.
“Taryn, honey.” Lynn glances at me and then lowers her voice. “You’re moving to Germany. Adam called me, and I know you’re selling Aston Magic. I was even gonna offer to buy her from you, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to you about it yet. And I appreciate that you’re trying to help him by lying to me—”
“I’m not going.” Taryn’s voice is clear and firm, arching that mighty eyebrow of hers down at Lynn, even though Lynn’s taller.
I do my best not to react on the outside, but the rest of me is going apeshit on the inside.
I look to Lorelai. She’s got her arms crossed, her weight shifting, but she’s nodding along like she knows what Taryn said is the truth. And I had my suspicions, but it’s a hell of a lot better hearing it out loud, even though I’m sure we would’ve figured it out either way.
“And I’m not selling my horse,” Taryn bites off. “Now sell Billy his!”
Lynn’s head jerks back. Mine, too, and I think Lynn might have forgotten about me, she looks so upset with Taryn. “You gave up your offer for him? Honey, what are you doing with your life?” She covers her mouth with her hand, so much disappointment rippling off her that I’m just about to shut this down when Taryn does it for me, again.
“At least I’m not so afraid of looking like a fool that I’ll look past what’s right. I stand up for it. Especially when it’s hard, and most of all when it doesn’t make sense to anyone else. And what I did doesn’
t have to make sense to you, and I damn well don’t need your permission. I know what’s right in my heart, and I followed it. And you know in your heart this is wrong. I expected more of you, Mrs. Hargrove.”
We all stand there, none of us breathing. Except for Gidget. The farmhands aren’t even pretending they’re not watching now. The whole barn has stopped still at Taryn’s words.
No one talks to Lynn Hargrove like that and gets away with it, and I still can’t believe it was Taryn that did it. Miss “Kill ’em with kindness” just chewed out the toughest rancher in Memphis, and she isn’t even shaking.
Lynn looks at me, and not even from Valerie Ledell have I ever received such a scowl of disgust. “I’ve had enough of this,” Lynn says. “Lorelai, go to the house and call the sheriff.”
“What? No way!”
“Lorelai! Do as I say!”
“Mom, just sell him the horse!”
“I won’t!” Lynn snaps, then she looks to the guy next to Taryn, her voice at half the level of before. “Harry, I’m really sorry about this.”
The son-of-a-bitch has the nerve to chuckle. “It’s okay, Lynn. I got farmhands, too.”
“I am not a farmhand anymore,” I growl at him.
Taryn nods at me, and I take the strength pouring from her eyes and drink it into myself as best I can. Then I turn back to Lynn. Ready.
I’m always better on my second attempt. Always.
“Lynn, I understand what you’re saying about him being a show horse. And I understand I got a job that gets me gone a lot. But I swear to you with everything in me that I will take care of him, because the only thing in this world more important to me than that horse is the woman holding his lead, and I’m not leaving here without either. He wants to be with me, and you can’t deny that. And once again, you may not understand it, and you don’t have to like it, but you know selling him to anyone else isn’t right. Now, I’ll pay you whatever you want. I’ll give you double, even triple what this guy was gonna offer you. But I’m not leaving here without my horse. So how much?”
Lynn looks at me for a long time. She looks at Taryn, too, the wind still raging and the temperature dropping by the second. Then she hangs her head and shakes it, sighing and shifting her weight. I check on Taryn, warm in my jacket, and Lorelai snuggled in hers. When I look back to Lynn, she looks up, glaring at all three of us again before she grits out a curse under her breath. Then she looks at the guy behind me. “Harry, I’m sorry.”
Fearless Page 26