Chapter Sixteen #4
When he arrived at the barn, he headed for Major’s stall, hoping to saddle the gelding and head out without running into his folks.
But the scrape of metal against cement and the mound of hay outside the stalls told him his luck was holding true to form at lousy.
Owen turned to leave and bumped into a worktable.
Bridles jingled, shattering the quiet, followed by the sharp click of booted feet on concrete. “Owen, what’re you doing here?”
“It’s good to see you too, Dad.”
The older man chuckled. “You know you’re always welcome. I just figured with Carly in the hospital and you taking over at Horses for Heroes you’d be too busy to visit.”
Instead of answering, Owen joined his father, grabbing a pitchfork along the way, and for a while they worked side by side mucking out stalls.
As he stabbed the pitchfork into the hay and tossed it in the stalls, Owen tried to forget about Carly.
About his shattered hopes and dreams for a family with her.
About how damn lonely he was. Sweat soon covered his skin.
“You gonna tell me what’s wrong any time soon?” his father asked.
“What makes you ask that?”
“I’d have to be dumber than a stone not to figure it out with the way you’re stabbing that hay. I’m surprised the pitchfork hasn’t stuck in the cement.”
Owen reckoned not much point in denying a truth that obvious. What the hell. Maybe talking to his dad would help him sort out the mess he’d made of his life. “I screwed up with Carly.”
“Get used to it. It won’t be the last time you do.”
“No, you don’t get it. It was the kind of mistake that means we’re over because she’ll never speak to me again.”
Owen rattled off the Reader’s Digest rundown of the events. “I knew Carly planned on moving, but I thought the main problem was her job. I figured if she wasn’t running the agency, she’d see staying in Service differently.”
His father leaned on the pitchfork handle. “One thing thirty-five years of marriage has taught me is the wise man doesn’t assume he knows what a woman wants or that she’s told him everything that’s on her mind even when he asks. Could something else be bothering her?”
He could’ve made that mistake. Owen wiped the sweat off his brow with his shirt sleeve as his father’s question sank in. He turned to his dad. “Were you this much of an idiot with Mom before you got married?”
“Sure was. Still am in fact, more days than I care to admit.”
“Carly feels like she’s missed out living in Service. With Ryder graduating, she’s bound and determined to leave town. She’s willing to leave her friends, her family—”
“And you?”
Owen nodded, another wave of anguish bolting through him, leaving him weaker now than before. “She’s leaving everything behind on the chance there’s something better somewhere else. I told her I’d been a lot of places outside Service, only to discover this town has a helluva lot going for it.”
“That’s the kind of thing a body’s gotta realize for herself.”
“What do I do when she won’t discuss this with me?”
“Sometimes we think we’re talking with someone when what we’re really doing is talking at ’em.”
Considering he’d started their conversation with a lecture, could be talking at Carly had been his second mistake.
“Seems to me, son, you got to decide if you love Carly enough to give her what she wants no matter what it costs you.”
How could he have missed that simple answer? Did he want Carly or the job as Horses for Heroes’s executive director and a life in Service?
He wanted Carly. The only question was, would she give him a second chance?
“Thanks, Dad, for helping me sort this out. Now I’ve got a phone call to make, and a stubborn woman to convince I deserve another chance.”
*
After Owen walked out of her room and her life, heart-wrenching-leave-your-chest-aching tears consumed Carly.
She’d gotten everything she wanted. Freedom from her family responsibilities, no romantic entanglements, her move was scheduled, and she had an interview for the perfect job.
She was in charge of her life and beholden to no one.
Her tears should be ones of joy, but they weren’t. Instead, she felt empty.
Maybe because you’re running from the best part of your life? From the man who makes you happy and a better person.
She considered her plans again. Sure, she’d have a new job, but no friends, no family, no supportive community that took care of each other. No Owen.
Fear blasted through Carly making her shake. Was she running from what really mattered in life? From the man who balanced out her weaknesses and made her a better person? From the man she loved who made her happier than she’d ever been?
Her father’s words rang in her ears, Before you give up your bone, make damn sure what you think you’ll get is worth it.
Another wave of uncertainty washed over her fueling more tears.
If she made the wrong decision she could return to Service.
But Owen would never trust her, never give her another chance.
Not after tossing him aside again. And she couldn’t blame him.
Not after she’d torched the bridge between them not once, but twice.
She was the dumb dog about to lose everything trying to grab something better.
Clutching her phone, she called Owen, but the call went straight to voice mail. Her mouth dry, her hands shaking, she waited for the beep. “Owen, this is Carly. Can we talk? I think I’ve made a huge mistake.”