Chapter 26
LANEY
" H ey, I've been looking for you. What are you doing hiding out over here?
" I ask Asha, who's standing at the top of the steps overlooking the backyard gardens, where her family is hosting their Belmont Stakes watch party featuring three Thoroughbreds from their stables in the race.
That's a huge deal, and I'd think she'd be happy, but since she's up here instead of enjoying the party, I know something is up.
"I just have a lot on my mind right now," she says before taking a sip of her champagne.
I lean onto the stone wall beside her. "Want to talk about it?" I ask, not wanting to unintentionally rock the wrong boat. I assume she's talking about the future of Fairfield, but it could also be about Trigg.
She licks her lips. "My dad just bought a new property."
"That's not a surprise, though, right? You knew he was looking at land." She had to bail on Sydney and me to go tour a property with him, and while she was inconvenienced, it hadn't really come up again. I was hoping that, during that time, he'd come clean about the things I already knew.
"No, it's not that…" She draws in a sharp breath, and I recognize he r familiar reluctance. We hold back from naming the things we fear. "I guess it kind of is."
Her somber gaze locks with mine, and even shrouded in worry, she remains one of the most beautiful women I've ever encountered. There's something timelessly elegant about Asha Fairfield, a grace that makes the secret I've been keeping heavier with each passing day.
"I understand why he's making these moves.
If we relocate our breeding facilities to a separate location, we will significantly reduce our maintenance costs.
Running a breeding operation alongside training facilities and showcase stables, keeping everything pristine and uniform, is hard on our bottom line. "
My mind comparatively drifts to what I've witnessed at Hale Ranch after our trail ride.
They own a lot more acreage. Hale's Cask sits isolated on the far side of the property, hidden behind rolling fields of crops and dense woodland.
When we were there, I never would have imagined it was on Hale land.
Then there's the main house and the showcase stables, where they house their prized Thoroughbreds, both maintained with meticulous care and ready for clients and investors to walk through.
Keeping all the working parts of the business separate has its benefits for the bottom line.
However, I know Asha isn't driven by money.
She cares about the horses, so I know there's a but coming.
"Which property does he want you working at?" I cautiously press, sensing it's the root of whatever is bothering her.
"As the vet and genealogist, I'd go wherever the breeding facility is located.
" She closes her eyes and drops her head.
"Which is currently in a nowhere town two hours past here.
" Laughter below draws her eyes open, and she's quiet for a beat before she says, "My mom loved this property, and when I dreamed of becoming a vet, this is where my dreams lived. "
"Oh, Asha." I drop my arm over her shoulder and pull her in for a hug.
Her mom died when she was young, and finding out this piece of information is making me physically ill.
I want to tell her everything. It needs to be her choice.
If her dad is already buying land, it tells me marrying a Hale brother was never in the cards.
He'd rather lose the land than surrender his daughter, which I respect, but Asha might have a different opinion.
I justified not telling her what I knew in the name of not interfering with someone else's love story.
I still firmly believe that Asha and Trigg have history.
Whatever it is, she has her reasons for holding it close.
I don't get the sense they've ever been intimate.
Had that been true, she never would have pushed me at him, but something profound happened between them.
"What if there was a way you could stay here?" I ask, my voice barely a whisper as I contemplate how to deliver my following words carefully.
"My father made up his mind, and when it comes to the business, his word is law, and there's no changing it."
"Isn't that why I'm here?" Her brow furrows in confusion. "You brought me here to show him there are other avenues for retired racehorses that can be lucrative and humane. Have you lost the faith that we're achieving that?"
"No, I haven't. He was impressed with your choice of placement for Casanova and the work you did identifying that Gypsy wasn't the problem with Madison and Abbey’s routine."
"So, what you're saying is there's a chance," I point out.
"I guess, but moving the breeding facilities is the easiest. They must meet certain criteria, but they don't have to resemble a museum. If he wants separation, moving that part of the business makes the most sense."
"What if I told you I don't think he bought the property because he wants to move?"
Her eyes widen into saucers. "Oh my god, what do you know?"
I put my hands up. "Let me preface this with, I had my reasons for not telling you the second I found out. I was never trying to hurt you. I thought I was helping you, but that's the thing with secrets, I guess…the more you unravel them, the more you learn."
She grabs me by the shoulders. "Out with it already. I can't know if I have a reason to be mad at you if you don't spit it out."
"Your family doesn't own all of this property. The back sixty is leased, and the lease is up in a little under a year."
She releases me, her eyes darting to the ground as she thinks through the information I just dropped on her. "Okay, so we just renew the lease or buy."
"It can't be bought," I say bleakly.
Her eyes are back on mine. "And why not?"
I pull in a stuttered breath. "Hale land can't be sold."
Her eyebrows shoot up. "Are you fucking kidding me?" She starts pacing, her heels clicking against the stone like gunshots. Back and forth, like a caged predator with nowhere to run.
She whirls toward me. "And…" The word hangs between us, loaded with expectation. "I know there's more, because you wouldn't tell me this useless information if there wasn't a damn caveat."
My palms are slick with sweat as I slide them anxiously down the front of this baby-blue dress she chose for me to wear tonight.
"At the end of the lease, they can reclaim the land or lease it again, but given your family's rivalry.
.."—I swallow hard, the words scraping my throat—"I doubt that's even remotely an option.
" The silence stretches taut as a wire. "Or. .."—my voice cracks—"marry a Hale."
She stops on a dime, but she doesn't look at me.
I can sense the inner turmoil, the war raging beneath the surface.
I know her wheels are turning. I can practically see the gears grinding inside her head, but the anger I expected from keeping this bombshell of a secret doesn't come.
Instead, there's just the sound of her mind working, calculating, reshaping everything she thought she knew into something new and maybe dangerous.
"Asha, please say something. Are you mad? How can I fix this? I feel like a shit friend. "
She raises her hand. "You're not a shit friend. You did exactly what I asked you to do." She rolls her head from side to side. "You may have been slow on the relay, but I got the information all the same."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"Marry a Hale," she answers surely with no hesitation.
"Which one?" I attempt to make light of what I believe is a joke.
"It depends. Are you and London still not talking?" She quirks a dark brow.
"I see what you're doing there. You're trying to deflect and act like you didn't just casually agree to a marriage of convenience."
"Meh." She shrugs. "It was partially a joke, and I need time to sit with this information before I discuss it.
" She takes a long drink of her champagne, downing the remaining flute in one go.
"Your drama, on the other hand, I'm already thoroughly invested in, so give it up.
What's going on? It's been almost a week since the trail ride and escapades in the barn," she says with a smile.
"I'm not ignoring him because I want to.
Like you, I just needed some time to sit with everything," I recycle her words.
I told Asha and Sydney what happened the next day—well, almost everything.
I left out the part about having unprotected sex in the barn, but they know about what happened under the dock.
I've thought a lot over the years about what I'd do, how I'd act if I ever got him back.
But that alternate reality looked different than the one I've been given.
In that world, there wasn't someone else, and I'm trying not to be selfish.
The things Fisher said when I left the barn were spot on regarding me and Noah.
I understood precisely what he was saying concerning Madison and London's relationship.
I care for Noah, but I don't love him. However, I've been questioning what London's life would look like if I had never shown up. Would London have built a life with Madison? When you love someone, you want them to be happy even if it's not with you.
"Have you heard from him? "
"I have. He wants to talk," I say, turning away from the party and leaning against the half-stone wall. "But I left him on read."
"As you should. It's good for men to feel pressure, especially ones with secrets.
He needs to know if he wants you back, he's going to have to earn it.
You weren't the one that left. He did. I know the guilt eats you alive.
You feel terrible for the sacrifice he made, and because of that, it's easy to lose sight of his choice in that. "