Chapter 20
AN EPIC REALIZATION AND UPPITY CLOWNS
I thought the phone call with her mom and sister went pretty good, and I know when a woman likes me— and Diane Farley likes me.
But ever since that morning, Quinn’s been a little faraway, kind of distant or something.
At least it feels that way. Sure, she was outside in the sun in her pink boots and Mabel’s old hat, filming me in my gear while I was bucked off an easy bronc, and yeah, she was over the stove making a loaf of sourdough bread to go with her homemade soup that very same day.
But emotionally, she’s felt a little farther away.
Today when she filmed me, she didn’t look at me but instead, the me on her camera screen, which isn’t her normal style.
And her smile doesn’t reach her eyes. But I can’t dig into any of it, because as I stand at the kitchen sink, splashing cold water against my hot skin after a three-hour training session, my stomach drops.
A black SUV pulls up out front between mine and Tate’s houses, and I know exactly who it is.
“Quinn!” I shout through the open back door. “Quinn!”
Her blonde head pops out of the barn, camera in her hand, light box tossed at her feet. She spots me, and I motion for her to come inside.
“Filming your gear all hung up,” she announces when she pushes through the screen door, resting her camera on the counter.
“You’re gonna love how it looks, with the barn all dark and the gear in the sunlight.
You’ll—” She stops, tilting her head sideways a bit, narrowing her eyes at me. “You look… weird.”
My heart feels like it’s gonna beat right out of my chest. “They’re here. They’re… I don’t know why, but they’re here.” I nod out the window at the black SUV that is now empty. Quinn takes one look at the SUV then peers up at me. “The Montgomerys?”
I nod, and the doorbell rings. I haven’t heard the bell in years. I wasn’t even sure it worked anymore. Quinn smooths her hands down her hair, and pulls at the stained T-shirt she’s wearing, tracing the worn hem of her cutoff skirt. “I look like shit! Don’t they know no one likes pop-ins?!”
I brace my hands on her slender shoulders.
“Baby, they’re tryin’ to take my daughter.
They’re assholes. And for what it’s worth, you look amazing.
” I know at this precise moment, for whatever innocuous reason, that I’m in love with Quinn Farley, and yet I also know that she and I have a complicated road ahead.
“Remember everything we talked about, okay?”
She nods her head. “Got it.” She salutes me. Hell, that’s cute. “I’m ready.”
I move through the house to the front door, take a deep breath, and pull it open.
Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery stand shoulder to shoulder, Charles in a black suit and white dress shirt and no tie, his white hair combed neatly to the side.
Marnie lifts her eyebrows, which is a rich, old uppity lady's way of saying hello.
In a pantsuit, her white hair down around her shoulders, she must be sweltering.
“Landry,” Charles greets. It always bugged me the way they talked like they’re some wealthy socialites from the old world or something. They were both born and raised in Dallas, on ranches not unlike mine.
“Hello,” I greet them, trying my very hardest to be polite.
There’s a million ways in which life’s not fair, and here’s another one, standing on my porch.
They’re assholes, yet because they’re trying to take my girl, I have to play nice.
I hate it. And why are they here? That packet in the mail was enough Charles and Marnie to last a fuckin’ lifetime.
“I got your paperwork, and I look forward to meeting with you both in court.”
I’m about to slam the fucking door closed but Quinn appears at my side, outstretching her hand to Charles first, then Marnie.
“I’m Quinn Farley-Vaughn, it’s so nice to meet Sadie’s maternal grandparents.
” Her smile is effervescent, and Charles even smiles, a little.
They both shake her hand, and Quinn doesn't seem to notice how they swipe their bare palms along their thighs afterward.
I hate these people. And they hate me.
They’ve always hated me, and even when their daughter was head over heels and hell-bent on being with me, still, their play was just to hate me. I won’t ever do that to Sadie. I will always try to understand where her heart is because that’s what a good parent does.
“Come on in, I just made some sweet tea,” she says, which is true. But still. I don’t even want to share a glass of tea with them.
“You know, I’m from California,” she starts, guiding them into the living room as I close the door, following after.
This is kinda surreal, and while I do loathe the two people visiting, I already know that Quinn is making it much better.
“When I first moved here I couldn’t stand the taste of sweet tea.
I’m used to sun tea, you know, pure. Anyway, after being out in the Texas heat all day, I’ll tell you what—I get it.
You need a little pick-me-up when the sun is working so hard! ”
She motions for them to sit on the couch and they do, only after Marnie knocks a stack of newspapers to the floor, along with Sadie’s favorite book, Simpson’s Sheep Won’t Go to Sleep!
I grab the book off the ground and stash it with the others on the shelf.
I can’t sit, I’m too damn nervous, so I linger near Quinn, who wastes no time getting comfortable on the love seat, her legs crossed, hands draped on her knees.
“We heard that Landry remarried,” Marnie says, her nostrils flaring like she smells vomit. Her gray eyes come to mine, judgment radiating from her in putrid waves. “Congratulations,” she deadpans, though her face doesn’t look at all happy.
“Thank you,” I reply, tipping my hat to be kind.
I have manners. I have class. They have neither manners nor class and think that because they have money, they don’t need anything else.
They remind me of the bull riders new to the circuit, friendly and kind, viewing everyone as a friend.
Then they have their big blowup, their success, and suddenly they’re too good and you’re nothing but a lowly stranger.
The Montgomerys are the same type of low-quality people.
I surprise everyone by coming to sit on the arm of the chair Quinn is in and reach for her. We hold hands, and Marnie looks as if she just saw someone get beheaded at a guillotine.
Charles pats his wife’s thigh. “It’s been six years. Moving on is okay,” he quietly offers.
I never planned on moving on, but I didn’t plan a lot of things.
And if they really cared about what Amelia left behind, they’d want me to be happy, for Sadie’s sake.
Still, I know they don’t care about Sadie.
The lawsuit isn’t even about Sadie. It’s about them, like everything always is and was.
I keep my eyes on Quinn to cling to the fuzzy, warm peace in my gut.
But that peace falls away when Marnie speaks.
“I find it a tad funny that you had no desire to remarry until we moved forward with custody of Sadie, don’t you?” Marnie sniffs, tucking her crossed ankles back as if she’s at tea with royalty.
I can’t stand people like this. And specifically, I can’t stand these people. Neither could Amelia. They couldn’t handle that she chose me over them, our way of life over theirs.
“Nothing about you two trying to take Sadie is funny to me, so no, I don’t find it a tad funny,” I retort, strength in my voice I haven’t used in quite some time.
“And how would either of you know what my desires are? You can’t assert anything about my character, because as we all know neither of you know me at all. ”
Quinn squeezes my hand hard and picks up where I leave off, smoothing out the lines of communication with a soft tone and a smile.
I can’t help that I hold on to anger, that I’m so fucking angry with them.
Not just for trying to take Sadie now, but for who they were to Amelia and how they were when she passed.
They are the worst.
But Quinn is making it better. She’s trying to salvage what my temper has messed up in just a few short minutes.
“Well, you know fate. She’s always working in wild ways,” Quinn says, stacking a palm over her heart.
“I came out here to make this film about the local rodeo legend, a bareback bronc rider who hadn’t ridden since his wife passed.
” When she looks at me again, I know the softness in her pupils isn’t fake, it isn’t part of the ruse against Marnie and Charles.
It’s real. Everything she’s saying now, she means.
“I expected to have a soft spot for Sadie, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it here so much, and enjoy learning about the way of life on a ranch.
” She shoots me a wink, something I’m sure the Montgomerys don’t even catch.
“But the most surprising thing about Sable Sky has been falling in love with Landry. I’ve never been in love.
Not until now.” Finally she looks between them.
Charles is smiling, but Marnie is not. “And as I suspected, I fell in love with Sadie immediately. Gosh, she’s just the brightest little thing. ”
A warm, prickly sensation spreads through my chest at her proclamation. I know it’s not true, that this is just part of the plan. But I know one thing for sure: hearing her say it makes me want to earn it. I want her to love me the way she says she does. I want it so goddamn bad.
“She is,” Charles agrees. He looks around the small living space with a veneered smile.
He doesn’t seem to be pressing me the way Marnie is, and I’m not surprised.
Marnie’s done most of the driving in their parenting, I have no doubt she’s the spearhead of this claptrap custody suit.
Glancing at his wife to discover she’s unhappy, he adds, “And where is our girl?”