Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Val was wrapping up a rodeo down in Chino Valley, Arizona as she blinked past the heavy fabric draperies and through the horizontal window in her trailer up at the night sky outside. When the rodeos hit close together like they tended to at this time of year, it all became one giant blur. Half the time, she couldn’t tell whether she was coming or going, and if it hadn’t been for Mitzi keeping track of the schedule, she wouldn’t even be able to say specifically where she was.
“We’ll be in Scottsdale on Wednesday and Phoenix all next week,” Val spoke with enough volume for the speaker on her phone to pick up her voice. Gusts of wind kept blowing across this flat stretch of desert. It made Val wonder if a strong enough one might send her straight from here to Oz.
She took off her makeup with her cotton removal pads, enjoying the sensation of cleaning her face. After this, she’d take a shower, even if it wouldn’t be as long or as hot as she’d like it to be. Water resources were often limited at these smaller venues unless she abandoned her trailer to stay in a hotel or motel. This time, she hadn’t.
“Sounds like the regular haul,” her dad commented. He would know. Until a few years ago, he’d gone on all these trips with her.
“How are you feeling?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
It exasperated Val somewhat that her father tended to answer questions like that with a tone of surprise. As if he hadn’t had such debilitating heart issues that it’d required several new medications and one complicated surgery that she’d bitten all her nails to the quick to endure.
“No palpitations or shortness of breath?”
He sighed. Audibly. “Quit your harping, you mother hen.”
“Give me a break. I’m only checking on you because I care about you. But you know that, you just have to be griping.” She and her dad had an understanding, though it had taken a little while to get there. Val said what was on her mind and he barked back if he felt the need. Nobody’s feelings were ever hurt, it was just how they communicated now.
“What about you?” he asked, his voice raspier than it used to be. She didn’t know if that had resulted from his general age or due to all his various infirmities. “How are you doing out there? No falls or anything, right?”
“No falls,” she reported, honestly. “You know how careful I am.”
Val was careful. Not only did she ride Maybelline every day that she could, practicing her moves, she also had an intense physical workout that she devoted herself to no matter what. She needed to be able to depend on her body doing what was necessary. Letting herself get out of shape would only lead to bad performances,Montana, which would increase her chances of injury.
She loved her career, enjoyed it tremendously. Her dad knew that. What he didn’t know was all the craziness that had ensued because of Biggs. He didn’t know about Biggs ripping her off. He didn’t know that they’d become involved romantically. And he sure didn’t know about her most recent encounter with him in Rocky Ridge, Montana of all places.
It’d been so random, accosting her there. The town was not only on the sleepy side, it’d hadn’t even been one she’d traveled to during those years when Biggs had been her manager. He’d made the decision to not go there or to many of the other more confined venues, and thinking him more experienced than her, she let him. Talk about a mistake. But then, nearly everything involving him had been a mistake.
One horrible and almost endless series of them.
But she purposely shoved all that out of her mind. Both Scottsdale and Phoenix were bigger arenas with enormous crowds. Nowadays, tons of people would record her on their phones, but since these rodeos were in more populated areas, there was a chance that some local news station or another might pop in and put her on the evening news. She needed to make sure that any footage they had of her remained top notch.
Once, when she’d first competed in the sport, she’d been there as a veteran rider had chosen to perform despite not feeling well. Her illness had ended up with her giving a lackluster show, and they’d roasted her for it as if she’d committed some terrible assault on their senses.
Crowds might love you when you were doing well, but some—particularly those who might not know you and already have an affinity towards you—could turn on a performer. Val hoped that would never happen if she ever had an off night, but down here states away from Montana, she could never be certain. So, she went out of her way every single time to do her best.
She’d literally cancel rather than face the booing and ridicule that other rider had been expected to cope with.
Then, there was the other result of messing up. Tumbling from her horse. It didn’t occur on the regular, but she’d seen a handful of falls over her time on the circuit. Once, a rider twisted her ankle when she’d landed wrong. The girl had been young and had been so high on adrenaline she hadn’t even felt the damage until after her performance.
Another time she’d witnessed a woman get tossed over her mare’s head when the animal had gotten spooked from an unanticipated sonic boom from jets overhead. The rider had been paralyzed until a risky surgery had put her spinal cord right again. It could’ve turned out to have a far more permanent result, however.
Every time Val ventured out on Maybelline, she stayed aware of those risks. Trick riding wasn’t for the faint of heart or the casual hobbyist. Going out there required an all-or-nothing approach.
Yet even if Val hadn’t been so gung-ho about her sport, she would’ve performed, anyway. Right now, her business was in debt up to its eyeballs due to her father’s many medical expenses and Biggs’ treachery. She had to try to make up for the shortfall through her rodeo pay.
Regardless, she wouldn’t remain gone for long from Montana. For every faraway trip like this one, Mitzi, as her assistant would schedule her next one much closer to home. She couldn’t afford to be too distant from Billings.
When she was away,assistant, she didn’t only miss her dad, though he was the main reason she returned to often. She missed her home, especially those miniscule touches her late mother had left behind.
Because her mama had died shortly after Val’s birth, she had no memory of her, but her father certainly did. He spoke about her with love in his eyes to this day. She thought he must still grieve for her in his own way.
He’d never dated or tried to remarry despite having lost his wife over three decades ago. The one time she’d witnessed tears streaming down his cheeks had been when he’d been staring at those periwinkles and the other flowers in her mother’s garden.
Maybe I should plant something new to go with them , Val thought to herself, as she tucked her legs under her sheet that night. It was so much hotter down here than at home, and even with the air conditioner on, she felt hot. And parched. She’d drank more water in the past couple of days than she had in months.
Tugging her mind back to the subject at hand, she mulled over whether her dad felt lonely. Surely he did. It was one thing while he’d been with her out here on the road, but now that he had to stay sequestered at home without Val, well… that worried her almost as much as his heart issues.
Maybe she could till up the soil around that one side of the house where there was no garden space and make a new row. Then, Val could plant tulips or roses or something else colorful.
Maybe if she put in plants that would bloom at different times than the ones already there, it’d remind him of her rather than her mother. If Val staggered them just right, there could be brightness and cheerfulness visible for far longer.
It was the least she could do for the single parent who’d loved her all her life.
Once her Arizona rodeos had been completed, she, Mitzi, and Maybelline headed right back home. After a good night’s rest in the comfort of her own bed, she woke with ideas about the plans she’d made while away.
Coffee in hand, she skipped outside to the correct portion of the yard, visualizing what she might be able to turn that empty patch of land into when she spotted her dad inside the barn. Needing to make certain he didn’t overexert himself, she hurried toward him.
“You’re up bright and early,” she told him, forcing a smile at the memory of how hard he’d hugged her upon her return the evening prior.
“Years of ranch life will do that to you.”
True. Sauntering into Maybelline’s stall, she retrieved her favorite grooming brush and began to drag it down the flank of her precious mare. Her dad watched her, a soft look playing over his features, when her phone rang. The number of the Sheriff’s Department of Rocky Ridge appeared.
Her heart pounding with nerves, Val laid the brush down and hurried back into the sunshine as if those warm rays could dispel the clouds suddenly hovering over her. She took a deep breath before answering the call. Was this something to do with Biggs again? Was he making himself a nuisance somewhere she hadn’t yet heard about?
But her shaky hello was reciprocated with a buttery male voice that didn’t contain a smidge of warning or alarm. Sheriff Mark Talbot’s voice.
“How you doing?”
“H-how am I doing?” She stuttered his question back at him. “I’m okay, I guess. Why?”
He chuckled. “Just thought I’d check up on you. Been busy out there on the circuit?”
“Quite busy. Been down and back to Arizona recently.”
“Yeah? I went to Flagstaff once.”
Her heart ever so gradually slowed back into its normal rhythm. “Is this a social call, sheriff?”
“No,” he answered promptly, but then an additional tinge of care entered his tone. “This is me doing my due diligence with someone who, through no fault of her own, had to deal with a less than stellar encounter on my watch.”
Oh, she was at fault, all right. But the sheriff didn’t know that. Her youth and inexperience were no excuse. She should’ve seen through him faster, caught on to what type of man Biggs was sooner. It took a second or two for her to refocus on the conversation at hand.
“That’s sweet of you.” It was downright solicitous.
He chuckled again. “Sweet. Not sure how many of those I’ve arrested would use that term to identify me, but okay.”
She found herself smiling at this. Val remembered how sternly he’d behave while handling the problem of Biggs. She and the sheriff chatted casually, and she felt herself loosening up, her muscles relaxing as they made small talk.
“Surely someone has a higher opinion of you than that. I would imagine those you imprison to be the teeniest bit biased.”
“You could say that.” Humor became a living thing between them.
It took her dad observing her with an amused expression and a tilt of his head before she even realized that she’d taken too much of the good sheriff’s time. Granted, he’d called her, but still. Speaking with him had been easy. A little too easy if she was being honest. Their discussion had veered too close to flirting. It hadn’t quite gone that far, but it’d nuzzled against the edge of it.
She firmed up her voice, not becoming discourteous or anything, but her tone became much more business-like. “Is that all, sheriff, or is there anything else I should know?”
His tone followed suit to a certain degree. “Nothing for now. I’ll let you know if that changes.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
After that, they spoke their farewells and disconnected. If her father hadn’t been scrutinizing her so avidly, she thought she might’ve continued the call for longer.
“What was all that about?” her dad asked, curiosity twinkling in his eyes.
“Not much. The sheriff over in Rocky Ridge said he wanted to check in with me.”
Her dad frowned. “Why would he want to do that?”
Only after her father inquired about this did Val absorb that she’d let the cat out of the bag. At least partially. So now she had a choice to make. Let him in on more of the truth or continue to omit the majority from him.
“Well, probably because I had an interaction with Biggs while I visited the sheriff’s town.”
Her father appeared first shocked, then appalled. “What did that villain do?”
The thing was that her dad knew only what she’d told him prior to now. He knew that Val had fired him, and that he’d treated those he worked with terribly. He’d acted as if Mitzi and any members of staff he considered “beneath” him like they were livestock, ordering them around and getting in their face as he snapped his fingers.
He’d done it to Val, too, which she’d also mentioned. Just that much had infuriated her father enough for him to release a string of words from him she’d never heard him use before. She’d grown so concerned that her dad might tax himself too much, that she never explained anything beyond that.
Even saying Biggs’ name had caused her father’s complexion to turn bright red.
She didn’t dare admit to how Biggs succeeded in pulling a financial fast one on them. Nor did she confess to how he’d succeeded in stealing a sizable amount from their coffers. She’d certainly never tell him about becoming his romantic partner.
“I can’t believe him. I can’t believe I’m the one who hired him to help you, only for him to behave like that. I can’t believe I ever trusted him with you and your career.” Her father agitation grew, and Val regretted her decision to update him. Maybe she should’ve maintained her silence on the matter. Even despite the sheriff’s call.
Fred Bernard could hold a grudge, but he could beat himself up over a bad decision even more. He had a talent for it.
Maybe that’s where she got it from.
“Dad, it’s okay. I’m fine.” She made him take a seat on a nearby stool. When sitting didn’t calm him enough, she made another suggestion. “Let’s go inside, huh? Get some lemonade? It’s a bit warm out here today.”
It was nothing like as hot as Arizona, but she hadn’t lied. For Montana, this was a high temp spring day. Distracting him with some videoed tricks she saw other riders performing on her phone, she then sat him in front of the TV. Eventually she managed to distract him so that he quit railing about the subject of Biggs.
Feeding him a healthy lunch, Val ate with her dad, then breathed a sigh of relief when he nodded off in his recliner. Customarily, she liked to make sure he was tucked away in his bed before leaving him to nap, but he appeared so cozy where he was that she didn’t bother. Only once he’d been snoring soundly for ten minutes did she dare to go back out to the barn by her lonesome, placing his phone within arm’s reach just in case.
Beneath the big azure sky, she moseyed over toward the barn and the stables within. She heard the distinct snuffling of Maybelline as she entered through the heavy wooden door. A sound she’d know anywhere. It comforted her.
“Hey, girl. Ready for me to keep going?”
Her mare didn’t respond, but she stood nice and still as Val continued to brush her luxurious coat. She hummed to herself as she worked, and by the time she finished, Maybelline swung her head and nuzzled her arm, a sure sign of thanks. Boy, did she ever love this horse.
She had never once loved Biggs, had never so much as entertained the notion. Even at the beginning, during what a counselor would likely term the honeymoon period, he’d been confrontational and domineering. He’d embarrassed her more than once when they’d gone out because he’d been so insulting to those waiting on them.
I should’ve known then, Val reprimanded herself. Should’ve known that he wasn’t right for me. Had never been right for me.
She hadn’t, though. Hadn’t seen the man for whom he’d actually been. Only when Mitzi had brought the evidence of his treachery to her had Val understood just how nefarious the man’s intention had been. She’d become so miserable that she found herself holding back tears on a daily basis before that, but the stealing had given her strength in the form of her fury.
What a scumbag.
Regardless, he’d intimidated her to the point that she’d taken the proof of what he’d done and run from him rather than face him. She’d never seen him be violent toward someone, but she’d seen him kick over troughs of water and throw objects across her trailer.
Yet as reprehensible as Biggs might be, her thoughts didn’t remain on him for long. Instead, they ambled toward the sheriff. Mark Talbot had likely only been staying within the parameters of doing his job when he’d stood up for her with Biggs there in Rocky Ridge. And that’d probably been why he’d reached out to her today, as well.
Simply being meticulous. A good cop following up on a case.
Only he didn’t have to do that. She didn’t know if a typical cop in the same situation would’ve taken the time out of his day. Yet this sheriff did. And the thought of that warmed her from the outside in.