Forty-Eight
Branwen
I was sure I looked completely engrossed in the episode of Bluey playing on the patio television to anyone else, but that was so far from the case. My head was spinning with so many different thoughts that I didn’t know what to focus on first.
Stevie was curled up beside me with her hair still damp from her bath, wearing her pajamas. I’d gone ahead and bathed her early because we’d spent the afternoon at the pool after she woke up from her nap.
During that time, Jayda had come to get me, and she stayed with Stevie while I went inside to meet Dr. Burl.
He was pleasant and took my blood quickly, telling me he was sure there was nothing to worry about, but that I was smart to be safe. Feeling the need to defend my request, although he hadn’t been negative at all, I mentioned Linc’s variety of women.
Burl smiled and nodded, as if he understood. He then said that Linc was tested monthly and that he’d never known him to not use protection with a female. That this was unlike him, but my wanting to be tested was smart. That one could never be too careful.
The knowledge that Linc was tested regularly had eased my concern. The thing about Linc always using protection though? Nope. Didn’t believe that. He might lie to the doctor, but I knew that when Linc was worked up, it was easy to get him to go without one. I’d pleaded once, and he’d sunk into me.
His kiss this afternoon had messed me up for a few hours. My lips warmed at the memory. Dammit. That had been…well, I’d never felt that before with just a kiss. As with everything when it came to Linc, my body only responded to him that way. I had actually made a grocery list in my head once while kissing Hudson. With Linc, I was sure there had been a moment when I forgot my own name.
The sound of the door opening and closing behind us snapped me out of my deep thoughts, and I turned my head to see Linc walking toward us.
I’d not seen him since the kiss. Since he’d said things that still confused me, as I wasn’t sure what to make of them. Had that been him trying to apologize for last night? If so, as mind-blowing as that kiss had been, it didn’t make the night before go away. His words, well, he’d said many things to me before that made me feel special—granted, he had been inside of me at the time, but still. He was good with words.
I turned my attention back to Bluey .
Linc came around the sofa and sank down carefully on the other side of Stevie. I saw the slight tightness around his mouth. It was the only indication that he was in physical pain.
Stevie looked over at him and grinned, sitting up from lying on me.
I held her shoulder to keep her back. “Your dad is hurt. One of his ribs is cracked, so you can’t climb on him or lie over on him.”
Her smile fell, and she frowned, looking every bit concerned. “Did you go to the doctow?” she asked him.
He nodded, then held his arm open. “I did, and I’m okay. If you want to come over here, you can.”
Stevie tilted her head up to look back at me. “He is okay, Mommy. The doctow fixed him,” she told me reassuringly, then shifted her body over to lie on his cracked rib.
A flicker of a wince crossed his face as she settled into him, and his arm lowered to rest on her shoulders, holding her to him.
The softness in his eyes as he dropped his gaze to her made my heart do all kinds of crazy crap. It needed to chill. But that scene would make any woman hard-pressed to look away from it. He was hurt and in pain, but letting her lie on him anyway. She had no idea how hard that had to be for him.
“How was your day?” he asked, and my eyes swung from Stevie and his hand resting on her arm to his face.
“Uh, good,” I replied awkwardly.
He smirked. “I was hoping for spectacular.”
I waited for him to say more, and when he didn’t, I turned back to the television. The new episode that had come on was one where Bluey was grown up and gave a glimpse of what she wanted in her future.
I’d seen it at least five times. Stevie loved this one.
“So, why a dental assistant?” Linc asked me after a few minutes into the show.
I turned to look at him again. God, I wished there weren’t a flutter every time I saw the man.
I shrugged. “I was able to get a loan and a grant. It was only two years of college, and I needed a job more substantial since I had a child to raise.”
“You always talked about becoming an equine veterinarian,” he replied. “The only other person who came to the stables that you gave as much attention to as me was the vet. You followed her every move and asked a million questions. What happened to that? Just grow out of it?”
I wanted to laugh. Oh, how it must be to never worry about money. To have it there at your fingertips whenever you needed it.
I turned back to the television. “Life happened. I realized that my good grades weren’t enough to pay for my undergraduate degree, much less veterinarian school. That took money that I did not have, and they wouldn’t give loans to those without credit.”
He didn’t speak for a moment, and I wondered if he was struggling to comprehend being broke.
“What happened to the money that Garrett had sent your aunt? That was supposed to cover your needs and college.”
I scrunched my nose. What? I looked back at him and shook my head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but Garrett didn’t give my aunt any money. I worked full-time hours while in high school, and I still wasn’t able to buy a car until the June after I graduated. My aunt made me pay her three hundred dollars a month for bills to cover what my living there cost her. Trust me, there was no money. She reminded me daily how thankful I should be that she had taken me in and what a burden I was on her financially.”
Life with Aunt Catherine had been the worst years of my life. I rarely spoke to her, and if I did, it was because she called me. The calls normally consisted of her needing money because her Social Security check wasn’t enough to handle the bills. She always blamed me for her not having retirement savings. Yet the summer I’d moved out, she had gone on a cruise, taken a trip to Hawaii, bought a new Mercedes sedan, and sold her house and moved into a more expensive neighborhood. I always wanted to point out that was where her savings had likely gone, but I never did. I’d just send her a couple hundred dollars and hope I didn’t hear from her for a year—or ever again.
I noticed Linc’s jaw was jutted and his neck veins were standing out. What was wrong with him?
“Where is your aunt now?” he asked, his voice sounding tight.
“In the uppity neighborhood she moved to after I graduated and got the hell out of there.”
“Does she contact you still?” His question sounded almost like a demand.
Frowning at him, I nodded. “Yeah. When she wants money.”
His eyes flared with…anger? Was he mad? About my aunt? I was confused.
“Do you send her money?” The words were clipped, as if he already knew the answer and wasn’t going to like it.
I nodded, watching him warily.
“How much?”
“Uh, normally about two to three hundred dollars.”
His throat bobbed as he swallowed, and his nostrils flared. “How many times have you done that since you moved out?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Why are you asking me all this?”
“Branwen, how old were you when she started asking you for money?”
I glanced at Stevie, wondering if I should pull her back over to me. Linc was looking more severe by the second.
“I guess the year after I moved out. I don’t know exactly.”
When he remained looking like he was about to go put his fist through a wall, I asked him, “What is wrong with you?”
He took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling while he studied me, as if he wasn’t sure he was going to tell me or not.
“Garrett gave your aunt money. Money to take care of you, make sure you had all you needed. A car. To pay for your college. I don’t know the exact amount, but I know it was significant.”
I sank back onto the sofa as a rush of air left me. “He…he did what?” My question was just above a whisper.
“Demeter was part of the family. Garrett made sure you were taken care of for your father. He thought letting you go live with your aunt would be a better life for you, but he still provided for you.”
I shook my head. “My dad was the lead trainer. He was an employee of the family.” Did they do that for all their employees? I didn’t ask that though.
“No, Branwen. Your dad was family. So was his father. Your dad was our bookie, just like his father had been, but then he took over as head trainer after proving how successful he was, working with thoroughbreds.”
Everything I’d thought I knew about me, my life…had just been sent spinning like a wheel while I waited for it to stop on something that made sense.