Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Chase sat at the dining table, head bowed as Henry said grace at his parents' house. The scent of garlic bread and spaghetti made his stomach rumble, and he snuck a glance at Jewel sitting beside him.
As kids, the two sisters had often been at their table, especially in the aftermath of her mom's death. This felt comfortable, like a reclaiming of a stolen piece of his childhood.
He passed the garlic bread to Jewel, and their fingers brushed on the bowl. Her blue eyes flashed to his, and the conversation around the table flowed to ranching and foaling.
Jewel slowly took a piece of bread and passed the bowl to Hunter, not even looking at his brother. Chase took a deep breath, some of the anxiety in his chest easing at how easily she ignored Hunter.
He didn't know if what they had back then could be recovered or if it was salvageable. Hell, he'd questioned for years if it was even real. But he wanted to try. He owed it to his younger self to try.
Jewel's cheeks flushed, and she looked down at her plate. The family was talking about something on the computer with the ranch, and Chase finally tuned in as he plated spaghetti onto his plate.
After a few moments, he said, "I can help with that."
His parents looked at each other and shook their heads. Bill smiled and dipped his bread in the sauce on his plate. "That'd be great, but you don't have to. We'll get it handled. Besides, I don't think you can be involved with the kids camping trip."
Chase blinked in surprise. What camping trip? He'd completely missed that conversation. But he still knew what his dad meant. He clenched his napkin in his hand. "Because of my prison record?"
Ava frowned and scolded him, "Chase."
Just his name, and it made him feel an inch tall. He shrugged uncomfortably. "What? Not talking about it isn't going to make it go away, Mom."
It hadn't gone unnoticed that both of his parents had ignored any discussions of prison in the past year. They acted like he'd just been gone to summer camp or something.
Henry snorted, breaking the tension at the table. "Got that right. I feel like that with the whole Destini secret."
"Dad!" Jewel hissed beside him.
Henry shrugged. "Like he said, not talking about it isn't going to make it go away. Camp ends in a few weeks, doesn't it? She'll need to get registered for school."
Jewel bit her lip and nodded, looking down at her plate and pushing her noodles around.
"What grade will she be in?" Hunter asked.
"Tenth grade." Silverware scraped and clanged as the conversation paused. No one said anything as Hunter and Jewel continued talking about Destini.
Chase's chest grew tighter and tighter, like he was watching a movie of his life play out before his eyes.
"She used to love soccer. Parker's going to be impressed when he sees her, but I'm not sure I'll be able to convince her to try out when she gets here. She's currently obsessing over science. Grades are average except she's a math and science whiz. She's already finished all her math graduation requirements and wants to take some college math classes in the fall. I told her maybe in the spring after she gets used to the new school."
Jewel's face flushed as she talked about Destini, the pride clear in her tone and the way her eyes lit up. He could stare at her all day, listen to her all night.
Jewel swiped on her phone and showed them pictures of Destini. If Destini was such a great math and science kid, maybe she was his after all. He'd always been top of the class for those subjects too, which was why he had gotten his accounting degree.
A ranch hand interrupted at the door to say Medusa was foaling, and everyone at the table stood.
Ava laughed and waved her hand. "No, no, let's finish dinner. Hunter, you and Jewel go check on the mare, and come get us if you need help."
Chase's chest grew tight as he watched Jewel and Hunter walk out the door, screen banging behind them.
"Don't they look good together?" Ava asked as she looked out the front window.
Gemma snorted and shook her head, spinning her fork to get more noodles. "I don't think so, Ava. They're two completely different people now. Even back then, they fit together as well as fire and water."
Henry looked out the window and grunted but didn't say anything. They finished dinner, and Chase did the dishes, knowing Hunter wouldn't be back to help. He'd tried to step up and help around the house, show his parents he wasn't completely useless as a convict.
They'd not given him many chances, though. He made his way upstairs to find his dad squinting at the computer.
"What are you up to?" Chase asked, sitting down in the spinning chair and glancing at the screen.
"Organizing the finances. Need to clean this up before talking with Hunter about it for Money Monday tomorrow."
Chase eased his chair closer and watched. The numbers leaped off the page at him, forming patterns as Bill clicked. His hands itched to take over, to help, to prove himself.
"I can help, you know. I did get my degree while I was gone."
Bill grunted, but didn't say anything. When he'd been in prison, he'd only talked with Hunter and Landry on the phone. He'd been angry about the entire situation and had blamed his parents.
No, that wasn't right. Tasha would chastise him for even thinking that. He had been angry because he'd hoped they'd have gotten him out of it. He'd been angry because the judge had dated his mom back in the day and was still mad that she'd chosen his dad instead.
But the accident itself had been his fault, and he'd been mostly mad at himself. He hadn't wanted to talk to his parents because he was so ashamed of what he'd done, he couldn't face them.
When he'd finally processed those emotions, years had passed. By then, he wasn't sure how to bridge the distance between them on the phone. He'd decided to wait until he got out, clinging to his phone calls with Landry and Hunter to keep him grounded in life on the outside.
Now that he was out, there was an uneasy tension between him and his parents. They didn't want him to do anything on the ranch that any other ranch hand couldn't handle.
He'd gotten his degree, but it didn't seem to matter to them. He was nothing but a disappointment, no matter what he was trying to do with his life to better himself or his situation.
And now he had to grow his nest egg to support Destini and her dreams at NASA. That would take a lot of money to put her through school.
Chase just sighed and watched, time passing in a blur as he mentally categorized his dad's actions while thinking through solutions to fund Destini's college goals.
* * *
Jewel's fingers traced the mare's quivering flank, her whispers mingling with the wind as she coaxed Medusa into a semblance of calm. The sky darkened ominously, mirroring the tension in the corral just outside the barn where they stood, her church dress clinging to her knees. Hunter's silence hung heavy between them, his presence a steady force despite the few words exchanged since their uneasy reunion.
"Sorry about my mom," Hunter murmured suddenly, breaking the stillness as a gust of air carried the scent of impending rain. "She's got this idea that—well, now that she knows about Destini..."
Jewel offered him a tight-lipped smile, her focus unyielding from the mare. "It's fine, Hunter. We're here for Medusa, not to rehash old news."
Yet the awkwardness clung to her like the sweat on her brow, memories of their shared past swirling unbidden in her mind. The beautiful horse before them tossed her head anxiously.
Jewel continued her assessment, asking Hunter questions about the horse's medical history. As the storm grew closer, so too did Medusa's stress levels. Despite Hunter's gentle crooning and the horse's trust of him, she could tell from his expression that he was worried about the poor girl.
"I can give her a shot for anxiety, but it might delay the birth. It's up to you," she offered, monitoring the horse and Hunter both.
Hunter raked a hand through his hair as thunder rumbled in the distance before he finally nodded.
With practiced ease, Jewel retrieved the syringe and medicine from the veterinarian go-bag that always stayed stocked in the truck. While the contents promised relief for the anxious creature, there were a million other things to monitor, especially if Medusa was as terrified of storms as Hunter led her to believe.
Her hands were steady for once as she administered the shot, her touch reassuring against Medusa's heaving side, and the horse barely flinched and tossed her head.
"There we go, girl," she soothed, watching as the mare's eyes softened and flitted from her to the approaching storm and back again. Jewel stroked her neck. "I know, but you're safe with us. We won't let anything happen to you or your colt. Do you want to go inside out of the rain now?"
Medusa pawed the ground, and Jewel gently led her toward the barn doors. Hunter ran ahead and opened them, directing her to a stall in the middle of the barn. By the time they got inside, Medusa's eyes were darker, and the tenseness of her steps were easing with the onset of tranquility.
Together, they guided the animal into the safety of the barn just as the first crack of thunder announced the storm's arrival. The horse flinched, but didn't buck or rear her head, which made Jewel sigh in relief. Inside the stall, the rhythmic pattering of rain on the roof created a cocoon around them, a world away from the tempest outside.
"Remember how we used to hide in here during storms?" Hunter's voice was nostalgic, wrapping around Jewel like a warm blanket as they settled beside Medusa as her labor progressed.
"Like two wild things with no care in the world, we didn't even tell Gemma and Gunner half the time where we were going." Jewel laughed softly, the sound mingling with the distant rumble of thunder.
"Pops and I remodeled the attic in the old sale barn after Chase left."
Jewel's brows rose in surprise. "That old, moldy, rat-infested attic? That one?"
Hunter chuckled, the sound comforting in the soft lamp light. "Yeah, that one. I've never seen you scream as loud as you did that day we found the family of rats under that old blanket."
"Oh no, we shall not speak of such horrors. We're trying to calm the horse down, not get her feeling my tension and stress."
She shivered and drew comfort from the horse before remembering that she was supposed to provide comfort to Medusa. She checked on her progress, and she was right on schedule.
Hunter laughed outright and changed the subject to other memories from their childhood. There was the time when her horse had unceremoniously dumped her into a mud puddle, and Hunter couldn't stop laughing, even as he helped her up. Then that time they'd gone fishing in the creek, and she'd been bit by a crawdad. Hunter had laughed then too.
"Hmm," Jewel said with narrowed eyes. "Now that I'm thinking about it, you did a lot of laughing at me when we were growing up."
Hunter shook his head and argued, "Hey, you laughed just as much at me."
Their laughter tapered into a comfortable lull, the mirth replaced by a poignant acknowledgment of their shared history. Medusa shifted uncomfortably as her contractions grew stronger.
"We were drifting apart, weren't we?" Hunter eventually said quietly, his gaze lingering on the mare. "By senior year… it was like we were headed in opposite directions."
"Yeah." The word felt heavy on Jewel's tongue, her chest aching at the memories. "Fighting over futures we couldn't even picture yet. I guess we were just kids, trying to figure it out."
"Too stubborn to talk about it." Hunter leaned back against the stall, his profile etched with the shadows of those bygone days.
"Too scared," Jewel corrected softly, reaching out to stroke Medusa's mane. They sat there together, bound by the past but anchored firmly in the present, ready to usher in new life as the storm raged on outside.