16. Leah
Leah
Parker walks in the door with armfuls of takeout bags, plastic nearly bursting at the seams with a variety of Chinese food.
I love a good celebratory feast, but the looming ‘talk’ has soured my stomach.
Still, I portion out a plate of fried rice, vegetable dumplings, and delicious-smelling sesame chicken.
When we’re all settled into our spots on the bed, Parker clears his throat, wasting no time getting down to business. Normally, his discipline and structure are appreciated, but at the moment, I wish he would take a minute to breathe and forget about the task at hand.
Despite how well I do under pressure in competition, this type of pressure is my personal Hell. I don’t like talking, not when there’s uncertainty hidden under the surface, thinly concealed until the words start coming out.
Sitting stiff as a board at the foot of the bed, I prod a chunk of chicken with a chopstick.
Grady is leaning against the headboard, more frazzled than expected.
Whatever this conversation is, it’s going to be big for him, too.
Crazy as it may sound, his nerves help to calm mine.
Parker is the only one who doesn’t appear particularly bothered, but there’s still a hint of worry on his stupidly handsome face.
One that says he’s not sure how this will go, but the outcome matters a lot to him.
“Well,” I speak up, shattering the silence.
With a heavy exhale, Parker looks between us. “Listen, I’ll air my laundry out first, then Grady will go… or well, I’ll explain for him. Then it’s your turn. We know you’re not who you claim to be, but we’re not entirely sure how you got here. For now, let’s get to our parts.”
Sweat beads on my brow, a vice clamps around my throat.
Sure, he’s told me—and dropped plenty of hints—that they know something is fishy about me.
Up to this point, I’ve just brushed it off, decided they were toying with me, and had no real idea.
But his tone, the tension in his shoulders as he sits across from me, he knows. God, he actually knows.
How am I going to play this? Can I really trust them? What if they plan on using me to get ahead and then leave me high and dry?
Life is full of shitty people. I’d like to think they’re not among them, but they did sleep with me while knowing the truth…
No, don’t think like that. They deserve a chance to talk, to prove they’re not assholes looking for an easy lay.
Sitting up straight, I raise my chin. “Well,” I repeat.
Grady looks at Parker, warm eyes clouded by a distant emotion, and nods. His jaw works side to side as Parker begins, “As you know, I have a plan, and that plan involves you.”
I nod, face expressionless.
“Well, the plan was… never to be here.” He motions between the three of us.
“I, uh.” Swallowing harshly, he takes Grady’s hand and squeezes.
“I have had feelings for Grady for months. I-I’m bisexual, and honestly didn’t imagine my future with anyone other than him.
But, along the way, I realized that maybe a piece of the puzzle has been missing. ”
“So… You two have been in a relationship this whole time? Is that why Grady hates me?” I twist my face.
“No, he doesn’t hate you. There was a time in the barn, the first time you stood up to Bridget, when he almost kissed you.” Parker’s gaze bounces between us, and Grady’s eyes lock onto mine.
I inhale a sharp breath. “So I wasn’t imagining it?”
“No, and when he told me about it… I… I got jealous. Okay? Months of secret pining almost slipped out of my grasp, as if I had any right to stop him from kissing you. But I was also worried that you two would start something that had no business happening. Not until Grady was ready to tell you his story. The two of us, until you, were never more than friends.” Parker shifts awkwardly, like a man on trial.
“So, you’ve never kissed or anything before last night?”
Grady shakes his head, shoulders shrugging as if he isn’t quite sure why. The thought almost makes me giggle.
“We never talked about the mutual attraction. Grady is also very sheltered. I didn’t want to overwhelm him. Which brings us to part two of our confessions.” Parker pats Grady on the thigh, eyes soft as he asks, “Would you like to tell her?”
With a pained expression, Grady closes his eyes and inhales through his nose before directing his full attention to me. “M-m-my last n-n-n-n—” Leaning his head back against the headboard, he blows out a frustrated breath.
“You don’t have to tell me, Parker can do it.”
He shakes his head. “My l-last n-n-n-name i-i-i-is” Clenching the blankets in his fists, he forces out, “Hart.”
Everything stops—time, my heart, the world stands still. I don’t know what I expected to cross his lips, but “Hart” was nowhere near the top of the list.
The vice around my throat tightens as my muscles try their hardest to move, aching to take me away from this train wreck. The rest of me is too stunned to think. Am I angry? Confused? Absolutely flabbergasted? Pinpointing a specific emotion is impossible as everything unravels around me.
“Hart,” I whisper, more of a question than a statement.
“Yes, but please let us explain.” Parker starts to reach for me, then second-guesses himself.
“Please do!” I fire back, having settled on outrage as my emotion of choice.
“What is this? Some sick game? Get the nobody to fall for Henrietta’s son and upcoming star trainer so she can milk me for more?
! There was never a real plan to escape Hartbrook at all, was there?
You just needed me to trust you while I secured your futures!
” I flail my arms, knocking my plate to the floor.
Rice and dumplings scatter, and for once, I don’t give a shit about the mess.
I’m wrapped up in a far bigger one at the moment.
Grady leans forward, placing his hand on my foot, eyes crinkled and mouth slightly open. A stray tear trails down his cheek before disappearing into his beard. Somehow, the sight calms a bit of my furious rage. Like the minuscule little droplet could douse a blazing inferno.
“Did it feel good, getting all of that out?” Parker asks, voice timid.
“Yes, actually. Just enough to give you the chance to explain. But this had better be good.” I pull my foot out from under Grady’s touch and stand. Hugging myself, I pray that my knees hold through whatever I’m about to learn.
“It’s true, Grady is Henrietta’s son.” Parker takes a second, giving me a chance to process and retort. Met with silence, he continues, “The whole family treats him like shit. That’s why they make him live in the stables, which is why he secretly stays with me.”
“Live in the stables?! I knew the supply closet was like, a hideout or something, but—”
“That’s his home,” Parker says, tone laced with clear resentment. “Until I was hired, he slept in that fucking shoebox every day, nobody even fucking checked on him, except to bring him food.”
“Why? Why would they do such a thing?”
“He’s not perfect like the rest of them.
Years of speech therapy, a lifetime of bullying at the hands of his own flesh and blood.
When he turned eighteen, they finally gave up on him.
He was exiled, sent to tend to the unused cabins and land, far away from the actual training facilities.
He has no real-life experience, no assets, no identity beyond the property and the local town.
I-I just want to get him out so he can live, damn it!
” Voice breaking, Parker rakes his fingers through his hair.
Grady rubs his back, doing the only thing he can think of to help calm him.
Slowly, I sink back onto the bed, closer to them than before. “So… your plan—”
“Was never actually about me or my training goals.” He sniffles, wiping his face.
“They have us all in the unused part of Hartbrook for a reason. We’re nothing, all three of us.
They don’t give a shit what happens. I was hired on the cheap for Bridget to fawn over.
They plan on giving me credit for training whoever does well this year, falsifying my capabilities so my credentials look good on paper. ”
“But you’re a great trainer, they wouldn’t have to lie if they’d just let you actually train! What about Warren and Quincy?”
Parker scoffs. “You mean the fucking Hart cousins?”
My heart plummets to the ground. “What?”
“Th-they’re my aunt’s s-s-s-sons,” Grady confirms, throwing my world further off its axis.
My palms get dewy, stomach tumbling inside of me. So many secrets, and for what? Hartbrook is apparently built on lies.
“What the hell is going on around here?!” I shriek.
“They probably heard you’re hot, and wanted to try and hook up with you. I should have said something before, but I didn’t know how, not without having this whole conversation before we were ready. They’re sticking around, which is weird. Time will tell what they’re really up to.”
“Gross, just my type.” I sneer, scrunching my brows together.
“They did come on strong, which usually works to be fair. I enjoy sex, and I like attractive men. Can you blame a girl?” I shrug, turning to Grady.
“So then that’s why last night was your first…
everything?” This poor man. How could anyone be so cruel?
Flushing, he nods. Parker chuckles softly, kissing his cheek. The sight does something to me, something I think I like.
“I’m sorry that we didn’t tell you all of this sooner. We should have never slept with you before.” Parker’s eyes scan my face, surely searching for any traces of remaining anger.
“I understand, truthfully. It’s not like any of us could have predicted this situation.
Grady didn’t want me to know until he could trust me, I can’t fault him for that.
” I gently place my hand on his knee, insides warming as his eyes soften.
“You’ve been treated so badly by everyone, you learned to protect yourself by keeping people at arm’s length, but that ends today, okay? ”
Gaze dancing across my face, Grady’s chest heaves, working to contain a storm of emotions. Brows knitting together, he turns to Parker, who nods with a faint smile. As he shifts his focus back to me, he leans forward and frames my face with his huge, strong hands.
When he tentatively brings our mouths together, I fall into him.
His lips part, silently requesting more.
He brushes the calloused tips of his thumbs over my cheeks, comforting in a way only he could pull off.
I relax into his touch, fully at his mercy, opening for him.
His tongue slowly explores my own, and I’m gone, flying, never coming down.
Whatever he wants in this moment, he can have.
This gentle, tortured soul could crush my skull in his palms, and I’d smile as he did it.
Thinking about him growing up unloved and lonely—locked away for being anything less than perfect—destroys me.
The years of hate he’s endured can’t be undone, but I’ll be damned if he spends another waking moment without knowing compassion and acceptance.
My own problems can wait. I’ll process this new reality after the shock wears off. Right now, all that matters is Grady.
“Fuck.” Parker groans, the sound dangerously close to a moan. “Okay, okay. We’re going to get carried away.”
Grady pulls his lips from mine. His blissful expression fills my heart with flutters. Knowing I’m one of the only people to make him feel any sense of peace fills me with infinite pride.
“Do you have any more questions… or anger you need to let out?” Parker pins me with a tense look.
I lower my head and sigh. “No, and I guess it’s my turn now, huh?” I mumble to my lap.
“It would be nice to know who we’re allying ourselves with.”
“Is that all we’re doing?” I snap.
“Uh, well.” Parker rubs the back of his neck, looking at Grady—still flushed with a soft smile pulling at his kiss-stung lips. “How about we get everything out in the open first, then we’ll worry about what this is.”
“Guess I can’t argue with that logic,” I agree. “So then, to save time, tell me what you do know, and I’ll fill in the gaps.”
“We know you’re not some pedigreed rider, so does Henrietta. You also didn’t go to the World Cup last year… I mean, that was a pretty far-fetched lie, after all.” He chuckles.
“Hey! People told me she doesn’t actually follow the sport anymore. I thought the Photoshop would sell it,” I argue my case, though it’s obviously a lost cause.
“Riiiight. Grady and I had a good laugh over it the day you got here.” He simpers.
“You assholes!” I half-joke, heat creeping up my neck. “Anyway, forget that, okay? Continue.”
“Aside from that, we don’t know a whole lot.
We researched you when Henrietta first told me I had an actual trainee.
It was apparent from the beginning that you have some training and a natural affinity.
But what I really want to know is how some unheard-of rider bought her way into Hartbrook.
Sure, the old bag is greedy, but Jesus, the zeros on that check must have been longer than a phone number.
” His eyes widen, brows lifted to his hairline.
Grady, having finally returned to the real world, mirrors his expression.
“I… agreed to pay triple,” I admit, so quiet it’s barely audible.
“Triple!” Parker jolts. “That’s—” He pauses for a moment, calculating. “Leah, that’s almost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the year!”
The two of them go stark white, frozen in place as the weight of my truth settles around us.
“Are you a bank robber or something? Holy shit. How?” Parker continues to ramble, voice trembling. “Are you a fucking con artist? Was it an inheritance or something? Please tell me that money is legal.”
Grady squeezes Parker’s thigh, helping rein in his spiraling thoughts.
Even mid-freakout, he never tries to leave, doesn’t storm off. They need this, and need to know I want this, too. Fear of betrayal be damned, my mind is already made up, I’m going to change our lives. For now, we need Hartbrook, but once this is all said and done, I’m going wherever they go.
All I have to do is tell the truth.
All I have to do is let them in.
All I have to do is trust them not to hurt me.