44. How dare she be so perfect? What did I do to deserve this?
Firefly
6 months later
T he sun was cruel and unforgiving, and it burned across the back of my neck as I stepped down off the porch. Coming down the long gravel driveway, long filled in to save Olivia and Vanessa the pain of the potholes, a large, cherry red Ford pickup barreled towards us.
Us—meaning Duke and myself. He lay across the front porch, his tail flopping lazily as I walked by, stooping to pet him before stepping down into the grass.
Vanessa was at the clinic, putting her last-minute finishing touches on it before the grand opening tomorrow. It had been about a year and a half since she bought it, and a lot of work had gone into it, but she and Amelia were finally ready to live their dream, and I couldn’t be happier for them .
I’d given her the family she’d always wanted, and she’d given me the understanding I craved. She had closure in this town and had begun to love it again. Now there was only one small piece of the puzzle left before I could, with all good conscience, call our little family complete.
That small piece of the puzzle was grunting and pawing inside the trailer hitched to the back of the truck as it slid to a smooth stop in front of me. As I approached the pickup, Duke fell into step beside me, his tongue falling out the side of his mouth as he came up to greet the newcomer.
Inside the trunk, the single occupant tipped his hat at me and threw the door open as I stepped around to the driver’s side door to greet him.
He was a tall man, towering over me by a good three inches or more. He was a little rounder in the midsection than I was, with a red handlebar mustache and beady blue eyes framed in crow’s feet that crinkled as he smiled at me. The smell of tobacco and hay wafted off of him when he reached out to shake my hand.
“Tom Eades?” he asked, and I nodded. “I’m Rodney. We spoke on the phone.”
“Yup, that’d be me.”
“Come around to the back here, and I’ll show you what I’ve got for ya.”
His voice had a pleasant, if not tired, ring to it.
I followed him around the back of the truck and to the doors of the beaten blue trailer attached to it. I watched as he unlatched the doors and let them swing wide. Inside, two huge beasts greeted me, one with wide, scared blue eyes, and the other with soft, mellow brown ones. Their manes were long and flowing, braided down one side of their necks to protect them from damage. Their massive hooves pawed at the hay inside their trailer, and one of them—the smaller female—tossed her head in annoyance at the confinement.
A pair of Gypsy Vanner horses—a male and a female, each with paperwork, pedigrees, and health records.
“Amazing,” I said.
“And you’ve had the fence checked?” he asked, motioning to the pasture over his shoulder.
I nodded.
“Every single inch, twice over. Had a few gates replaced, and some barbed wire. It’s in tip-top shape.”
He shook his head as he reached up, unhooking a lead attached to one of the horses—the brown-eyed stallion I knew was named Ghost, due to the white markings on his face bearing an uncanny resemblance to the slasher film villain.
“Lot of work,” Rodney chuckled, shaking his head as he led Ghost down and off the trailer.
He was a tall horse, with beautiful brown splotches outlined in a darker color, and pristine white fur that shone under the light of the sun. His companion, Lacy, whinnied nervously.
“It is,” I agreed, motioning for him to follow me toward the barn. “But she’s worth it.”
After he got Ghost settled in one of the stalls, we went back for Lacy. She was a bit more nervous, but Rodney explained that it was due to her hatred of travel .
“All good,” I said, reaching into my back pocket to find my wallet. I flipped it open as Duke scurried around our feet, his tail beating against my legs as he excitedly lapped up the new smells. “Twenty-two even, just like we discussed.”
Rodney snorted a laugh, looking down at the check I pressed into his palm.
“That’s a lot of money to spend all at once,” he said, and I shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter. My princess wants a pony, and she always gets what she wants.”
Rodney laughed, shaking his head as he worked on pulling Lacy from the trailer. She was just as beautiful as Ghost, though with much more white on her. A breeding pair of pedigree horses.
“Your daughter is only six months old. How does she know what she wants?”
“Wasn’t talking about my daughter.”
I flashed him a wink and took the lead, wrapping it around my fist as I turned away, leading Lacy toward the barn.