Chapter Thirty-One #2
Charlie held her breath, Faith’s confession about him hitting hard, when she realized, what they were doing. He’d wanted this delivery to be a surprise. Charlie’s heart pounded. The only things delivered in horse trailers were…
“Ohmigosh!” Daisy squealed, staring at the horse inside, jumping up and down, yanking his arm. “You mean I get to pet ’im?”
“Naw, baby girl,” Thad said, chuckling at her bouncing on his arm. “You get to have him. He’s yours. I’m gonna teach you how to ride him.”
His eyes darted to Charlie’s, darted quickly away again. Baby girl. A dad’s endearment. How easily it rolled off his tongue, like it fit, and her eyes…
“Shh.” Thad chuckled under his breath and winked down at Daisy, as the horse shuffled and grunted. “You don’t wanna spook him. He’s an old unicorn.”
Charlie steepled her hands at her mouth. She blinked and yet, the misting wouldn’t abate.
He couldn’t be this wonderful.
Charlie gripped Faith’s arm, whispering, “He did not get her a horse…”
“He so got her a horse,” Faith whispered.
Thad glanced down at Daisy as he climbed up the trailer, clearly pleased with himself, when Daisy suddenly buried her face in her hands. His face dropped in horror and he jumped down, as Charlie hurried forth.
He squatted down, cupping Daisy’s cheek. “Hey, girlie. What’s wrong? I thought buying Unicorn off my sis would make you happy.”
He pried her hands down and swiped a thumb under her eye, concern twisting his brow, when Daisy sank forward into him and sobbed silently. T.R. embraced her, but glanced up at Charlie, alarmed, mouthing, What’d I do?
Charlie only shook her head at this beautiful man, who would treat a girl like gold and never raise a hand in anger, and hugged her arms around herself, her heart already tied up in knots twisting harder, tugging harder, as those roots he was sowing twisted against her armor, trying to penetrate.
“She’s the happiest girl in the world,” she whispered, reaching down to take one of his hands in hers, squeezing it.
His brow relaxed.
Then Charlie, too, squatted down and rubbed Daisy’s back. “Sweet girl. Why don’t you tell T. Rex why we showed up earlier than we were supposed to.”
Daisy pulled back, swiping the back of her hand across her splotchy eyes, and reached into her pleather purse. She withdrew the now-creased card from the mail and handed it to Thad. Baby blues staring into baby blues.
He looked down at it. Took a moment to scrutinize it, and rested his thumb across the letters, slowly dragging it from left to right as he read…
“Will you come with me?” Daisy asked, her voice mousy and uncertain.
He chewed his cheek.
“My dad didn’t show for the other ones, and I didn’t have anyone to ask last year, but everyone talks about it at school and asks why I don’t come, and I know you’re not really my daddy, and, and maybe you don’t even wanna be one, but, but maybe you could come as, you know, my friend—”
Thad picked up Daisy’s hand and brought it to his lips. Pressed a kiss to her knuckles, his throat bobbing on a rough swallow.
“Girlie,” he choked out against her knuckles, voice thick. “It’d be my honor.”
*
Thad introduced Daisy to Unicorn, as Faith helped Daisy walk the horse to the stable, to get comfortable in his new environment.
He turned around. “You comin’, babe?” Thad called.
Charlie nodded. “Need the bathroom!”
“Straight down the hall, off the side of the kitchen!” T.R. called.
She slipped up the stairs, her certified letter in hand. Tapped on the door, and a moment later, thudding across the planks pounded closer.
The door opened. “Hey Charlie,” Tyler said. “Don’t need to knock.”
She smiled and crossed the threshold. The metronome of a grandfather clock in the distance ticked. Antler chandelier over the stairs. Polished banister. Old house smell.
Family photographs spanning generations lined the walls like a time capsule, horse and wagons to modern.
She slowed, searching for prints of Thaddeus, her eyes landed on a blond tween, leaning on the McClintock Farms wagon, a flock of sisters next to him and parents behind the girls, hands on their shoulders.
She walked to it. Took him in, his arms folded, his boot slung over the other as he leaned on the wagon, a sullen, forced smile. As if an interloper in someone else’s photo.
In fact, as she perused the frames, the only photos where he was laughing, were early childhood photos, a boyhood picture of him holding a guitar as big as him, blinding blond hair, an older woman in an apron—their grandma?
—holding him on her lap, smiling dotingly.
Another in that fringed western shirt and giant belt buckle, ten-gallon hat, on a stage.
She smiled at his grin, brilliant even back then.
A black-and-white photo of a teenage Thaddeus with three other boys …
the cousins! The blond who’d looked like Thad out in the stable.
Tyler, and the other dark-haired brother that bore a striking resemblance to him.
All shirtless and knee deep in a creek … Thad’s classic truck in the background though it still looked like a beater, the escarpment and cabin in the distance, no tattoos yet. Thad proudly showing off a fish hooked on his finger as they laughed.
This farm, where he ached to put roots in the soil.
“What can I do for you?”
“I got a letter from my attorney.” She pulled it out, glancing out the window to the stable.
“Speaking of the attorney, I got your case files just now.”
She peered through the door to his office.
“C’mon in,” he said.
She walked by a row of law volumes to his desk where stacks of folders were laid out.
Dixon-McClintock business accounts.
Dixon-McClintock budgets.
Dixon-McClintock expansion projections.
Dixon-McClintock real estate?
“You’re thinking about selling?”
He eyed her. “Yes. Heart and I are gonna move out west.”
Her eyes widened. “Thad’ll be surprised. Does he know?”
“Don’t worry, got no timeline yet. Here, I need you to sign the attorney-client agreement.
” He craned around and hoisted a document box onto his desk, pulling out files from her old attorney.
“Then I can file my notice of appearance and be in touch with Jason’s lawyer. Any news on that restraining order?”