Epilogue
Summer and Darcie sat in the living room of Darcie’s mobile home.
“I know I won’t be taken seriously,” Summer said.
Darcie looked over at Summer, sitting on her sofa, but not at all relaxed. She was sitting on the edge of the sofa, her back ramrod straight but leaning forward ever so slightly, her hands clasped and resting on her knees. “Who do you need permission from?”
“Nobody, I guess. I’m just so tired of being the screw up everybody expects to make mistakes no matter what I try to do.”
“Summer, don’t let anything that happened to you yesterday, stop you from tomorrow.
If this is something you really, really want, go for it.
If anybody else laughs, knock the hell out of them, and keep going for what you want.
Or better yet, ignore them. Work harder, achieve it, then wave it in their faces. ”
“Do you think I can?”
Darcie grinned at Summer. “You can do anything you want. The problem up until now is that nothing has ever meant enough to you for you to give your full attention to. This is different. There’s a hunger in you for it.
And you’re so sharp and alert. You notice things nobody else does.
You come up with things that don’t occur to anyone else at all.
And under pressure, you just come to life, shining like a beacon for everybody else to follow. ”
“It’s the ADHD,” Summer said conversationally, as she nodded for emphasis.
Darcie nodded her agreement. “It’s your superpower.”
Summer laughed. “I guess it kind of is.”
Darcie sat comfortably waiting for Summer to decide what she was going to do before she said anything else. She didn’t want to cloud Summer’s decisions one way or the other.
“If I need a reference, will you give me one?”
“Definitely. I’m sure we all will.”
“Not Richie. Not Riley, and definitely not my mother. She’ll probably make an appointment and go down there to tell them how they better not expose her baby to any danger or they’ll be hearing from her.”
“I’ll remind her that she could visit with Travis to see how not to interfere in your kids’ lives.”
“Oh, that’s good. Can you do that anyway?” Summer said.
“Let’s save that for in case we need the big guns,” Darcie said
Summer smiled. Then she took a deep breath before letting it out. “Thank you, Darcie. So much. Part of me knows I can do it. The other part keeps seeing all the fuck ups I’ve made. Without your belief in me, I’m not sure I could take the first step.”
“What about Harper, she’s your best friend. Haven’t you told her?”
“No, she’s in the honeymoon phase of their mating and just had their manufactured home delivered.
They’re decorating and doing all the newly mated things while talking to other equine facilities for ideas.
I don’t want to distract her at all. This time is about her and Clay, and Festus, of course, as it should be. ”
“Well, my honest to God feeling on this is that if this is what you want, what makes you feel excited about your future, then do it. I wouldn’t even tell anybody unless they find out.
This is about you, not them. Your parents, maybe, but I might wait until it’s done and official, then I’d tell them.
I think you might be surprised by their support.
And let me tell you, you’re going to knock it out of the park.
I think this is what you’ve been searching for. ”
Summer grinned at her. “My dad, yeah, he’ll support me, though he’ll be concerned. My mother… we’ll see.”
“Everybody else, though they’re Pride, it’s really not any of their business, and if they don’t support you, don’t include them. I do. I know Harper will. Kaiser will. He’s always been so proud of you.”
Summer smiled. “Yeah. You’re right. If they don’t, then I don’t need their support anyway.”
“Very true.”
Summer stood up and paced back and forth across the living room. She came to a stop and turned to face Darcie. “I’m going to do it. I’m going in tomorrow morning and I’m going to sign up and find out what the next step is. And you know why?”
“Why?” Darcie asked.
“Because I can’t imagine not doing it.”
Darcie stood up and hugged her. “I’m proud of you.”
“You’re the first one that encouraged me to do this when I said I would be good at it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I know you can do it.”
~~~
The morning sun was bright in the sky as Summer stepped out of her BMW and looked across the parking lot to the building at the far end.
She grinned to herself as she slung the gold chain strap of her small Versace bag over her shoulder and started for the building.
She wore her favorite dark blue business suit — skirt and jacket — her favorite dark blue Louboutin heels, and a white silk blouse underneath.
Her wavy black hair had been blown out and was falling like a shimmering curtain past her shoulders to the middle of her back, and her favorite Versace sunglasses rimmed in gold covered her eyes.
She pulled the door opened and before she could take her first step inside three men jumped up from their desks and rushed to help her.
“Hello! How can we help you today, ma’am?” the first asked.
“Are you in trouble? Do you need help? Anything you need, just let me know,” the second said, glancing behind her to be sure that she didn’t appear to be in trouble.
“It’s hot as heck out there, would you like something to drink?” the third asked.
She smiled sweetly as she took a second to look at each of them. “No, thank you, gentlemen. I’m quite well. But I was wondering, where is the office to register for your next training academy?”
Two of the three immediately stopped smiling.
“You’re serious?” one of them asked.
“Deadly serious.”
Only one of them, the one who’d offered her something to drink and that hadn’t stopped smiling, smiled wider.
“Right this way, ma’am. I’ll help you get signed up myself.
What’s your name?” he said, moving confidently toward her.
“I’m Dominic. Welcome to the Missouri State Troopers Training Academy. Do you have any experience?”
“Of course, not. I wouldn’t need the academy if I did. But since you ask, I’m fairly gifted in hand to hand combat — the wrestling and subduing part anyway. And I can fire a weapon more accurately than anyone I’ve ever competed with. And I’ll have no problem with a background check.”
“Excellent. Both are good qualities to possess when training to become a trooper, and a solid background check; you should have no problem at all being accepted. And what did you say your name is?”
“Summer. Summer Lyakhov.”
“Welcome, Summer. Come this way and we’ll get you signed up.”
The End — for now!
Thank you for reading ‘Seeing Harper’, the second book in the Riley’s Pride, Second Generation Series.
Please remember to leave a review if you may be so inclined, and check back often for the next release in the series,
as well as any other stories that happen to weave their way through my imagination.
ALL of my books are human-dreamed, human-imagined, and human-created.