Chapter Nine
Carly stood in line inside the finance office at Tenacity Town Hall.
As she waited for her turn, she tried to talk herself out of wasting her time.
There was no point of even putting in an application until she knew that she was going to move forward with her riding school.
But even as she told herself this, she couldn’t get her feet to move.
She didn’t know how long it would take to get a business application, but she wanted to get the ball rolling… just in case.
“Next,” a woman called out. She wore a button-up blue cardigan, and her white hair was in a tight bun on top of her head. The nameplate on the counter in front of her said Dorothy.
“Hello, I’m Carly H—”
“Hawkins, yes, I know, dear.” The older woman looked at her over the bridge of her glasses.
Carly’s forehead wrinkled. “I’m so sorry—have we met?”
Dorothy half chuckled. “Welcome to Tenacity. Eventually you’ll know everyone’s name.”
Another woman walked over and stood next to Dorothy. She had short brown hair, a beak-like nose, and a sour expression on her face.
“Barbara Jean and Burt said they saw you and Jesse Abernathy at Castillo’s last weekend,” the new woman said. “Is that true?”
“I…” Carly was honestly shocked. She’d come in to inquire about a business application, not to get interrogated about her love life.
“Oh, Kathy, go fix your makeup,” Dorothy said.
The other woman flushed before stomping away.
Dorothy shook her head. “Sorry about that. Mr. Abernathy has captured more than one woman’s admiration since he and his son moved to town.
Not that Kathy would ever have a shot. She has the manners of an alley cat.
She used to be the manager here until she told one of our employees to come into work while the poor girl’s mother was on her deathbed. ”
Carly didn’t know how to respond to any of this. She really wasn’t one for gossip or getting into fights with women over men, though she had little patience for bullies. She decided to take the higher road and mind her own business.
“I’m here to get some information regarding a business permit,” she finally said.
A half hour later, Carly walked out the doors of town hall with the permits in her purse.
She had anticipated it’d take months to get approval, but after she’d explained her idea to Dorothy, the woman stamped the paperwork, then asked her to pose for selfies.
She hated using her name and connections for anything, but she wasn’t going to say no in these circumstances either.
Now she just needed to build her business, starting with some repairs.
Amy had told her about a couple of stores in the area that carried what she was looking for.
Carly was in the middle of debating with herself whether she should drive or walk to the Tenacity Feed and Seed when her phone thrummed inside her pants pocket.
She glanced at her watch to see who was calling.
Dex. Again.
She hit Ignore like she had every time her agent had called.
She knew she needed to give him an answer soon, but weren’t the permits answer enough?
Granted, she could do the European tour, come back, and work on her school after that.
The money would certainly help make sure that her business had no way of failing.
But…
She needed more time. Just the thought of going back on the road made her stomach turn.
Besides wanting the mental reset, there were other things to consider.
Honestly, the idea of her riding school was very appealing because it would be hers.
As she’d mentioned to Jesse during their date, she’d lost most of her belongings being bounced from house to house during her time in foster care.
Even though her adoptive family made sure she lacked for nothing, there was a lot of appeal to bringing her dream to fruition.
It was something other than being one of the Hawkins Sisters.
Not that she was ashamed or ungrateful for the legacy that she had with her family. But was it wrong to want to have something for herself? More importantly, it’d be something that could really help a kid who was feeling as desperate and lonely as she had once been.
As Carly walked down the steps, her mind went back to her conversation with Jesse. That date had been one of the best ones she had ever been on. It wasn’t anything outrageous. Her ex’s idea of a date was to go skydiving or do something that would surely get the paparazzi’s attention.
Her date with Jesse had been just about them.
No cameras. No one coming up to take her picture.
Sure, there had been plenty of whispers and eyes on them, and gossip was apparently swirling about the two of them, but that seemed to be the way of Tenacity.
Small towns had a tendency to know everyone’s business.
She’d told him about her past—more than she’d ever shared with any man before, including Fletch—and Jesse had opened up about his wife. She thought they’d had a connection.
When he’d walked her to her front porch, her heart had been hammering almost out of her chest. The way that he looked at her had made her want to swoon.
She had practically puckered up her lips in anticipation of his kiss.
Instead, he’d hightailed it out of there so fast, she’d cupped her hand over her mouth for a quick breath check to make sure it wasn’t offensive.
Carly hadn’t heard from him in the week since.
So she was more than a little surprised when she glanced across the street and saw the man in the flesh.
She stumbled to a stop. Had she manifested him?
Jesse was stepping out of the Silver Spur Café, his son following behind him.
He didn’t notice her at first as he adjusted his beige cowboy hat on his head.
Oscar saw her and started waving excitedly in her direction.
Jesse turned his head to see who his son was looking at and finally spotted her.
His face immediately lit up, which softened some of the hurt she was feeling about him ghosting her.
He said something to Oscar, and they both crossed the road to reach her.
“Hey,” he said, his blue eyes looking like jewels in the afternoon light.
“Hi,” she responded. She turned her attention to the teen by his side. “Hi, Oscar. How are you?”
“Good,” he responded. “What were you doing at the town hall?”
“Oscar, that’s not really our business,” Jesse told his son, whose excited face lost some enthusiasm.
“It’s fine,” Carly said. “I was getting permits for the school I want to open.”
“What kind of school?” Oscar asked. When she gave him a brief overview of what she wanted to do, the teenager became even more animated. “I want to help. Can I work for you? I can clean out the stables and feed the horses.”
Jesse frowned. “That’s a big responsibility, bud.”
“I can do it,” Oscar snapped at his dad, his hands starting to clench and unclench at his sides.
“I’d be happy to think about it,” Carly said as a way to keep the peace. “First, I need to rebuild parts of the homestead before I can even think about hiring help. I was actually on my way to the feed and seed store to get some pricing on fencing.”
“We were headed that way ourselves,” Jesse said. “We need to get some pipes for our new bathroom. Can we walk you there?”
“Sure,” she replied. They headed toward the store. The silence between father and son was palpable. “So, um, how was your lunch?” she said to break the tension.
“It was great,” Jesse said. “We were planning on getting some pie from the bakery later. I have to introduce Oscar to their apple pie. I think I might have gotten a little addicted to it.”
He gave her a stiff smile while keeping an eye on Oscar, who was now tightening his hands so hard it looked like it hurt. After Jesse had asked her out, she had done some research on autism. She wondered if tightening his fists was one of the teen’s stims.
“Oscar,” Carly said, “if you had to choose between Nieve and a horse like Secretariat, who would you choose?”
Oscar paused his hand movement and his face lost some of its tension. “They were used for two different sports. It’s not a fair comparison.”
“But if you had to choose…which one would you want in your stable?”
It was enough to get Oscar to stop the painful gripping. “Well, if you compare them side by side…”
He then proceeded to tell them about the positives and negatives of each horse until they reached the store.
“While I have to agree with you that it’s a bit unfair to compare any horse to Secretariat,” Carly said as they entered the building, “I have to admit I’m partial to Nieve.”
Oscar paused, his face thoughtful before he said, “Me too.”
“Well… I should—” she started to say, ready to leave them to it, when Oscar spoke up again.
“I’m going to go look at the baby chickens.” He then stomped off, clearly still annoyed with his dad.
If she was honest with herself, that made two of them. Carly wanted to ask Jesse why he hadn’t called or even bothered texting her after their date. But he already looked upset as he watched his son walk away. No need to kick the man when he was already down.
Jesse sighed before turning to Carly and asking, “Want some company?”
“Okay,” she replied.
“Thank you, by the way,” Jesse said as they walked toward the lumber part of the store.
“For what?” she asked.
“For pulling Oscar out of hurting himself. You’re really good with him.”
“It was nothing,” she said right as a salesperson came up to them. The tag on his shirt read the name, Mel. He seemed to be expecting her.
That was confirmed when he said, “Dorothy called me and said you might be on your way over.”
Her eyebrows pulled together till she remembered that she’d mentioned in passing that she wanted to get some pricing on wood. Dorothy had recommended she check out Tenacity Feed and Seed, which was one of the ones Amy had also mentioned to her.