Chapter 3
Tristan
“Ihate physical therapy,” Sadie complains as she tosses the paperwork with the exercises she has to do on the kitchen chair. “It’s filled with stupid people who make me do stupid things.”
“So is the world,” I say, grabbing an apple off the counter.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“You’re welcome, Sadie.”
She rolls her big blue eyes. “And school sucks. It’s filled with more stupid people.”
Ahh, to be twelve, back when your greatest worry was not liking the kids and school or failing a test. I’d happily go back to those days.
“You’ll survive.”
“Seriously, can’t you homeschool me?”
I laugh louder than I planned. “Not a chance in hell.”
Harper enters the kitchen, shoving me as she passes. Like the annoying little sister she is. “You don’t want your dad to teach you anything—he’s kind of stupid.”
“I should’ve sold you in sixth grade. Jason Billings wanted to pay me ten dollars to swap siblings.”
At least that would be one less Stone in the house.
All the Stone siblings live on the property.
In the main house are Pop, Sadie and me, Veronica, and Harper.
Fallon and my nephew, Knox, live in the converted loft in the barn.
However, they’re always in the main house because there is no kitchen in the loft.
It’s a close-knit family in more ways than one.
Harper sticks her tongue out at me. “Daddy would’ve beat your ass.”
She’s not wrong about that. “It would’ve been worth it if it meant I had Nick as a brother.”
Harper lifts one shoulder and drops it. She twists the cap off her Diet Coke, chugs it, and then says to her niece, “Why do you hate school?”
“The boys are dumb, and they smell really bad too. Not like horse bad—I don’t mind that—it’s…
other. Then the girls are really rude. Before school ended, Kristie told me if I could learn to walk better, maybe then the boys would like me.
Then the other girls that were standing there started to laugh. ”
I’d like to rip this girl’s head off, but she’s a twelve-year-old kid, and that wouldn’t be very adult of me.
Even so, the father in me is raging. Sadie has done everything she could to overcome the injury to her leg.
She broke it in two places after her fall, and the recovery was tough.
We go to physical therapy every week, and she’s made huge improvements, but still, people have to say something.
Harper goes to her and kisses the top of her head. “Auntie will kill Kristie’s mommy, okay?”
“Now I’m sort of glad I kept you around,” I say to my sister.
She grins and turns back to Sadie. “Listen, Kristie is clearly insecure about something and is taking it out on you. Trust me, the girls that are like that get their day of reckoning in the end.”
“Was someone mean to you, Aunt Harper?”
“Yes.”
“Did she get her day?”
This is a bad path we’re going down, because the girl who made Harper’s life an absolute horror show is married to her ex-fiancé. From all appearances, they’re happy and living a good life one town over.
“She will,” Harper answers.
My sister and I share a look, and I step in. “All of this sucks, Cupcake, but it does get better. Look at how far you’ve come with your leg.”
“I want to go farther,” Sadie says, and I know the argument that this is about to become.
“Sadie…” I warn, trying to use my best fatherly voice.
She crosses her arms over her chest. “No, Dad, you can’t keep doing this. I’m not a little girl anymore.”
That’s exactly what she is. She’s just refusing to accept that.
Three years ago, I almost lost her.
I will never forget that feeling. The fear, the praying, the unending bartering that I did with God just to let me keep Sadie.
Her surgery went great, but she didn’t come out of anesthesia well. She had complications and an infection. It was really touch and go at one point.
I knew if she died, I would die with her. I couldn’t handle losing Emmy Jo and Sadie in one lifetime.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to endure that. We had a lot of tears, pain, and struggles, but with the help of my dad and sisters, we got through it.
There is just no way that I am ready for her to…risk it all again. I can’t go through it. I know I can’t put her in a bubble, but I sure as hell can insulate her a little.
“You’re not ready to get back on that horse,” I say, leaving no room for discussion.
“Everyone in this town rides, Dad. Everyone has a horse.” She throws her arms out toward the corral. “We have hundreds, and I can’t ride any of them!”
Harper clears her throat. “And that’s my cue.” She pats my chest as she goes.
“You have a horse,” I remind her. “Cloud is in that barn. He’s alive, regardless of the fact that he tried to kill you.”
By sheer will, I keep myself grounded. I don’t want to fight with Sadie. Every day, I wake up, telling myself today will be the day I relent and finally give my daughter the chance to heal, but fuck, I can’t.
I see her lying in that field. I see the entire thing play out over and over. My daughter, just nine years old, screaming, her leg mangled, tears running down her face as I held her in my arms and tried to get home without causing her more harm.
Rationally, I know what happened. I just can’t make myself stop replaying that horrific day.
“You know he didn’t.”
I do know. He got spooked, then took off, stopped suddenly, and Sadie flew off the front, slamming her head on the ground and shattering her leg.
He didn’t do it. No one did. It was an accident. I heard it over and over again as my sisters stood next to me in the hospital, as we waited for Sadie to come out of surgery.
We all know this, but I can’t…let her do it.
“We’re not discussing this.”
“Ugh!” she yells, throwing her arms up in the air. “You’re so…”
“I wouldn’t finish that sentence, Sadie Jo Stone.”
The use of her full name stops her for a second, but my daughter, in all her inability to be too much like me and not enough like her mother, grins. “Wonderful.”
We both know that wasn’t going to be what she said, but I damn sure can’t punish her for that.
“Smart move.”
“One day, Daddy, you’re going to realize that I’m smart about a lot of things, and you’re going to let me make my own choices.”
“Yes, but it won’t be about that horse.”
She walks to the door, and I don’t doubt she’s going to test me and saddle him, like she’s done before.
“Where are you going?”
“To the chicken coop, or am I not allowed to be near them because they’re dangerous too? Maybe they’ll peck my eye out!”
“I’d rather it be your tongue,” I say.
She huffs and then exits, pulling the door like she’s going to slam it, but stops right before it hits. Sadie closes it ever so slowly, because she knows that slamming a door in this house will get you grounded.
I walk over and drop into the kitchen chair.
I really thought parenting was going to be easy.
It probably would be a hell of a lot easier if her mother were here, but those aren’t the cards we were dealt.
I have my sisters, who definitely do a lot of the mothering a girl needs, but it’s not the same.
My phone pings with a text.
Lark
Did you have my truck brought here?
I’m not sure I should answer that. Partially because I have no earthly idea why the hell I did it.
It was stupid. I should’ve left it, but I had some time because I couldn’t sleep, so I went out there and put it on my flatbed and brought it to her.
Thankfully without a single person figuring it out.
I did.
Lark
Tristan, that was…you shouldn’t have. Thank you.
I didn’t trust your brothers to handle it.
I grin, knowing that’ll piss her off and maybe make it look like I didn’t do it because I’m nice.
Lark
Ha ha. Although, since they removed the spare, I don’t necessarily disagree. Anyway, that was sweet. Thank you.
It was not sweet. It was me being a dick and trying to piss off your family. Stick with that story.
Lark
Whatever you say, but we both know the truth.
I put my phone back in my pocket, not wanting to say something nice when I don’t want to be nice to her. In fact, I want to hate her. I want to pretend that her smile, her eyes, the way she looked at me when I made that stupid-ass comment about a flood, did not do something to my heart.
I want none of it.
So I need to put it behind me and go back to despising everyone from that bloodline.
I close my eyes, leaning my head back when I feel a hand on my shoulder, forcing me to look up. “Hi, Pop.”
“Messed up with Sadie, huh?”
Yeah, we’ll go with that as the reason I’m feeling like a thousand pounds of stupid.
“I didn’t mess up with Sadie.”
No, it’s far worse where I’m messing up.
He chuckles, the wrinkles around his cheeks growing deeper. “Sure you didn’t. Let me remind you I have three daughters myself. I know when a father screws up just by the look on her face.”
“I’m guessing you’ve seen it a lot then?” I say as a joke, but also not.
“Damn straight. Women are mysterious creatures, and they don’t know what they want until you give them what they didn’t want.
” He laughs at himself and sits beside me, taking his time.
He’s getting a lot older each day. His once-brown hair is now completely white, and he tires so much faster than before, but his mind is still sharp as a tack.
“Now, what did you do this time? I’ll tell you how to make it right. ”
Clyde Stone is good at a lot of things. My father can fix a fence, build a barn, repair the tractor, tell you everything you could ever want to know about horses, but when it came to us kids—he was a bit of a dumbass.
It was Mom who held this family together. He’s been trying since we lost her six years ago.
We don’t fight much, but when we do, it’s always about the horses or Sadie.
Combine the two and it’s going to be a bloodbath.
“Nothing, Pop. Just kid shit.”
“You know what I think?”
I don’t, and I really don’t want to know either. There’s only one option—get the hell out of the house.