Page 107 of Forget That Guy
Neither one of us had discussed all that much of anything. Our relationship was a weird one. I expected her to be there. Sometimes she was. Sometimes she wasn’t. I went to her when she wasn’t. We spent the night together with her in my arms, and the next day she would see me and pretend that that night never happened.
Hell, this morning I’d woken up to get the horse stalls cleaned, thinking I was being nice by letting her sleep in, and she’d glared at me all morning before she’d left. Not saying a single word to me.
I didn’t know what I was doing wrong here.
“Give her something she wants,” she suggested. “And, maybe, eventually, she’d be open to dating you.” She paused. “Have you even discussed your relationship with her?”
She made me sound like such a catch.Not.
“Got any ideas?”
“I do!” DeeDee cried.
“What?” Joe and I asked at the same time.
“Well, she was telling me this story about when she was younger,” DeeDee spoke animatedly with her hands. “And she’s kind of sad, so I really started listening. She was talking about a horse.”
“A horse?” I asked, confused as to where this was going.
“Just listen,” she ordered.
The bossy kid.
“Okay,” I held up my hands in defeat.
“She was talking about her childhood, and what she missed the most.” She looked around her. “She said that, out of everything that she missed, there were only a few things she wished she still had. Her horse, her reading spot down by the river, and her dad. She can’t have her dad back, obviously. But she said that they had to sell the horse to pay for her dad’s cancer treatments. Her childhood best friend’s dad bought it from them. For, might I add, a song. I think they were cheated out of a lot of money. They’ve used that horse to breed for years. Don’t ride him. Don’t do anything but breed him. She told me that it made her sad that all he was to them was a stud when he was her best friend growing up.”
My mind was whirling. “Who’s the friend?”
“Her name is Callista something.” DeeDee tapped her finger against her mouth. “Callista Heart…Braveheart…”
“Heartsan,” I guessed. “The Heartsans own a ranch not far from here.”
An idea took root.
“And where’s this reading spot?” Joe asked. “I haven’t found anything like that.”
“You haven’t been down to the river, either,” DeeDee pointed out.
“I have,” Catalina said quietly. “I think I might know what she’s talking about. It’s pretty overgrown where I’m thinking it’s at. But I’ll bet that we can get a path down to it pretty easily.”
“All right, Dad.” Joe clapped. “It’s your turn.”
My kids were good ones.
“Would y’all be okay with me dating Holly?” I asked carefully.
It was a subject I hadn’t broached yet because I didn’t want it to be too soon.
But we were past hiding it.
They knew how I felt about her, and I felt like they liked her, too.
Wanted her for me.
“We’d be more than okay with her and you becoming a thing, Dad.” Joe rolled her eyes. “Just know that she doesn’t want any kids, though.”
I blinked. “How do you know that?”
