“You bet, baby.” Melissa patted her on the back and watched with pride as Abby walked over and thanked her grandparents for being selfish.
Kidding. Her baby had impeccable manners. Unlike her in-laws.
Cary shot Melissa one more look before he headed out the door with Ox and all the girls. Confusion had been forgotten. They were ten years old, hopped up on cake, and horse crazy. Let them go run off the energy outside.
Cary’s mom disappeared into the kitchen with Emmie. Joan and Melissa remained in the dining room with Beverly and Greg.
“I think you should have talked to me before you gave her a horse and then told her she wasn’t allowed to have it.” Melissa was trying to control her temper, but it was difficult. “Do you honestly not see the problem with this?”
Greg was patronizing. As usual. “She’ll see the horse whenever she wants to. You just have to drive her to our house.”
“You live two hours away from here. She has school during the week. She has soccer every Saturday through the fall. If the horse lived here, she could ride every day. Instead, you’re holding her own horse hostage until she comes to visit you.”
“We wanted her to have a quality animal,” Beverly said. “And quality instruction.”
“I see.” The rage was a low roar in the back of her mind. “So her mother and grandmother aren’t quality teachers? Four years of junior barrel racing, four years in college, and you think I’m an amateur? My mother and I were riding as soon as we could walk.”
“That’s not the kind of instruction we’re talking about,” Greg said. “We’d like her to learn English riding. Receive jumping instruction. She’s been talking about it for months, Melissa. I don’t know why you’re choosing to be offended by our generosity. We all know Abby is a gifted rider. She could have a tremendous future, but she needs the right trainers.”
It stung. Just like they intended. Jumping lessons were expensive. Buying the horse was only the beginning.
“I know she wants to jump,” Melissa said. “There are stables in Metlin—”
“There are better stables in Paso Robles.”
Joan tried to smooth the situation with logic. “If Abby doesn’t see the horse every day, who’s going to clean up after the animal? Who’s going to exercise it?”
Beverly said, “We have staff for that.”
Joan looked slightly confused and a little embarrassed. “You’d rather have someone else take care of Abby’s horse? Instead of her learning to do it on her own?”
It wasn’t the way Joan had raised her kids. Melissa had grown up around horses, but she was only allowed to have her own once she could prove she could take care of it. She woke up every morning for a year to clean stalls and feed her grandfather’s horses. When she was twelve, she got her own, a gorgeous little paint mare named Sky.
“You shouldn’t have told her you were buying her a horse if she couldn’t keep it here.” Melissa was finished with the excuses Calvin’s parents were trying to give her. “It’s not her horse. It’s yours. She’ll just get to ride it a couple of times a month.”
Greg’s chin went up. “If you’re going to take that ungrateful attitude, then I think we’re done here. Also, we’ll be getting Abby a mobile phone so we can talk to her directly. She’s mature enough to handle her own communication at this point.”
“No, she’s not,” Melissa said. “And you’re not. That’s not your decision.”
“Why are you trying to keep us from our granddaughter?” Beverly’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s like losing Calvin all over again.”
The accusation hit Melissa like a sucker punch, and she was stunned silent.
Joan wasn’t. She marched over to Greg and Beverly with fire in her eyes. “Out. Both of you. Shame on you for trying to manipulate your own granddaughter this way. This is still my house, I want you out.”
Melissa turned and started cleaning the table. She couldn’t look at Greg or Beverly. No way was she going to let them see her cry.
Why were they so cruel? She’d never kept Abby from them, but she wasn’t their puppet either. She had her own life, her own ranch, and her own way of doing things. She was trying her best. Every single day, she woke up and did everything she could to hold everything together.
She was it. Her life—and her family—they all depended on Melissa making it work.
But Calvin’s parents still saw the woman she’d been six years ago.
She’d been in a fog after her husband died. In the space of two years, she’d lost the grandfather who raised her, her and Calvin’s second baby—who died when Melissa was four months pregnant—and then Calvin in an auto accident. She’d been battered by grief, and there were days she could barely function. One day she heard her mother-in-law describe her as “incapable” and talk about how much better off Abby would be living with them until Melissa “pulled herself together.”
Melissa wiped her eyes and continued clearing the table, not even looking as Joan ushered Greg and Beverly out the front door.
She glanced out the window at the girl on horseback who was the center of her life. Abby was trotting Moxie around the corral across from the house, waving at Ox and Cary every time she rode past them and shouting greetings as her friends took turns riding PJ.