Page 91 of Awaiting the Storm
“That’s why we’re not gonna tell her,” he says as he takes a bite.
After a minute of chewing, he sobers. “You talk to Caison yet?”
I freeze for a beat, then mutter, “No. And I’m not planning to.”
He nods, like he expected that answer. “He reach out?”
I shrug. “Texted. Emailed. Might have left a few voicemails.”
“And?”
“I turned my phone off.”
“Matty—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I snap. “He lied, and he used me. I would’ve never sold them that land if I had known what they were planning.”
He leans back in the booth. “You mean if you knew they were building a thoroughbred training facility?”
I blink. “Yeah, that.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I knew.”
My stomach sinks. “What?”
“I knew that’s what Ironhorse wanted to do with the land. Caison told me when he asked for my support.”
“You knew and didn’t tell me?”
“I told you it was a fair deal. That’s all I said. Because it was.”
I push my plate away. “You were supposed to have my back.”
He folds his hands on the table. “I did, and I do. And I gaveyou the truth. We sold that land because Wildhaven Storm needed the money. Not because we liked what they were gonna do with it.”
“But Giles—”
“I didn’t know about Giles,” he says. “That blindsided me too. But I don’t blame him. He’s going to be working with multimillion-dollar horses, Matty. Triple Crown bloodlines. You think he was gonna turn that down to stay with us? We can’t offer him anything close to that. He’s got to think about himself and his family. They were offering him a chance at a career. All we could offer him was a job.”
I look away.
“I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt,” he adds. “I’m just saying what Holland does with his land is his business. We don’t have the right to control that, just as he doesn’t have the right to tell us what to do with ours. If we decided tomorrow to purchase ten thousand head of Black Angus cattle, neither Holland nor any other cattle rancher around here would have the right to stop us.”
I set my fork down and turn away.
“Matty,” he says, his voice softer, “you know I’m right, sweetheart. And as far as the Giles thing goes, we’ll hire someone else.”
I chew the inside of my cheek. “I just … I didn’t see it coming.”
“No. You didn’t. And that’s why it hurts.”
I stare out the window at the square, quiet in the early light.
Daddy sighs. “I like Caison. I think he’s a good man. One who wants to make everyone happy. But that’s not always possible.”
“He had a job to do,” I mutter.
“He did. And his heart got in the way.”
