Page 3 of Ashes of the Past
“You’re the first in our family to go to college, and you’re going to graduate. Your father isn’t going to risk that not happening.”
“I can—”
She holds up a hand again to stop me. “No, go get your car loaded up to go. Make sure you say your goodbye to Clay without your daddy seeing; he still doesn’t know you two are a couple.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say with a smile as I give her a quick squeeze.
Clay is a fairly new ranch hand to us, only a year older than me, but we hit it off immediately. It was quite the summer fling to have before leaving for college, and I’m sad that I’m having to leave him behind.
I look out the window and see that my best friend, Rachel, is being dropped off. They’re loading her things into my car, and I rush out to hug her.
“I’m almost ready,” I say, hugging her mom and dad, too.
“Oh, you girls,” her mom, Lora, says with a sigh. “I’m so proud of you both, but this is torture.”
“You still have two more kids at home,” her dad, Jarold, says with a laugh.
“It’s not forever,” Rachel says over her shoulder. Her eyes flit to mine, and she lowers her voice. “How did your last night with Clay go?”
“It was amazing. He is so romantic,” I sigh.
“Too cute.”
We go back to loading up my car. An hour later, we’re saying our goodbyes and making our way back to the University of Alabama.
A month later, Clay and I are on the phone late one night.
“Things are bad,” he says into the phone. “That horse guy really left your dad in a lurch. He had to resell those horses at auction and lost money on them.”
“What?” I gasp. “Mama didn’t say anything.”
“I heard your dad and Bill talking about it. I guess he screwed a few people in town out of some money before he took off suddenly.”
“If I ever lay eyes on that jerk again,” I hiss into the phone.
“There’s no way he’ll show his face around here, so chill out there,” he teases. “Bill warned your dad, saying he was a flaky guy and known for doing stuff like this.”
“What happens now?”
“I don’t know; I’ll keep you posted. I’m glad he left. I didn’t like the way he looked at you. We’ll make the money back, but I know your dad was really looking forward to breeding some of those mustangs.”
It’s so cute that he gets possessive of me.
“I know he was. He was hoping to get into racing.”
Clay and I talk a bit longer before hanging up. I lay down in my bed for the night, staring up at the ceiling and thinking of all the ways that I will strangle that horse whisperer if I ever see him again.
My dad never gambles like that, and I can’t imagine why he took such a chance on this guy.
Chapter One
Brynn
13 years later
My phone rings, and I look down to see my ex-boyfriend Clay’s number flash across the screen.
“Son of a bitch,” I hiss before I hit the answer button. “Hey, Clay.”
