AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you want my advice?”
“Yeah?”
“Why not tell them?”
Fox was quiet for a moment, then looked up at me. “Maybe.” He sighed, and we hugged for a while, and I almost didn’t hear his whispered words. “Do you think things will ever be normal?”
I ruffled his hair. “Normal is overrated.” Let’s tidy up a bit, yeah?”
“Okay.” He sounded so small, and I wanted to make everything right.
“Then afterward, I don’t know if you want to pick up where you’d gotten to back in Columbus, but how about we go up to the ranch and talk about getting you riding lessons? I mean, you used to enjoy those, right?”
His eyes widened comically. “For real?”
Was I rewarding bad behavior, or offering a gift to someone who needed something good to happen?
I didn’t care why I was doing it. Fox was far from spoiled, despite all the money he used to have, and I’d find a way to pay for lessons, and I’d sure as hell find a way to make our time work in Whisper Ridge.
We both went to the floor, and he pulled over the garbage can and began to scoop up bits of torn poster.
“We can get you another poster if you want one,” I said.
He sat back on his heels and considered the bits of poster in the garbage.
“Nah. I have better people thanhimthat I want on my wall.” Then, he picked up the trophy and placed it in there as well. “Cy Young award,” he muttered, “yeah right, shitty award if he wins it.”
I didn’t even call him on his cursing.
He found his phone, caressing it as if he was apologizing for throwing it, and I was relieved it seemed okay, although it was dead. He plugged it in, and we put the room in order, and when the phone reached enough charge to wake up, there was buzz after buzz from Clarke and Ainsley, and someone called Molly, which caused Fox to go scarlet.
Awww.
* * *
I locked up the diner,and we headed out to the car. It was still cold at five, and the sky was growing dark, but the snow made everything pretty, and I felt as if maybe Fox had turned a corner in the last hour. He was brighter, chattering about Clarke this and Ainsley that, and about tryouts for the baseball team at the weekend, and when we headed up and out of Whisper Ridge, following rustic hand-carved signs to the Lennox Ranch, I just listened to everything he said, and all the broken bits of my heart began the slow move to coming together again.
“Will I get to ride tonight?” he asked, near-bouncing in the seat.
“I doubt it, but we’ll at least get to talk to someone. Yeah?”
His belly rumbled, and I pointed at the glove box. “Oreo snack pack in there; you’d better eat it before you die of starvation.”
He fell on the cookies as if they were the last food in the world, and the empty calories at least put a smile on his face and might hold him off until dinner if he believed they’d filled him up. Horses first, then dinner.
The drive up to the ranch took us past narrow, straight fences on either side, poking out above snowbanks, and the snowfall gave everything a Christmassy feel. I made a mental note to visit here when it was actually coming up to Christmas because I got the feeling it would be breathtaking. Lamps lit the way into the parking area, and I stopped the car next to a blue pickup, and then, wasn’t sure what to do at all. Maybe I should have called the office? This was impetuous and stupid, although the opening times on the board at the bottom of the hill went up to six, and it was only—I checked my watch—shit, five-forty.
“Bundle up, and let’s go find some horses,” I said, and Fox beat me to it by a country mile, excitement in every inch of him. He was out of the car and hopping up and down to keep warm before I even had my arms in my coat sleeves.
“Come on, Dad!” he pestered.
As soon as my boots hit the new snow, he was off and following the path with the sign that saidoffice, which seemed to be part of the main ranch house, and he thrust open the door and hustled inside, leaving it to shut in front of me.
Well, at least, he wasn’t letting the cold in.
I let myself in, and stomped my snowy boots on a mat that welcomed us here.
“Sorry about this, I know it’s late, but—” I glanced up as I spoke, and there he was. The man who’d taken up residence in my head, sitting behind the desk and staring at me and Fox as if we’d threatened to rob him. Chris shuffled a pile of papers on the desk before shoving them into a folder.
