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“It’s about time that boss of yours realized you were over eight months pregnant,” Garrett scolded me as he watched me get ready to head to work.
“Oh, don’t you start again. Jack is the same. Says if I ruin his carpets with my waters breaking he is going to make me replace them.”
“So why aren’t you listening?”
“I love my job, Garrett, and you know my obstetrician has no problem with me continuing to work. Says I am as fit as a flea.”
He gathered me into his arms and kissed the top of my head.
“Now, you go too. Get off to work and I’ll call you if anything happens.”
“You’re so damn bossy.” He raises a brow at me. “Anyone would think you used to be a teacher.”
He winks.
***
Newport Echo
Births and announcements
To Garrett and Meredith James.
A son
Chance Miller James.
7lb 6oz
Born 26 September 2017.
FATE
Chapter 1
Pete
I closed the ledger and leaned back into the rich cherry colored leather of the desk chair. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples, thinking about how much easier things had been when my father was around running things at Killarny Estate. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t become accustomed to over the years. Being the oldest of the five Killarny brothers, it was expected from birth that I would be the one to take over the day to day running of the ranch. While all the brothers were equal partners in running the ranch, it was I who was the most responsible. Ask anyone. It was also me that my dad had turned to back when my mother, Emily Killarny, had first been diagnosed with breast cancer.
At my mother’s request, I took on the additional tasks that my father had usually taken care of. Most of it was business, the sort of thing that didn’t capture my attention quite like the quiet, meditative work with the horses, but I knew what had to be done. Most of all, I hadn’t wanted to let my mother down.
Emily Killarny was a force unto herself, but she had a kind and good heart, and above all, she loved her children. I was aware that I had a special place in her heart when she had gone out of her way to be the best kind of grandmother she could be to Emma. I’d been dejected and alone, raising a two year old daughter alone after my ex-wife, Kelly, decided one day that motherhood and married life wasn’t for her. My parents had been so kind to us in the days following that abandonment, and I would forever be grateful to both of them. My mother had especially done all that she could to make sure that Emma felt safe and loved after her mother’s abrupt departure.
Back then my major responsibilities had been tending to the horses, something I still loved and wished I was able to do more of, but being the oldest, and since my father had relocated to Costa Rica, I knew I had to be the one to step up to the plate. My mother’s death three years prior had taken a toll on the family patriarch, and after suffering a severe bout of depression, he finally decided to make some major changes. One of those changes included leaving the states and relocating to a warmer climate, leaving the green Kentucky hills behind him in favor of sun and sand. Some days I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of that, but I knew that my heart would always be right here, wherever Emma was.
I opened my eyes again and looked at my computer screen for a moment before getting up and heading for the door, grabbing my jacket on the way. There was still a chill in the air that early in the Kentucky spring and it was invigorating to step out into the morning air, breathing in the fresh smell of new grass and the less pleasing scent wafting from the nearest barn. The smell of manure might not have appealed to everyone, but for me, it was a reminder of home and childhood.
I breathed in the air and made my way over to the stables where my brother Alex was brushing out the coat of a two year old mare.
“She looks beautiful,” I said as I came up to stand on the other side of the stall door.
Alex nodded. “Siobhan is quite a looker.” He brushed her russet coat
to a glistening sheen that caught the early morning sun and made the horse look like a copper penny.
“You think we’ll run her next year?” I asked him as I looked over the horse from nose to tail. She was beautiful, but I wasn’t sure if she was one of the horses that we would end up taking to the many derbies we were involved in.
Alex shrugged. “Not sure. She hasn’t been run that much, and I really think that if we had planned on doing that with her, she should have seen a little more practice at this point in her life. I think she is a great horse, but I’m not sure the derby life is the one for her. However, I do think she is going to give us a lot of talented foals.”
