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Chapter One
Trey Chappell loved his mother’s cooking, and while she’d lured him here with the promise of chicken and dumplings, he didn’t entirely hate it.
It was time anyway.
The conversation had been fine. Better than fine. Good. He’d talked about the upcoming yearlings sale, as well as Blaine’s engagement, and he hadn’t once had to answer a question he didn’t want to.
Trey didn’t actually mind answering questions if he knew the answers to them. The problem was that his mother liked to ask him things he didn’t know how to answer. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t let go of Sarah. He wasn’t sure why he’d put all the blame on God and lost his faith.
Deep down, he still believed in the loving, benevolent God his parents had taught him about. At the same time, he couldn’t believe that the Lord would allow his heart to be so completely trampled on, despite Sarah’s ability to make her own choices.
He didn’t know why he hadn’t been able to make another relationship work, though he’d tried. He didn’t know why he was so drawn to Bethany Dixon, and he had no idea why he hadn’t been able to give a sure answer to her proposal. She’d asked him to marry her so they could enter the Sweetheart Classic together.
Really, soshecould enterherhorse into the Sweetheart Classic. She hadn’t gone into details, but Trey could still hear her saying, “I need the money, Trey. Plain and simple.”
He’d said he’d let her know when he came to clear her garden. That had been last week, and while they’d gotten the work done, when he’d gotten a moment alone with Beth, he’d told her he needed more time to come to a final decision.
Her time was running out, and Trey felt it ticking away second by second, the clicking actually loud in his ears.
They had to be married by Halloween, with his name on the horse’s certificate before she could register it for the Sweetheart Classic. It wasn’t October yet, but it would be in a few days, and he really needed to come to a decision.
“Are you seeing anyone new?” Mom asked, and Trey put the last bite of his chicken and dumplings in his mouth.
He took a few seconds to chew and swallow, trying to formulate the right answer. “Kind of,” he said.
Mom’s brow furrowed. “How can youkind ofbe seeing someone?”
“Jules,” Daddy said, and his mom lifted one hand.
“Sorry,” she said. “Sorry, Trey. I know how dating goes these days. You like her, and you’re not sure if she likes you, and you want to be her boyfriend, but maybe you’re not yet, so there’s this middle ground wherekind ofexists.”
Trey gaped at his mother. It was the third Sunday in a row he’d eaten with them alone, and he found all of his hard feelings softening and falling away. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s a little bit like that.”
He looked back and forth between his mother and his father, and the interest in their eyes wasn’t lost on him. He also wanted to tell someone about the things that had been tormenting him for the past two weeks, and maybe those two people were sitting right in front of him.
Part of his brain screamed at him to eat his mom’s famous peach cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream and keep his thoughts to himself. That had been working for him for the past forty-one years, and if he wanted to talk to someone, he could go back to therapy.
“If we can help,” Mom said. “Let us know.” She stood up. “Now, did you eat too much to have cobbler now? We can sit on the upper verandah if you’d like.”
“I can take my cobbler up there, right?” he asked.
Mom smiled as she picked up his empty plate. “Of course, baby.” She bent down and pressed a kiss to his head. “I’ll get it all out.”
Trey nodded and watched her go into the kitchen. She sang to herself as she got out bowls and spoons, the dishes clacking against each other.
“Thanks for coming,” Daddy said in a low voice. “It means a lot to your mother.”
“I know,” Trey said. “She’s been doing really great.”
“She loves you boys,” he said. “We both do.”
“I know that.” Trey reached up and tipped his hat forward. “Listen, I did want to talk to you about something.”
Daddy leaned into the table. “Go ahead.”
Trey swallowed. “All right now.” He took a moment to find the right words, but they weren’t there. It was the same reason he hadn’t said anything to Cayden or Blaine. There wasn’t an adequate way to explain the situation.
“Do you know Beth Dixon?” he asked right as his mother came back to the table.
