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“Have fun,” Spur said. “See you back here in fifteen?”
“Yes,” Trey said, forgetting his brother was even there.
The back of the arena started to fill with people, and Trey nodded Beth and the plastic bag of food she’d brought out the nearest door. They found a patch of shade and settled on the ground.
Beth handed TJ an apple and said, “Four bites, please.”
He took the fruit and the first bite while Trey marveled at the calm, caring demeanor of the woman next to him. She looked at him, her dark eyes bright. “Did you want an apple, babe? I brought plenty.”
“Yes,” he said, the word grinding through his throat. She’d never called him anything but Trey before, and he sure did like the endearment in her voice. He took the bright red apple from her and took a bite too.
TJ took exactly four and put the apple on the ground. “Can I have a sandwich now?”
“Half or whole?” she asked.
“Whole.”
“Let’s start with half.”
Trey wasn’t sure why she’d asked if she was just going to do what she wanted anyway, but he said nothing.
“Daddy invited us to his house for Thanksgiving dinner,” Beth said, her eyes trained on something in the bag. “I said I’d talk to you.”
Trey took another bite of his apple, trying to come up with a response. His mother would work in the kitchen for a week to prepare for Thanksgiving, and Trey knew telling her he and Beth and TJ wouldn’t be there would be hard for all of them.
“Okay,” he said after he’d finally chewed and swallowed. “That sounds fine.”
“You don’t think your mother will have a problem with it?”
“She might,” Trey admitted. “But she’ll deal with it.”
Beth nodded, finally raising her eyes to his. They held worry and doubt.
“What’s goin’ on in your head?” he asked.
“Just thinking about family dinners with you,” she said. “I know you have a loud family, but they at least seem to understand boundaries. Mine doesn’t. Not really.”
“They were great for the wedding,” he said, frowning at her.
“Yes,” she conceded, her voice growing soft. “They were.”
“They’ll probably be fine,” he said, not worried about something that was still almost a month away. “I talked to Rob again last night while we were training. He and Lady have really formed a bond. She listens to him, and he seems to know exactly how long to hold her back. He said he can feel it in her stride and her energy.”
“That’s great,” Beth said. “I have the application ready to go.”
“We’re still taking TJ to your brother’s, then dropping off the application, and then going to dinner, right? On Saturday?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, flashing him that playful, flirty smile he loved. She handed him a full sandwich, and he started to open the zipper bag containing it.
“Great,” he said. “Then I’m going to tell Rob we don’t need him Sunday or Monday. He can’t work Lady that much anyway, and I’m sure he could use a break.” In all honesty, it was Trey who could use a break, because he’d been sneaking into the indoor track here at Bluegrass Ranch with Somebody’s Lady for a week now. They didn’t even leave Beth’s farm until midnight, and Trey had been crawling back into bed about three-thirty after watching Rob run the horse, talk to the horse, and get the horse to trust him.
He’d scheduled regular time on their outdoor track for teaching her how to run straight, and how to pick up her step. He did that, working with her carefully each day, making sure not to run her too hard more than once or twice a week.
Part of him really wanted to win the Sweetheart Classic just to show Conrad and Ian that they weren’t the only Chappells who understood racehorses. They trained horses exclusively on the ranch, sometimes getting their names in programs for their accomplishments with a horse.
Conrad especially was known around the Lexington area as the horse whisperer, as he hadn’t met a horse yet that he couldn’t tame, break, and love. They all loved him too, almost like they sensed a horse spirit inside his very human body.
“Listen,” he said to Beth. “I hired Marc and his crew to come back next week.”
