AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Croissant?” Merrick tossed a bag at her as she emerged into the living room.
“Delivery. Nice,” she said, digging into the bag. Merrick sat in a large dark green armchair with Salena on his lap. He was feeding her bites of croissant. Apparently she and Julien weren’t the only ones who’d engaged in some naked misbehavior last night.
“Do you believe in hole n’ stick medicine?” Merrick asked Salena.
“Holistic medicine?”
“No, this is a different thing.”
Remi coughed loudly to get Merrick’s attention.
“She must need more hole n’ stick medicine,” Merrick stage-whispered to Salena.
“Merrick,” Remi said and snapped her fingers. “You yelled at me to get out of the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in with the sexiest most amazing guy I’ve ever met. Focus please. What’s the situation?”
Merrick focused.
“Seven missed calls now,” Merrick said. “Dad. Mom. Trainer. Mom. Dad. Trainer. Last one from your mother.”
“Oh God, not my mother,” she groaned and collapsed onto the sofa. Julien emerged from his bedroom, fully dressed and looking adorably sheepish. Salena grinned at him, and he turned a becoming shade of scarlet.
“What’s going on?” Julien asked, sitting next to her on the sofa.
“Trying to figure out what to tell my parents about where I am. I can’t say I’m on vacation. That’s too suspicious. I’m not the whirlwind-vacation-taking type. At least I wasn’t,” Remi said.
“You.” Merrick pointed at her. “You aren’t going to say anything to them. You’re a terrible liar. Just tell me when we’re going back to Kentucky, and I’ll handle it. When are we going back?”
Remi shrugged. “I don’t know. We can’t stay here long.”
“Yes, you can,” Julien said, giving her an almost pleading look. “At least stay as long as you can.”
“Brilliant idea,” Merrick said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll just run out and get us two French citizenships and a bag of money so we don’t have to go back to our jobs, and we’ll move right in and eat croissants and fuck all the time. Wait. That’s actually an amazing idea.”
“Sounds good to me,” Salena said, winking at him.
“We can’t stay,” Remi said, smiling apologetically at Julien. It hurt to say the words but it was better to say them now, get them out, and deal with the fact of them. “I have a job. So does Merrick. And while I might be furious at my parents for whatever they’re into, I can’t abandon the farm. I love the horses too much..”
“Gross, Boss,” Merrick said.
“I don’t love them like that,” she said, wadding up her empty croissant bag and throwing it at him.
“You really love it there?” Julien asked.
“I do,” she sighed. “I did. I liked being in charge. I liked being responsible for the well-being of the horses and the jockeys. I take really good care of them.” She was speaking in the past tense and it scared her. Something told her that her days as Arden Farm’s manager were numbered.
“She does,” Merrick said. “Arden Farms has the lowest horse and jockey injury record of any Thoroughbred horse farm in the U.S.”
She shook her head and exhaled through her teeth.
“All this work I do,” she said standing up. “Every safety measure we’ve implemented, all the progress we’ve made…if my family gets caught by the racing commission fixing races or taking kickbacks from the track? It’s all gone.”
“I won’t let them fuck over your work, Boss,” Merrick said.
Remi smiled at him, something she rarely did.
“When I was a kid, I went to Keeneland Racecourse with my dad for the horse auctions. And he told me that in the 1950s, Keeneland paid for every preschooler in Lexington, Kentucky to get the polio vaccine. He told me that and I said then and there, that’s what Arden Farms would be like. We would give back to Kentucky like that. And now…”
It broke her heart to even think of it, to think of all her hard work being tarnished by a scandal she had nothing to do with. She couldn’t bear to face it. Eventually she would have to face it.
