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“But you hoped he might be?”
“Sure, but it was complicated.”
“Because of Anna?”
“Yes.” Hadley hadn’t told anyone the story behind Anna’s accident. Ashamed that her friend was paralyzed as a result of something Hadley had said in a moment of anger, she’d punished herself all these years by avoiding something she loved: horses. “It bugged her that he’d go out of his way to comment on my rides but didn’t notice her at all.”
“What did she expect? That you’d tell him to stop being nice to you?” At Hadley’s shrug, her friend sighed. “You should’ve told her to go to hell.”
“I did something so much worse, and as a consequence my best friend lost the use of her legs.”
Kori’s eyes widened. “You need to tell me the whole story.”
Haley killed the last of the wine in her glass and refilled from the bottle. “It was July and Wade Ranch was throwing a huge party at their stalls in the show barn to promote one of their stallions. Anna had been flirting with Liam for a month and was convinced he was finally showing interest when he invited her to the celebration. She dragged me along because she didn’t want to go alone and then promptly ditched me to go hang with Liam. I lost track of her and spent the night hanging out with some of the other barrel racers.
“It was getting late and Anna didn’t want to leave, so I arranged to get a lift with someone else. A little before we took off, I went to check on Lolita for the last time to make sure she had water and because being with her calmed me down. I was mad at Anna for chasing a guy who didn’t act like he was into her.”
“Because if he had been into her she wouldn’t have had to chase him.”
“Right.” Several girls at the party had poked fun at Anna for thinking Liam could possibly be interested in her. “So, there I was in the stall with Lolita and guess who appears.”
“Liam?” Kori said his name with such relish that Hadley had to smile.
“Liam. At first I thought maybe Anna was looking for me and got Liam to help her, but turns out he’d just followed me.”
“Where was Anna?”
“I don’t know. And really, for a little while, I didn’t care. Liam and I talked about my upcoming ride the next day and he offered me advice for how to take a little time off my turns. I was grateful for the feedback and when I told him that, he said that if I won, I could take him out to dinner with my prize money.”
“He asked you out?”
“I guess.” Even now doubt clouded Hadley’s tone. Even with Liam’s engagement ring on her finger, she had a hard time believing that he’d been the slightest bit interested in her. She’d been so plain and uninteresting compared with his other girlfriends.
“You guess?” Kori regarded her in bemusement. “Of course he did.”
Hadley shrugged. “Like I said, he was nice to a lot of people.”
“But you had to suspect he wouldn’t have tracked you to Lolita’s stall if he wasn’t interested in you.”
“I could barely hope he liked me. I was excited and terrified. His reputation was something I wasn’t sure I could deal with. He dated extensively.” She put air quotes around dated. “I was eighteen and I’d never really been kissed.”
“So did you win and go to dinner with him?”
“I won, but we never went out. Anna rode after I did the next day and had her accident.”
“You haven’t explained how that was your fault.”
“Anna overheard Liam and I talking about dinner and me agreeing to his terms. She interrupted us and told me she was leaving and if I wanted a ride I’d better come with her. Considering I’d been ready to go an hour earlier, her demand seemed pretty unreasonable. I was tempted to tell her I’d already made other arrangements, but she was obviously upset so I agreed to head out.”
“She was jealous that Liam had asked you out.”
“That’s what I figured, but on the way to the car I tried to explain to her that he was just helping me out with my riding.”
“And she didn’t believe you.”
“No. She’d figured out I liked him and accused me of going behind her back. When I denied it, she went ballistic. Said that the only reason he noticed me was because I beat his girlfriend and that I wasn’t his type. She insisted I would be the laughingstock of the barn if I kept believing he would ever want to date me.”
