AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cal frowned. “We’d need to rehearse.”
“I was thinking of bringing the guys out here, and you could rehearse in the old barn like you used to do back when you were a nobody.”
A spark of joy lit him up, and Cal found himself smiling, liking the idea. The guys and the music would be a distraction, and with the way things were with Millie Sue, he damn well needed all the distraction he could get.
“I like it. I’ll call them.”
“Already done.”
Cal gave her a hug. “This is why I need you. You’re always one step ahead.”
Ivy backed away. “They’ll be here Saturday.” She pointed toward the living room. “Tell everyone I said good night.” She paused. “This thing with Tabitha and your brother, is it serious?”
“Hell no,” Cal said with a chuckle. “He’s just biding time until the right one comes along.”
“Or Daisy Mae comes home?”
She left him without waiting for an answer. Outside, snow fell, but the flakes were light and not much of it would stick. Restless, he pulled on his coat and boots and headed outside, eyes on the barns. Funny to think he’d only been out to them once since he’d been home.
It was quiet as he made his way through the dimly lit barn. He was hit by all those smells that would always make him feel like home. Hay. Horses. Straw. Earth. By the time he reached the last stall, that ache that always seemed to be in him had hardened into a ball. He stood in front of Hank’s stall and waited. It took less than thirty seconds for a horse to appear, and even though he knew Hank had been put down years ago, it didn’t lessen the disappointment.
The large black eyes staring back at him were intelligent, and they belonged to a blue roan, by the looks of it. The horse sniffed at him and moved closer, and he undid the latch to let himself inside. It was a beautiful animal.
Cal let the horse get used to his scent and sound, and after many minutes of gentle talk and soft touches, the horse let him get closer. He ran his hands across its back and down its flank, noting the clean lines.
“You’re a beauty,” he whispered, resting his forehead against the horse’s neck. It whinnied and bobbed its head.
“She’s a yearling. One of Wild Blue’s.”
Cal stilled at the sound of his father’s voice, coming at him from the shadows.
“This used to be your favorite place. I don’t how many times your mother would call you in for dinner and I’d find you out here with Hank.”
“It’s quiet out here,” he answered, head cocked to the side, hoping his father would take the hint and leave.
“The kind of quiet a man needs every now and then.”
Cal turned around and faced his father. He studied him closely. The anger that usually accompanied any thought of Manley Bridgestone wasn’t there to keep him company. Instead, he found himself curious. “What made you quit drinking?”
If his father was surprised at the question, it didn’t show, though he lowered his gaze and took a few moments to respond.
“It’s not a pretty story.”
“I didn’t think it would be.”
When Manley spoke again, his voice was soft but clear. “I’d been on a ten-day bender, staying at some shit hole in Bozeman. It was winter, February third, if I remember correctly, one of the coldest nights on record. I’d been drinking since noon and stumbled back to the motel from the bar, trying to find my way through the booze and the darkest night imaginable. Not a star in the sky.” He heaved a sigh. “I fell, like I often did when I was drunk. But this time, I hit my head real good and knocked myself out. I don’t know how long I was passed out. Half an hour, maybe? It was long enough for frostbite to take. Long enough for my breathing to slow, for my heart to follow, even with all that booze in my system. I would have died out there, alone in the dark, except your mother saved me.”
Unbelievable. “Don’t even,” Cal ground out. “Don’t bring her into your delusions.”
“They’re not delusions, Calvin.” Manley’s eyes were almost fevered, his handsome face anguished. “She came to me, so bright and full of light and warmth. She touched my face and kissed my brow. She told me some things. Things I won’t repeat because they’re between your Ma and me. But some were truths that I needed to hear. She said if I didn’t get up, I’d die that night. And if I didn’t stop drinking, I’d die before the year was out.”
Manley paused and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I told her that I wanted to die. That I’d wanted to die since the day she left. She said I was being selfish and cowardly and that wasn’t the man she’d fallen in love with. Of course, she was right. She made me promise to stop drinking, son, and—”
Son. Cal scowled at the word and cut off his father. “Do you remember the last time we saw each other? I’m not talking about last week at the cabin.”
Manley’s gaze never wavered, and he made no effort to hide the pain from his eyes. And the shame. They shone in the low light as if lit from inside as he ran a hand over the stubble on his chin. “Beating a son with my own hands isn’t something I’ll forget.”
“No,” Cal replied, harshly. “I don’t suppose you will.” That anger was back and filled his belly with a fire he couldn’t ignore. “You put me in the hospital because you caught me playing her guitar, the one she gave me before she died. And then you smashed it until it was nothing but pieces of her scattered on the floor.” Even now, the pain of that night was enough to take Cal’s breath away. Manley seemed to have shrunk at his words.
