The day he said I love you for the first time.
The way he’d hold me when I would be upset about my mom and her drinking.
I always felt so safe in his arms.
More memories bang on the door of my heart. Wanting me to fight. A beautiful and dark war wages inside me but I can’t let the memories win. There is no love left between us that is left to go to battle for.
I hold those thoughts at bay, the ones burning for me to go back and say I didn’t mean any of what I said, and I can forgive him. Maybe I could forgive but I would never be able to forget. I pull out the deed to my father’s trailer. “Wild Horse Acres, Deadman’s Drop, Texas,” I read the address aloud to myself.
Throwing caution to the wind, I roll down my windows, turn up the radio as I leave my old life behind, and head for my new beginning.
I don’t know what my father left behind for me in Texas but now is as good as time as any to find out.
Fuck Justin.
I don’t need him and he sure as hell don’t need me.
I need a new start.
A new life.
I want to be someone who isn’t me.
Chapter 2
Hattie Mae
Two days later I pull up to a security gate with a guard shack. The iron gate has a horse design cut out in the middle.
A hand painted sign to the left reads Wild Horse Acres.
This must be the place.
A heavyset man wearing a security uniform armed with a clipboard approaches my window. “Miss, can I help you?”
“Um, I hope so. I’m here to um to oversee my father’s affairs. Mr. Hatfield.”
“We’ve been expecting you. You must be Hattie Mae. Your old man talked about you all the time.”
I balk at his lie. He must not have known my father well. He couldn’t have had anything to say about me. The man never knew me.
“Just need to see your identification. If you plan on staying a bit, I can give you the passcode for the gate.”
“That’d be great. I’m not sure how long I’ll be here for.”
“Well, we’re a real close-knit community. If you need anything. Bethel or Kiesha will point ya in the right direction. Bethel manages Wild Horse Acres and Kiesha makes it her business to know everyone. You’ll be looking for trailer number 24, white with blue shutters.”
“Great…”
He gives me a nod and the gate opens.
The trailer park is not what I was expecting. It’s nice. All the trailers have their own small yards. They are situated close together but far enough apart that they don’t look stacked on top of one another.
The most surprising thing though is that there is a lake and the park seems to be located around it.
I stop at the office to let Bethel know that I am here and find out if my father owes any lot rent. I need to know what I am inheriting if anything, even if it is his debts. Right now, anything would be better than crawling back to Justin for a place to live or worse my mother.
I knock on the door and I hear a hoarse voice call out, “Its open.”