“I’ll be back to see you again soon,” I said as I patted her and closed the stall door behind me.
Heading off in the direction of the house, I wanted to avoid my father, but I knew that I was going to have to get into his office soon. I didn’t know where to start, but I knew there was something lurking there for me to find. Somewhere there had to be some information about why he was so dead set on keeping the Killarny family away from our derby, and I was going to have to be the one to find out what it was.
Chapter 7
Pete
It had been no surprise to wake up and find that Sara had already left. She was used to derby life, and any kind of business that involved animals tended to create early risers. She must have been up, and out of the house before dawn, I thought as I looked out the window and saw that her car was no longer where Sam and Stephen had parked it the night before after they were able to bring it back to life.
I showered and got dressed, trying not to let my mind dwell on Sara Waters for any longer than absolutely necessary. I knew I would see her again in two weeks when we showed up for the derby, with or without the approval of Ken Waters, but until then I needed to focus on the things that had to happen around the ranch to make going to the derby possible. We needed to know how many trailers we were taking, the number of personnel that would be going with us, and Alex was going to have to decide for certain which horse was going to run.
Downstairs, I started breakfast, and as I was finishing up scrambling some eggs, Emma came bounding through the door.
“Back already?” I asked.
She nodded and dropped her bag on the floor. “Yeah, Dani and her mom had somewhere to be this morning, so they dropped me off o
n the way there.” She grabbed a piece of bacon and sat down at the table. “Where’s Sara?”
I looked at her a little surprised. “Oh, uh…she had to leave. She had to get back to the derby. Lots of work to do leading up to the big event. And you know it wasn’t in the plan for her to stay here in the first place. That just happened because her car broke down. She was ready to be on her way home, I’m sure.”
Emma got up and grabbed a glass from the cupboard then reached for the orange juice from the fridge. “Want any?” she asked as she poured herself a glass.
“No, I think I’ll just have coffee, thanks.”
She put the juice back and took a seat again. I could feel her eyes on me as I made us each a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit. When I set the plate in front of her, I could see that the wheels were turning in her brain.
“What’s going on with you?” I asked, genuinely curious about what was going on in her mind.
“I was just wondering when you were going to ask her out on a date,” she said without a pause.
I was taken aback but tried not to let it show. “Why would you think I was going to do that?”
She smiled. “See…you didn’t say you weren’t going to!”
I narrowed my eyes at her as I took a bite of scrambled eggs. She dug into her breakfast as well, and I waited until she had a full mouth before I spoke again.
“I didn’t say that, but…well, what would you think if I did?”
She shrugged as she finished swallowing a bite. “I don’t know why you don’t date. You’ve never ever brought anyone home. I mean…Dad, I know that you’ve been on dates, but I don’t think you’ve been on any in a long time. And you’ve never told me about them.”
I nodded. “Well, you know it’s a grown up thing, and relationships can be complicated. I’ve never wanted to get you involved unless I knew it was someone who was going to stick around…” I realized the words only after they had left my mouth.
Emma frowned. “You mean someone who isn’t like Mom?”
I sighed. It had always been important to me to never say anything disparaging about Kelly in front of Emma. If the woman ever acted like she wanted to have a relationship with our daughter, then I wanted the door to be open to the possibility. There was no need for me to share my opinion of the woman and the way she had abandoned both of us. It had never really mattered to me what Kelly thought about me or what kind of communication she wanted us to have, but I had always wanted her to have something with Emma. The fact that she had never been consistent and had hardly ever reached out over the years had been painful for me to witness, but I knew that it had to be so much more than that for my daughter who was missing out on having a mother in her life entirely.
“If I was going to bring someone around, I would want to make sure that it was the sort of woman that I thought would be a great role model for you. Someone who had some drive and knew what she wanted out of life. And I would hope that what she wanted would include the both of us. We’re a package deal, you and me. You know that, right?”
She nodded and smiled. Emma was still a young girl at twelve, but I was already starting to see a glimpse of the woman she was going to be and it was both exciting and terrifying. I knew that my daughter was strong, capable, and intelligent, and whenever I decided that I was going to date again, with serious intentions, I wanted it to be someone that she could look up to.
“I know, Dad. But for that to happen you’re going to have to actually go out on dates.”
“From the mouths of babes,” I said as I looked down toward my plate. “Okay, well now that I know that you want me to go on dates, maybe I can take it a little more seriously. I just want you to know that no matter who comes into my life, you come first. No matter what, I want you to be able to come talk to me and tell me what you think about things. This is early days still and who knows—I might not even find anyone. Maybe I’ll be a bachelor for the rest of my life.”
Emma wrinkled her nose. “Eww. Dad, no. You’re too young for that. You need to get out there and find someone. And I thought that Sara was really nice. She’s funny, and she seems like she is really smart. And both of you work with horses. It sounds like it could be a good match.”
“What do you know about good matches?” I asked as I gave her a look.