The Last Second Chance: A Small Town Love Story (Blue Moon Book 3) (31 page)

“So why the hell are you here then?” Forrest grumbled, shifting the six-pack into one hand.

“You need to make things right with Joey. She needs you. She wants you to be proud of her, to treat her like an adult.”

“Well then she should act like an adult instead of running off pouting about things.”

“The only two people who aren’t acting like adults are you and me. I’ve apologized to Joey and she seems to have reluctantly accepted it. I shouldn’t have tried to make life-altering decisions for her without consulting her and I know that now. I think you know that now, too. I don’t think either of us will make that mistake again.”

Forrest grunted with what sounded like assent.

“I live without a father, I don’t want her to do the same. Not when you’re alive and well. You’d be an idiot to let things go on this way.”

“An idiot, am I?”

“Yeah. And so am I, but she still loves us anyway. She wants to forgive you, but you’ve got to give her a reason to.”

Forrest grunted again as he looked down at the beer. “Are you trying to bribe me with alcohol?”

“That is the first six pack of Joey’s IPA. It’s a new tradition of Pierce men to brew a beer for their bride. I figured since she was your girl first, you should have the first six.”

Forrest pulled out a bottle to examine the label. “If you hurt my girl ever in any way, I’m going to hunt you down,” he said quietly as if talking to the bottle.

“Understood,” Jax nodded. “And if you continue to hurt my girl, I’m going to drive here on the wedding day and tie you up and make you walk her down the aisle with a shotgun pointed between your shoulder blades.”

Forrest harrumphed. “We’ll see if it comes to that. She may say no to you.”

Jax grinned. “She probably will. At first. But I’ve got nothing but time to wear her down.”

“I suppose a man shouldn’t drink an entire six-pack by himself,” Forrest said. He turned around and walked back into the house, leaving the front door open.

J
oey was frowning fiercely
at her monthly numbers on the computer screen. Adding two god-like horses to their stable had hiked her operating costs and she knew it was just the beginning. Of course, once she had the breeding program up and running, the operational costs would be a drop in the bucket compared to what they’d be bringing in. But for now, she’d keep a close eye and tighten the belts where they could be tightened.

When the phone on her desk rang, she gladly abandoned her bookkeeping.

“Hey, Joey. It’s Ellery.”

“Oh, you mean old Two-Face Magee?”

“You can’t be mad at me. You’re the stubborn one who warranted pulling out the big guns. If we’d gone with our usual matchmaking approach you probably would have left town.”

“Or gone lesbian.”

Ellery snorted. “Please, we’re four for four on our gay matches. One way or another the Beautification Committee will prevail in your love life.”

“It’s more like a tentative like life these days,” Joey corrected.

“Give it time. Pierce men are awfully hard to ignore in the long-term.”

“Is there a reason you called or did you just want to rub salt in wounds?”

“Oh, right! I was wondering if you do private riding lessons?”

“Maybe,” Joey said, wary of any request from a member of the Beautification Committee.

“Well my cousin’s coming into town this week and it’s his birthday and I thought a riding lesson would make up for last year’s hand-dipped lilac candles that he was allergic to.”

“Uh, sure. Why not?” Joey said. Taking on a few paying extras would help balance the books until Apollo and Calypso started doing the deed.

“Great! How about Wednesday at four?”

Joey flipped through her calendar. “That’s fine. Does your cousin have any riding experience?”

Ellery’s end was silent for a second. “Uh, can you hang on a second? Beckett needs something. I’m just going to put you on hold real quick.”

“Okay.” Joey drummed a rhythm on the desk with her pencil until Ellery came back on the line a minute later.

“He has some beginner riding experience, but he’s been around horses a lot.”

“Okay. And what size is he?”

“Size?”

“You know like height and weight.”

“He’s, you know. Normal-sized?” Ellery’s voice trailed up reminding Joey of the L.A. question-askers.

“Good for him. What exactly does normal-sized mean?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“I don’t want to put a three hundred pound man on a thirteen-hand pony.”

“Can you hang on again?” Ellery asked. “Sorry, Beckett’s really needy today.”

“Sure. It’s not like I have things to do or anything,” Joey muttered.

“Thanks!” And then Ellery was gone. Joey jotted down a note to tell Beckett to get some kind of on-hold music.

Ellery came back on the line. “Sorry about that. Beckett needed stuff for some things. Anyway, my cousin is about two hundred and fifty pounds and six-feet tall.”

“Okay, no ponies. Got it.”

“Thanks for doing this, Joey. He’s really going to appreciate it.”

“Wait until after the lesson. He may hate it,” Joey told her. “What’s your cousin’s name?”

“It’s, uh—”

“If you put me on hold again I’m hanging up.”

“Woods. His name is Woods.”

W
ednesday afternoon Joey
was in Carter’s kitchen walking him through her predicted timeline of Calypso’s heat cycles and swaying with one of the twins—she wasn’t sure which one—in her arms when the alarm on her phone went off.

“Crap. I forgot I have a private lesson today.”

Carter, who was holding the other baby, gestured at the infant seat on the island. “Just put him in there. If I can keep them quiet for another ten minutes Summer should be awake and showered or her parents will be back from the grocery store.”

Joey put Jonathan down into the seat and watched as his little face scrunched up. “Well, good luck with that,” she smirked as she headed toward the door.

“Who’s your lesson with?” Carter called after her.

“Ellery’s cousin Woods something. It’s for his birthday. Guess the guy likes horses.”

She caught Carter’s weird look but didn’t give it a second thought. Between twin babies and Meatball sleeping under the barstools he probably just smelled something ripe.

“I’m free after the lesson if you need any extra hands around the farm,” she called over her shoulder as she headed out the side door.

The March air was still brisk, but it lacked the Arctic needles that stung the face in February. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her fitted down jacket and hunkered down into the wind. She probably should have driven over to the farm, but she was good and sick of winter. She wanted to force spring along. Spring would bring with it, not just warmth, but new beginnings. The first season of her breeding program for one. It was time to see if her gamble, the Pierce’s gamble, would pay off. And warmer weather probably couldn’t help but thaw some of the awkwardness that still surrounded her when it came to Jax.

She was still pondering that when she strode into the stable through the side door. It wasn’t Ellery’s cousin standing outside her office with his hands stuffed in his pockets. It was her father.

She’d been had yet again by the B.C. and this meant war.

“I didn’t know you and Ellery were cousins,” she said evenly.

“More like old friends,” Forrest fibbed.

“Uh-huh. How old?”

“Oh, we go way back.”

Joey crossed her arms. “She tracked you down didn’t she? Diabolical B.C.,” she muttered.

“She didn’t come to me. Her services were recommended by…an acquaintance.”

“What acquaintance?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“I guess we’re not past the whole lying to each other thing, huh?”

“Oh for God’s sake. Jax gave me her business card if I needed help getting in touch with you. You haven’t been taking my calls.”

Joey added Jax back on to the shit list. “I haven’t wanted to take your calls. And since when did you and Jax get so buddy-buddy that you’re trading Ellery’s business card?”

“We’re not buddy-buddy.” Her father seemed to take great offense to that.

“What are you doing here?”

“That’s a fine greeting for your father. I thought I’d come by and maybe we could go for a ride,” Forrest said, scuffing his boot in the dirt. “Never did get to see the new horses last time I was here.”

“You mean when I found out that you’d betrayed me and our family friends by shipping off my high school boyfriend?”

Her father sighed heavily. “I’m no good at apologies. Ask your mother. Can’t we just go back to the way things were?”

Joey’s eye began to twitch wickedly. “The way things were, Dad? With you and Mom breathing down my neck over every life decision I’ve made since high school? Trying to keep me in some bubble of control—”

“If anything it was a bubble of safety,” Forrest interjected. “You’ll understand when you have kids of your own. We could have lost you that night.”

“But you didn’t because Jax paid attention in health class and knew how to tie a damn tourniquet. And instead of thanking him for saving my life, you blamed him for almost losing it.”

Forrest was shaking his head. “Maybe it wasn’t one of my finest moments. But I thought I was doing the right thing. You never let on that you wished things had been different. You’re happy now, aren’t you?”

Was she? Was she really happy with her life or was she just sitting behind the safety of her walls waiting for the next shoe to drop? Just like her father.

Joey didn’t have an answer for him so she changed the subject. “So you want to go for a ride?”

Forrest was one who generally appreciated horses from a distance, usually on the racetrack, but he’d always given in to Joey when she’d offered to go riding with him. Her love of horses had always baffled him, but the talent she’d displayed even as a kid had persuaded him to support her hobby.

He nodded briskly. “If you’re okay with it.”

Joey stared at him a beat, debating whether or not she should just throw him out. But that would probably make Thanksgiving awkward, she decided.

“Ellery’s paying me for it so I might as well deliver,” Joey said. Ellery would indeed be paying a steep price for her scheming.

“Who do you want me on?”

“You can have Tucker,” she said, nodding at the bay two stalls down. “He’s a lesson horse and probably won’t throw you.”

“That’s comforting,” her father said with sarcasm.

“You remember how to tack up?” Joey asked, bringing Tucker out of his stall and hooking him in the crossties in the aisle.

“I can manage.”

“Good. Try not to get kicked,” Joey told him before heading down to the end to bring Apollo out. He’d keep her occupied with his need for constant supervision. Plus, she could let him run a bit after she sent her father back.

Her father gave Apollo an appreciative once over. “That your new stud?”

“Yep.” Joey said hoping to quell any conversation.

Her father got the hint and they groomed their mounts and tacked up in silence. Waffles came scurrying in and planted himself at Joey’s feet. Apollo tossed his black head in greeting.

“There you are,” Joey said, running her hands through Waffles’ wiry fur. “You want to come along?”

Waffles spun in a happy circle before running over to sniff Forrest’s boots.

“Who’s this?” Forrest asked.

“That’s Waffles.”

“He yours?”

Joey gave a noncommittal “Uh-huh,” as she hefted the saddle onto Apollo’s back.

“You always wanted a dog,” her father ventured again.

“Yep. Jax got him for me from the rescue in town.” She’d deliberately dropped Jax’s name again, curious to see what her father’s reaction was. It wasn’t so long ago that the mere mention of the man’s name had veins throbbing. She wondered if her twitchy eye was a genetic trait that she shared with her father.

Her father harrumphed a response, but bent to let Waffles sniff his hand. Waffles gave his knuckles a tentative lick before scampering back to Joey.

“Lead out and then we’ll tighten the saddles in the yard,” Joey instructed her father.

Apollo nipped at Joey’s hand when she looped the reins over his head to lead him out. “Don’t be a dick,” she told the horse.

“What’s that now?” Forrest asked over his shoulder.

“I was talking to my horse, but same goes,” she warned.

Outside, the sun was slowly starting its late afternoon descent and taking with it its modest heat. Joey tightened the girth on the saddle and did the same for her father. No use having him slide off his mount and start bitching about a lawsuit, she decided.

She led them over to the mounting block next to the outdoor paddock and watched as Forrest swung into the saddle. Satisfied that his seat was steady, Joey swung up onto Apollo’s back and pulled on her riding gloves. She nodded north. “We’ll take a lap around the brewery and loop around the upper pasture,” she told him, before kicking Apollo into motion. “Don’t let Tucker get too close. Apollo’s a kicker. And a biter,” she instructed her father, smugly pleased that the distance would prevent most of the conversation she didn’t want to be a part of.

They walked up the grassy slope dappled with small mounds of snow that had stubbornly refused to melt with the rest. Apollo’s tail swished restlessly with the desire to run, but Joey kept his impulses in check. Waffles scampered out in front of them pausing to sniff whatever caught his attention.

“That’s a fine looking animal,” her father said, breaking what Joey considered to be a comfortable silence.

“The dog or the horse?”

“Horse. But I guess the dog kind of grows on you, too.”

“You been to the brewery yet?” Joey asked, when the building came into sight knowing full well the answer was no.

“No. Not yet. Heard it’s doing well. Maybe I’ll have to bring your mother sometime for dinner.”

Joey wheeled Apollo around. “All right. Just what exactly is going on? All the sudden you’re the Pierces’ number one fan?”

Forrest steered his mount to the left giving Apollo wide berth.

“Every once in a great while people can be not exactly right about something,” he said grudgingly.

“Oh for Pete’s sake. Are you saying you were wrong?”

“I’m not saying that. And I’m not saying I’m sorry either.”

Apologies and her father did not go hand-in-hand. They weren’t even on a first name basis.

“Exactly what is it that you are trying to say?”

“It wasn’t my intention to hurt you. I was trying to protect you,” Forrest said. “That’s what fathers do.”

“Yeah, well, eventually you have to stop protecting, don’t you?”

“Maybe when you’re fifty. You should have it all figured out by then,” Forrest predicted. Joey didn’t think he was joking.

“You’ve hated Jax since we started dating a hundred years ago,” she reminded him.

“I probably wouldn’t have liked anyone you were dating then. Except maybe Beckett. He’s a hard one not to like. He’s a good man, good leader like his dad. Too bad he’s married now.”

Joey felt a blush creep up her cheeks. She was hoping Donovan Cardona hadn’t broadcast that little tidbit about her ill-advised make out session with the middle Pierce to the world.

“Anyway, Jax has grown up a lot since you were both eighteen. He sure loves you.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes love isn’t even close to enough,” Joey said, her breath appearing before her in an angry cloud.

“I’d hate to think that you’d miss out on your chance at happiness with a guy who isn’t so bad just because of me,” Forrest said, keeping his eyes between Tucker’s ears.

Joey sighed as they crested another hill. From here, it looked like they were miles away from civilization. “It’s not just you. It’s him, too. You guys don’t make it easy to trust you.”

“I can’t say a lot about that boy, but all either one of us have ever done is what we thought was best for you. Maybe you could help us all out and do what’s best for you and we can just follow your lead?”

Joey cast her eyes heavenward at her father’s suggestion. He was trying, in his own special snowflake Forrest way. How her mother had not murdered him decades ago she’d never know.

They continued on in silence, the creaking of the saddles the only noise in the late afternoon silence.

“Shit.” Joey said, bringing Apollo to a stop.

“What’s wrong?” Forrest asked.

“Someone ripped up the chicken wire,” she said, nodding at the pasture gate. “It keeps the horses from chewing up the wood. I need to fix that before one of them steps on it and gets hurt.” She looked up at the sky and judged that she had enough daylight to get it done now. “Can you take Tucker back to the stables and get a hammer for me?”

“Sure, where do you keep ‘em?”

Joey told him where to find her tools. “Just tie Tucker to the hitch outside. If you take him back in with you he’ll think it’s dinnertime.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

“The staple gun if you can find it.”

She watched as he rode off at a peppier walk than what they started out on. He’d always had a decent seat. He wasn’t a natural like Evan was, but he had an aptitude and usually ended up enjoying their rides when Joey had been able to talk him into going out. Her mother on the other hand was convinced that horses were domesticated monsters and didn’t like getting any closer than a Facebook picture to one.

Waffles yipped happily at something halfway down the hill and chased after it.

Joey leaned over Apollo’s neck to get a better look at the wire mess. She was already off balance when she spotted the ground hog waddle out of a hole at the tree line just a few feet away. It hissed.

Apollo reared and without being steady in her seat, she felt herself slip.

“Fuc—”

She didn’t even get the full word out. Her head struck something hard and the world went bright white and then disappeared.

“
S
on of a bitch
,” Joey mumbled. She didn’t know how long she’d been out, but judging by the sun in the sky it hadn’t been more than a few minutes. Her head was pounding, her arm felt like it was being yanked off her body, and there was an uncomfortable pressure in her ankle. She did not want to open her eyes and find herself skewered on a fence post or something gruesome like that. But she needed to grow a pair and look around. If there was a million dollar horse running around free she was going to be pissed.

Something licked her face and she cranked open an eyelid. It was harder to do than she thought. Everything looked funny, including Waffles’ face. The fur around his nose was matted and red. “Crap! Are you hurt, buddy?” Joey said, the words slurring together in an incoherent string. Had she landed on the poor dog?

She moved her hand toward him and saw the red on her glove. Confused, she brought her hand to her head. Even through the glove she could feel the sticky wetness of blood. “Oh, man. That’s not good.”

Waffles whimpered and pawed her shoulder. Joey pried her other eye open and took a good look around. She was screwed. Apollo was not off gallivanting the countryside. He was standing stock still above her, his sides heaving nervously. Her foot was twisted in the stirrup and the rest of her was crumpled on the ground half under the stallion.

“Not good. Really not good.” If Apollo moved an inch, he’d trample her and it wouldn’t be pretty. “I hope that fucking ground hog left town,” she said to herself.