Page 65 of Coming Home to Maverick

Daniel met her on the porch. “Hey, can we talk for a sec?”

She checked her watch. “Yeah, but I gotta get to work.”

“Okay, we can finish up when you get home. It’s just…have you considered letting Gracie have her dream?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re keeping her from it, Bailey. It’s like you’re afraid she’ll make it big.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“She’s a natural performer. You saw her on that sheep, with her pig, she’s a pro. Do we know if she can sing?”

This was the Daniel she remembered. The pushing, grasping, talent-hoarding, manipulative man who’d pretended to help Bailey try to make it big.

“That’s not the life I want for her, Daniel.”

He shook his head. “But is that the life she wants for herself? Don’t you think you should give her every chance now so she will be ready if she chooses to follow that dream later?”

“No, I don’t. I’ve lived it. You’ve lived it. You think I want that life for Gracie?”

“But she’s a natural. You had to struggle so much. Your voice just didn’t measure up. Your performance…we’ve talked about this. We know why things didn’t pan out for you. But Gracie! She could do it. She’s got everything you didn’t.”

“What are you even talking about?” Her heart clenched in memory of all her failures, of the times Daniel had talked her into giving up. When he’d convinced her that all her auditions and all her failures added up to one thing: proof she didn’t have what it takes.

“I’m just saying you’re holding her back. And as her father—”

“Hey, hold on. You are not her father.”

“We’ve been through this.”

“I know, and somehow you’re not getting it. You gave up your rights as her father when you wanted her dead. You’re only what I say you can be. And right now, that’s not her father.”

He shrugged. “But we could make something of her. She could be huge. It’s the break I’ve been waiting for.”

Bailey felt her fear rising. “No.” All of the pressure, the promises, the hints of fame, and then the disappointment and the failures came crashing back around her. “No. And if that’s what you want here, you can just leave.”

“You’re kicking me out of my own kid’s life?”

“You kicked me and her out when it mattered. I’m just helping you stay out.”

“If that’s the way you want it.”

“That’s the way I want it. Stay one more day ’cause she is expecting to show you her pig and pony and all of that. But then I want you gone. And I don’t want you to come back.” She couldn’t bear letting the poison he’d spread in her heart spread to Gracie’s. She was precious just the way she was, whether or not anyone ever wanted to sign a deal with her.

His eyes darkened, and for a moment, she was afraid, but then he nodded and turned to walk back into the house.

Gracie’s happy squeals only heightened Bailey’s worry. At least her parents were going to stay at her side the whole day.

Chapter 19

Bailey didn’t call at all the first day Maverick was gone, or the second, or any day after that. He turned off his phone most of the time to avoid checking for her number. Days turned into weeks. Maverick worked hard to get back to what he once was. The coach had him doing his two best events. The bull riding, of course, and the bronc. Which reminded him of Bailey. All of it reminded him of Bailey.

He had survived two weeks without any news from her. He hadn’t asked, and she hadn’t offered. This wasn’t what he’d imagined when he’d left. He’d never imagined Bailey would stay behind. He hadn’t assumed she’d be welcoming visits from her ex-boyfriend, nor had he planned to leave on bad terms with the only woman he had ever loved.

He climbed down onto the back of their meanest bull, wrapped his hand around the ropes, and then nodded at the staff to open the door.

Maybe the Old Iron Scare would shake the misery out of him. As he clung to the animal, his brain rattling in his skull, he knew that nothing could rid him of this misery, nothing except himself. When he picked himself up out of the mud, he waved off any help or further training for the day and went to find his horse.

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