Page 85 of Ace of Spades
I look up to find Hailey watching me, her eyes brimming with unshed tears as she smiles at me. I glance around at all of the people I love—the people who have become family, and I realize I’ve never felt so full.
My mom makes me try the chaps on in front of everyone, and I happily oblige, finding that they fit perfectly.
“I almost don’t want to use them so they never get dirty,” I laugh.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Debbie tells me. “Just don’t get blood on them is all I ask, cleaning Chance’s chaps after the last rodeo was a bitch.”
“How did you get blood on your chaps?” my mom turns to ask the man in question.
“Nothing to worry about, Mrs. Langford. Just a little brawl with some guys that tried to mess with your daughter.”
“Well, in that case, brawl all you want. I’ll clean the blood out myself next time,” Mom laughs, pulling Chance into an embrace.
I look around for Hailey, hating how I seemed to have this need to know where she was at all times. Lately, it was like I couldn’t even walk into a room without immediately looking for her.
“Where’s Hailey?”
“I think she took a phone call, I saw her go into the lodge,” Kota tells me.
I make my way through the door, walking past the kitchen and to the hallway leading to the offices, her hushed voice from inside one of the rooms. I move to push open the cracked door to find her pacing, her phone pressed to her ear.
“No, Dad—no, just stop! You need to stop blowing up my phone like this.”
A pause.
“I’m not ready to come home, okay? I’m a grown woman, you can’t tell me what to do anymore.”
Another pause, and a pang hits me in my chest at the thought of her leaving eventually.
“Because I like it here, Dad,” she continues. “What do you mean, why? Because these are good people!”
I can hear her father’s arguing from the other end of the line, not enough to make out the words, but enough to feel the heat from the argument.
“You know what, Dad, I’m having a great night over here, and I’m not going to let you ruin it. We’ll finish this conversation later.”
With that, she hangs up, letting out a long sigh as I rasp my knuckles against the door.
“Everything okay?”
She startles, relaxing once she realizes it’s just me.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. It’s just my dad, he… He’s not taking all of this too well.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really,” she says. “I mean, there isn’t really much to talk about. He’s always been so protective over my mom and I, and I used to think it was because he loved us. I think I’m realizing that it wasn’t really a form of love, after all—it was control that he wanted.”
“He’s trying to get you to come back home?” I guess.
“Yeah,” she exhales. “He doesn’t like that I’m essentially ‘slumming it with the competition’, as he says.”
“And what about you? What do you want?”
I hold my breath as I wait for her answer.
“I want… I think I want to stay here,” she tells me, meeting my gaze.
I can’t help the joy that overcomes me at her admission.
