Page 61 of Boston
“Thanks,” he said. “Rosie told me this shirt brings out my eyes.” He batted his eyelashes and grinned. “She’s right, isn’t she?”
Sunny laughed. “You look very handsome. Total horse trainer material.”
He pulled out a bar stool and sat beside Ladd. “Am I allowed to have one?”
“As many as you want,” Sunny said.
“Momma not working today,” Skye said in her cute three-year-old voice. She said something else, but she’d gotten too excited, and Cole only caught, “aunts.”
“We’re taking cinnamon rolls around to the aunts today,” Sunny said, smiling at the little girl who looked so much like her.
“That’ll be nice,” Cole said. He didn’t have to ask where Daddy was, because his father attended an AA meeting first thing on Monday morning every week. He’d been sober for over a decade now, and while Rosie said she couldn’t quite remember what their life had been like when they first moved here to Coral Canyon and their dad was gone drinking all night, Cole certainly could. He’d turned seven that winter, and seven-year-olds make good memories.
Today’s job also wasn’t for a horse trainer, but Cole didn’t correct his step-mom. He hoped to be able to work his way up at Whispering Pines, because they did everything that Cole wanted to do.
The ranch was owned by the Walker family—three brothers and a sister, apparently—with the latter being the one who’d called and set up Cole’s interview.
Rachel.Her name ran through his mind, and Cole had tried to do his homework by looking up the website for the ranch.They sold animals all over the US and Canada, and they trained barrel racing horses and roping horses, and those that the cowboys rode in the bronc riding event. The only thing they didn’t do was bulls, and that was just fine with Cole.
He was decent with a rope, and he’d been riding since age seven, when he’d come to Coral Canyon to live full time with his dad. He could thank his uncles and cousins for that, and as he took his first bite of his cinnamon roll, he did just that.
The moment he finished his sugary breakfast, Cole regretted it, and he grabbed a protein bar out of the pantry and then his keys from the hook by the door that led into the garage. His daddy had tons of money, and they lived in a really nice house with a three-car garage, which meant sometimes Cole got to park in it.
“You’re leaving already?” Sunny asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m nervous, and I just want to go.”
“Your daddy’s almost home.” As she approached him, she watched him for a moment, and then Cole moved into her to give her a hug. “He’ll want to say goodbye and good luck.”
“I’ll wait for him outside then,” Cole said.
She stepped back, and in a very loving, maternal gesture, she ran her hand down the side of his face and held it there. “You’re going to get this job,” she said. Her blue eyes were bright and blazing. “I just know it. So don’t be too nervous, okay? Just go in there and forget everything you’ve learned about interviewing. Just talk.”
Cole sighed. “Yeah, because I’m so good at that.”
Sunny grinned at him, but Cole definitely felt like a failure. He’d been trying to get a job for four or five months now, and when he hadn’t immediately gotten one, he’d taken to studying interview questions and how to do better on them. Nothing had worked. Maybe Sunny was right. Maybe he was too far inside his own head.
She dropped her hand and nodded at him. “Good luck. Do your best. That’s all you can do.”
He nodded and then patted his back pockets for his wallet. He didn’t have it, and he turned and opened the drawer on the end of the countertop before he went into the mud room. He plucked his wallet out of the drawer there, which also held other keys, Chapsticks, loose change, and one weird contraption that would turn on the gas in the fireplace.
“All right, I’ll see you guys later,” he said, and he waved to the little kids before he walked out.
His truck was parked down in the third bay of the garage, and the main two-car door started to rise as he jogged down the steps. He hurried out of the way so Daddy could park his enormous truck inside, and then he waited for his father to get out.
“You’re leaving early,” Daddy said.
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Cole grinned at him. “It’s a long drive, and I figured it’d be better to be early and park down the road than stressed if there’s an accident, or somehow traffic in this small town, or I miss a turn.”
“You’re not going to miss a turn,” Daddy said. “It’s right up there past Bryce’s.”
It was at least twenty minutes past Bryce’s, but Cole, once again, didn’t say anything. He moved over to his father and hugged him.
“I’m sorry I don’t have a job yet, Daddy.”
“Oh, it’s all right.” His father held him tight, cupping one hand on the back of Cole’s head. They stood almost at the same height now, though his father still had about three inches on him.
“If I don’t get this, I’m just gonna go work at that doughnut shop.”
