Page 11 of Begin Again
“She was one of the best!”
“My wife was good, but Charlie was great,” Joe says, a nostalgic smile crossing his lips. “She used to be a big name on the circuit.”
“Used to?” I glance over at Charlie, who is oblivious to the conversation about her past. I wonder if thatused tois part of why she seems so unhappy sometimes. I catch the last seconds of a look shared between Melody and Joseph before the former sighs and focuses on Jenny, who has started a series of jumps on the other side of the arena.
“You’ve probably noticed Charlie doesn’t have much to do with the horses,” Joseph says, catching my attention. “She was thrown from her horse, Arthur, a few years ago in the middle of an event. Arthur got spooked, no one knows why, but the whole thing was a circus.” He kicks something invisible in the dirt beneath the fence before straightening his back and looking at me. “When Charlie came to, she didn’t want anything to do with the sport again.”
“Well.” Melody scoffs. “Can you blame the poor girl? That must’ve been scary. One minute you’re on the back of your horse doin’ something as easy as breathin’ and the next you’re waking up on the ground, lucky not to be paralyzed.”
Well, shit.
I didn’t think about it that way.
“And that’s why she ended up goin’ to college. How could I fight her on it when something like that happened? Before the accident, she had applied to school but decided to go professional instead.”
“San Diego?” I ask, remembering a coffee mug in the kitchen and Joseph’s history lesson from my first night here.
“Yep.” Joseph sighs. “Packed up and moved to the West Coast until a few months before you got here, Xavier.”
Jenny guides the horse over the final hurdle before trotting to Charlie with a proud smile.
“I’ve never seen her ride either of the horses in the barn,” I say.
“She doesn’t ride anymore. Hasn’t since the accident. Before these lessons, I was lucky she even mucked the stalls.”
A smile, a genuine smile, splits Charlie’s face when she watches Jenny perform the circuit one more time before the girl breaks into a chorus of “Look at me, Mom!” and takes a lap around the arena. I catch Charlie’s eye when Jenny trots by and the right side of my mouth tugs up briefly. She reciprocates it. Charlie’s disdain for me has dampened in the last few weeks. I don’t know what brought her sudden change of heart, but I’m not complaining. Even though we’ve been more cordial toward one another, there is an underlying tension I don’t quite understand. It might have something to do with whatever shethinksI’m doing here. Something to do with that conversation I overheard on my first day here. She said there were people after this place. Why, though? It isn’t like Bezer is the next hot spot for development…At least it doesn’t seem like it.
Or maybe it’s something to do with how I catch her staring at me when she thinks I’m not looking. She has gotten a little bolder in her flirtations, but each time I shoot them down. I don’t know who I am. How can I even think about offering myself to someone? The thought of jumping into something with her seems insane. I’m not ready for that.
“She seems pretty okay with them now. You think she’ll ever ride again?” I ask.
“One can hope,” Joseph says. “But I doubt it. Her horse died not long after she ran off to San Diego. They were best friends. I’m not sure she’d have it in her to go out there without him.”
“Poor thing was probably heartbroken,” Melody says, meeting us at the fence.
Joseph nods. “She won’t say it, but it tore Charlie up, too. She wouldn’t want to face that again.”
“That black one in the barn isn’t hers?” I ask.
“Shadow?” Joseph asks, sharing a confused glance with Melody before they look at me. “No. No, Shadow is a rescue that no one else wanted. Stubborn-ass horse. Mean as a snake, too. I leave him alone, let him do what he wants, and he doesn’t bother me none. It’s better than what he was dealing with before.”
“He doesn’t seem too bad.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, he lets me pet him whenever I’m in the barn. Never gives me any issues mucking the stall or anything.” With each word, their eyes grow to be about the size of dinner plates. I’m starting to think I’m the first person Shadow has ever warmed up to.
“He let you pet him?” Joseph can barely get the words out as Charlie joins us underneath the shade. He scoffs, looking at her. “You’ll never believe what Xavier just told me.”
“You finally remembered who you are and you’re leaving?” Charlie’s face glows with fake excitement and I roll my eyes.
“He was able to pet Shadow,” Joseph says. Charlie’s face falls. “You should put Xavier in the ring with him. See what happens.”
“Can you even ride?” Charlie hisses.
Is she really asking me that? I don’t know if I can ride a horse. I don’t even know if I’ve ever been around a horse before, but neither one on this ranch has kicked me yet, and they don’t seem to mind when I’m around them. That has to be a good sign. Right? I shrug. “Only one way to find out, I guess.”
“This is a bad idea, Dad. That could’ve been a fluke, we don’t know—”
