Page 2 of Chasing Love: The Owens
Delaney
Would Willowbrook be my first choice to run away to? Back to, if I’m being honest. Definitely not. It would be dead last. Yet here I am, back in the small town that holds memories of the girl I used to be, the girl who believed her future was as bright and wide open as the sky.
The last time I was here, I was seventeen, naïve, and head over heels in love with a boy who looked at me as if I was his whole world.
Now, more than a decade later, I’m broke, jaded by love, and asking my retired parents to take in both my daughter and me for the foreseeable future.
That seventeen-year-old version of me would be so disappointed in who we’ve become.
“It’s so boring here.” My seven-year-old daughter, Leia, flops onto my bed, pulling me from the mental reprimand I’ve been giving myself since my life took a plunge I wasn’t prepared for.
I kneel beside yet another moving box I’ve been ignoring for the past few weeks and stack her mountain of Hello Kitty plushies on a shelf. “Once summer kicks off, there’ll be more to do.”
Leia exhales dramatically, staring at the ceiling. “Like what?”
“Horseback riding.” I rise and flatten the empty box, trying to sound upbeat. “I’ll find a stable so you can ride again.”
Moving here with just weeks left in the school year wasn’t ideal, but when the DEA bursts into your kitchen one random morning and cuffs your pajama-clad husband, your priorities shift pretty fast. Shelter and food take precedence over friends and familiarity.
“Plain Daisy Ranch would be perfect,” Mom says, breezing in and patting Leia’s leg to give her room to sit on the mattress.
I narrow my eyes. “Eavesdropping again, Mom?”
“If you two didn’t talk so loud, I wouldn’t overhear you.” She grins, the picture of unapologetic nosiness.
She could be in the eavesdropping hall of fame. God help us all when the time comes for hearing aids, and she can slyly turn those suckers up.
Leia scoots up the mattress, clutching the Hello Kitty unicorn Sean brought home from his last “business” trip. Maybe prison has a gift shop. Hello Kitty in an orange jumpsuit. Stripes would be cuter.
“Mom, I’m not taking her to Plain Daisy. I’m leaning toward Wild Bull. They’ve expanded from what I see on their website.”
Mom waves and grabs the brush from the nightstand, then she taps Leia to get in position in her lap. When Leia just looks at her, she says, “If we don’t keep brushing it, you’re going to end up with knots.”
“It hurts though.” Leia eyes me like tell her to stop.
“You’ll be crying more when knots form. You don’t want to cut off this beautiful hair.” Leia winces and her body stiffens as Mom forces the brush through her hair. Then she eyes me over Leia’s head. “Wild Bull will cost a fortune. Levi can talk to Nash and get Leia started at Plain Daisy.”
If Willowbrook is the last place I wanted to be, Plain Daisy Ranch is the circle of hell in the center. “Levi is not calling in favors for me.”
“I miss Uncle Levi,” Leia says as Mom guides the brush through her hair. “When’s he back?”
“Tomorrow night. He’s at a big rodeo.” Leia turns her head to look at my mom, but my mom turns her back around, continuing to brush. There’s something sweet about watching your mom do for your daughter what she did for you.
“Can I ride a bull like him?” Leia asks.
Mom and I laugh in unison.
“Not yet,” I say.
A heavy silence follows. Boxes tower in the corner, keepsakes of a life that was built on lies. The police seized pretty much everything but allowed me to keep Leia’s toys, a small kindness I was grateful for. Leia’s already lost enough.
“You should go out tonight,” Mom says, braiding Leia’s hair. “I’ll spoil this little one with ice cream sundaes and a movie.” She whispers the last part to Leia, whose eyes widen.
“What would I even do?” I flop onto the bed beside them, mirroring Leia’s ceiling-stare.
“You’ve been hiding out since you got here,” Mom says gently, careful to approach the subject everyone here pretends to ignore.
“For good reason.”
