Beau
“You have lost your damn mind!” Mount roared from his recliner. I pinched the bridge of my nose, sick of having this conversation with him.
Like everyone predicted, my father did, in fact, lose his ever-loving shit on me when he saw theWhispersarticle about me last week. I thought for a second there the vein in his forehead would pop with how hard he tore into me. He had been at me like a rabid dog since, trying to convince me to drop out.
But it wouldn’t work. I was in this now, and nothing he could say or do would convince me to quit. It’d do more harm than good for our reputation to pull my application anyway, and I wasn’t about to risk Circle M looking like a bunch of quitters when things got hard.
“Dad, this will be good for the ranch, I promise.”
“I’m beginnin’ to think this was all a mistake,” he murmured.
My head whipped towards him. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
He just shook his head at me, his eyes full of contempt. “I shoulda never listened to your sister. She told me you knew what you were doin’. That you’d never do a thing to hurt thisranch. And look atcha now, tryin’ to bringponiesin here like we’re the goddamned Golden Bridle.” His face had been stuck in a perpetual state of disgust since he found out, but it got significantly worse any time he mentioned Golden Bridle.
My teeth probably would’ve shattered if I had clenched my jaw any harder. “They aren’t ponies, they’re performance horses,” I said through gritted teeth. “There will be therapy programs and clinics. Breeding thoroughbreds—Olympians and Derby contenders. A legit business. This isn’t some petting zoo, Dad. Cavendish Academy has a lot of pull with big names. People Joseph works with. If we don’t jump on this, then someone else will, and we’ll lose out.”
“Then we lose out. Circle M is cattle,” he said, jamming his finger into the cushioned arm of his chair like he was a judge slamming a gavel. “You don’t know the first thing about horses, boy.”
I stopped the flinch I felt inside from showing. He and Claire should get together to talk shit about me. They’d have a fantastic time telling me how clueless I was. Hell, maybe they already had.
“Joseph does.” The words came out weak, like some pathetic justification. Like I was a boy again who got caught messing with the cattle.
I couldn’t stand it when he made me feel so small. So insignificant and inferior to him.
“And what? You think he’s gonna hold your hand through it all? He’s got a baby comin’, Beaumont! He’ll be with his family, not draggin’ your sorry ass through this mess you’ve created.”
I wrenched my jaw, letting out an angered breath. The thought had crossed my mind, but I hadn’t planned on giving it any weight. But that was what Mount had always been there for: to bring all my insecurities and doubts to the surface and spew them right back in my face.
Dad got up slowly, hiding his painful winces behind his pride. He stood as straight as he could, which wasn’t much considering his hip. “You don’t have my permission to do this. When I’m dead and buried with your mama again, you can do what you damn well please. But until then, this is my ranch, and I’m not gonna let you run it into the ground with these idiotic fantasies.”
He glared at me with all the authority he could muster, driving his point. It was a look that terrified me as a child. It had even terrified me as an adult, but things were different now.
Straightening, I towered over him and shot that same look right back. “Good thing I don’t need your permission then.” I didn’t give him a chance to respond and left, letting the door slam shut behind me.
I stopped short on the porch when I saw Joseph at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the railing. “What are you doing here?”
He straightened. “Now is that any way to greet thebestbrother-in-law?”
I strode past him towards the stables. “Not in the mood today,” I grumbled.
Joseph stopped in front of me. “Where are you going?”
“For a ride.” I looked past him to the stables. They were so close but so far away.
“Well, it’s gonna have to wait.”
My brows furrowed at him. “What? Why?”
He looked at me as if it were obvious. “Cavendish reps are going to be here any minute for a tour. Remember?”
No, I had not remembered. I ripped my hat off and threw it to the dirt. “God-fucking-damnit,” I hissed. I paced, raking a hand through my hair. That was the last thing I needed after having Mount tell me my plans were nothing but fantasies. I couldn’t meet with them now. My confidence was rattled, my nerves were shot, my anger was too raw.
The crunch of gravel under tires behind me told me I didn’t have a choice.
I scooped my hat off the ground and dusted the dirt off the black felt, but it didn’t feel like the armor it usually was. It felt more like a costume. Like I was playing dress-up in Mount’s boots the way I did as a kid.
His disapproving glare was the only thing on my mind, not leaving space for anything else. None of the facts or plans I memorized. None of the confidence I’d built. All of it spilled out onto the dirt at my feet.
