“Soup commercials pay well. I’d think about it if an offer comes your way.”
Jake hadn’t thought of that. Usually, endorsements came after Olympic gold, and it was unlikely he’d be gracing the front of a cereal box or hawking a pair of track shoes. Being an event rider wasn’t as cool as being a gymnast or a basketball player. Far more likely he’d get a contract to promote helmets or boots, with a much smaller audience and a paycheck to reflect it. But more and more, companies were ramping up with Olympic hopefuls as well as winners. It was something to think about. Particularly since everyone kept telling him how photogenic he was. But Tom’s words reminded him of one of the reasons he’d come today.
“If I were to sell The Moose today, how much do you think I’d get for her?”
Tom let out a sigh, as though this was a conversation he’d been dreading that had finally come out into the open. “Not as much as if you compete her successfully in Rio. But probably two hundred and fifty thousand easily. I take it you’re planning to pay your father back for Rich’s expenses.”
“He threatened to kick me out, Tom. Said he’d pull all his backing if Rich didn’t leave. I’m not going to let him do this to us again. I either pay him off with the money I make from selling The Moose, or I use it to finance a new start away from Foxden.”
“You’d be better off using it for a new start. The only thing you’d be paying off is your pride. Your father doesn’t need the money. And demanding it back from Rich will only make him look bad. If you’re determined to do this—and I think it’s a terrible idea—then at least invest in the future, not the past.”
“I want you to come with us.” He knew he was asking a lot, but he couldn’t imagine doing any of this without Tom. There was no one whose opinion he valued more, except perhaps Rich. “You know if I leave, he’ll sell off the farm and the horses. I’ll move The Moose to Rich’s barn, but I won’t leave you hanging. We’ll work something out.”
By that, he meant Tom’s health insurance would still be covered. Thank God the Affordable Care Act had abolished the denial of coverage due to preexisting conditions. Jake and Rich could take care of things for now, but with the plans he had in mind, he’d need both Tom and Rich to see to the entire operation in the future.
“Now that it’s come up, moving out on your own is something you need to think long and hard about. You’ve got an excellent facility where you are and access to quality horses. That said, I think you’re probably smart to think about setting up your own place. I know you can do it. But you’ve put a lot of your own money into Foxden over the years. Try not to burn your bridges with your father. Consider making him an offer to buy Foxden—with the money you’ve already put into operations being considered as part of the deal.”
“Huh. That’s not a bad idea.” Part of him wanted a clean break, a new start, one where he and Rich could be together without anything from the past standing between them, but Tom was right. Problem was, he didn’t think his dad would go for it. Not as long as Rich was in the picture.
Tom met Jake’s gaze squarely. “I’ve known your father a long time, Hot Shot. I’ve dealt with his jealousies and his unreasonable temper.”
“Jealousies?”
Tom nodded wearily. “Oh yes. He hated that your mother preferred Foxden to any of his other properties. He resented the time she spent with the horses—and with me.”
“But—”
“No. Never.” Tom was firm, but Jake could sense a wistfulness just the same. “Your father couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to be a Beltway Wife, or why her passion was horses. It only got worse after she died and you took up the mantle.”
“He was never there,” Jake protested.
“This isn’t about who left first.” Tom looked stern. “The same could be said of you. You can be gone and still be in the same room, you know. Both of you were hurting after your mother died, and you dealt with it differently. The important thing is, your father loves you. The decisions he made eight years ago—and every day since—have been about keeping you safe. I know you’re mad at him, but try to remember that, okay?”
“Easier said than done.” Jake saw Tom’s frown, and relented. “Okay. I’ll try.”
“Well, just remember your mother loved him. She had a huge heart and never refused a single stray, but she couldn’t abide meanness or cruelty.”
“What he did with Rich—”
“I’m not saying he’s perfect or what he did was right. I’m just saying she saw something in him that I think you’ve forgotten was there.”
“And you think I should give him another chance.” What did Jake know of his father anyway? Not much. Either his dad had been absent when he was growing up, or Jake had been sent off to school. What he did know pissed him off. It might not be possible for him to put aside all his anger and resentment. He’d try though. For Tom. For the man his mother had married. “I’ll do my best.”
“Good lad.”
Jake’s phone chirped. “Hang on a second. Someone’s texting me.” He pulled out the phone and saw that Rich had sent a message.
I’m sitting in Tom’s driveway with a heeler puppy in my car. You need to come up with a suitably “Tom-like” name.
Jake’s brow furrowed as he texted back. Not sure that’s a good idea. He may not have the energy for a puppy right now.
Which is why we’re going to pretend it’s yours. We’ll keep it at Foxden for a while but Tom can take care of it when we’re out of town.
“Of all the….”
“Something wrong?”
Jake looked up and caught Tom staring at him with an eyebrow raised. “Ah, no. Just someone from the barn giving me an update on the horses.”
Carolyn appeared at the door with a phone in one hand and a dishcloth in the other. “Someone’s been texting you, Tom.” She crossed to his chair and handed him the cell.
Tom thumbed the screen open and started down at it with a puzzled expression, and then his face cleared. “It’s from Rich. He wants to go over the shipping forms for the U.K.” Tom stood and stretched, a smile hovering around the edges of his mouth. “Why don’t we go outside and talk to him?”
“It’s still drizzling. You’ll catch your death of cold,” Carolyn warned, wiping her hands on her apron.
“I’m pretty sure it’s stopped,” Tom said, openly smiling now. “Come on, let’s get a breath of fresh air.”
She shook her head. “I’ve got cookies coming out of the oven in a few minutes.” Her eyes narrowed and she bounced her gaze back and forth between the two men before giving a little sigh. “Whatever it is you’re up to, come back inside for cookies and tea when you’re done.”
“I couldn’t manage without you, my dear.” Tom brushed her cheek with a kiss. “Even if you’re determined to make me fat.”
“You need calories,” she said sternly, but she flicked her dishcloth at him playfully.
Together, Jake and Tom went outside.
It had stopped raining, just as Tom had predicted, but it was still overcast and damp. Rich’s car was sitting beside Jake’s, and as they came down the porch stairs, Rich got out of the car, struggling to contain a wriggling heeler puppy. He lost his grip on it, and the puppy oozed out of his arms and down his body to hit the ground in a roll. It was back on its feet in an instant and barreled over to Jake and Tom. Rich followed hastily behind.
“Cute pup,” Tom said as the puppy immediately began worrying his shoes. The little red heeler looked up at him when he spoke, tongue lolling out of a wide mouth.
Rich scooped the puppy up and held it at arm level with Tom. “She is, isn’t she? Nine weeks old and full of beans. We couldn’t pick her up until we got back from Rolex, but I’ve had my name on her for a while now.”
If Rich felt Jake’s stare boring a hole in him, he didn’t react.
“Well, I hope you didn’t bring her here for me. I’m not sure I’ve got time for a puppy right now.”
Tom was reaching for th
e puppy even as he spoke. The heeler wiggled furiously in Rich’s hands to touch Tom and practically leapt into his arms. She snuggled up Tom’s chest to lick his chin, leaving muddy paw prints on his shirt.
“Oh no.” Rich sounded far too serious for anyone to believe him. “This is Jake’s puppy. But you’ll keep an eye on her when we go out of town, right?” The bastard had the nerve to wink at Jake.
“Depends on what Carolyn says,” Tom said, calmly practical. “She’ll probably end up doing most of the care.”
Worry briefly wrinkled Rich’s forehead. Before he could speak, Tom asked, “What’s her name?”
“Her name.” Rich tried hard not to flounder. “Um, I left that up to Jake. You know how he is about names.”
Tom set the puppy down. She ran over to Jake and placed a paw on his boot as she looked up at him with a grin.
“Frog,” Jake said, looking back down at the puppy. “Look at that wide mouth of hers. Just like a frog.”
“Frog.” Tom nodded slowly. “It suits her. Come on, Frog, let’s see what Cousin Carolyn says about sleepovers.” He turned for the house, and the puppy trundled after him on stubby little legs.
“She’d better say yes if she knows what’s good for her,” Rich growled under his breath.
“If she loves him, she will.”
Rich shot Jake a quick glance and then frowned. “What did you say?”
“Nothing.” Jake fell into step beside him as they made their way back to the house. He’d never loved Rich more than in this very moment. Laughing, he took Rich’s hand and pulled him up the stairs into Tom’s house.
Carolyn, predictably, looked appalled at the idea of a dirty puppy messing up her clean floors and chewing on shoes, but she’d seen the quiet delight on Tom’s face and agreed she and Tom could watch Frog when Jake was out of town. Tom was sure he had an old crate in the garage. Rich volunteered to run over in the next few days with some puppy food and supplies, as it wouldn’t be long before he and Jake would be headed out of town.
Jake was delegated to keeping Frog occupied while Rich and Tom went over the forms online, so he took the puppy with him out to the garage and unearthed the crate. Frog followed happily when he carried the cage back to the house and set it up in Tom’s study. Knowing puppies, Jake then borrowed some duct tape from Carolyn and bound up the various cords and cables that might prove too tempting for Frog to ignore. He smiled when he saw old evidence of teeth marks on the legs of Tom’s office chair. He wondered which of Tom’s previous dogs had been the culprit and made a mental note to buy some chew toys.
“That went well, I think.” Rich was smugly pleased with himself as they collected the puppy and headed back to the cars.
“I don’t think my father’s going to be any too happy about a puppy at the house.”
“It can’t make him any unhappier than my being there,” Rich said.
Which, Jake conceded, was probably right.
“What about the cats?”
Rich looked taken aback, which meant he hadn’t really given that part of the equation too much thought. Frog lay at his feet, happily chewing on a stick. “I’m sure they’ll get used to her. Pinky will be fine—he’s the most laid-back cat ever. Brain’s going to be pissy, but as long as he can get out of reach, he’ll get over it. Eventually.”
“Eventually. But then, it’s not like it’s my dog, right? Frog will eventually go live with Tom.”
“Uh, yeah. That’s the plan.”
“Uh-huh.”
Rich looked at him suspiciously for a moment but then cleared his throat nervously. “Of course, I could just take the cats back to my place and commute again. You don’t really need me here every day. I could come up once or twice a week, or maybe for long weekends.”
“Or I could move the horses to your place. It wouldn’t be that disruptive at this point, would it? As much as we’re traveling now anyway.”
Rich blinked at him. “Well, the facility at my place isn’t as good as it is here. But it wouldn’t be a total disaster, if push comes to shove. And like I said before, you’d be welcome. Of course….”
“Of course what?”
Unaccountably, Rich turned quite red. “Well, it’s just that your dad wasn’t horrible last night. Better than I expected, to be honest. You never know, he might have changed in the last eight years.”
Jake made a rude noise.
“I think he’s trying, Jake. You might want to give him the benefit of the doubt here.”
“You can say that after what he did to you? To us?”
“I’m still pretty pissed with him, don’t get me wrong. And I think he’d prefer you sleep with an entire sorority than with someone like me. But if you cut and run now, he’ll never get the chance to change his mind about what’s best for you. Besides, what are the odds we’d have survived as a couple back then? Both of us out of work, me in rehab, and you without a sponsor?”
“Rich—”
“No, I’m serious.” His brow furrowed and the corners of his mouth pulled down. “He may have done us a big favor, whether he knows it or not. Hell, if he’d been smart, all he’d have had to do is wait a couple of months and he probably could have saved himself a lot of money. I was a wreck—literally—back then.”
“And I wasn’t very grown-up.” He still wasn’t, to some extent. He’d just blithely gone on letting his dad support him for the most part, unconsciously choosing not to do anything to rock that particular boat. He scooped up the puppy just as she was starting to wander off. “Okay. No major changes just yet.”
Jake still wasn’t looking forward to his father’s reaction to Frog when he got back from the city that evening.
Jake was in the middle of cleaning a piddle spot on the carpet while Frog enthusiastically licked his face when his father walked into the room.
“What. Is. That?” His father asked as he stood in the doorway, arms akimbo.
“It’s a puppy.” Rich tried not to look as though he was handing a roll of paper towels to Jake, but there was no way he could disguise what they were doing.
“I can see that. What is it doing here? Peeing on a Persian carpet, I might add. Haven’t you plagued me with enough strange animals in my house, Evans?”
“It’s Jake’s new puppy,” Rich said at the exact moment Jake said, “It’s for Tom.”
Jake shot Rich a look. Rich didn’t meet his eyes but cleared his throat. “We got a puppy for Tom. Of course, he can’t take care of it just yet, so we’re keeping it until it’s a bit bigger.”
“Uh-huh.” His dad looked down at the puppy, who’d wandered over to inspect his shoes. “That is the ugliest puppy I’ve ever seen. It looks like a roan horse.”
“It’s a heeler puppy. They all look like that,” Rich snapped. “She’s a red merle.”
To Jake’s surprise, his father knelt down and pushed Frog gently away from his shoes. “You eat them, you own them,” he said to her.
Frog, delighted to have a playmate, lifted one fat paw and waved it at the hand pushing her, twisting her head sideways so she could gnaw on it.
“Um, we really don’t want to encourage that,” Jake said.
“I’ve had dogs since before you were born, son,” Donald said calmly, trapping Frog’s lips between his fingers and pinching lightly. “If she doesn’t have other dogs to play with, you have to teach her bite inhibition. Otherwise, she won’t have a clue how hard she’s biting. I’m ‘biting’ her back with the same force she’s biting me. If she gets too rough—”
Frog made a playful growl and lunged forward, chomping down.
A shrill yelp echoed in the room. She jumped back, pinning her ears and looking worried.
“What did you do?” Rich lifted the roll of paper towels, and for a split second, Jake thought Rich would bop his father over the head.
“Relax, Evans,” his dad said. “I made that noise, not the puppy. She has to learn biting can hurt.” Frog came back to him, wiggling her butt.
“Y
ou made that noise?” Jake couldn’t believe it.
Donald looked highly amused. “Remind me to demonstrate my animal vocalizations some time. Not when the puppy is around. Your mother made me promise not to do them around animals. My ‘dueling cats’ has been known to trigger cat fights.”
The mind boggled. An image of his dad doing animal impressions at parties leapt to mind, and he dismissed it as impossible.
“What’s her name?” His father smiled as the puppy presented her belly for scratches.
“Frog,” Rich said.
“Frog?” His father laughed. “It suits her. Let me guess, Jake named her.” He laughed again, harder, and a snort escaped.
“Oh my God,” Rich said. “The pig snort!” He turned accusing eyes on Jake. “You inherited the pig snort from your father.”
“I did not.”
“You so did.”
His dad snorted harder, then seemed to collect himself. “I don’t believe laughter is a heritable trait. Where exactly is this puppy going to sleep at night?”
“Good question. Rich?” Jake sat back on his heels with the can of foam cleaner in his hands.
“Ah, we left the only crate I know of at Tom’s.”
“We’ll think of something. If nothing else, we can put her in one of the stalls in the barn.”
“What? Are you serious? On her first night home, away from her littermates?” Outrage made Rich’s voice rise to the point Frog looked around at him.
“I’m sure we can figure something out.” His father gave the puppy a pat on the head and stood. “Dinner should be ready soon. You boys finish cleaning up in here. I hope that carpet cleaner is safe for expensive rugs.” He gave Jake a frown before leaving the room. Frog trundled after him.
Rich handed him the paper towels. “That was weird. For a moment there, I thought your dad was a pod person.”
“You and me both,” Jake said, hurriedly scrubbing at the carpet. Thankfully, no dye appeared on the paper towels.
Later that evening, when Jake had vetoed both Horse Nation TV and CNN, and the three of them were watching The Rockford Files—because Netflix didn’t have Magnum, P.I.—a slight snore caught Jake’s attention. His father was dozing in the recliner next to the couch with Frog stretched out in his lap.
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