SWNOVELS Off to the Races: Chapter 23
I’m an idiot.
Why did I say that? Of course, I don’t have any plans. All I do is fucking work at Vaughn-Fucking-Harding’s fucking farm. I have no social life to speak of.
And now I’ve backed myself into a corner.
Like a big fucking idiot.
I hide in an empty stall down the hall from his office, scrubbing my hands over my face and trying to catch my breath, because until now, I’d been able to avoid the thought of him out with some gorgeous, suitable girl in pink.
I’m mad at myself for lying, for acting like a total chicken shit. And I’m mad at him for asking me what I’m doing, totally rubbing it in. He has some serious nerve taking me to bed and still planning a date with another woman. And he hasn’t said a word about that to me since he left that morning. He knew, and he hasn’t said shit. Not that it should surprise me. This is par for the course with spoiled man-children like Vaughn Harding.
If I’m being completely honest, I’m offended he hasn’t gone out of his way to talk to me this week. I know I’ve been in Vancouver at the track until late most days, but still…
I secretly want him to drive up to my front door, press me against a wall and kiss me breathless. I want to see that manicured facade slip. I want all that testosterone lurking beneath the surface to spill over. I want him to choose me. I want him to work for it.
I need him to man up, and he didn’t. And now I’m disappointed. Which is stupid, seeing as how he’s my boss and one of Vancouver’s most eligible bachelors. I have no good reason to be disappointed, no right to it. But here I am, lying about having a date just to spite him. And I just shot myself in the foot because, of course, there’s no date to speak of.
I need help. Professional help. But for now, Violet will have to do. I fire off a text message to meet me at DD’s paddock. By the time I arrive there, she’s already waiting for me, a concerned look on her dainty face, twisting her hands.
“What’s wrong?” she blurts out as soon as I’m close enough to hear her.
“What are you doing tomorrow night?”
“What? Nothing. Why?”
“Great. Let’s do something.”
“You sure you want to hang out with a lowly groom?” she quips.
My cheek quirks up. I love delivering good news. “I don’t… but the new jockey for local sensation Double Diablo will do.” Her eyes are round like saucers as she stares back at me, her serious little cherubic face frozen. “Alrighty then, Vi. That’s not the reaction I was expecting.”
“This isn’t funny, B. Are you joking?” she whispers, color draining from her face by the second.
“Why on earth would I joke about this? I’m evil, but not that evil. Congratulations! We have promoted you. Vaughn and I just need to sign your papers. And you need to submit for your license. And probably start obsessively weighing yourself leading up to race day.” Her mouth opens and closes, but no sound comes out. She looks like a precious little fish out of water. “I mean, you’re still my bitch,” I joke, “which is why you have to be my date tomorrow night.”
“I… okay,” Violet responds breathlessly.
I throw my head back and laugh at her. “That’s all you have to say?”
Her smile cracks open, huge on her small face, and both hands come up to cover her mouth, muffling her giggles. Her shoulders shake with the force of her disbelieving laughter as it pours out of her. She looks so damn happy; it makes my cheeks hurt with the intensity of my smile.
I open my arms, offering her a hug and she’s there almost instantly squeezing me right back.
“Billie. This… this is too much. I don’t even know what to say.”
I push her back and grab her shoulders. Her eyes sparkle with unshed tears, which is making my eye sockets burn in response. “Violet,” I shake her gently, “you deserve this. You’ve worked so hard. You’re unflappable and calm. Something that both the horses and I need.” She chuckles at that. “It is not too much. You’re here before anyone else, and you leave after everyone else. You’ve put more blood, sweat and tears into this career than almost anyone I know. Never, never sell yourself short. Take it, own it, and don’t for a second think you haven’t earned every bit.”
Tears leak out over her long lashes; they’re shimmering on the tops of her round cheek bones as she regards me.
I squeeze her shoulders, “We stick together, yeah? Sport of Kings my ass.” She splutters out a watery laugh and reaches up to wipe her face. “Now, stop crying. It’s only one date. And look at me, I’m hot. It won’t be so bad.”
She barks out a laugh and shoves me back. “Good God, woman. Can you even be serious for a minute?”
“Never,” I call out.
“Seriously, though. Thank you, Billie. I’ll make you proud. I promise.”
“You already do, little Vi.”
“Drinks on me tomorrow night! We’ll go to Neighbor’s pub.”
“You’re on, I’ll drive,” I say, feeling excited I might finally get off the ranch for a while in a social capacity. With one more quick squeeze, she’s hustling away, practically sashaying up to the barn.
I feel a pang of guilt at knowing I’m using her as armor against Vaughn, but I also know she’ll forgive me when I come clean. Violet is good people like that. Plus, I need all the armor I can get.
I style my hair in long chestnut waves. I even put on makeup and a grey t-shirt dress. It feels good to wear something other than jeans and boots, and I’m actually looking forward to going out and doing something that has nothing to do with horses. I drive up to the barn to pick Violet up from her small apartment above the stables. She looks beautiful and distracted when she hops into the black Gold Rush Ranch truck.
“You doing alright?” I ask as she buckles herself in rather violently.
She looks straight ahead through the windshield. “Yup. But I need a drink.”
And she isn’t kidding. That night, I lose track of how many paralyzers Violet drinks. I switch to water after a couple of beers as I listen to her make vague comments about some guy she’s been seeing who is clearly super unavailable. I don’t know where she finds the time, but by the sounds of it, she finally told him to hit the dusty trail. Hence the voracious speed of her drinking.
She ends up telling me more about her family and childhood in Alberta. Her parents and her brothers. How stifling and overprotective they are. How she basically moved out to British Columbia just to see the world on her own. The more she talks the more sluggish her words get, and as much as I’m amused by listening to her talk my ear off, I eventually suggest heading back to the ranch.
I watch her totter up the stairs to her apartment, wondering if I should have helped her up there, and breathe a sigh of relief when she closes the door behind herself. Poor little Violet is going to be in a world of pain tomorrow.
When I pull up to my dark cottage, tiredness hits me. All the commuting this week, getting to know new people around the track, listening to Violet, thinking about Vaughn—I’m feeling a little tapped out.
Which is why I’m instantly agitated when I see Vaughn sitting on my darkened front step.
“What are you doing here?” I sigh as I hop out of the truck.
“I came to talk to you.” There’s a bite to his tone that I don’t like.
I walk right past him, shoving my key into the front door. “Don’t bother. I’m going to bed. You should head back to your gala or whatever it is you’re doing tonight.”
He stands and takes a long step onto the porch. “You are so totally infuriating,” he barks, surprising me with the volume of his voice, before quieting to an angry growl, “I’m about done with you running away from me.”
He thinks he can talk to me like this? I spin around in the doorway, blood pumping quickly through my veins. “Speaking of running, how about you run back to your date in the pink dress now?”
A deep sardonic laugh rumbles in his chest as he stalks closer. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were jealous, Billie. Where were you tonight?”
I rear back at that. “Are you fucking kidding me? I was out with Violet, for crying out loud! You, on the other hand, spent the night with me and then—”
“That mouth of yours,” he cuts me off and presses his finger across my lips to silence me as he edges closer still. “I didn’t go to the gala at all. I called my mom that morning when I left your place and told her to cancel it. I told her to stop trying to set me up, period. If you hadn’t purposely avoided me all week, you would know this by now.”
I stiffen and air whooshes through my lips. “Vaughn, you’re my boss. I know we’ve blurred that line. But we need to define it again. I don’t want this to be complicated. I don’t want to keep tiptoeing around you. I just want to work and win races.”
“I want the same thing.” He growls and then pushes me back through the front door gently.
And locks it behind us.