One week turned into two and before I knew it three weeks had gone by and everyone was starting to pack for the tour. Liam was about as ready as he could be for the next few months on the road. The cast on his wrist was removed and Linc set to work on getting his hand stronger so that he would be ready to play. The cast on his leg was still going to be on there for a while longer and we would see a specialist while out on tour, or so Emmie had informed me.
While I was ready to get on the road and out of a house that threw me and Axton together so much, I was counting down the days until my dad came to Tennessee. He had promised to stop at one of the farms he had an interest in so that I would get to spend a little time with him before I left. As I straightened up Liam’s room, while he was in the living room with everyone else, I kept glancing down at my phone. Today was the day and I was just waiting on my dad to text me so I could go visit.
The plan had been for him to visit at Wroth’s farm, but my dad had a few things he needed to take care so I’d just told him I would drive over to where he was. I didn’t want to have to wait on him to finish what needed his attention, so I was impatiently waiting. It wasn’t every day that I got to see my dad. I was pretty much kept as far away from Austin Bradshaw from the moment my mother had decided to divorce him. Which had happened about five seconds after Austin had told her that he didn’t want his daughter subjected to the circus show of Texas beauty pageants.
When the text finally came through, I gave a happy dance because I loved my dad so much. Skipping through the house, I grabbed my coat and the keys to the truck that Wroth had made available to anyone that might need it. Linc and Natalie both knew where I was going, so I didn’t bother to tell them that I was leaving.
The truck had a GPS and I had to punch in the address before I could go. I hadn’t left the ranch for anything but to go with Liam to his doctor’s appointment so I didn’t know where I was going at all. It took thirty minutes to get to the house my dad was staying at.
When I pulled up in front of the house, which was more like a mansion, I couldn’t help but frown. I wasn’t expecting something this extravagant out here in the country, although I had passed some really nice houses as I had gone through town. Even when I had driven through the gates at the entrance of the property with a sign that had read ‘Huntington Estate’ I hadn’t figured the place would be so… Ostentatious was the only word that kept entering my mind.
The house was a two-story, but it was as wide as my apartment building back in New York. The garage that connected to the house could have easily held eight large vehicles. The grounds were expertly manicured, looking green and luscious even though it was the dead of winter. But it was the stables in the distance that really caught my attention. The thing was huge and for some reason my heart began to race as soon as I spotted it.
Turning off the truck, I stepped out and let out a happy squeal as soon as I saw the big man walking down the front steps toward me. “Daddy!” I threw myself into his arms.
With a deep laugh Austin Bradshaw swung me around and around. In my eyes there was no man better than my dad. He was rough around the edges and as mean as a snake at times. But he was also a straight shooter, always letting you know how he felt without pussyfooting around the issue. He also loved me more than anything in the world.
After a few minutes he put me on my feet and stepped back to look down at me. I hadn’t seen him since Christmas and only then for a few hours. His face had changed a little, a few more lines and a few more gray hairs, but that didn’t distract from how handsome he was. I loved that I looked so much more like my dad than I did my mother. There were other changes in his appearance but the biggest was in his waist. Austin had always had a little extra weight on him, making his stomach thick and slightly round. But that was gone now.
“Damn, Daddy!” I teased as I took him all in. “Who you lookin’ good for?”
Austin chuckled, but didn’t deny it, which had my brows rising. Before I could call him on it and demand to know what he was doing, because my dad hadn’t ever cared about his appearance or a woman in any shape or form, he distracted me by telling me he had a surprise for me.
Automatically my eyes went back to the stables and my heart started pounding. Seeing the look on my face, Austin grabbed my hand and we hurried toward the big building. The closer we got, the more anxious I was to reach it.
Several men were standing by the entrance to the stables. When we stepped inside it was warm and cozy, the all-too-familiar scent of horses filled my nose and I couldn’t help but smile. I glanced around with excitement, feeling like a kid let loose in a candy store after getting the taste of sugar for the first time. My dad just laughed as I continued to act like a little girl.
Halfway down he turned to me and told me to close my eyes. “Trust me, darlin’.”
With a shrug I closed my eyes and let him lead me the rest of the way through the stables. With my eyes closed, the scent and sound of horses moving around took me back to a time when I had been happy and innocent. A time before my mother had gotten crazy with the pageants and then the whole modeling thing.
“Okay, Dallas.” Austin put his hands on my sides and turned me to the left. “Open ‘em up, darlin’.”
Slowly I opened my eyes. When they focused on the horse in the stall before me, my legs nearly buckled. “Raad…” His name came out in a whisper and with a trembling hand I reached out to touch his nose. Tears burned my throat and eyes as I took in the horse that I had considered my first friend.
“He’s been here for about five years now. When your mother sold him I started looking for him as soon as I could, but I finally tracked him down about a year ago.”
I glanced back at the black Arabian stallion. Raad was seventeen years old now, but the way he was nuzzling my hand told me that he remembered me. I’d missed this horse every day for fifteen years. My mother had used Raad against me when I had refused to do the pageants. One day I had come home from school and Raad, who had lived in the single stable just a few hundred yards from the house my mother had moved us into when she had divorced my father, was gone. She said that if I wasn’t going to do what she wanted then I couldn’t have what I wanted. Then she had promised that she would get Raad back if I did what she told me and I started winning the pageants. Her promise, like all her promises, had been a lie. I hadn’t seen Raad again until that moment.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I leaned forward and kissed Raad’s nose.