River's End (River's End Series, #1)(51)
He nodded. “I mean get on the horse.”
“I don’t think…”
“I’m the teacher, right? That’s why I do the thinking.”
She bit her lip and slowly nodded. “Okay.”
“It won’t be like your ride with Joey. I’ll hold the horse, and lead you. I won’t let you go, not tomorrow anyway. We’ll do it in the enclosed arena. You’ll see, as far as you’ve come, you’ll do just great.”
“You think I’ve come far?”
“Sure. You didn’t know that?”
She shook her head. “You don’t ever say.”
He didn’t? He watched her. He probably could have been a little more encouraging towards her. He stayed back and kept his distance. “You’re doing great, Erin. With the horses and overcoming your fear.”
Her face lit up and her smile broke through her conscious reserve with him as her eyes flashed. He stepped back. There were reasons for him to keep things distant between them. She was too pretty not to. She was too young, too far into his debt, and slept with his little brother. There was every reason to keep them separated.
“Thank you, Jack. I look forward to this all day. I hope it doesn’t take too much from your work.”
It did. It actually took a lot from his work. He didn’t tell her that. Or mention it to anyone else. He quickly did his leftover chores after Charlie was in bed, or cut corners on the others. He was uncomfortable whenever he considered why that was.
“Tomorrow then?”
She grinned, nodded, turned and left the barn. He watched her walk away and stared too long at her small butt in the blue jeans. The way her hips swayed in her heeled cowboy boots. She looked so different from the girl who first stood in his driveway, he had to shake himself to get his eyes off her ass.
“Dad?”
Jack glanced up when he heard Charlie calling him. He walked out of the barn and found Charlie. “Yeah?”
Charlie stood there, fidgeting, and hanging his head. “Don’t forget the Mother’s Day Tea is tomorrow at school.”
Damn. He’d forgotten. Charlie looked miserable at the news. He glared down at the dust over their feet. Charlie was right; Jack couldn’t go to the all-female party, not again. Not with Charlie old enough now to know better.
There was one option. One he wasn’t comfortable with. But it could work.
“I suppose we could ask Erin to go with you.”
Charlie’s head jerked up, and a smile brightened his face. “Do you mean it, Dad? Would she do it?”
“I mean it, and yeah, she’ll do it,” Jack said, knowing Erin would do just about anything he suggested. That knowledge, however, made him slightly ill at ease. “I’ll go talk to her.”
Charlie grinned, then hugged him as he ran off with a “whoop!” Jack crossed the road and knocked on the trailer door.
“Jack?” Her eyes lit up with surprise as she opened the door wider.
He hadn’t been over there since the morning Chance left. “Can I come in?”
She looked at him with weariness in her eyes, but allowed him to enter. He walked in and glanced around. The trailer looked a lot better. She moved her stuff to the bedroom, and tidied what there was of the living space. He still couldn’t get over how her brother stuck her on the couch, or that this place was all she had in the world. He shifted, uneasy over how much power he really did have over her life.
“Did you want something?” she spoke from behind him and he turned around. The trailer was small and she was way too close. Her long black hair curled over her shoulders, and sprang around her headband.
“Uh, yeah, actually. You remember that Tea Charlie was crying about?”
“Of course.”
“Would you be willing to go with him?”
Her eyes rounded and her mouth opened in a giant O, but she finally nodded. “Of course. I’d be glad to.”
“He can’t have me going again. It’s not right. A woman should go.”
“I understand.”
“You’ll have to miss work because it’s at noon.”
She shook her head. “I’ll be there.”
He nodded. “Okay. Good. Thanks. I really appreciate you doing this.”
She let out a breathy laugh. “God, Jack, it doesn’t even begin to pay back what I owe you.”
He stuck his hands in his jean pockets. “Actually, when it comes to my kids, this isn’t nothing, it’s everything to me. So, yeah, I appreciate it.”
She smiled and turned to walk into her small kitchen. She reached over the stove and opened a cabinet, standing on her tiptoes while she rummaged around. He noticed her bare feet and painted pink toenails, and the way her shirt rode up her back an inch whenever she raised her arms. He commanded his eyes to stare only at the sink beyond her until she settled her feet flat on the floor again.
“I wanted to give you this.”
He looked down. She had money in her hands. Cash. Of course, no bank for Erin.
“For what?”
“For what? I don’t know. Everything. A down payment on what I owe you. Clothes, food, rent, gas. Take your pick.”
He pushed the few twenties back towards her. “Save it. I mean it. Pay me when you can actually support yourself.”