Nova (17 page)

“He’ll be able to stand on his feet just fine,” Dave replied. “We’re not doping him up to knock him out; he just needs enough to relax him.”

“And what if he still won’t load?” Carson asked rather tersely.

“We’ll get him loaded,” Dave replied firmly. “But I suggest you hire someone to fix the problem because tranquilizing him every time isn’t going to be a viable solution. How on earth do you plan on getting him to the show and back? How on earth did you even get him
here
?”

Carson was still agitated, but he let out a breath of air and tried to hide a smile. “Uh, my neighbor has a mare that
my horse is
, uh, pretty found of. We loaded her first and Strong felt pretty motivated.”

Everyone chuckled at that, and I was glad for
the story to lighten the mood.

“So
she
didn’t
go along for the ride
too
?” Heath asked.

“No, we unloaded her, but Strong
didn’t like it
. If all else failed, we were just gonna load the mare with us next week.”

“Well, we can get the kinks worked out of him,” Heath said. “But I can’t guarantee it’d be by next week. I suggest you have someone work with him if you’re gonna be showing him.”

“I just…I had no idea the horse didn’t trailer well,” he said. “The previous owner delivered him for us and…”

“Well, it happens,”
Heath
told him. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting him over a bad driving experience. But the horse needs to be worked with before you take him in public.”

Carson agreed
and was eventually talked into the tra
nquilizer. They positioned the horse
away from the trailer and I administered the drug into his neck. After a few minutes they led him to the ramp and stopped, waiting for the telltale sign of the drooping head, signifying that it was time to load him. Heath walked him up easily
and secured him in the stall while Dave went over a few more things with Carson.

When the truck and trailer left the ranch
a while later
, I headed back to the office to finish up my stuff, and then went to the guesthouse to shower and get ready for my date with Austin. I was excited for it, and I figured I could probably check what concert we were going to online, but I
chose
to let myself be surprised. 

Chapter Nine

By Wednesday I decided that stereotypes were silly, and people that judged others just on one
outward
fact alone were also silly. Yeah, I guess it’s understandable to see someone
full of tats riding
a Harley and you could say, “That guy’s a biker.” But isn’t that where you should stop?
I suppose
certain labels have general characteristics that go with them—what things do you think of when you hear t
he words jock, diva, or punk? –B
ut surely those people that fit a particular category on the outside can’t all be cookie cutter copies on the inside, right? There are too many ingredients to a person to simplify them so quickly.

I really didn’t put up with too much
labeling
when I was a teenager—I was kind of oblivious to it—b
ut I started to get a taste of it
after
I graduated from high school. When my mom died I had to quit school, and then I had to get a job. It was hard enough to get a job that I
wanted
let alone one that was “cool.” I had other goals
while I waited tables,
but I did it
so I could get myself to a place that I wanted to be.

Occasionally I would see a friend from school, or run into someone that knew me back then, and they would have to find out that no, I wasn’t in veterinary school right now, and yes, I’m a waitress in a diner. I guess it didn’t bother me much because the circumstances in my life h
ad changed
and there wasn’
t anything I could do about it, but
I was working hard as a waitress just so I
could
change things, and I viewed it as
only
a stepping-stone to get me on my way.

Austin hadn’t judged me any particular way when he first saw me. He said he thought I was a beautiful girl, and when I’d stopped them on the sidewalk, there
was
no way any of them wanted to turn me down. It was a little flattering to hear him tell me about some of the conversations they’d had about me, even that Brock and Will had thought of several ways they could get me to go out with one of them.

Austin didn’t deny being a part of those conversations too, but after coming into the diner two times after that, he claimed to have developed quite the crush on me. I teased him that he was a stalker, and he didn’t deny that either, but he says that he learned a lot about me just by watching me interact with other people. When he won the bet to take me out (if I chose that) it made him feel bad. He didn’t want me to go out with him for any reason except because I wanted to, and
he
didn’t
feel that I was
too keen on the idea.

I guess my opinion of Austin took a while to develop. At first he was just one amongst a group of guys, and for the most part, Brock’s shameless personality had overshadowed everyone else. It wasn’t that I hadn’t noticed Austin, because I thought he was definitely the best looking of the four, but Brock kept
me pretty busy
and I hardly had
time for anyone
else.

But I did notice Austin the second time they all came in, mainly because he had such a quiet yet confident
air to him. I liked his mannerisms and the way he talked, and then when he handed me the money that day… I suppose it kind of sealed our fate. That was what it took for me to be hooked, and all he had to do was slowly pull me in from there.

Going back to my
whine about stereotypes
…
At first
I wasn’t quite sure if Austin was the right kind of guy for me. Certain things definitely worked in our favor, but I’ll admit that it took a few times for me to get past
Autumn
’s “accountant” stereotype of him. Autumn’s feelings about accountants and financial guys were that they were b
oring. She also placed businessmen
in that category. Austin did
n’t
really talk about his job at the speedway very often, but I knew enough about it to know what he does for ten hours, four days a week.
Maybe the job itself was just his paycheck, but it really didn’t define him entirely. I knew how smart he was, and I knew he worked hard, but Austin was not the type that you could pigeonhole very easily. There was a lot to him, and if you were to spend a day with him and
then
find out he wore a tie and
mingled with the corporates
, it might not seem
likely
.

During the few months that I got to know Austin, I discovered that he had
a great sense of humor. I mean he
could
be
serious and business-like because I’d seen those qualities in him too, but his sense
of humor
was more innate than his trained professionalism. He was also kind of spontaneous, and I couldn’t count how many times I’d heard him say, “Hey, let’s go in there instead,” when we were on our way to eat somewhere else, or “Why don’t we go do this today?” and it would be something totally random. One Wednesday morning he called me up and told me he took the day
off. He knew it was my day off
so he decided to work Friday instead, but I came down to his place and we spent the entire d
ay doing random things in the Los Angeles
area. It was so much
fun
, and
I have a lot of memories from that day.

I think that’s when my suspicions about his adventurous side began to develop, and I hardly even pictured him as the businessman that once presented me with a plan to get my aunt’s diner to succeed. That image of him kind of faded as I spent more time with him on a personal level, and to me Austin was just…Austin.

On
Friday (the Friday that he worked because he’d taken Wednesday off) I was in the guesthouse
when
I heard him roll in. It was almost nine pm, and I was already in a pair of pajama pants for the night, but I walked over to the main house so I could see him. He’d been on his way to see me too, and we met on the grass again. It always felt good to have him back when he’d been gone all week, even if I did just see him on Wednesday.

He hardly s
aid anything as he gave me a hug
, so I could tell he’d had a stressful day at work. We walked over to the hammock near the garde
n and just laid in it together, quietly enjoying the time with one another.
Finally I did ask him about his day and he opened up to me. We talked about it for
a little while
before he told me it was all in the past already, and he wanted to focus
on
his time
with
me.
Then we went inside because he hadn’t eaten since noon and I finally couldn’t take all the noises his stomach was making.

But that’s when Sam saw him eating at the
dining room
table and asked, “What tim
e is your race tomorrow? I forge
t.”

Austin gave her a look, and then she saw
me standing in the kitchen,
cutting up some fruit.

“Oh,” she said, biting her lip. “Oops.”

I could only stand there in silence, waiting for some sort of explanation for what she was talking about. I assumed she meant a horse race, and I wasn’t aware that Need For Speed had a race the next day. There hadn’t been any preparation for it, at least not from the
medical
end of it.

Austin just continued eating after she left, seeming to take advantage of the fact that I didn’t inquire. He honestly wasn’t going to say anything until I asked, “What race?” and sat at the table with him.

He had that su
ave business air to him
and I wasn’t sure I particularly liked it. For some reason I felt like I was about to be “dealt” with and I couldn’t help it when I said, “I’m not a business client, Austin.”

He barely nodded and replied, “Yes, I know that. I’m just trying to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing.”

“And what’s that?”

He remained quiet for several seconds as he moved the plate and set
his elbows on the table in front of him. “Remember when you told me you were glad that all I did was work the business aspect of the speedway?”

“I didn’t say that was ‘all you did’—”

“I know, but that’s not the point. You said you were glad that I wasn’t actually one of the mor
ons racing the cars.”

I smil
ed and said, “Yes, I remember saying that. Because it’s dangerous and I would never date a guy that was—”

I stopped short because I realized what we were talking about. I could only stare at him for several seconds and just the look on his face confirmed it.

“No, Austin…” I said quietly.

He took a deep breath and said, “I race cars, Nova. I have for about…five years now.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and said, “You told me that yeah,
you’ve
‘tested it out.’ The track. I asked if you’ve actually raced on it and you casually said, ‘Uh, yeah, I’ve tested it o
ut.
’
”

“I know, a
nd I’m sorry for misleading you, I really am, b
ut because of the things you said about it… I was just afraid you’d have a problem with it and—”

“I
do
have a problem with it,” I replied crossly
.

“Yes, I can tell.”

“Well what do you expect? You
knew how I felt about it, I told you how glad I was that
you
didn’t do stuff like that…”

“I know, so what was I suppose to say?”

“Well apparently you were supposed to lie about it, which is what you chose to do.”

He was about to respond, but decided not to—at least not
right away
. After a few seconds he said, “Nova, I’m really sorry I chose to keep it from you. When it came up I planned on letting you know that’s what I do, but then you had such negative feelings about it and… I was just afraid it was going to come between us.”

“And what about now? What are things supposed to be like now?”

He paused before he said, “I don’t know. I guess I’ll sit here and beg you to forgive me, and beg you to
not
let it come between us. I don’t want it to come between us, Nova.”

“Then maybe
you should have thought about that when I told
you
how I felt. Did you think I was just
going to
soften to the idea?”