By Chance (9 page)

Dustin nodded and looked away. “Thanks, Vince.”

He smiled and reached forward to lightly squeeze his shoulder, which thankfully didn’t seem to hurt him. “Seriously, Dust, don’t worry about this. Anna and I will take care of things. You’re not making more work for us or wasting anyone’s time. Okay?”

Dustin nodded again, and this time his green eyes met Vince’s. “Okay.”

Vince stood. “Just relax for the day.” He left a moment later and headed to the barn. As soon as he walked in, he yelled, “Chris!”

Chris walked out of a nearby stall. He didn’t look worried or that he regretted beating the living hell out of his coworker. In fact, he was smirking.

Vince pointed toward the office. “With me.”

As soon as they were both in the office, Vince slammed the door. “Tell me what happened this morning and why Dustin looks like he was trampled by a raging thoroughbred.”

Chris shrugged nonchalantly. “Maybe he was.”

“We both know he wasn’t,” Vince countered, clenching a fist. “Is there a reason you beat him like that?”

Chris just shrugged again. “What else would I do with a faggot?”

“And why is he a faggot?”

Chris snorted. “Obviously, if he refuses to ride a horse, he’s too much of a pansy for this place. Clearly, he really is a faggot if he didn’t fight back. No room for ass-fuckers here. I just gave him a reason to leave.”

Vince took a calming breath. “I don’t care whether you like him or not, if you touch him—or
anyone
here—again,
you
will be the one leaving. In a police car. And if it’s Dustin you attack again, you’ll be charged with a hate crime, I assure you.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t have the balls to press charges. He couldn’t face me in court.”

Vince pointed to the door. “You’ve been warned,” he hissed. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

As soon as the amused Chris was out the door, Vince released his anger and frustration by punching the office desk. It didn’t make him feel much better. Vince wanted to fire the guy, but he knew that even having a poor worker was better than being one hand short during the busy season. If he wanted to make any sales this summer, he needed to put up with Chris for the time being. The thought wasn’t appealing, but he didn’t have time to find another new hand.

He wasn’t going to give the guy a third chance, though, that was for sure.

W
HEN
V
INCE
got to the barn the next morning, he learned that Anna had just sent Dustin back home.

“He can’t do much of anything,” she explained. “Not with sore ribs like that. Chris is doing all his work.”

Vince nodded. “I’ll take care of Justin, don’t worry about that.”

He fed Xander and Justin and cleaned both of their stalls, then went to check on Dustin. The kid looked worse than he had the day before, if that were even possible. His bruises looked uglier, and his eye was still swollen. He was sitting on his couch again with the TV on, an icepack sitting on the couch next to him.

“Are you doing okay?” Vince asked.

“Anna sent me home, so I guess not,” Dustin grumbled.

Vince moved the ice pack and sat down on the couch with Dustin. “Take another day off. If you want to do light work tomorrow even if it’s painful for you, I won’t stop you. But don’t push yourself too much. The only one picking up your slack is Chris, so you have no reason to feel bad.”

Dustin sighed. “I definitely want to try tomorrow. I’ll just keep taking my painkillers.”

Vince handed him the ice pack. “Good idea. I’ll trust you to decide what you can handle.”

“Thanks,” Dustin replied, putting the ice pack to his face.

T
HE
NEXT
evening, Jane showed up at Vince’s house unannounced. He thought she looked rather nervous when he let her in, and he was instantly concerned about her.

“I need to talk to you about something,” she told him.

“Okay,” he replied, leading her to the living room. “What’s going on?”

She sat down on the couch and took a deep breath. “Vince,” she said quietly, “I’m pregnant.”

He stared at her from the other end of the couch.

“The last person I slept with was you,” she added.

The memory of that night slapped him across the face. “Oh god. It broke. And I didn’t worry about it because you were on the pill and I was planning on marrying you.” He buried his face in his hands. “Fuck.”

Jane grabbed his arm and pulled it to her. He didn’t even bother resisting her as she wove her fingers through his. “Listen to me, Vince,” she began, sounding remarkably calm, “I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t have worried all that much if you’d told me right away, either. I might have been a little concerned, knowing that I wasn’t always perfect about taking the pills, but I wouldn’t have been paranoid. How it happened doesn’t matter. It’s what we do now that is important. What do you want to do?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, turning his head to look at her, still half covering his face with his other hand.

“We don’t have to go through with this,” she pointed out. “I’ve looked up local abortion clinics. If that’s what we need to do, I’m prepared to go that way. I can’t make that decision without you, though. Ideally, I would want us to be able to have the baby and raise it jointly. I don’t want this to involve any legal channels, just us working this out on our own. I want us to be able to share the parenting. I would be willing to be the main caregiver, but I’d want you to be willing and able to help out financially and to raise our child with me. I would love for you to visit the baby and, when it’s older, to do more father-child stuff. Considering where you are in life right now, do you feel like you could do that?”

He shook his head and closed his eyes. “I don’t know,” he admitted quietly. “Can you give me a couple of days to think this through? I honestly don’t know what to think right now.”

She nodded. “Of course.” She let go of his hand to hug him. “Thank you.”

V
INCE
SPENT
the night and a few hours of the morning in a state of surreal indecision, which slowly gave way to resolve. By noon, he picked up his phone and texted Jane.

I can’t promise to be a great father, but I promise to try.

T
HE
TRADITION
of having parties on the farm had been started by Vince’s mother during the farm’s first year, and the first one was the Fourth of July. After she passed away, Wes had decided to continue the tradition in her memory. So when it came to be the Fourth of July, Vince, along with his sister who had shown up unexpectedly that morning with her husband, helped his father set up for the farm’s annual barbecue. Jane also arrived as the preparations were ending and everyone was coming from the barn to the main house’s backyard.

Vince had finally gotten used to seeing Dustin bruised. It had been four days since his incident with Chris, but he still didn’t look very good. He claimed he wasn’t as sore as he had been before and insisted on doing light work every day, including taking care of Justin, which Vince helped him with when he was allowed to. Dustin never asked for help but let Vince step in most of the time.

Mandy winced when she saw Dustin, even though Vince had told her the story before. But she hid her surprise pretty well when she said hello to Dustin, Vince thought.

Mark also looked surprised when he asked Vince, “I thought he wasn’t a problem kid?”

Vince shook his head. “He’s not the problem. Chris is. Chris randomly beat him up for no reason other than that Dustin was doing exactly what I wanted. Dustin didn’t fight back or instigate.”

“Then I’m impressed,” Mark replied. “But he should know he can defend himself.”

Vince shrugged. “He knew Chris would just beat him harder if he fought back.”

“So you’re still happy with him?”

Vince nodded and took a drink of the soda he was holding. “Definitely. If another issue happens with him and Chris, Chris will be the one I let go unless there is some obvious evidence of provocation.”

Mark nodded. “Everyone always has to have a problem worker.”

Vince chuckled. “Exactly.”

Vince was wary of drinking too much that afternoon, but he had no desire to stay totally sober. It turned out that his father and his brother-in-law were the best companions for that sort of drinking. That evening, when the stable hands went to do the night feeding and Mandy and Jane had gone inside, they sat around the fire pit in the yard and talked about all kinds of random things. It was the most time Vince had spent with Jeff, and he really felt like they were brothers.

“What do you like most about my sister?” Vince asked as he tossed a stick into the fire.

Jeff took a drink of his beer and grinned. “She’s great in bed.”

“Hey now,” Wes warned, pointing a finger at him. “She may be all grown up, but I’m still her daddy.”

Jeff grinned again. “Nah, it’s a bonus. She’s just a great person. I love her.”

“That’s better,” Wes stated, grinning.

“I guess love is a good reason,” Vince conceded.

“Do you still love Jane?” Jeff asked.

Vince shrugged. “Yeah, but I don’t think I ever loved her that way.”

“There’s a girl out there somewhere you’ll love someday,” his father said confidently.

Vince laughed. “I’m not expecting that.”

“Oh, don’t be so sorry for yourself,” Wes argued, squeezing his shoulder. “You’ll find love.”

Before Vince even thought about it, he laughed again and said, “That would be nice, but it wouldn’t be a woman.”

His father released his shoulder, and Vince suddenly realized what he’d said. He finished his beer to try to hide his awkwardness. He was tempted to get up and walk away, but the awkward pause didn’t last long enough.

“That’s why you and Jane broke up?” Wes asked quietly.

Vince nodded. “Yeah. She figured out I was trying to hide and have a normal life with her. She couldn’t do it anymore.”

“So is that why you knew about Dustin?” his father questioned, still quiet.

Vince stared at the fire and replied, “If you’re asking if there’s something going on with us, no. I’m not ready for a relationship now. When I got drunk at the Derby party and he stayed with me, I told him out of drunken stupidity, kind of like I just did now. And he told me about himself to assure me that he wasn’t going to talk or treat me any different.”

After a long moment, Jeff said, “Mandy will kill me, but I have to say that she told me already. I don’t want you to kill her either, though.”

Vince sighed. “How’d I know she wouldn’t keep it quiet even though I asked her to?”

“You could have told me sooner,” Wes stated suddenly.

“I didn’t know how you’d react,” Vince admitted.

“You’re my son,” Wes declared, “how would you expect me to react?”

“I don’t know,” Vince said quietly.

Wes set his beer bottle down and turned to him. “Vince, you’re my son and my business partner. As long as your preferences don’t put you against me for some reason or hurt you or make it impossible for you to train the horses, I don’t give a damn what you do in your private life. I want you to be happy. And I hope you find a nice guy who loves you and can make you happy, if that’s what it has to be.”

Vince looked down at his hands in his lap, surprised to find himself fighting tears. “Thanks, Dad.” He took a deep breath and added, “While I’m confessing things…. Jane’s pregnant. It happened the last night we were together. I just found out.”

“And… what’s going to happen?” Wes asked gently.

Vince ignored the fact that Jeff was staring at him. “We’re both going to raise the baby. Like a joint custody type of thing without the legal aspect.”

“Then I’m glad to hear it,” Wes declared and squeezed Vince’s shoulder. “I love you.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Vince repeated. “I love you, too.”

He was pretty sure the last time he’d said that had been at his mother’s funeral.

V
INCE
WAS
glad that Dustin was mostly recovered from his altercation with Chris by the time the show he had been training for came around. His face was still faintly bruised, but Vince didn’t think it was overly obvious to most people, and his ribs were still bothering him a bit, but painkillers seemed to make light work bearable. Vince told him he could ask Jane or Mia to go to the show with him instead, but Dustin insisted on going as his groom as they had planned.

In the end, Vince was glad he agreed to let Dustin be his groom despite his still-healing injuries. The look on Dustin’s face when they arrived was enough to make him smile. The kid had obviously never been to a show, and even though the stable area was similar to a racetrack and the show horses were highly trained, specially bred performance horses just like thoroughbreds, it was clearly different from any place he’d ever been.

They unloaded Xander, and Dustin let him walk around a bit to stretch after his two-hour trailer ride while Vince went to check in. When he got back to the trailer, he found Dustin sitting on the wheel well, holding Xander’s lead rope while the gelding watched his master approach. Vince grinned and rubbed the horse’s forehead.

“I don’t ride for a couple of hours,” he explained to Dustin. “We can stick him back inside for a bit if you want, but I still want one of us to be with him at all times in case a person he doesn’t know gets too close.”

Dustin looked confused for a moment, then nodded. “It makes him upset meeting new people here?”

“Unless I’m on his back or right next to him, usually,” Vince explained. “I think he’d be okay with you. Maybe not as relaxed as he is with me, but he wouldn’t freak out.”

Dustin nodded. “Do you mind if I use the bathroom quick?”

Vince pointed behind him. “Porta Potties over there.”

“I’ll be back,” Dustin replied, handing over Xander’s lead rope.

“I hope so,” Vince said with a smile.