-Chapter One-
"Where I End and You Begin"
So much had changed, I thought for the thousandth time in the past couple of months. A little over a year ago we had begun and then we were engaged and now…now I was his wife. I had become Mrs. Bradley H. Townsend and I was half-owner of the farm that I had once thought to be too perfect looking with so much politics and everything else. I was married to the man that I had once despised, and I hadn't even turned twenty-two yet.
I stare across the barn yard at him where he was conversing with Ken Maddock. He kept glancing my way but gave no smile or anything else. I didn't either. We were married now but that didn't mean that it had turned us into two googly-eyed teenagers. I just checked him out more often and now I got to kiss him. I turned my attention back to Samantha McLean who was talking animatedly about that morning's work out. "I think that he's really ready for the Derby, Ash. I think he's going to win it."
I smiled up at the fifteen year old red head as Charlie Burke walked up, hearing the last of what Samantha had said. "Don't count your chickens before their hatched." he said and I mouthed the words along with him, knowing them by heart.
"Oh, c'mon Charlie. I know that you watched him out there. He was fantastic, I bet he was at least a fraction faster than every horse out there." She argued, putting her hands on her tiny hips. "Your just being cynical."
I couldn't help but smile at the fireball in front of me. I'd learned to deal with Charlie and his old ways, I'd learned that he would always look at the dark side before the bright one, he'd be prepared for the negative before he looked on to the positive. He was the reason I had any success in the business. I owed him so much. "And your being too confident." he shot back and I grinned even more, sliding my eyes ever so casually back to Brad. He was frowning now with his hands in his pockets and I knew that he'd regret later the words that I was sure would spring from his mouth. I loved him but his hissy fits I could live without.
"So, Ashleigh, are you going to Churchill Downs tomorrow with Pride?" Charlie shoved his hands in the pockets of his worn slacks and turned his piercing blue eyed gaze towards me. "Or are you going to hang around the farm?"
I scribbled something on my chart and looked up at him. "Yeah, I'll be going, Charlie. I need to make sure that Pride gets settled in and to give you two a ride." I said, grinning at them both. It scared me how well I knew them sometimes. Charlie and Samantha would both be needing a ride to the track as neither of them had their license.
Charlie scowled at me and nodded curtly. "What time you planning' on leaving?"
"Around nine or so. I want to be here for the morning works and we don't really need to be at the track early. I won't be able to stay too long though, Brad and I have a dinner that we have to be at."
His scowl deepened and he looked around as he spoke. "I should have known you would have turned into one of those darn Stepford wives. It was only a matter of time."
I rolled my eyes at him and chuckled a little. "Going to dinner to discuss buying a new colt is not being a darn Stepford wife. It's merely a business dinner with the man that I happen to be married to."
"Right." Samantha said, crossing her arms and getting a devilish grin on her face when a rusty old pick-up pulled into the driveway. It could only be the guy that she claimed wasn't her boyfriend, Tor Nelson.
"Looks like you have company." I said as she dashed off. I glanced at Charlie and saw him watching her disapprovingly. "What's the matter, Charlie? Afraid she'll turn into me?" I teased.
"Pretty much." he said and walked off. But I'd caught the twinkling look he sent me and I knew he meant it is as a joke. No one understood why I'd married Brad, I'd even heard speculation that our marriage was a business deal but I knew why I'd married him. It had taken me years to get to know him but I think that we really brought out the best in each other. All of my major accomplishments seemed to have happened when I was trying to prove him wrong. That had to be somewhat of a good sign.
As I made my way to my office to drop of my clip board, I checked my watch and saw that it was quarter after nine. For the most part work outs were done for the morning, everyone was just finishing up. It was still fairly busy around the farm but I knew that soon it would quiet down and the trainers and managers would retire to their offices to work on the endless piles of paper work that came with this job. The grooms would work on cleaning tack while talking amongst themselves and some of the jockeys would go to the track to try and score rides. The less dedicated ones would probably head home.
"Hey," I heard Brad come up behind me and place a subtle hand around my waist. "Where are you headed?" he asked me as he nodded to one of the grooms.
"To my office and then to spoil Wonder and her new baby some more. How about you?" As I spoke, I looked up into the handsome face of my husband of the past two weeks. We'd gotten married at the beginning of April and since then we'd taken a week long honey moon in Europe. We'd returned home a week ago and it had been business as usual. For the most part.
He shut my office door behind me and leaned against it. "Well, I'm going to go up to the house to change and then I have a meeting in town." He motioned for me to come closer and I wrapped my arms around his neck, resting my head on his shoulder. "What do you say we slip away tonight for a quiet night on the town?"
"Can't." I said as I pressed a kiss to his neck. "My parents are having that party for me for my birthday since my sister and her family will already be back in New York by then."
"Right." he said and looked slightly disappointed. "Rain check?" he said as he kissed my lips lovingly.
"Sounds good." I said and kissed him once more before pulling away. "You better get going or your going to be late for your meeting."
He pulled me against him for one more quick kiss before opening my office door. "See you later today." he flashed that famous Brad Townsend smile that I was sure still made half the girls in Lexington swoon and walked out. As he did that, all I could think was that once upon a time I had been on the other half. But now, I'd switched over and was standing, front row and center.
"How's my favorite girl?" I cooed in Wonder's ear as I let myself into her stall. I leaned forward to pet her newborn foal, Mr. Wonderful and giggled a little when the colt tickled my neck and ear with his velvet nose. "Enjoying being a new mom again?"
I'd been devastated when I'd been forced to retire Wonder. Due to an injury she'd received on the track. But not long after we'd decided to breed her and then had come the wonderful, Wonder's Pride. Now she had Mr. Wonderful. As great of a racehorse as Wonder had been, she was an even better mom. She knew exactly what to do and when to do it. I couldn't have asked for a better horse.
I decided that it was time to get her and the little guy outside so I slipped on her halter and clipped on the lead shank. It would be the first time that she and her colt would be outside since he'd been born. "Easy, girl." I said as she rolled her eyes, looking around desperately for her colt, who was just trying to avoid his mother's hooves to get to her side. "See? He's right there."
Mr. Wonderful stuck close to his mother's side, eyeing this new world that he hadn't known existed. Until now, he hadn't known that there was a world outside the four walls of his mother's stall. He was learning new things everyday and I think that's why I enjoyed being around the foals so much. They taught me and reminded me of how innocent life can be. How easy it can be to adore something if you just let yourself believe in it.
When we reached the paddock gate I released Wonder, slipping off her halter to make sure that she didn't get tangled in anything. I'd been tired all morning but now, as I sat here watching Wonder and her foal, sleep was the farthest thing from my mind.
I remembered pulling up here as a twelve year old girl who had just lost everything that she knew. I remembered meeting Brad for the first time and thinking about what a jerk he was. I remembered falling in love with Wonder from the first time I looked at her tiny, crumpled form, laying helplessly in a pile of straw. I remembered meeting Charlie and Jilly and all I ended up learning from them. I remembered falling in love with racing.
"What are you thinking about?" I heard Jilly's familiar voice from behind me and smiled softly as I turned to face her.
"Oh, just about life was like when I first moved here. Meeting all of you guys and learning about racing." I sighed a little and looked back at Wonder. "So much has changed." I murmured.
"Like you marrying Brad Townsend?" She said, smiling as she shook her head. "I still can't believe you did that, Ash. But then again, I guess I never accepted yours and Mike's break up, either."
I looked down at the glittering diamonds on my hands and I guess I was always a little surprised that that part of my life didn't hurt so much anymore. Mike had left me and it had shattered me. It's what ultimately had led me to Brad. He'd been a source of comfort to me during that time, even though most of what we'd done had been fight. But there had been the times that he had shown me that a real person existed under that mask of indifference. That there was someone there who felt and hurt and…loved. That there was a person on this planet that could make me fall in love again. "It's better this way. Jilly, you may not be able to get passed what an ass he used to be but. . . I love him. I really, really love him."
Jilly sighed and rubbed my back. "I know and I'm sorry but c'mon Ash," She paused as a smile slipped across her face. "Used to be?"
I couldn't help but laugh, too. "I know, I'm kind of stretching it there." We may be married now but I was still a pain in his ass and he was still a jerk. Some things never change.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I tucked my hand into Brad's and smiled up at him as we waited on my parent's door step. I knew that he still felt uncomfortable here mostly because he and my family had never really gotten along. And him and Caroline kind of had a past, too. It was she who answered the door, her two year old on her hip and I could see the faint outline of the new baby that would be arriving later in the summer through her shirt. She grinned when she saw me and quickly pulled me into a hug. At the end of the hug, I ended up with Alex in my arms as she rushed off to stir the gravy, not even bothering to greet Brad.
"Where's everyone else?" I asked, peering around the corner into the living room only to find it empty.
Caroline shrugged as she tested the gravy with her finger. She motioned for me to try some and I nodded, letting her know it was just right. "They went down to the barns. Mom and Dad wanted to check one of the mares and Justin wanted to go with for some reason." she shrugged again as she grabbed a wash cloth to wipe of her son's messy face. "I don't know how he does it but he always manages to make a mess. You can give him a piece of bread and he still manages to make a mess with it. It drives me insane."
I smiled at my nephew. "He must get it from his Aunt Ash." When both Caroline and Brad snorted a little and nodded their heads in agreement, I couldn't help but smile a little. They were far more alike then they realized.
"Ashleigh!" I heard my mother's voice cry out as she wrapped me in a hug. "You look so pretty." she said as she ran her fingers over my always flat hair and smiled. "How's married life?" She said as she looked from me to Brad. We both looked at each other and smiled, making grunting noises to downplay our happiness. She laughed and took Alex from me. Because Caroline and her family lived in New York my mother always seemed to feel that she didn't get in enough spoiling time and therefore worked extra hard while they were in town to spoil them.
"How's everything with the farm?" My father asked as he reached forward to hug me. "Keeping you busy?" While my mother managed to be friendly with Brad, my father and sister were more reserved which was better than Justin who refused to say anything to him at all. Apparently, Justin remembered the past that Caroline and Brad had as well.
"It's going good. We're bringing Pride and some of the other horses to Churchill Downs tomorrow. It'll give them some time to get a little more used to the track."
This is how Griffen family get-togethers went. Most of the talk was horses, veering off ever so often to talk about Caroline's business and Justin's firm. Of course talk about Alex and the new baby came in but no one ever asked Brad anything about how things were going for him around the farm. No one ever asked the two of us if we were thinking about having kids, which we weren't. But it still irked me that my family could be so sweet and gracious to Caroline's husband but when it came to mine, no one would dare say much more than a few words. I was the one who was most affected by our past but yet I was the only one who could get past that and take into note the man that he had become.
