Chapter 20 – Last Night in the City
Elizabeth just looked at him, scrunched up her nose and shook her head.
"Hey." Jack said. "My parents are just as controlling as other parents. More so my mother, but still I would need to get away at times, especially when she had ladies over for tea or wanted to try and set me up with a friend's daughter."
"So you don't have a girlfriend?" Elizabeth asked. "I know we never really talked about it, but I just assumed that you didn't."
"No girlfriend." Jack said. "I was sort of dating someone, but she left to go to school halfway across the country and is spending the summer out there with family friends. She didn't understand why I wouldn't come with her. I didn't want to do long distance so we broke up. Honestly, I don't even miss her. She is the daughter of one of my mother's friends. I am sure they thought we would get married, but I didn't love her. I went out with her to have an escort to events and someone to hang out with. She is very spoiled and I never saw a future with her. She was just someone that was around and we hung out. I know that Doug and Lee never really liked her."
"Do you think that they will like me?" Elizabeth asked.
"Doug already likes you." Jack said. "I am sure that Lee will like you. He is kind of the quiet, shy one of the three of us."
"So how did you all meet?" Elizabeth asked.
"At some charity event." Jack said. "We were all about thirteen. None of us wanted to be there, so we all snuck off together. We quickly realized we all had similar likes. We started hanging out more and have been friends ever since. You know that Doug's father is a high ranking police officer. His mother is a piano teacher, but she comes from money. He has an older brother and sister and two younger sisters. Lee's father owns a bunch of businesses. His mother is a stay at home mom. He has an older sister. There was a younger brother, but he passed away before I met Lee."
"It was nice you all found each other." Elizabeth said. "Sorry about Lee's brother. Do you hang out with their siblings as well?"
"Sometimes." Jack said. "Lee's sister, Suzanna, goes to school in England. Doug's older siblings are both in college, one at Sanford in California and the other somewhere in Florida. Doug's two younger sisters are like ten or eleven. They are great riders and Doug and I would love to get them both into jumping, but need to wait another year or two to really get them jumping. They have done a few schooling shows for lower levels and if they were old enough, I know that they could jump modified, but not until next summer. I already have horses picked out for them."
"Twins?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes." Jack said. "They were a surprise since they are so much younger than Doug. Doug will be nineteen in October. Lee just turned eighteen in April."
Elizabeth smiled as Jack described each of his friendships.
"How did you meet your best friend?" Jack asked.
"We grew up next door to each other." Elizabeth said. "When I was about fourteen, each of our families moved. We were still in the same school, so we stayed friends. Rosie is a year older than me, so there were times we weren't in school together, but we have always been friends for as long as I can remember."
"That is awesome." Jack said. "I don't know what I would do without Doug and Lee. Even when I was spending a lot of time up at my grandparents while I was jumping, they would come up and spend time with me there. Lee doesn't really ride, but Doug does. He has even jumped in a few events just because he could."
"So did you go to school up there?" Elizabeth asked.
"No." Jack said. "I had tutors a lot of the time. Private school and all, so it was okay. I would come back here and go to school in the off season. I had a horse that I would ride down here. There was a time that grandpa arranged for me to have my jumper down here in the off season and I would train indoors. When I quit jumping, it was different. There is a stable outside of the city where Doug and I still go and ride. There are a couple of horses that we stable there. They are horses from my grandfather, but just trail horses. Both are thoroughbreds, but they don't race anymore. The stable where we have them, also allows other advanced riders to use them as long as we haven't called to reserve them. I have thought of bringing a couple more to stable there, but haven't found the right ones yet. It can be a little tricky with retired thoroughbreds, especially if they don't get ridden or outside enough. The stable likes them and the advanced riders like having a high end horse that they can ride from time to time."
"So how many horses do you have?" Elizabeth asked.
"Me personally or the family?" Jack asked.
"Both." Elizabeth said.
"Well." Jack said. "Personally, I either outright own or have a stake in a couple dozen thoroughbreds that race in Saratoga and other places. I also have broodmares and studs. I have a part in a couple of jumpers as well as owning three jumpers outright. There are also my two ranch/trail horses. One down here and up north. There will be more. Two of my mares are expecting and my one stud horse has three other mares pregnant. I will own a stake in all five of those thoroughbred foals. Hopefully they will end up being champions or at least do well. I have high hopes for all of them, either racing or jumping."
"So how does that work?" Elizabeth asked.
"It depends." Jack said. "Because we breed, raise, train and race horses. Sometimes we sell the straws, other times we agree on a live meet. Usually with a live meet, we share ownership of the offspring. There are other times we buy and sell horses at auction, usually when they are yearlings or two year olds. Rarely do we buy older horses. We sell a few. It can be deceiving when you are at the ranch because we are also an official retirement center which is different. Many of the retired horses come with their own restrictions. Essentially, the ranch that my grandparents own is a number of separate farms – there is the stud farm where we also house pregnant mares so that is our breeding facility. There is the regular ranch that has retired horses we can use for trail rides as well as all the ranch horses. There is an actual retirement center. Finally, there is the training center for thoroughbreds and jumpers. We also move horses between the training center, breeding facility and the extra stable at the retirement center as needed. The number is fluid, at any given time during the height of the race season, since we have horses racing at several different tracks."
"Sorry." Elizabeth said, confused. "Straws? Live meet?"
"My bad." Jack said. "I am so used to the terms, I forget that others don't understand. Straws are horse semen. The containers literally look like straws, they are collected and frozen. A live meet is when we put a mare in heat with a stallion so they can get together."
"Oh." Elizabeth said blushing.
"No need to be embarrassed." Jack said.
Elizabeth couldn't help it. She wanted to know more, but she figured she could look up a few things, so she tried to move to safer topics about the ranch.
"So what happens if a horse doesn't make the cut for racing?" Elizabeth asked.
"We try to train it as a jumper." Jack said. "If that doesn't work, we train them to be trail horses or ranch horses. We sell a lot of those who don't make the cut as trail horses. I know it sounds harsh, but we have a lot of money invested in the horses, so it is a way to make money back. There are people that like to say that they own a thoroughbred, so even if they don't race it is a status symbol. Some of the thoroughbreds make the cut for mounted police work. So we usually donate those horses with conditions that if the horse is retired, it comes back to us or an approved retirement center."
"I guess." Elizabeth said. "That is also cool about the mounted police horses. What if you get attached to a certain horse?"
"They usually stay." Jack said with a grin.
"So how many horses are at the ranch?" Elizabeth asked.
"Those that are not retired." Jack said. "It can be up to two hundred thoroughbreds and that is only because grandpa also works as a trainer for other owners. We have about sixty horses in retirement, some we use as trail horses. Others spend their days grazing and just being a horse. We also have a number of ranch horses and jumpers that aren't thoroughbreds. That also doesn't include those that are at the stud farm/breeding facility. And that is just at my grandparents farm. My uncle also has horses as well as Grandma's brother. We have a lot of different aspects of horsemanship and I hope to carry on the family traditions. I know that it is a lot to take in, but I promise it is honestly not that complicated. Does that answer your question?"
"I guess." Elizabeth said.
"It will make sense when we get up there." Jack said. "There are two parts of the farm that are semi-open to the public, but the stud farm has limited access and only family and those working for us are allowed on the main site where my grandparents live. It is basically four ranches all in one. Think about it this way. The main ranch is where my grandparents live. There is a stable there for a few horses. From the main site we have access to the rest of the ranch. We can go over to the stud farm/breeding facility on one side. It also has outside access, but is highly controlled. Then on the other side there is the training facility and arenas. That is where the hands and trainers live. Again that has outside access, but again it is controlled. That is where all the thoroughbreds are as well as the jumpers. The last part is where the retirement center is. There are a few hands that live there. People can go there, but the access is through the training facility."
"I trust you." Elizabeth said. "Just let me know where I can go and where I can't."
"No problem." Jack said. "I know that I didn't really answer your question, but the number of horses at any one given time can be quite different then even a few days before. Especially in the spring and as we ramp up to the racing season."
Jack didn't say anything else, but it looked like Elizabeth had more questions.
"Do you have any other questions?" Jack asked.
"You said that some of the place is semi-open to the public." Elizabeth said. "What does that mean?"
"People can schedule times to visit some of the retired horses." Jack said. "Some are pretty well known and did pretty well. We also have trail rides by appointment and we allow people to use our indoor arenas to train and some of our trainers give lessons. There is also limited access to the stud farm. Again, everything is by appointment and the security in those places are pretty tight. I mean some of the horses are pretty valuable. There are trails that are open to the public and some that are only for ranch use. The people that use the facility are pretty much known to my grandparents. My grandparents have a lot of people that work for them and we allow the families to use our facilities to ride. But, it is mostly local people looking for a trail ride or locals looking for an indoor training arena. There are separate entrances to most of those places and full-time security."
"Okay." Elizabeth said. "I am just worried that if someone finds out where I am, they might try to come up there."
"I am sure that Devin has briefed security." Jack said. "I will double check in the morning. I know that I talked to my grandfather about you and he knows that the official line is 'no comment'. The staff won't even confirm that you or I are staying there. My family may be in the spotlight a lot of the time, but like me, my grandparents value their privacy. That is why access to the main farm site is tightly controlled. Most people have never seen my grandparents' home except from the outside at a distance, even people that work for us. Even the people that work on the main site stay in the stable area, outdoor rings or grazing areas. There are a few that help with things in the house as needed, but those people have been hand picked by my grandmother. My grandparents would rather go meet people over at one of the other facilities. We have in the past rented out one of the arenas for a wedding, but it was with a lot of security. We haven't done that in a while just because we have so many horses. The last time that we did it, we ended up moving most of the horses over to the retirement center. We just wouldn't be able to do that at this point. At the time we only had a handful of horses at the retirement center and less then one hundred horses total on the ranch. I know that grandpa and I have talked about expanding, especially into more jumpers. I think that is part of the reason that he wants me to do the charity event and get the word out there. It would be a way to expand our name and brand."
"Good to know." Elizabeth said. "That makes me feel better."
The rest of the evening was quiet. Jack and Elizabeth both ate and watched some TV. As much as Elizabeth was worried about things, she tried to relax. She got a few more text messages from her sister and two from her mother, she looked at them, but left them unanswered. She didn't want to deal with them at the moment. She ended up taking another long bath before bed where she curled up with a book from the library. Elizabeth had chosen a book to try and quell the emotions and feelings that she was experiencing for Jack. She knew that they needed to wait, but all she could think about when they were cuddled up on the couch was what it would feel like to have Jack kiss her. From there, she wondered what it would feel like to run her hand down his muscular body. She had to stop herself from going there again. As she was curled up with him, she realized that he was in excellent shape and all she wanted was to see and feel his muscles. Even as she laid there, she felt things happening in her body that she had never felt before. She wasn't sure what was happening exactly and wished that she had someone to talk to. She knew that she could call Rosie, but then she would want more details then Elizabeth wanted to share at the moment.
Jack set an early alarm before checking the apartment and turning in for the night. Jack's thoughts were consumed with Elizabeth. He knew that he was in love with her, but he knew that other people wouldn't understand since they barely knew each other. Jack couldn't explain it himself, there was just something about Elizabeth that made him feel complete. It was like she filled a hole that he never knew was in his heart. Jack also knew that he couldn't push her and he would always be a gentleman, but he also knew that it was going to be hard spending so much time with her. When they were on the couch watching TV, Elizabeth had curled into his side and Jack had to will his body not to react. It had finally got to one point that he had to excuse himself and walk away for a bit. Jack had reacted to women before, like any young man, but he usually found it easy to distract his mind and willed his body to calm down. He knew that certain reactions were normal, but he also knew as a man that it was his job to control those feelings until he was in a place where he could act upon them, i.e. marriage. It had only been a couple of days and Jack was finding it harder and harder to keep his body calm around Elizabeth. He was learning that his body would start to react when he saw her or caught a whiff of the perfume that she was wearing. Seeing her was even worse and even a simple chaste touch was hard for him. Jack really wanted to pull Elizabeth close and kiss her until they were breathless. He also knew that kissing and cuddling could lead to other things. He also knew that sex was for marriage and would never violate that, but he also never realized how hard it would be to follow that.
Jack knew what he wanted, but he also knew what he believed. His faith and beliefs were more important to him and he had vowed to save sex for marriage. Not only was it the proper thing to do, but he also knew that it would mean more to his future wife. He also knew that it wasn't as common for people his age to remain pure. Jack took his faith seriously and he had heard a chastity speaker, he knew that was what he wanted. Jack had never had a problem before, even when he was in school. He liked girls, but even normal reactions were easily curbed. In the last few days, Jack was grateful for cold showers and a separate room.
