March 26th 2024

Chapter 86
The Tension in Success

After they'd made it past the release date, the kids had started getting curious about 'the numbers.' That was something they'd been told about at the launch party, much to their father's dismay. He didn't want to think about this book like this, that was really not what it had ever been about for him. But they wanted to know, and he had told them they had to wait, that it was too soon to tell yet. Whether or not this was completely true, it for the most part was met with trust, with big nods as though to say 'ah, yes, of course, this makes complete sense, thank you, Dad.' A couple of them, Marianne and Kacey, were skeptical at this, but they didn't argue. They went along with it, and they waited with their sisters and their brother.

Over the week that had followed the release, they never lost a chance to check in with their father, so see if by some chance the big moment had arrived. Day by day, he had told them that it was still too early. He wanted to hold on to the answer a while, so hopefully they, too, would see that the numbers were not the important part.

At some point, he was sure, Marianne and Kacey had banded together and done some research together. He could tell by the way their behavior shifted, and he was proud to say that they seemed to understand why he'd held on to the answer and continued to do so. They could plainly discover that pre-orders had already been enough to give them optimism, and that the reviews were all glowing where they needed to be, that people they'd heard from had been very happy with the book. But they didn't go and tell their siblings. They waited, right along with him, right along with their mother.

When they finally got to 'catch them up,' the Friar kids were truly very happy for their father. They banded together with their mother because they wanted to make a cake for him. It felt like the thing to do, didn't it? Lucas was as touched as any father could be, and he made sure to thank them all in kind. Now that it wasn't a secret anymore, Marianne and Kacey recruited the others into piecing together their album for the various reviews, and interviews… Every time they got a new one, they would show it to him.

Those were all very nice, but his favorite part was the section they had filled up with reader comments. Some of them were brief, others lengthy… One sub-section was building up with time as they received back more and more of these reviews from kids and teens who had come through the Sullivan Stables arch as exchange campers, as summer campers over the years, who had picked up the book and read it. Several of them had sent out a request for a copy before it came out, and Lucas had been happy to send those out to them as a gift. He was already happy just to know that they were interested, but to also read their words afterward, showing as much of appreciation for the book as they showed how much they had all loved their experiences at the ranch and the memories they held onto as they'd returned home…

The other comments they got back would show what had brought the commenters to pick up the book in the first place. A lot of them were local to Austin and had long memories connected to the ranch, in whatever capacity. Others, of course, were fans of the series filming there and wanted to see what the book was about. Plenty of them had been drawn to it for a love of horses, and he loved that perspective from them just as much as he loved the one coming from those who'd had little else to motivate them to read the book than that they'd seen it and been curious about it. Several of them were now discovering an untapped appreciation for horses that they looked forward to exploring, and he loved that for them.

A lot of the employees from the ranch had been hearing about people's impressions of his book, and they were always happy to share these with him when they got them. Not all of them had read the book themselves yet, not that they were in any way obligated to do so, but even if they hadn't, they were all happy for him, for having gotten it out there. They knew him, and they knew how much this project meant to him.

Those of them who had read it had wasted no time in telling him how much they loved it. There was a good couple of weeks, before the launch, where he lost count of how many times he saw people going around the ranch who were either carrying the book with them or actively reading it, and he had tried not to look as though he felt awkward noticing it, especially because if any of them realized he felt that way they would waste no time to roast him for it, and it would be earned.

Most people who had worked at the ranch for any extent would be familiar with its history, going back to Simon and Marianne the first, the two unrelated Sullivans who had fallen in love, gotten married, built this place which was their dream, had a daughter in their dear Melinda, and lived a happy life together for little more than a year before the fire that had torn them apart. But in the widowed Marianne's hand, the ranch had flourished, and it had kept on flourishing through the work of Juliet Stapleton, until the Sullivans' grandson could take over, and now here they were, with a past that was chronicled, celebrated, and a future with great promise stretching ahead. Those who were not quite caught up yet, thanks to the book, had started to bridge the gap.

They were also starting to ask him one question, again and again, and as understandable as it was as a next step, it was still one he didn't know how to answer. He had finished this book, he'd put it out there, so what would he do now? Was he going to write more after this? According to them, he very much should, and he was humbled to hear them say so. Some of them, maybe having started to consider the passage of time and the inevitable end that would have to come to one and then both of the series they were producing at Sullivan Stables, wanted to know if this book would potentially be turned into another series, or maybe a movie. The thought had gone through his mind, too, he couldn't deny, but it really was too soon, for him especially, to even start to consider any of this. This was the time for this book, for people to get to know his family's story. He had dedicated the book to Maya, to their children and grandchildren, to his parents, but as it was his story that had inspired him, to Simon Sullivan most of all. This time belonged to him, too.

Without a doubt, if he had been fortunate enough to live to this day, Lucas was certain that his grandfather would have loved to see his grandchildren riding horses out here. He had no way of knowing what Simon would have looked like at the age he would be today, but he liked to think he would be one of those people who aged entirely disregarding their actual age. Maybe he imparted that solidity to him because of how little time he'd had on Earth, but either way… He would have stood with him, watching as Marianne and her friends rode around together, talking between themselves, playing around…

He still remembered what those kids had been like, in the beginning, when they'd started coming around the ranch. Marianne, of course, had been here since she was a baby, but even the others had only been a few short years older when they'd first joined her, with only Mosi having joined them a little later. He had not forgotten the time it had taken for all of them to get comfortable around the horses. Harper Beaumont especially had taken much longer than the rest to get up the nerve to so much as approach the animals and make physical contact with any of them. For her to actually get on horseback and allow herself to be carried around this way, that had been a real little victory, and he could still see her proud smile. It wasn't even about competing for them. They all would just enjoy going for rides, and they had been taught early on to be careful, to respect the horses that would carry them along, and they had learned it, maintained it to this day.

He saw them today, a handful of sixth graders, just a few months shy of moving into middle grade, and he was fully reminded of himself and his friends back when they'd been their age. It made him hope that they would all get to hold on to each other the way he had with Zay, and Dylan and Asher, and Nadine, maybe finding those others who would make their group whole as they went through middle and high school, too.

Their thing right now was to play 'horse tag,' which might have been potentially dangerous if they didn't end up melting into giggles or slowing down whenever they got close to one another. Their horses all seemed to have a better grasp of what they all wanted to do than they did, which also helped. They all had grown into such confident riders, and he loved that he got to be part of their evolution. Marianne was the most practiced and the most natural for it. Winnie was the most calm and gentle with her horse, while Mosi would match his mount's playful energy. June rode like a dainty lady, always, and Harper had grown so confident compared to where she'd begun.

After her friends had left, Marianne wanted to keep on riding, wanted to have a proper run of it, and Lucas let her go for it… especially when she asked if he would go with her. His back had been giving him the occasional trouble this week, but this was nothing new after he'd recovered from his attack, and it wasn't going to get in the way of him going riding with his baby girl. She would outpace him easily, but he didn't mind. He would get to watch her let loose and be so happy out there, so what more could he ask for?

"Do you think I can do a book report on your book?" she asked, once they'd slowed down and he had caught up to her.

"I don't see why not," Lucas smiled.

"I don't want them to think I went the easy route because you wrote it," she reasoned, and he could see her point.

"Well… is that why you want to use it?" he asked.

"It's not not it, part of it," she had to admit, and he nodded. This was understandable. "But it's only part of it, really," she swore. He gave her a look, waiting to hear what the rest of it would be. "We have to pick a book about something that interests us," she told him. "And this is kind of that, right?" He smiled to himself. She didn't have to explain it out for him to understand. It had to do with family, with lineage, and yes, that had been an interest of hers for a while now, as her many visits to the upper floor of the archive could attest.

"Then you do what you feel is best, pumpkin," he told her, and she smiled to herself. Twelve years old or not, she still liked it when they called her pumpkin… just maybe not out in public if they could help it.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners