Range and clipped her belt, and her breath was shallow and ragged. I pulled away from the yard, keeping slow along the lane.
The silence was loud. Too loud.
“It’s that bad?” I said. “No room to negotiate? They won’t give him any leeway?”
She shook her head. “They’ve given him all they were willing to give. I was too late.”
“Too late?”
“I hoped I’d have enough money to pay six months’ rent up front. Jack needed the cash for the bank.”
“But that’s no longer an option?”
Her lip trembled a little. “I think it was always a longshot. Wishful thinking, both of us. He couldn’t make the business work on his own. I just hoped…” Her voice trailed off.
Wishful thinking, maybe, but the girl looked broken. She chewed on her knuckles as the car rumbled on, and the need in me boiled over, exploded. I pulled into a turning, Haugh Wood the sign read. A parking area virtually empty. I pulled up, turned off the engine, and Katie stared at me.
“What are we…?”
“It’s your dream?” I asked. “This place? This particular place? This yard?”
She nodded. “Stupid really.” She was breathy, her voice a wisp. “I have it all planned out, everything. I know where I’d put the field shelters, how I’d fix up the school, where I’d set up a proper jumping course. I know this place, I know the people. I’ve got a list of kids who want lessons, a list of kids who can’t afford it but want to help out anyway.” She met my eyes. “I wanted it so bad. I want it so bad.”
“What about other yards? You could rent somewhere else, no?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I dunno. I guess. It’s all the unknown.” Her eyes welled up again. “This place just feels special to me. The place I had my first horse, the place Samson and I found our feet.” She pointed to a track at the far end of the parking area. “We hack through these woods all the time. I know every path, every hill, every turn. I love it here. I love everything about this place.”
I sighed, my hands on the steering wheel. “How much does he need? How much is he selling the land for?”
She laughed a sad little laugh. “Too much. I don’t even know, a couple of hundred grand. Too much to worry about.”
And I said it. I just fucking said it. “I could buy it.”
Silence. Then a laugh. More like a snort. “You what?”
“I’m serious,” I said. “I could buy it for you. A couple of hundred grand, I could do that. It could be an investment, the land wouldn’t lose its value. I have enough capital.”
Wide eyes stared at me. “Why would you buy it? You don’t even like horses.”
“No.” I turned to her. “I don’t like horses, but I’m here anyway. I don’t even like the outdoors, I don’t like mud, I don’t like the smell of animal shit, the thought of trekking through open fields really doesn’t turn me on. But I’m here. Because of you. Because I like you.”
“I like you, too,” she said. “But you can’t buy Jack’s land, that’s… that’s insane. I couldn’t pay you back. I have no idea when I could pay you back. Probably never.” I could see the thoughts piling up behind her eyes, her head shaking as she worked through them.
“You wouldn’t need to. I wouldn’t expect you to.”
“Then why? Why would you?” She held up her hands. “And at the end of six months, what? What even happens? What if we call it quits and move on? What happens then, when you own my yard and you don’t want it anymore?”
“That wouldn’t happen.”
She raised her eyebrows. “How do you know? Anything could happen. And then you’d own a yard you never even wanted and I’d owe you everything.”
“Or you’d be happy, and I’d be happy, and Rick would be happy. We could be happy, Katie. How about that?”
She took a breath. “A couple of hundred grand for a few years, you said. The other week, in the car, what did you mean?”
I felt a shiver down my spine. “That doesn’t matter now. That has nothing to do with this.”
“It has everything to do with this,” she said. “You’re offering me a couple of hundred grand, just like that, you say it’s so I can be happy. So we can be happy. What does happy even look like to you, Carl? What do you want from me?”