Page 107 of The Only Seconds that Matter
“Ten.”
“Damn, first time I met you, you barely knew your ABC’s.In no time at all you’ll be all grown up and datin’ boys, and then you’ll be a real hell raiser, just like Johnny.”
“I’m not going to date any boys,” Taylor said with a wrinkled nose.
Daisy laughed.“Get back to me in six years, kiddo.”
Taylor turned to Victor.“Can I start warming Midnight up now?”
“Sure, but don’t push too much this early before your class.Walk and trot only.”
“Okay.”Taylor turned on her heel and marched over to Midnight, who was currently enjoying nibbles of hay from her hay net under the shade of the trailer’s retractable canvas cover.
“I should probably get Cyclone untacked and brushed down,” Victor said.
“Hang on now, I got a question for ya.”Daisy reached out and grasped his arm with long pink claws, smelling strongly of floral perfume.Victor wondered if she was standing too close or if he was just reading more into it than he should.She lowered her voice conspiratorially.“Maybe I’m being too forward, but you know as well as I do that in the sticks, our options are limited.You know the girlfriend I tried setting you up with at Fort Worth?”
“Daisy, I really don’t—”
“Wellshe’s off the market now, God bless her, but she has a newly single cousin who I think would begreatfor you.She’s in Claremore, which I know is a bit of a drive, but she’s a riding instructor like you and sweet as an angel.Her last boyfriend was a real bastard, so I’ve been tryin’ to help her out by findin’ her a solid man she can depend on.Now it seems like you ain’t the type to want this kinda meddlin’, but I want the world for this girl and you’re the only single man I know of right now who could treat her right.”
“I—that’s very kind of you, Daisy, but I really am not in the market for a girlfriend right now.”
Daisy’s hand dove into her back pocket.“You ain’t even seen a picture of her yet.Lemme get out my phone—”
“It’s not that, seriously.I’m sure she’s lovely, I just—”
Daisy paused with her finger hovering over her phone’s dark screen.After a moment of consideration, she leaned in even closer, her perfume cloying at his nostrils.“Listen, Victor, I’m gonna be straight with you.We live in a small town.People talk, yeah?The circle’s even smaller in the horse world.And I’m tryin’ to do you a favor.A handsome man like you stays single long enough, people are gonna notice.”
Victor stiffened, molars crunching together.“I don’t know what you’re implying.”
Daisy’s spider-leg eyelashes loomed large as she stared at him, as if expecting him to get something he didn’t.Finally she sighed and pulled back.“People ain’t got nothing else to do but gossip.I just don’t want them gosspin’ about you, sugar.”
“If you want to call me gay, just do it.”
He expected her to have a reaction to the word “gay”, but she didn’t.Despite all the times they’d spoken and everything Johnny had told him about, Victor still didn’t know her that well.“I don’t know what you are, and it ain’t my business.But with the way Johnny talks about ya and all the things I know about him, I can’t help but wonder.”
“All the things you know about him?”
“I may have snooped around on his phone from time to time.I know what porn he’s seen and what apps he’s got.I decided to love him through it, cuz I believe only God can judge a man.He meant the world to me—and he still does.”
Victor couldn’t hold back, not this time.“And yet you still cheated on him.”
Again Daisy’s only reaction was to look at him like he was a child who didn’t quite get it.She finally sighed and reached out to grip her horse’s reins just under her chin in preparation to lead her away.“Good luck with the rest of your show, Vic.Let me know if you change your mind about that date.”
* * *
The drive home was mostly silent.Jade was driving separately, which meant it was just Victor and Taylor together in his truck.Taylor amused herself with her mother’s iPad so Victor could focus on the road and tap his fingers along to the Brad Paisley song on the radio.He wasn’t aware Taylor had put the iPad down until she spoke.
“Can I tell you something?”
“Hmm?”Victor reached out to turn the radio down and glanced in the rearview mirror at Taylor.“What?”
“Uncle Johnny told me that, um…” She twisted her shirt between her hands, biting her lip.
“What’d he tell you?”
“That you two are boyfriends.”
