Her stomach sank like a heavy rock in clear waters. If Lily did want to be with Trent again, then wouldn’t Grace be standing in the way of Bex having a happy family again?
"What am I supposed to do now?” Grace cried. “The race is tomorrow. How am I supposed to go knowing all of this?”
"I don't know, sweetie. I think you need to talk to him.”
17
Trent
Trent was in a slight panic. It was the morning of the race, and he had hardly slept all night.
He had been expecting to get a call back from Grace the night before, but it never came. He was praying that Maisie kept Grace up late with girl talk, but deep down, he worried that Bill had told Maisie everything and she’d gone to tell Grace.
Trent had tried calling her back several times but ended up with her voicemail each time.
He wanted to talk to Bill about it, but Bill was just another person who wasn’t answering his calls. He’d texted him all that morning, asking if everything was still okay, but got no answer until ten after eight.
“Hey, man. I’m really sorry,” Bill wrote.
Trent grit his teeth nervously. “Why? About what? What happened?”
“I didn’t tell her,” he texted back, and Trent felt an immediate wave of relief wash over him.
“But,” he wrote, causing Trent to tense up once more, “she found out.”
“What do you mean she found out?” he texted back.
“Maisie saw Lily at the market.”
“…and?”
“And she told Grace,” Bill responded. “I’m really sorry, man. But hey! Wasn’t my fault!”
Trent clenched his jaw. He wanted to whip the phone across the stables.
He ran a hand along his mouth, rubbing at his stubble and feeling an overwhelming sense of panic.
He called Grace but she didn’t pick up, nor did she respond to his text messages.
Trent stood by the stables and watched as the other racers gathered and began unloading their horses from their livestock trailers. As the clock inched closer to eight, their start time, Trent was beginning to wonder if Grace was going to show at all.
He cursed himself for not finding a backup partner for the race, but most of all he cursed himself for letting Lily get to him and for not being upfront with Grace about the whole thing.
You only hid things if you knew they were wrong or that they were going to hurt somebody.
He firmly believed he didn’t do anything wrong with Lily. He let her come and visit her son—which was her right as the child’s mother. That’s all. He didn’t kiss her; he didn’t do anything with her that should upset Grace.
But he kept it from her, and with that idiotic decision, he may have ruined the best thing that ever happened to him.
Just as Trent’s stomach was starting to twist with anxiety, he saw Grace walking up to the stables in her full gear.
He swallowed nervously and ran up to her. “Hey,” he said unsurely.
Grace set her jaw, and he could tell from the way her face looked that she had been crying.
“Look, I have to tell you something,” he said lamely.
“It’s too late for that,” she snapped. “I already know, which I suspect you’re aware of or you wouldn’t have been blowing up my phone all night and all morning.”
“Grace,” he stammered. “I can explain.”
As he opened his mouth to speak, the chairman of the race began talking through a loudspeaker, instructing all of the racers of the rules and regulations. They were not to use dangerous shortcuts; they were not to get off their horses for any reason except to use the bathroom or let the horse rest. They were to reach each checkpoint by a certain hour or risk being disqualified.
Trent and Grace were well aware of the rules. They’d been going over them for months.
Trent looked to his girlfriend, or at least what he hoped was still his girlfriend, and went to speak, but she put a hand up after mounting her horse and said, “Don’t.”
He swallowed nervously and agreed, “I guess Now is not the time.”
"Before a four-hour ride together?” she snapped. “No, you're right. Now isn't the time. 'Now' would have been a week and a half ago when this all started.”
"Started?” he repeated as the two of them trotted toward the start line. “Nothing has started, Grace.”
She scoffed, not looking at him. "If nothing's going on, then why did you lie to me?”
Trent licked his lips, unsure of how to respond. “I just needed time.”
“To weigh your options,” she said fiercely.
“No,” he said, drawing out his vowel. “That’s not what I was doing.”
“Seeing whether or not you wanted to go back to your ex-wife while stringing me along?” she hmphed. “That’s sure what it seems like to me.”
"What was I supposed to do?” he asked. “She was my wife!”
"Yeah, your wife who betrayed you, Trent. What have I ever done to you?” she asked, and he blanched for an answer. “That’s right, nothing! The only thing I have done has been honest with you and loved you.”
"I'm sorry,” he pleaded. “I know I should have told you, but I just needed time to think and sort all of this out. It is confusing. Imagine what you would do if Aaron came back.”
"I would tell him to hit the road,” she said quickly. “You know why? Because I'm in love with you, Trent, and that means something to me.”
"That means something to me, too. It means everything!” he exclaimed.
Grace shook her head, and he could see her eyes were going glassy with emotion. "I can't be with someone else who keeps things from me,” she said.
"I wasn't...” he stammered. “I mean, I guess I was keeping it from you but not in a nefarious way. I was trying to ...”
"To figure out if you were going to go back to her.”
"No! I just needed to process what was happening! Please, you’re not listening to me, Grace.”
"And I heard she saw Bex, too?”
Trent huffed. It was hard for him not to defend Lily. He didn’t love her now, but she had meant so much to him once, and he didn’t want anyone attacking her desire to be a good mother. There was no reason to hate her for that.
"Bex is her son,” he said carefully. “I'm not going to be the guy that keeps him from her out of spite. Do you understand what I mean?”
"I would have been a lot more understanding if you have of just told me,” she said.
It was a solid argument, and one Trent felt she would come back to every time he made a valid point.
"I love you so much, Grace. I didn't want to ruin what we have by bringing old baggage into it. I didn’t want to bring it up until I knew what was happening—not because I was getting back with her, but just figuring out what role she would play in Bex’s life.”
“And by being in Bex’s world, she automatically becomes a part of yours.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “That’s a given, but not in the way you’re thinking. She’s the mother of my son, and from now until the end of time, she’ll be the mother of my son, but I love you. I was trying to make a plan for that before I told you, Grace. And yes! It was a stupid idea, and I’m sorry.”