Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
The sun was starting its descent, casting a golden glow over the pond and the surrounding trees. The air was thick with the hum of cicadas, the occasional splash of a fish breaking the surface, and the soft rustle of leaves in the gentle breeze.
Our horses were tied to a sitting bench my dad built years ago and Holland and I sat on the edge of the dock. We both had lines in the water, but nothing was biting.
Abby, Wade and Kat were out of state, competing at a horse show with our father. I didn’t go because at age twenty-two, I was working full time as an employee of Blackburn Farms, in charge of keeping the lesson program running while Dad was away. I didn’t mind because it was my chosen career and while I enjoyed competing now and then, I didn’t miss it.
Holland didn’t go to the show because she didn’t own a competition horse. Her family couldn’t afford it and I always got the feeling it was a scrape for her to maintain lessons. Sometimes though, her mom would let her enter an academy competition, which is basically where she would show one of the farm’s lesson horses, and the girl—now a woman at eighteen—earned her fair share of blue ribbons over the years.
But competing wasn’t in Holland’s blood the way it was in my siblings’, and this afternoon, she was the last lesson of the day, so I suggested fishing when she was done. Her eyes lit up, always eager to do something outdoors and more importantly, to avoid going home.
Holland sat beside me on the dock, her legs tucked beneath her as she watched her bobber float on the water. Her golden hair was in a low ponytail, the setting sunlight making it look like spun gold. It’s funny… how I was noticing those things about her more and more, especially since she’d graduated high school two weeks ago.
There seemed to be a new maturity about her that I couldn’t ignore. While I always thought of her as “pretty” in a brotherly way, the more she grew up, I’m not ashamed to admit that my looking didn’t feel so brotherly.
She glanced over and caught me staring. I didn’t try to hide it because with Holland, I always felt comfortable.
“Are you excited about college?” I asked, trying to keep my tone casual.
She sighed, her shoulders slumping a bit. “Yeah, I am. It’s just… I’m going to miss this place. Miss all of you.”
“We’ll miss you too. But you’re just going up the road to the University of Kentucky. You’ll be back to visit all the time and my dad said he can do your lessons on the weekend.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just hard to leave behind everything that’s familiar, you know?” She seemed to consider that, then added, “On the other hand, it’s an opportunity to leave some things behind.”
Her words put me on alert because I knew she was talking about her dad. Over the years, me and my siblings pieced together that Holland’s home life wasn’t good. When we were little, it didn’t really register, but as we became closer, she’d let things slip here and there. I think she was embarrassed about it, and she never gave details, but one thing was clear—she was afraid of her father. I always wondered if he abused her in some way but never quite knew how to ask.
Holland was eerily quiet, and tension knotted in my chest. “Are you… are you okay with everything at home?”
Her eyes darkened as she stared into mine. “It’s fine.”
“Yet for some reason, your tone and expression lead me to believe it’s not.”
“It’s nothing,” she insisted.
“Holland,” I chided gently. “It’s me. You can share and I won’t tell a soul.”
“It’s just…” She looked over the ripples on the pond and sighed. “My dad won’t pay for college. He wants me to stay here and work in the printshop.”
I frowned. “But you’ve already been accepted.”
“And I’ve got a decent amount of scholarship money that will cover tuition and board. I can get a job to cover books and other expenses.”
“That’s good,” I said with relief, because as much as I’d miss Holland, this was her way out of a mediocre life running a printshop with a man she didn’t like.
“Mmm-hmm.” She reeled in her line, cast it back out again, lost in her thoughts.
“What else?”
Jerking, she looked over to me. “Nothing.”
“Something,” I insisted.
Holland stared at me a very long time, worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth. It made me want to kiss her, but I held absolutely still. She was pondering whether to give into my demands to share and I realized, I wanted to know everything about her.
I was shocked to the core when she said, “My dad is an alcoholic and his drinking has gotten worse. My mom doesn’t stand up to him and well… it’s just hard.”