Taking Rein

Chapter 42: Not perfect

Chapter 42: Not perfect

Sophie's POV

*****

It was crazy how many things happened in just the span of a day. I came second in the competition, with riders from Equestrian Creek coming top three. That was one of the best things which could have possibly happened to the ranch, even if Josie was not a direct partner. I was glad that my grandfather was finally going to get the recognition he deserved.

He did not want to say anything, but I knew that he was petrified of having to sell it. Some of the major ranches already had their eyes on it, and I was definitely not going to let my grandfather lose it.

I also still had to have a talk with my father. To say that I was nervous would have been an understatement of how I was actually feeling. I had no idea what the results of the talk were going to be, and I was finding it increasingly hard to even imagine it being something positive.

As if to make matters worse, I could not stop thinking about Liam kissing Charlotte. I was happy for them, I truly was. That was exactly what I wanted for the both of them. I was happy that Liam had finally realised how amazing Charlotte truly was, and I was happy that Charlotte finally got what she wanted.

The look she had on her face after he kissed her was one of the most beautiful looks I had ever seen her wear. She looked shocked, but ecstatic, something which Charlotte truly deserved to be. There was nobody in the world who deserved to be happy more than she did. She was an angel. A real life angel.

But even if I was happy for them, it did not mean that I was happy for myself. And yet, at the same time, I was. Liam was precious to me, and I did not want to lose him. I knew that that was the only way I could be rest assured that I would not. Charlotte was the only one out of the two of us who would not hurt him.

It was in my nature to hurt people, even if I did not want it. I was a complicated person, and I was pretty sure that he had understood that. What he did not understand was that when I got too close to a person, I would do everything in my power to push them away from me, no matter how much I cared for them.

It was something which I had done with Charlotte many times, and it was exactly the reason why I knew that Charlotte was an incredible person. By the time we grew up, she knew exactly what I was like, and what I would do. She never let me push her away, no matter how cruel I was to her. It had become exhausting to try and distance myself from Charlotte, so much so that I had stopped trying to do so. I wanted her around, and she was not going anywhere.

In a way, Liam also understood that. He did not know me for too long, but it seemed as if he had. No matter how many times I was cruel to him, he always kept coming back. I was grateful to have had both him and Charlotte as friends, but I knew that if Liam and I were to be more than that, it would not have been healthy. I did not want to hurt him.

With a lump in my throat, I walked back towards where the rest of my family and Josh were, all of them beaming except for my father, which certainly was no surprise to me.

"I'm sorry I didn't come first," I sighed as I stopped in front of my grandfather. "Just please don't sell Hades till I leave."

The deal was that he would not sell Hades if we would have managed to win the competition, something which we did not do. I was not ready to let him go, but a deal was a deal.

"Sophie, what you did today was incredible," my grandfather said as his hand caressed my cheek gently. "You rode an old horse with a broken leg, and somehow managed to get second place. Do you know how impressive that is?"