Heywood Equestrian Stables

Family Picnic

A week went by and we were only days away from the family picnic I had planned. I was so busy with preparations, I barely had time for anything else. Thankfully I had Georgiana's help as well as Mary's help to pull everything together in time. I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted the people who had been with us for years to remember what it used to be like working for my father. I wanted the newer people to know how wonderful it was to work for us and how thankful we were for all of them. I remember my father always insisting that if you treat your employees well, they will treat you well. It was the main principle I planned to follow.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem Edward Denham got that memo. He was charged with insurance fraud. When I went to face him, to confront him on what he had done, he tried to deny it. He tried to claim Sidney was setting him up. He tried to claim Sidney was a master manipulator and had every intention of taking over the ranch. I couldn't help but laugh. He even tried to claim Tom and Mary were in on the scheme. When more of the investigation was done, it was made perfectly clear it was all Edward and no one else was ever involved. There was even evidence he was attempting to scam Mr. Babington and maybe even Susan Worcester, among others, out of money. Edward sat in a jail cell while he awaited his court hearing. All his assets were frozen, so he had no way of paying his bail and no one was about to help him out. He had lost everything and none of us lost any sleep over it. We were trying to keep the entire ordeal as quiet as possible, so it didn't ruin the ranch's reputation. I hoped it didn't become too big of an ordeal where rumors started to spead.

Sidney continued to work with Onyx over the week and had a specialist come out to make a saddle specifically for him. I teased Sidney for his rookie mistake about not trying different saddles on him. He should have known that not all saddles work for every horse. Horses are finicky. They like things done their way.

The morning of the picnic, Sidney and I were up extra early. He was busily attending to the horses to get the chores out of the way for the day, while I attended to setting everything up in the yard. I had plenty of tables and chairs set up, I had games fit for everyone set up, and of course, my freezer was full of ice cream for the ice cream sundae bar we had planned for dessert. Mary also insisted on bringing some pies and cupcakes. Sam and Luke were planning to man the grill and had catered all the side dishes. I was extremely excited for the day's events, but also nervous that I was going to forget something.

While I was busily preparing a tub with ice and placing bottles of drinks inside, Sidney came up behind and surrounded me with his arms. I shrieked from the shock at first, until I heard him laugh against my ear. I settled back against him as he swayed us back and forth.

"Everything looks great," he said. He laughed and tightened his hold around me. "This brings back a lot of memories. I loved these family picnics when your father was still alive."

"Remember the year we got rained out?" I asked with a laugh, remembering back to many years ago. "That summer storm came out of nowhere."

Sidney laughed. "We were all ushered inside the house to finish out the picnic."

"My poor father stayed out in the rain to finish grilling the food before he joined everyone," I added to the memory.

"I do believe that may have been the first time I was ever in your bedroom," Sidney reminded.

I laughed, thinking back. "I think you're right. It wasn't the last, though." When we were still technically just friends, Sidney was in my room a lot. Normally it was him and Georgiana and on occasion another one or two friends of Sidney's who worked on the ranch. We listened to music or looked through magazines. On occasion we'd watch a movie all piled on my bed. I wasn't a fan of scary movies, but it seemed like that was always what we ended up watching. I didn't mind though. It gave me and excuse to hide my face in Sidney's chest. I remember him always laughing at me when I'd get scared. Although, looking back, maybe he was just happy that I was holding onto him for comfort.