“How are you feeling?” he said.
“Like a horse fell on me,” she said. “But thanks for asking.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “But no chance that you showing up here is going to get me to change my mind about your daughter.”
Oscar appeared, shook her hand, and welcomed her back, and asked what she’d like.
“A new pelvis?” Maggie said, then told him a glass of sparkling water would be fine. When he was gone, Caroline’s recap of the conversation was thoroughly unsurprising.
“Would you like to know what I think?” Maggie said to Gorton.
“Do I have a choice?” he said.
“Listen, none of us wanted to be in this situation,” Maggie said. “Certainly not me. But here we are, anyway, all in this situation. Together. And you need to know that Daniel and Mom have been watching Becky jump the horse the past few days. They’re convinced she can ride him in competition, and win. And now that I’m out of the hospital, I can help train them, too.”
“This isn’t the same as buying her first goddamn pony,” Gorton said. “Wait.” He held up a hand. “Let me amend that. It’s not like me buying her a goddamn pony.”
Maggie watched her mother now, who looked as if she might turn the table over. But she just sat there, gripping the arms of her chair as if she wanted to squeeze them into dust.
“Steve,” Maggie said gently, “from the start, we all agreed that there had to be an element of trust in this partnership, or it was never going to work, whatever the financials were. All Mom and I are asking you to do is trust us.”
“After she throws the contract in my face?” he said.
“To get this horse,” Maggie said, “we would have done this deal on a handshake.”
Okay, she thought, I am officially lying my ass off, just as Becky always said I could.
“Good thing you didn’t,” Gorton said. “Or I’d be back on the island already.”
He never called it Palm Beach, Maggie knew by now. Always “the island,” in keeping with the rich men and women in their world. She and her mother had done business with a lot of them—and none of them ever wanted to hear the word no.
She reminded herself to remain as still as possible in the wheelchair. Just about any quick movement these days lit the pain fuse. Explosive jolts would come at any time, from everywhere.
She turned her head slightly and said to her mom, “You asked Steve for a month, correct?”
“Correct,” Caroline said.
Maggie turned her head to face Gorton.
“So give us the Grand Prix, it’s right around the corner,” she said. “Then the Longines two weeks after that. If my daughter hasn’t proved she can do the job, you won’t have to take her off the horse. I will.”
“Worst case,” he said, “we’ve lost a month. To quote Caroline, ‘A month can feel like a lifetime in this sport.’”
Caroline winced, but Maggie pushed forward.
“It’s not even February. A new rider would still have five months on Coronado to qualify for Paris.”
“Say I go along,” Gorton said. “What’s in it for me?”
Always looking for an angle, Maggie thought. For an edge.
Her mother jumped in now.
“If we’re wrong,” she said, “that means you’re right, Steve. If we lose, you win.”
Gorton briefly checked his phone, ate an olive, patted the table a couple of times. But then smiled.
“Deal,” he said. “You get a month. Either way, I really do win. Best kind of deal there is.”
He pushed his chair away, stood up, and left.
“I get broken in half,” Maggie said, watching Gorton go, “and the money man sticks us with the check.”
Maggie angled her wheelchair to have a better look at the room. Three men and a woman were sitting together at a four-top. The familiar faces of her fiercest competitors had softened with pity. She waved. They all waved back.
She turned back to Caroline and said, “Some things never change. I’m still on the clock.”
SIXTEEN
Gorton
STEVE GORTON WALKED past the kitchen, past the bar where he saw the Mexican kid nursing a beer and talking to a smoking-hot bartender. It was still early. Maybe, Gorton thought, he’d take the car home and get a driver, head over to Honor Bar and see if anybody who wore a tank top and jeans as well as this bartender did was looking to have some fun.
He thought briefly about grabbing their waiter and offering to pick up the check for drinks, or even dinner for his partners from Atwood Farm.