Chapter 6 Saúl
six
saúl
Cam stayed inside the house for most of the day that Sunday. He left at one point, but that was to browse his phone while on the porch, so it had to count.
He’d been here for more than a month now, and I still didn’t know what to make of him.
On the one hand, everyone at the animal care facility was obsessed with him.
Sofía had cornered me to gush about how much stuff he knew and how amazing he was when it came to thinking under pressure—which was something she was admittedly terrible at.
The rest of the team shared the sentiment.
The ranch hands had differing opinions. Some liked him well enough, especially after they saw him with the animals. Others found him odd, didn’t quite trust how he hadn’t acclimated to them yet, and kept jumping and struggling with his words every time they startled him.
I was…
I should be the one with the clearer picture, but I was still clueless. The phone call with Da hadn’t helped. Now, every time he seemed more anxious, or every time I caught him humming to himself, I kept wondering, kept watching him through the lens of a Daddy observing a Little.
It was ridiculous—and it only added to my confusion.
He had agreed to the horse riding lessons, though. It had to be a good sign.
I adjusted the Stenson in my head and helped him climb up the fence to the horses’ enclosure.
They had their stables, but most of the time, they roamed free through the hundred acres they had all for themselves, and I’d learned the best way to match a person with their horse was to have them interact here instead of in the stables, where the horses had little to no choice in the matter.
“Ready?”
“Nervous,” he admitted.
Swiftheart trotted to me right away as I wondered how to respond to the confession. Was it a good thing he admitted it? It had to be, right?
I was more used to dealing with spooked animals than spooked humans.
As if sensing my confusion, my mare butted her nose against my shoulder. Reflexively, I lifted my hand to rub her neck.
“What type of horse did you ride, back home?”
“Oh, we didn’t have pure breeds or anything,” he said right away.
There weren’t many pure breeds here either, so it was a good thing that he wouldn’t be one of those elitist assholes I had to deal with from time to time.
“His name was Moon Prince. He was brown with lots of white spots. Everyone mocked me because apparently a horse with Prince in the name had to be uniform in color or some bullshit.”
“Moon Prince is a good name.”
I would’ve mentioned that Moon Prince made me think of black, maybe black and white, but I didn’t say it out loud.
I still didn’t know anything about the guy’s past, no matter how much it irked me.
There was no way I’d accidentally shove myself in the same box as people he didn’t have good memories of.
Cam shrugged. He was getting a healthier tan the longer he was here. His hair was growing out a bit, too, the shade of dark blond adding to the warmth in his features. “I was six when I named him.”
“Did you start riding that young?”
“Not the horses.” He fidgeted with his hands before he focused on Swiftheart. “My parents had me practice on the ponies first.”
I nodded. We didn’t have any ponies here, but my old man had one of those machines in the shape of a bull that still functioned in some of the bars around the area. It wasn’t ideal, but it had helped with balance until we were tall enough to even attempt riding any of the horses.
“They still have the animals?”
“No.” The longer I had him talking, the more horses drew closer to us, their curiosity showing. “They sold everything when we moved. To a good family. Last I checked, at least.”
I hummed, then whistled for the horses that had drawn closest to approach. Swiftheart moved closer to me as she always did. Sometimes it felt like she wanted to protect me from the bigger stallions we had.
She was a sweet girl, but I couldn’t focus on her. I needed to keep both eyes on the horses, read every little twitch of their ears and swish of their tails.
“Um. What’s the plan?” I didn’t have to look to know Cam would be subtly scratching at his elbow. “I’ve never had to pick a horse before.”
“And this won’t be your first time. Move toward the ones who have moved closer and let them scent you.”
Cam cocked his head to the side before he shrugged and moved as I’d said. If he’d been a regular worker, it would’ve been fine. Now, I had to fight the urge to praise him. A, it would be inappropriate as fuck. B, I didn’t even know he was what my dad had gotten into my head that he could be.
“Do you make all the people come here do this?” His question got me back in the present.
The present where Cam was doing as I’d asked, slowly approaching the horses and keeping himself visible to them while he offered his hand for them to sniff. Of course he knew the basics of how to introduce himself to a horse.
I was being ridiculous, getting hung up on it.
“I’m more subtle about it,” I acknowledged, “but yeah. Everyone knows they don’t come here to ride the horse they want.”
“They don’t try to bend the rules?”
I wondered if Cam was keeping the conversation going because his anxiety wasn’t as prominent with the horses acting as a buffer, or if he was making more of an effort to get them used to his voice.
“You bet.” I snorted. One of the last mares we’d rescued—she’d only been here for a year, a beautiful cream colored species, bucked when Cam approached.
I was set to intervene if I had to, but Cam barely reacted outside of taking a step back.
Thankfully, the other horses weren’t spooked either.
“Men from the city always think they can throw their money around and that’s that. ”
The amount of bribes they’d tried to give me? I shook my head. Da and I had fought about it plenty, but I’d compromised enough with him by keeping the horse riding program going.
“What happened to her? Am I wearing something that triggers her?”
Of course, his anxiety showed when it had to do with one of the horses.
“Not that I know.” I tried to get as many details about the lives the horses we rescued had led to avoid such a thing, but it wasn’t always possible.
The horses we had mostly fell into three categories.
Champion horses who sustained an injury and couldn’t compete anymore, and their ranchers didn’t have the space or the means to keep them around; horses from ranches and farms that had to shut down or downgrade; and the last group.
Horses that were abused. Most of those we heard about from the grapevine, hardly ever from the humans around them.
It meant that the people we talked to knew some details, but they didn’t know all of them, and there was no telling how scarred the horse actually was until we had them among our midst. “She’s only been here a year, still healing from trauma. ”
Her story couldn’t be anything Cam hadn’t heard before as a vet, even if we were the first sanctuary he worked at, but I didn’t want to give details about all the horses. I wasn’t fool enough to think they understood every word we said, but they picked up on more than people gave them credit for.
Cam didn’t press for more information, for once.
Once he got going, I’d come to realize it was hard to make him stop.
Granted, I saw that side of him more when I happened to run through the care facility and he didn’t notice, but I knew it was there.
He just kept approaching all the horses—without any other attempt to run away or intimidate him—until the half dozen horses around us had all sniffed him.
“Go back to the black stallion there.”
Cam’s gaze darted from mine to the stallion in question. He was the tallest one we housed right now, with a strong musculature and shiny fur that glinted under the sunlight. “What’s his name?”
“Mercury.”
Mercury twitched his ears at the mention of his name. I grabbed one of the apple pieces from my backpack that Swiftheart had been subtly trying to get and handed it to Cam.
I worried he’d need more coaxing, but I should’ve realized that coaxing was only needed when there wasn’t an animal in the middle of things.
“I tell you I rode a runt everyone mocked me for, and you give me this beast of a horse?” A small smile formed on his lips as he spoke and Mercury ate the apple from his hand.
“After sniffing you, he kept leaning close to you.” I shrugged. “He likes you.”
He might feel protective of the man. Mercury hadn’t come from an abusive home.
He was one of the champion horses who couldn’t compete anymore.
He could run around and ride just fine, but high jumps were a big no for a few years—and back then, his previous owner hadn’t even known if it would be temporary.
Regardless, that previous owner had had a child who went through some nasty bullying, and Mercury had taken to her.
To this day, she was the only one I let pick the horse she rode the few summers she managed to visit us.
“He’s gorgeous.”
He definitely was that.
If, for a second, I couldn’t tell if I was thinking about the horse or the man in front of me, there was no point in questioning it.
“Put a bridle on him, see how he responds to you.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The mouth on him.
I scoffed. “Sometime this century, if you don’t mind.”
Cam laughed in response.
He laughed. With me.
How often did I hear the sound when he knew I was in hearing range? Not often enough.
Fuck.
When did I become this fucking corny?
It was a good thing that, laughter aside, Cam followed my instructions and quickly returned with a bridle from the stables. Mercury stood still while Cam rubbed his neck before wrapping the leather around his head. He was a good horse. Confident, but patient.
It would do Cam good to spend some time around that kind of energy.