Chapter 7 #2
Mike sighed. “That might be partially on me. The ranch had a few dogs when we got here, and they became my buddies. Then they got old and….” He sighed and Fern, who sat next to him, leaned against his shoulder in solidarity, giving him a little sideways hug.
“Then the kids were all small and training a puppy seemed like a lot.”
“We’ve had some employees who’ve had dogs over the years, and we did discuss livestock guardians at some point, but we just never got to it,” Jenn concluded.
I nodded slowly. “That makes sense. These dogs will need indoor spaces, so we should figure that out—I mean you guys should figure it out once I get the details from Nessa.”
“We can probably find a few spots on the property for those nicer dog houses with heating. There’s of course also the barns as an option, but the cats might be territorial.” Mike’s expression told me he was getting excited.
“Well you research that, Dad,” Hawk said and finished his coffee. “I’m good with whatever you guys decide, but there’s a horse or few needing training, so….” He smiled as he stood and took his plate and mug to the sink.
“Hawk, I’m gonna ride Ezio, okay?” Bodhi asked, his tone surprisingly deferential to his brother.
Hawk turned to him and gave him a long look as if assessing him. Then he shrugged. “Sure. Come on, I’ll go with you and if you don’t mind, I’ll come with?”
“That’s fine.” In no time, he’d taken his dishes to the sink, too, and the two of them left the house.
“Ezio is the gorgeous buckskin gelding Mal rescued from an auction we went to,” Crew explained.
For some reason, Fern snickered as she started to clear the table, and Mike and Jenn smiled.
“Hawk has been training him for Bodhi, but Ezio is really sensitive to people’s moods and Hawk’s very careful with when he can ride,” Crew concluded, ignoring his family.
“Ah. Makes sense.” Horses picked up on tension like whoa.
“Okay, everyone out, I’m going to deep clean the fridges before starting dinner, and there’s only so much time before Payton gets home,” Jenn said in her best mom voice that got us all moving.
I ended up going with Fern to the event barn, to figure out where she’d want her gate. I met her two main employees and chatted with them for a while, and by the time I was leaving, I heard Mike and Payton.
“Hey, Mr. Ville!” Payton called out. “We’re going to feed the corvids!”
“Have fun!” I called back.
With any other child, I would’ve offered to go with, but Payton would know I wasn’t that interested, and he didn’t need to be coddled.
“Okay! Bye!” He waved and headed to the feeding spot with his grandpa.
I, on the other hand, decided that I wanted to go see some horses. I went to the stock barn where the barn manager, Wyanne, popped out of her office-in-a-stall.
“Hey, Ville. Can I help you with anything?” she asked, smiling.
“Not really. I just wanted to see some horses,” I admitted.
She laughed, the sound kind of easygoing and joyous in a way that warmed my heart for some reason. These people didn’t pretend. It was so fucking refreshing to be here.
“Well I can definitely point you in the right direction.” She nudged her head toward the doors leading behind the barn where some of the paddocks were. “Come with me.”
I followed her to the fence and saw a handful of horses grazing in the distance.
“So you’re of Finnish heritage, right?” she asked as we leaned on the fence.
“Yeah. I was born here, but my parents are both Finnish.” I wasn’t sure where she was going with this.
“Have you been to Finland?” She clicked her tongue, and a couple of the horses started to move toward us.
“As a kid, about every other summer. My grandpa had horses. That’s where I learned to ride.”
Wy glanced at me, grinning. “Finnhorses?” She tilted her head toward—
“You have a Finnhorse?” My jaw dropped as I looked at the approaching bay or maybe it was chestnut horse. I wasn’t great with the color definitions, but something inside me recognized the similarity between this one and those my grandpa had had.
“We don’t know his breeding, but we’re pretty sure he’s full blooded, yes. This is Niko. He’s a good boy. In case you want to go for a ride, he’s definitely good for it.” She handed me some treats from her pocket, and I reached through the fence to give some to the gelding.
“He looks so much like Ukki’s mare, T?hti,” I murmured, reverting to Finnish a little bit. When I realized, I glanced at Wyn. “Sorry, ‘ukki’ means grandpa, and ‘t?hti’ means star. She had this big star on her forehead.”
“If you have time, he could do with a brushing and if you want to ride, you have time before I assume you need to be at the house for dinner.”
I had fixated on Niko again, and looked at her, nodding rapidly. “Yeah, I… yeah. I’d like that.”
“Let me grab his halter and a rope for you.”
I didn’t go for a ride. Instead, I spent some quality time with Niko, pampering him a little. He was as solid as they came, and had that little spark of mischief my grandpa had always said most Finnhorses possessed.
Actually, he’d once told me quite a few Finnhorses were “stubborn assholes, but lovable ones.” Then grandma had snickered and said that it wasn’t far from Finnish people.
Mal came in with a big mare in tow as I was finishing up with Niko.
He smiled. “Hey, you made a friend?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. Us Finns got to stick together.”
“Right, I’d forgotten about that.”
“How’s she doing?” I asked as the mare followed him, then went past him into her stall. It took me a moment to realize there was no lead rope in sight, she just followed him like a dog.
“She’s good. We’ll adjust her feeding for a few days and keep treats to a minimum, but as far as I can tell, it was just one of those things, you know?” He closed the stall door and came to give Niko a few scratches.
“Oh I know. My grandpa had horses and he used to tell me all sorts of things about how fickle their health can be.”
“In Finland?” At my nod, he asked, “Finnhorses? Okay, can I be nosy for a while? I’ve been fascinated by the Finnhorse since I was young.”
Well that was surprising, as was the way he almost ducked his head and his body language turned similar to his son’s when he’d gotten really into explaining to me about the corvids yesterday.
“Of course. Ask away.” I dug my memory for anecdotes, and for the next half an hour, Niko practically snoozed between us as we talked about the breed and I told Mal stories from my childhood.
Eventually, the hands started to arrive, so I took Niko to his stall on Mal’s advice, and we walked to the cabins to get cleaned up for dinner.
I felt a frisson of excitement at the thought of telling Wren about my day when we called next.
If the thought also brought forth the fact that I rarely felt excited like this nowadays, I pushed that to the side and concentrated on making myself presentable, because homemade fries were nothing to sneeze at.