Chapter 6 #2
Clay buckled himself in and looked over at Harper. “My Panther only gives me trouble if he really wants something and I don’t do it. And it’s about cohabitation here,” he said, tapping his heart.
Harper hesitated after she’d put her car in reverse, and looked at him with a funny expression on her face.
“What?” he asked.
“She did seem to want something,” Harper said.
“What did she want? Give it to her and maybe she’ll be nicer.”
Harper held Clay’s gaze for a second, then shook her head, and backed out of her parking place. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I wouldn’t know how to give it to her anyway.”
“Won’t know until you try,” Clay said, as he reached behind himself and pulled a brand new pair of gloves out of his back pocket, laying them on his thigh.
“You even brought new gloves!” Harper said as she pulled out onto the road in front of her house, then took a right to take them toward the equine center.
“I had some. I bought a few pairs at the beginning of the summer, and hadn’t used this pair yet. I thought it might be better using a fresh pair instead of a pair soaked in grease, paint, sweat and whatever else they smell like.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you. Horses have a keen sense of smell and don’t like things they’re not used to.”
“It was thoughtful of me, wasn’t it?” he said confidently as he nodded.
Harper laughed as she just shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Hope you’re ready to work hard today!” she finally said.
“I am. Just point me where you need me. And if it’s something I don’t know how to do, explain it, then consider it done.”
“On the agenda today,” Harper said in her best official voice, as she cleared her voice exaggeratedly, “is turning the horses out to pasture so they can have a leisurely day, mucking and completely cleaning out their stalls, including removing any uneaten hay from the hay nets and the floor, clean their water and food buckets. Then we’ll put down fresh shavings, and replace their hay and water.
The last thing we’ll do before we leave for the day is bring them in and give them some feed.
But between all that, we need to walk the fence lines to make sure they’re all intact, and there are two fields in the back of the property that we need to check for readiness. ”
“Readiness?” Clay asked.
“For cutting. We get hay balers to come in. They cut them and make round bales for us, but I don’t want to spend the money if it’s not quite ready to cut.
” Harper smiled to herself as she drove.
“They wrap them in shiny white plastic covers, it looks like a field of giant marshmallows when they’re done. ”
Clay grinned. “I’ve seen that before and wondered what it was.”
“Round bales of hay,” Harper said, casting a quick smile his way before focusing on the road again.
“Okay, clean up behind the big four legged babies, give them clean beds, fix any fences, and decide when to make giant marshmallows,” Clay said.
Harper couldn’t help the huge grin, and ended up laughing. “You’re right. A bunch of giant toddlers roaming around making more work for us every single day. But I adore them, and even the work they require. I don’t want to live any other way.”
“And you shouldn’t have to. I get it, Harper. I really do,” he said, as he reached out and covered the hand she was resting on her shifter with his own.
Her Tiger began purring deep inside, and Harper felt her stomach do a little flip.
She glanced at him nervously before quickly looking away.
He’d already implied that he might have found his mate and then been a little evasive when she’d asked about it.
The last thing she needed was to allow herself to act on or even acknowledge the feelings she was beginning to notice when he was around.
It would surely only hurt later when he claimed whatever female he’d taken notice of.
Thankfully, she was approaching the turn off for the equine center, and was able to justifiably pull her hand from beneath his to better turn the car.
“Annnd, we’re here!” she announced, as they made their way down the long drive.
“This is such a beautiful place,” Clay said.
“Isn’t it? It just feels like home. Sometimes even more than actual home does.”
“Your escape,” Clay said.
“Yes! It just kind of… feeds my soul, you know?”
“I do.”
“I wish my parents knew,” she muttered as she brought the car to a stop.
“I’m sure they will, eventually,” Clay said.
“One can hope,” she said as she opened the door and got out. “You ready? Let’s do this!”
~~~
A few hours later all the horses had been outfitted with fly masks and turned out into the fields.
They all got a quick once over before they were led out to their fields to graze the day away, and Clay now knew which horses had to be alone, and which horses could be grouped with everyone, as well as which were only good with certain other horses.
The stalls had all been mucked out and cleaned, even the empty ones had been tidied up just in case they were needed before Harper made it back on the next day she was due at the center.
Fresh shavings had been put on the floors of the stalls, fresh hay in the hay nets, and everyone’s water buckets had been refilled.
“So, what now?” Clay asked, as he stood in the wide walkway of the barn, watching Harper smile contentedly as she gazed around the barn looking for anything else that needed to be done.
“Well, stalls are all done. The storage room organized and clean so there’s nothing that needs to be done in there.
I cleaned the spare tack just last week, and it’s still hanging in the tack room unused.
The tack that belongs to particular horses is cleaned when it’s first taken off of them, so there’s nothing of that to do.
” She looked down at her watch. “It’s only about ten, a couple hours still ‘til lunch, so I guess we’ll start on the fences and then move to the hay pastures.
We’ll also need to cut the grass up front along the highway, the drive, and in front of and around the house and the barn,” Harper said.
“What part of it do you want me to do?”
“Would you mind cutting the grass? The small lawn tractor is in the equipment building, which is the metal one behind this barn,” she said.
“On it,” he said as he started out of the barn. “And you’ll be?” he asked.
“Checking every foot of fence on the property looking for weak spots or anything that could cause problems. Obviously the more visible parts of the fences are intact or I wouldn’t have put the horses out, but it’s still a good idea to double check a couple of times a month at least.”
“Let me know if you need something,” Clay said.
“Same,” Harper said. “You’ll be able to see me from where you’re cutting most of the time at least.”
Clay winked at her and resumed his walk out of the barn.
Harper started back toward the opposite end of the barn to get the side by side parked under the overhang at that end.
They kept rolls of fencing, clips, wire cutters, a hammer, a couple of fence posts, and a dozen T-posts on it for quick response when a piece of the fence needed repairing, which with so many horses on hand was often.
But she hesitated and looked back over her shoulder at Clay.
“Clay?” she called out just before he stepped outside.
Clay stopped and looked back at her.
“Thank you. For everything. You just don’t know how much I appreciate you doing this for me.”
Clay grinned at her. “I believe in you. And I believe in your dreams. I’ll always be happy to help you.”
“See you in a little while,” she said, waving as she backed up a few steps, reluctant to break eye contact with him first, before she finally turned and disappeared through the open doorway behind her.