Chapter Twenty-Six
MARLEY
“HOW MUCH longer do I have before she goes?” Hallie asks as she nuzzles Maizie’s nose.
Leaning the broom against the wall so I can scoop stuff off the floor, I turn my head and say over my shoulder, “They are picking her up tomorrow morning.”
With so many people out of the house, Hallie doesn’t have as much to do and has been in the stable with me most of today.
When I first started rehabbing horses, I would get attached to them and feel the same way that Hallie is feeling now, but over the years, I’ve learned to think of myself as a transition for them.
I’m just a safe place for them to go before they go to their happy place.
I also like to call and check up on them after their time with me. My contact at the Keystone Lake Lodge, where I’m sending her, is a friend of mine, so I will call to see how she’s doing after about a week. I know Hallie will like that.
“How do you know she will be happy there?” Hallie asks, her back is to me still.
I straighten and put my hands on my hips as I swivel to face her. With a laugh, I say, “I’ve been doing this for a long time, give me a little credit.”
“I do. I know you are a pro at this, but how do you know for sure every time?”
“Because they tell me.” I say and go back to scooping stuff from the floor.
She finally turns in my direction. “How do they tell you?”
Dumping a dustpan full of dirt and hay into the trash barrel, I shrug my shoulders.
“It’s a sixth sense. Take Maisey, for example, when we go out on the trails, she gets excited, she loves it.
She also loves getting love and attention and is not too picky about from who.
She’ll be perfect for people interaction and being out in nature.
“But take that gelding over there.” I point at the horse that does not like men.
“He will be a good companion for a woman because he doesn’t like strangers, and he doesn’t like men.
But he has done well with just me, after he got to know me.
He wants to believe that people are good, I can tell by the way he is when it’s just me and him, he just needs the right owner to show him. ”
“What about the ones that won’t play nice? They don’t get put down, do they?” Her face is scrunched with concern and anger.
I look at her like she’s lost her mind. “Of course not. I would never put a horse down unless they were seriously injured.” The mare Gray had to put down a few months ago when the stable caught fire comes to mind and my heart sinks.
“I know someone who owns a horse refuge up north of us. They take the ones that are done giving us chances.”
“Can we go out for one more ride today? Before she has to leave?” Hallie asks, turning back to the horse.
“Sure, I’ll get Felix after I’m done here, and we can take one more ride around the trails.”
After we get them saddled up and lead them out of the stable, I look around for Jax. He was here earlier but had to take a call with Mason and their boss and he’s still gone. Since Hallie is here with me, he told me to text him if I need anything while he’s in the house.
Just to make sure they don’t get mad, I send a text to him and Mason to let them know Hallie and I are going for a ride on the round trail to the west. It’s a short trail and shouldn’t take more than an hour.
They send back a thumbs up and as I am about to put my phone back in my pocket, Jax sends me a personal text with a heart emoji and tells me to please be careful.
A smile splits my face, and happiness fills my chest as I send him a thumbs up and a kiss emoji.
I woke up this morning to a man who couldn’t get enough of me.
He’s told me so many times over the past few nights that I have all of him.
That, combined with the memory of feeling his hands all over my body, makes my center tingle.
He’s the one that makes me feel everything - with his touch, his voice, and his smile.
Even just my thoughts of him.
The sun wasn’t even up when he woke me up, kissing my shoulder and neck. After two rounds of love-making, the smell of bacon and voices and movement downstairs stopped us from a third.
Every time I look at him, my heart wants to beat out of my chest. I didn’t think it was possible to feel so deeply for one person, I think I love him, which I almost said, but I don’t want to be the first to say it.
It would break my heart if he didn’t say it back, I don’t think I could handle that kind of rejection.
“Ready?” Hallie asks. She’s already in the saddle on Maisie and is waiting for me.
Pulling myself up onto Felix, I get settled in the saddle, noting the soreness between my legs, and click my tongue to turn him around. It’s a beautiful day, and the sun is shining on our bare shoulders as we make our way around the pond to cross the stream in the shallow part.
We ride in silence for the first thirty minutes, enjoying the sway of the horses under us as we move through the trail that Felix knows better than any of us.
“We should probably turn around, I told Mason and Jax that we would only be out an hour.” I say over my shoulder to Hallie.
“So soon? Can we at least go to the big spring up ahead? The one we went to last month?”
It will only add another five or ten minutes to the ride, so I agree and turn Felix toward one of our largest springs. There’s a wall of rock up one side that’s probably about ten feet, and a small, open grassy area on the other side. It really is beautiful.
When we get there, we get down for a few minutes to give our butts a rest and let the horses munch on some grass. Hallie and I sit on one of the big rocks by the water and soak up the sun for a few minutes. It’s a sunny day and the slight breeze feels good on my face.
Glancing at my watch again, I sigh, it’s almost four, and I told the guys we would be back around five.
I glance at Hallie, who still has her eyes closed and her face tipped to the sun, her auburn hair almost looks red in the sun, and I can see the beginning of a sunburn on her pale cheeks and shoulders.
Kicking her foot with mine makes her drop her face to look at me. She closes one eye and squints at me through the other. I say, “We gotta go, I don’t want to piss anyone off.”
“Ugh. Fine.” She scoots to the edge of the rock and drops onto the soft grass, I do the same and walk toward Felix.
“Hey! Is that a hickey on your neck?” Hallie’s normally alto voice is high pitched and close to my ear. I spin around to her face just inches away from my back and slap my hand over the back of my neck.
I don’t remember Jax giving me a hickey, but he had me seeing stars so many times that he could have, and I wouldn’t have even known.
“No! Where?” My own voice is several octaves higher, and my head is hotter than it was before.
Hallie cocks her hip out and sets her hand on it as she tilts her head to the side, humor sparkling in her eyes, her brows in the middle of her forehead. “Move your hand and I’ll tell you.”
Slowly, I lift my hand from my neck, and she looks at me like she’s trying to see a train wreck through a crowd of people.
“Yep, that’s definitely a hickey.” Her smile splits her face as she steps back. “Did Jax give you a hickey? Are you guys doing the… you know.” She makes an O with her fingers on one hand and pushes the finger of her other hand through it.
Jerking my head back, I curl my upper lip in outrage. “Jesus, Hallie, can you be any more crude?” I can’t hide the slight laugh that comes out with the question and my whole head turns scarlet.
Turning on my heel, my ponytail swinging over my shoulder, I walk away from her. I forget sometimes how young she is. But I can’t deny that she has all the blood in my body rushing to my head in embarrassment.
She sucks in a gasp and is right on my heels. “You are! You and Jax are knockin’ boots! How was it?” She puts her hand up next to her mouth like she’s about to tell a secret. “Is he big?”
Grabbing Felix’s reins, I turn him toward the trail. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”
Hallie grabs Maisey’s reins and leads her to the trail behind me. “Well, can you at least tell me if you love him, or is it just a friends with benefits thing?”
Hooking my hand over the saddle horn, I pull myself up on Felix and gently sit on the saddle.
I watch Hallie do the same and she looks at me with the biggest smile on her face, waiting for me to answer him.
I can’t hide my smile anymore and I adjust my ball cap before I say, “I’m pretty sure I love him. ”
She squeals like a teenager, which makes me laugh. “It’s still new, and private, so don’t say anything to anyone.”
Her smile is stuck on her face, and she raises her hands in surrender. “My lips are sealed. It’s between me, you and the horses. I think it’s awesome, though, he’s been watching you as long as I’ve been at the house. The two of you make a cute couple.”
Pulling Felix around, I click my tongue for him to go, but I don’t say anything.
“But if you want to keep it a secret, you going to have to ixna the ickeysha.”
The last time I used pig Latin was in junior high. I roll my eyes at her telling me to nix the hickeys and keep going.
It’s almost straight up five o’clock when we get back to the stable and we start undressing the horses. “I’m going to take Felix to his stable. I’ll be right back,” I say to Hallie as I lead him to the door.
“Okay,” she says over her shoulder as she carries Maisey’s bridle into the tack room.
“That won’t be necessary.” A deep, angry voice says just before D steps out of the grooming stall.
I jump at the sound, and I hear the bridle Hallie was carrying fall to the floor in the tack room.
The combination of the unfamiliar voice, me jumping and Hallie dropping the tack, makes Felix jump and it’s my opportunity to smack his backside to make him run unaccompanied across the yard.
He’ll go right to the stall on his own, but I pray someone sees him going.