Page 65 of Chasing Home

“Rory,” he rasps. “Look at me.”

I wet my dry lips and lie through my teeth. “I want you to let go of me.”

He does immediately. I leave him there before I can tell him to hold me again. I’d never be able to scrape my pride off the ground after that.

“Over here, Johnny. This is Biscuit. Wade mentioned him first,” Jill calls, waving at him from the end of the line of pens.

I ignore her and make my way to the other side of the stable. Most of the pens are empty, and if they run at all like Steele Ranch, then most of the horses kept in here are in use right now. Eliza explained that the horses belonging to the ranch hands and the family are kept inside. Special privilege exists in the animal world too, apparently.

“He looks good. Healthy,” I hear Johnny say behind me.

“Just turned three this spring.”

A soft patting sounds, and I can see Johnny giving the horse affection the way he does Joker without needing to turn around.

“Great. Yeah, he’s a big guy for three. Should be a good workhorse.”

A gate rattles as I move down the line of pens, peeking inside each one as if something’s tugging me along. I nearly trip when a long blonde nose juts out over the gate one pen ahead and a snort fills the air. Leaning back on my heels, I keep still, waiting to see if the horse opens its massive jaw and tries to take a piece out of me.

“Um, hi,” I mutter when a few seconds pass without teeth chomping.

Taking two steps forward, I keep a distance between myself and the mystery nose before peering inside the pen. My eyes go wide when I see the horse staring right at me, brown eyes curious.

With a coat so blonde it’s almost white, the horse looks like it was dumped into a bucket of bleach when it was born. The single brown patch on the left side of its belly is almost comical.

“Do I stink or something?” I ask when it moves closer and sniffs loudly.

It sniffs again before jutting its entire head over the gate. The shiny white mane flowing over its neck looks like silk. I want to touch it but don’t know if it’ll have me for dinner quite yet.

“This is kind of rude,” I mutter. “Demanding attention like this isn’t sweet behaviour. How am I supposed to believe you won’t bite me when you don’t have any manners?”

It waves its head in front of me, as if telling me to pet it. I roll my lips before cautiously lifting my hand toward it, all too aware that I’m risking losing the damn thing.

I’m pleasantly surprised when the horse doesn’t bite me but shoves that giant nose into my palm instead.

“Oh. You are nice, then.”

“She likes you,” Johnny says.

I keep my attention on the horse, moving forward and reaching to stroke my palm over its neck. The muscles there are thick and strong, while the hair is soft. When the silky mane blows over my knuckles, it tickles.

“Why did you come over here?” he asks, keeping his distance.

I think I hate that more than him being too close.

“I wanted to.”

The horse releases a high-pitched noise and swings its head toward me again, bringing it so close I can see its short eyelashes.

“She really, really likes you, Rory.”

“It’s a girl?”

“You didn’t check?” he asks, sounding like he’s holding back a laugh.

I scowl. “No, I didn’t check. I was busy doing other things.”

“Yeah, darlin’. It’s a she. A beautiful she too.”

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