Page 19 of For the Love of the Broken Man

“You ain’t gotta drink it so fast. These are barn mugs. Mickey keeps the fine china up here at the house, but he has these Walmart mugs for takin’ to the barn. You’re gonna burn your guts drinkin’ that hot coffee so fast.” Dan shook his head and chuckled.

Standing next to Danny, Jase once again noticed he had several inches of height on the man, though the sandy blond was more muscular. Jase guessed the handsome man had about twenty pounds on him, but it was all muscle, muscle Jase hoped to develop for himself with farmwork.

The two men took their coffee down to the barn where a short, suntanned man with light brown hair and a tall, slender-built redhead were busy opening stall doors to let out horses. “Are they going to clean stalls?” Jase asked.

Dan nodded. “Mick runs a tight ship. On Saturdays, all the horses go outside, weather permitting, and they clear, hose down, and disinfect the whole place. Some of these mares in this barn are worth a lot of money. Miss Ally, who I’m sure you’ll meet soon, used to ride in equestrian events. I don’t know much about it, but I’m sure Mick can explain.

“Miss Ally breeds these mares to prime studs and sells the foals for top dollar. She’s bred her mares to Charlie a few times, and the foals have been incredible if you like horses. Myself, I’m more of a cattleman. Anyway, Mickey can teach you anything you need to know about horses, I promise. He’s got quite a colorful story himself, which I’m sure he’ll tell ya sometime. Anyway, let’s get to cleanin’ manure. I hate shovelin’ horseshit,” Dan complained as they walked into the barn.

“Hey! Pete, Todd. It’s me. How you boys doin’?” Dan greeted the newcomers with a friendly smile.

They returned his grin with big ones of their own. “Hey, Danny.” They walked over to him and shook his hand enthusiastically. Jase was impressed that the two men were so friendly.

Dan turned to Jase and gently tugged on his arm to bring him into the conversation circle. “This is Jason Langston. He’s gonna be workin’ here with y’all for a little while. You boys take good care of him, will ya? He’s just startin’ out in the business, and he’s eager to learn, so y’all help him get it right, okay?”

They both grinned at Jase and shook his hand. “Welcome, Jason. Nice to meet ya. Where ya come from?” Todd, the older guy, spoke first. Jase was judging him to be about forty, but he had a nice smile. He was on the thin side and his bright red hair had a few grays, but he seemed to be the welcoming sort.

“I’m from Texas, but don’t be impressed. I’ve lived all over the country because my dad’s in the Army, so we moved every few years. I’ve never worked with horses, but I’d like to learn whatever you guys think would be useful.” Jase hoped he sounded sufficiently nonthreatening.

The other man, Pete, laughed. “Welcome, Jason. It’s nice to meet ya. Um, what we do on Saturdays is clean the whole barn. Cuts down on fleas, flies, and certain bacteria that can cause problems with the horses. It’s not fancy work, but it keeps these ladies in good health, and Miss Ally and Mr. Ham pay us to do it how Mickey tells us. Glad to have a few extra hands. My son has a soccer game this afternoon and if we get on it, Todd and I might be able to go and not be late,” Pete told them.

Without another word, the four men went to work with wheelbarrows and shovels, emptying the stalls of soiled bedding material. They rolled up the rubber mats and took them out onto a concrete slab where they put Jase to work scrubbing them with a shop broom and some disinfectant.

Mickey joined them, joking about Danny disliking horses, yet so willing to clean up horseshit with everyone in the barn as they wheeled out the old bedding.

“What’s this bedding?” Jase had cleaned stalls at the Circle C and at the Katydid, and neither place used what Mickey was spreading after the mats were put back down.

“Peat moss. Works better for our purposes.” Mickey held out a handful of the product for Jase to get a better look.

Jase nodded and went back to work cleaning the compression mats that covered the concrete floor of the barn. Pete came out to help him hang them to dry over a fence after he brought out two more. They continued to rotate them until all were cleaned, and after they were replaced in the stalls, Jase was shown how to spread the peat moss from the large pile in the room next to the feed stall.

Mickey showed him how to clean the wet stall where horses were bathed and groomed, and he showed him the birthing stalls, though they wouldn’t be used until the next spring as all the mares had already foaled for the year and were bred back.

Todd and Pete left about ten that morning, as Jase, Dan, and Mickey returned to the house. “What’s next?” Jase asked.

“After a late breakfast, I’m gonna take you into the office and show you where I am in the bookkeeping process, and about two o’clock, we’re gonna beg off work and have ourselves a day of relaxation. There’s a ball game on television, and Jonny’s not working today or tomorrow so we can all take the time off.

“See, we don’t have the cattle aspect around here so our weekends can be low key. Later this afternoon, we can go let the mares and the few foals back inside, and then they’re fine until I run down to feed and water in the morning before breakfast.

“Oh, we have fences to look after, and pastures to fertilize to ensure there’s hay later in the summer, but that’s what we do Monday through Friday. We actually don’t do too much on Saturday and Sunday because we have a family, which I can see you being a part of,” Mickey explained to him.

Jase felt his face heat, but it was the best news he’d ever heard. Being a part of something like the operation at Wonderland was exactly what he’d been hoping for when he hopped on the bus in El Paso. It seemed like maybe he’d found a place he could call home.

Chapter Nine

“I thought these were illegal?” Dan took a puff of the shortCuban cigar as he and Jon sat under a large umbrella on the pool deck. Mickey and Jase were in the pool entertaining the girls with dolphin rides, where the girls rode on their backs while the two men swam around. Terry and his friend, Clay Monroe, were with Clay’s mom in Richmond at a mall.

Dan noticed the wordmallwasn’t said aloud in front of Megan, and he could commiserate as to why. Kayley’s selective hearing—which never seemed to kick-in when he scolded her or told her to clean up her toys—always tuned in when anyone used the “m” word.

The boys needed camping gear for a planned soccer team outing for a few days next month after school was out, and Dan had watched with a smile as Mickey went over the list with Terry, emphasizing that Terry should follow it to the letter. It made Dan laugh because the boy rolled his eyes every few seconds before he finally grabbed the list, kissed Mickey on the cheek and took off up the stairs to change clothes.

“A client of my dad’s gave ‘em to him, but Mom won’t let him keep ‘em at the house in Richmond. He has a humidor in his office here, so I grabbed us two and left an IOU.” Jon was referring to the cigars, as a huge plume of blue smoke billowed into the air.

“You like livin’ out here, Jon? I thought you were more the city type.” Dan loved the country life, but he knew Jon had grown up in Richmond, which was likely more exciting than living in Dillwyn. It was probably much like the life Jase had lived in his many travels that were more exciting than living in Holloway.

“I thought I’d hate it at first, but having a family changed it for me. I still take Megan into Richmond every day because that’s where her doctors are and her school. If this area was able to offer any of the same services as we get in Richmond, I’d open a small private practice here in a heartbeat. It would be nice to come home for lunch and be at all of Terry’s games.

“But, for now, I’m too young to retire, and I just earned my partnership so that’s not in the cards. Meg and I don’t mind the ride. It’s only an hour each way. She sleeps on the way to school in the morning, and we get to talk about her day in the afternoon. When I get home, Mick takes her, and they have their time while I hang with Terry and talk or play video games, or sometimes, he and I go ride the fences for the guys.

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