Page 129 of My Wild Horse King

And it does make all the difference.

33

IZZY

When I found out that I didn’t get into a single vet school, even my safety school, I didn’t tell anyone.

I didn’t tell my uncle, who’s a vet. He spent summers teaching me horse basics. I didn’t tell my step-dad who’s a horse trainer. He knew just how much I wanted to go and taught me everything I know about horses. I didn’t tell my boyfriend—he’s already a vet, and not any old vet. Arockstarorthopedic surgeon people drive to see from miles around. But the real reason I didn’t tell anyone is that telling them would mean I had to tell my mom.

I can’t do that.

She was always there, at my side, making it possible for me to do whatever it took to achieve my dream. She drove me to my uncle’s office day after day. Shemarrieda horse trainer who spent all his time teaching me everything with patience and kindness. Then she bankrolled all four years of my college education, lending assistance whenever I needed it.

She did all that so I could get in to vet school.

But I bombed the GRE. My GPA also slipped quite a bit in the past year, and now, it’s too late. I’m doomed. My whole future’s in question. The most painful part is that becoming a vet is whoI’ve always been. If I’m not going to go to vet school, who am I? What’s my purpose?

What’s my value?

If I didn’t have such an amazing boyfriend, I might think I had no value whatsoever.

So now I’m driving home like some kind of criminal, trying to screw up my courage to ask Mom and Steve for a loan, because thanks to an unscrupulous jerk at work, my boyfriend’s in a bind. He needs my help, and I don’t have any other way to come up with the hundred thousand dollars he needs to clear his name.

I already checked with the bank.

Without some kind of collateral, there’s no way they’ll give me a loan, which means I’m totally stuck. My only option right now is to beg Mom for a loan so I can bail Heaston out of jail and help pay for his defense.

How the other docs in his practice could just turn on him like that is unconscionable. My fear is that Mom and Steve haven’t been themostsupportive of me dating someone who’s almost ten years older than me. Hearing he needs to borrow money—even though it’s just short term— is going to be. . .uncomfortable.

I considered telling them I needed the money for vet school.

But what if I never get in? Then, even after Heaston pays me back, I’d have to tell them that I’d lied. Nothing could be worse than that.

When I reach the ranch, it’s super wet and muddy. It looks like it rained ten inches in the past twenty-four hours. I’m pulling Steve’s little two-horse trailer behind my truck—I borrowed it to take a horse he’d been breaking to a client who lived near me the last time I went out. Now I’m returning the trailer, finally, not that he’d ever ask me to bring it back, but I know it’s more annoying for him to have to use his slant load for little trips.

I’ve barely pulled up when I hear a bizarre, high-pitched scream coming from the rarely used stallion pasture. I didn’t think he had a stallion right now, so I’m a little surprised. I should go right in and get things over with, but I’ve always been a bit of a procrastinator, and a new horse is a draw of its own.

Before I can rethink it, I’m already jogging out to the far pasture, ready to check out the new guy.

I’m usually a grey girl. Give me dark greys with lots of dapples or bright greys that are nearly white. Sure, they’re a hassle to keep clean, but they’ve always spoken to me—all that light and bright energy.

But when I set eyes on Steve’s new chestnut stallion?

I could almost weep, he’s so beautiful.

Boy, he looks mad, though. He’s prancing back and forth, wearing the earth down in a long, furrowed path, his nostrils flaring, his mane rippling like shining mahogany satin.

“Look at you.” I stupidly reach my hand through the extra tall fence.

He snaps at me.

I laugh. “You’re a feisty one. I like that.”

Oliver, one of Steve’s grooms, happens to be walking by. “You shouldn’t reach through the wire. He’s headed for the kill pen. He’s just here until they can arrange transport.”

My jaw drops. “The—what?”

“Apparently he’s a total maniac.” Oliver arches one eyebrow. “After watching him for an hour, I don’t even fault the owner. He’snuts.”

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