Colic. One of the worst things that could happen to a horse. The little guy snuffled as he labored to breathe, and her eyes prickled with tears as she listened to him wheeze. She’d considered selling him as a way to get money, but she knew she couldn’t, especially not now. Buddy crept into the stall and curled in beside her, his head on her knee. The dog whined softly and stared up at her with big brown eyes as if to say, I have faith in you. You’re my human. You’ll make it right. She ruffled his ears.
“I hope so, Buddy. I hope so.”
Chance reappeared moments later, Boots a few steps behind. The older man carried a couple of quilts and a pillow. Chance had mugs of coffee and handed her one. She accepted the cup and stared at its contents. Muddy brown. Just the right color when cream and coffee achieved the perfect blend.
“One sugar, right?”
She nodded dumbly. The man remembered how she drank her coffee?
“Thought you might as well be comfortable, baby girl.” Boots’s voice broke her rumination. He spread out one quilt after shooing Buddy away and left the other folded on top with the pillow. “Gonna be a long night.” He turned toward Chance, and Cass recognized a look of distrust crossing Boots’s face.
“I’ll stay up with Cass, Boots. I’ll call if we need help.”
There was that look again. Cass’s attention ping-ponged between the two men. There was definitely defiance and dismissal in Chance’s voice, along with a hint of challenge, but Boots didn’t rise to the occasion. Instead, he focused on her.
“You need anything at all, baby girl, you just holler. I’ll come running.”
Cass made a show of straightening the quilt and getting settled on it as the older man shuffled out. She stretched out on her side, the pillow bunched under her head, one hand stroking the colt’s neck. An uncomfortable silence descended on the stall, but she wasn’t going to be the one to break it. She fidgeted but couldn’t get comfortable. After thirty minutes, she gave up.
“We should try to get him on his feet and walk him.”
Chance said nothing as he stood and helped her push and pull the colt. Only a yearling, the little guy wasn’t close to being full grown, but he was big enough the two of them had trouble. He wobbled on his legs but managed a few tentative steps as Cass led him from the stall. She walked him up and down the center run of the barn so many times she lost count but by the time her legs started to ache, the colt walked a little easier. Once back in the stall, though, he flopped in the straw with a distressed whinny.
Chance had rearranged the blanket and pillow, and now sank down on the quilt before Cass could say anything. He patted the space next to him. She made a face but joined him, realizing too late that he’d raised his arm, and she was now snuggled up against his side. Her nostrils flared at the scent of his cologne, and her stomach did a darn good impression of a bowl of gelatin.
Why did this man tie her up in knots physically and emotionally? What would be so terrible about just letting go, letting him take some of her troubles? Not forever. No, not that. She could never relinquish control forever, but what was the harm in sharing the burden just for a little while? Just long enough to get back on her feet.
“I don’t think I’m going back to Chicago.” She felt him stiffen.
“Oh?” He said the word carefully.
“I can’t leave here. Not yet anyway. I had my neighbor box up or sell all my stuff. It might not be much, but this is home.” Something shifted in her heart. Home. This had always been home, and she’d been too blind to realize it.