Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
A laugh bubbled out of me when I thought about Chad—whose last name I couldn’t remember—coming to pick me up for my first date. I’d been fifteen, and he’d been sixteen. Momma met him at the door with that bright smile of hers that men loved, then pulled out her pistol and asked him what he thought of it. She told him she had been thinking of getting a pink one, but that hadn’t seemed real intimidating at all. And she wanted to be sure to get the point across if she ever had to pull it out somewhere other than at the shooting range. She told him she was a real good shot too.
I had been horrified back then, but now I’d give anything for her to pull out her gun, which had never once been loaded, and try to threaten one of my dates.
As I finished off the banana, I heard the crinkle of grass caused by footsteps, and I glanced back over my shoulder. Than had come to look for me, it seemed. Make sure I wasn’t secretly plotting his precious governor’s demise. With a sigh, I turned to look back at the horse. I’d had some peace for a little while at least.
“Am I not allowed near the stables?” I asked, annoyed, not looking at him but straight ahead.
“Linc asked me to let Diane out. She’s ornery, and she doesn’t want to go graze as early as Jack does,” Than replied as he walked past me.
“Jack and Diane? Those are the horses’ names?” I asked, just on the verge of laughing.
Than nodded his head. “Yep.” And kept walking.
I pressed my lips together to keep from letting out my amused laughter. Although Jack and Diane did not sound like names you’d give horses, I thought it was creative. When Than reached the wide barn-style doors and slid them open, he glanced back at me. My smile faded as I prepared for some scathing comment.
“The foal’s name is Heartland,” he called back to me. “Want to see it?”
Foal? As in a baby horse? Did I want to see it? Yes! But that meant going with Than. He’d asked me though. Deciding this might be the only time in my life I got to see a baby horse or foal up close, I put my banana peel into the empty mug, then stood and dusted off my bottom before heading down the slight decline toward him.
When I reached the doors, I hesitated.
“You’re not trying to lure me in here to lock me in some storage shed and leave me to starve, are you?”
He rolled his eyes and went inside the stables. “Not my job to kill you. I’m just here to make sure you keep your mouth shut.”
Right. Like I wanted to tell the world my father was Jericho Baskin. I’d rather claim a random inmate in the nearest prison as my father.
Slowly, I stepped farther into the building, taking in its well-kept, rustic appeal.
“Over here,” Than said, nodding his head toward a stall he was standing in front of.
Anxious to see the foal, I forgot about my trepidation and hurried over to where he was standing. When I could see around the corner and into the cozy, hay-covered space, there was a beautiful, full-grown horse the color of desert sand. This must be Diane. My eyes dropped to search for the foal when I saw it standing up in the corner. It wasn’t blue gray or the pale gold of its mother. Instead, it was a light reddish brown with a black mane and tail.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” I asked.
“Filly. You don’t name a colt something like Heartland.”
I glanced over at him. “Filly is female, right?”
He nodded.
“She’s a different color.” I’d expected a mini Jack or Diane.
Than leaned against the door of the stall and ran his hand over Diane’s neck. “She’s a bay, but her color will be darker when she sheds her foal coat. Shedding will start soon. She’s almost three months.”
I went back to watching the foal as she came up to her mother, looking at us with curiosity.
“Does she go out to the field too?” I asked him.
“Right now, she goes where her momma goes,” he replied. “Once she’s weened, she’ll start going out to graze with Jack in the mornings. This the first foal you’ve seen up close?”
I laughed lightly so as not to startle the foal or her mother. “They’re the first horses I’ve seen up close.”
“You never wanted to ride a horse?” he asked me.
I cut my eyes at him. “Where was I gonna find one to ride?”
He shrugged. “I figured you’d have dated enough guys that one of them was bound to have horses.”
I let out a sarcastic laugh. Oh, he thought he had me all figured out. Smug bastard.