Joe

I woke up alone, which was odd because I was pretty sure I’d passed out with my face in Harry’s chest. Perhaps I’d dreamt it. But, no. When I stumbled out into the yard, there were still donkeys in the tack room and half a dozen emaciated ponies taking up space I didn’t have.

Fuelled by coffee, I took a shower and then set to work reassessing the new arrivals. The vet would be here soon, but I needed a daylight idea of what we were dealing with. If the ponies were in as bad a shape as I’d feared last night, they’d be with us for the long haul, and that was a serious problem.

Besides, angsting over the ponies distracted me from looking for Harry around every corner. Seriously. What was it about that bloke and leaving me hanging on the couch? He’d kissed me, every time, goddammit.

The four ponies in the donkey paddock were doing well. George had fed them little and often, and they were enjoying the hay in the donkey shed. I checked their hooves and teeth and then left them to it. The two mares in the foaling stable were a different story. In the few hours I’d slept in Harry’s arms, one of them had gone downhill.

I fed her more warm bran laced with the molasses someone had helpfully rooted out from wherever I’d stashed it. She didn’t eat much—too weak—and I was trying to tempt her with some fresh green grass from Sal’s garden when the vet arrived.

His assessment was bleak. He offered to put the mares down, but I wasn’t there yet. Grandpa—and even my loser dad—had taught me that a horse would let me know when they’d had enough, and I’d never forgotten that lesson. Both mares were still looking me in the eye with the kind of determination you only saw in horses. That was enough for me, at least for now. It had to be, or my whole fucking life was a waste of time.

Dealing with the vet put me in a bad mood. More than that. A fog I couldn’t shift settled over me, and I retreated to Mani’s stable to get a grip on myself. It worked until Toby came to find me.

“Shadow’s got a splinter in his leg.”

I pulled my face out of Mani’s mane. “What?”

“Shadow,” Toby repeated. “You asked me to check the fields when I got here, so I did, and I saw Shadow was lame. I hid in the bush when he was eating and had a look. There’s a splinter in his left shin.”

Great. The vet had already left, and even if he hadn’t, I didn’t have the money to pay him for stuff like that. If Shadow had a splinter, I’d have to try and get it out myself, which meant bringing him into the yard when he was used to having the field to himself all day.

I took a deep breath of Mani’s soothing scent and gave Toby my full attention, though I couldn’t actually remember him arriving for work this afternoon. Couldn’t remember anything except the dire state of the mares in the foaling stable and the intoxicating weight of Harry’s body pinning me to the couch. “Sorry, kiddo. Tell me again from the beginning? And what the fuck are you doing climbing trees?”

Toby shrugged. “Harry showed me. It’s fun.”

“Fair enough.” I trailed Toby to the top field. Shadow was about as far from the gate as he could get, but even from a distance, I saw him limping.

I whistled to him and shook a bucket of oats, but it was ages before he looked my way, and by then, Toby had got bored and wandered off. Standard practice, where Shadow’s games were concerned. I was the only idiot stubborn enough to wait him out, but I wasn’t feeling particularly stubborn today. Just weary and desperate to do something to heal at least one of the horses that relied on me.

Sighing, I vaulted the gate and ventured into the field, approaching Shadow with the bucket held out and my head down. He ignored me at first but then started to circle me, trying to catch me staring at him so he could charge me.

But I knew better than to look at him. I kept my back to him, turning as he cantered around me. I was dizzy by the time his appetite for oats got the better of him.

He stuck his nose in the bucket and ate as I examined the wound on his shin. The splinter was big but not that deep. If I could get some reins on him and lead him down to the yard, I could have it out in a couple of minutes. Stupidly, though, I hadn’t brought any reins with me.

I fished my phone from my pocket to text Toby to bring some down and hang them on the gate, but it rang in my hand before I could switch it to silent.

Startled, Shadow reared up and knocked the bucket to the ground. Cursing, I cancelled the call without looking to see who it was, but it was too late. Shadow whinnied and grunted, his hooves stamping as he tossed his head, searching for the noise that had frightened him.

His body was a blur as he moved. I bent to retrieve the bucket and my phone rang again. Shadow shrieked, and I looked up just in time for him to spin around and kick me in the guts.