AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Smoky nickered in response and mouthed Mickey’s coat, always searching for treats.
“Wait until he’s haltered, then give him a few,” Phoebe said.
The halter went on smoothly, as did the treats, and they walked Smoky out and around the stable toward the corral.
Vin had pulled in while they were collecting the horse, and he stood beside his car with an armload of Sav-A-Lot bags.
“Hey!” Phoebe called. “You need help?” Smoky swung his head in the direction of Vin and immediately stopped short and pinned his ears back. He gave Vin a wide-eyed, laser stare. Vin was thirty feet away, but that was too close, as far as Smoky was concerned.
“That horse is racist,” Vin said with a chuckle.
“No, he’s sexist. It’s not that you’re Black, it’s that you’re a dude,” Phoebe corrected with a grin.
“He likes Mickey fine, though.”
“That’s because I spend time with him and give him treats!” Mickey said. “If you give him treats, he’ll like you, too, Vin!”
“Thanks for the tip, there, Mick. I think it’s better if me and Smoke keep a respectful distance.” Vin liked the animals, but he was not a horse guy.
When Vin gave her a silent but meaningful look, Phoebe let Mickey and Smoky head off to the corral while she met Vin at his car.
“How’d it go?” he asked as she approached.
She’d had almost an hour of not thinking about the looming ruin of her life, and she almost lost a step as all those thoughts stampeded forward now. “Very bad. Ty doesn’t think we have a case.”
“Shit.” Vin sighed and looked over to the corral. “You think you oughta be working that horse now? You should be resting. Margot said you were slurring your words by the end.”
Phoebe hadn’t realized that, and it pissed her off that Margot was gossiping behind her back. “It’s stressful. It’s a lot to think about. But I’m on top of it. I’m fine.” Vin’s eyes narrowed, and she wanted to punch him. “Fuck off, Ervin. I said I’m fine.”
“And I’m gonna worry no matter what you say. GoFundMe’s already up to forty-three hundred, by the way.”
That was a lot more than she’d expected after about six hours, but it still was nowhere near enough. “And that’s not even three percent of what we need.”
Ty’s actual legal advice was to arrange a meeting, with witnesses, where Phoebe would apologize to Copperman and grovel until the rich bitch was satisfied. But that pill was the size of a meteorite. She didn’t think she could swallow it. The meeting with Ty had ended with her promise to think about it and let him know.
Feeling the fog roll in again, Phoebe shook her head. “I feel better working. If I rest, I’ll just lay there and think about all this shit, and that’s what’s fucking up my head. So let me be, okay?”
“Okay. I’m gonna make those cheesecake cookies you like. Storm front’s moving in, too, so watch the weather. Temp’s supposed to crater around sunset.”
“I know. I’m paying attention.”
He gave her another extremely annoying, paternal squint, and finally nodded. “Okay. See you inside.”
––––––––
~oOo~
––––––––
Smoky was not at all happy about the saddle, but he was trained to it. They started slowly, walking him up to the tack, giving him treats when he didn’t shy, then letting him mouth the saddle and bridle, walking him around the corral and doing it all over again, until he’d decided the saddle wasn’t going to hurt him. Then they worked on saddling him, starting by merely laying the pad over his back. He hated that very much, and reared up at the first several attempts, so they focused there, trying to get him to stand and allow the pad to rest on his back.
Phoebe and Mickey worked Smoky together until three, when Mickey’s mom came to pick him up for the day, and then Phoebe worked Smoky herself for another hour or so, until the sky darkened and the wind picked up. By then, all the animals had moved close to the gate, and Smoky had lots of distractions to go with his pervasive distrust of this whole ‘saddle’ nonsense.
One day of training was not going to miraculously solve all of Stormy’s issues. But by the time Phoebe had to call it and get everybody inside before the storm broke, he would accept the pad and walk calmly around the corral with her while it lay on his back. That was progress, and they were in no rush. Hopefully.
As she was giving Smoky hugs and kisses for having such a good session, she registered that her migraine had diminished by at least half.
With only Gremlin’s help, she got everybody into their stalls, got their blankets on and their dinner distributed. She didn’t get to the chickens before sleet started to fall, but she was pretty sure she and the dog were the only ones who were actually miserable when the work was finally done.
