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Last time she escaped, she had somehow gotten into the barn and unlocked every single stall before we finally caught her. The rest of the horses had kicked their way free, wreaking havoc throughout the entire barn. It had been a mess of a day. In hindsight it was funny, but only because we were lucky and no one had gotten hurt. If that sort of thing happened more often, though, our reputation for horse boarding would go down the drain.
That damn horse really was a menace, and she sure as shit didn’t make me any money. I didn’t have a single rider that could actually saddle her and ride, let alone compete with her. But still I kept her and probably would until her dying day.
“Who the hell is this?” Rory said, and he pointed at the vehicle.
I turned to face the car I had ignored. I about dropped dead at the sight of the boy who filled my dreams nearly every day. I didn’t have the chance to say a single word though, because just as he stepped out of his car, Blossom burst through the barn doors at a full run.
Perry moved away from his vehicle—the exact opposite of what he should be doing. He needed to get back inside where he would be safe from the rampaging horse. Instead he stood, unmoving, as the she-demon of a horse raced toward him.
Chapter 2
Perry
I should not be doing what I was doing. But nothing could convince me to stop now. I’d spent my entire drive from Virginia to Tennessee telling myself that I wasn’t going to drive past the Triple R ranch. The temptation to stop would be too great.
But here I was doing it anyway. Not only driving past, but parking in the driveway with my beat up Ford Escort as if I belonged there. The massive house and impeccable barns told me otherwise. This was a place for people who had money, who had their lives together, not for someone who didn’t know when they’d eat next.
Five years ago, my horse had been sold out from under me to Triple R, by my mother—if she could even be called that. At this point she was more an egg donor than anything else. I hadn’t spoken to her in over three years. The phone call last month asking if I’d received any paperwork regarding my trust didn’t count. I didn’t have a trust anymore, she’d stolen that too.
For a few months after I left for college, I tried reaching out to her like the idiot I was. I had been naive then, thinking that perhaps with time my mother could grow to love me like one should love their child, but that never happened. Eventually I gave up.
I put myself through college because my mother couldn’t be bothered to use any of her money, which was actually my dad’s money, for me. I didn’t have access to my trust anymore. It was supposed to come to me when I was twenty-five, and I was just a couple of years from that. She had stolen that too. If I’d had that, I could really afford vet school, maybe pay off all of the student loans I had taken out to get myself to where I was.
I had spent the last five years learning how to live on an absolute shoestring budget. Every cent I earned was saved for the possibility that I would find Blossom and buy her back from the ranch where my mother had sold her. Then I had to board her somewhere and feed her.
Now that I was out of college, and I had a job for a vet who happened to board a few horses on his property, I was really set up in a way that I could finally give Blossom a home. If I could find her.
The Triple R was where she had been sold to on that day five years ago. After that, I didn’t know where she went. I hated to think that perhaps she was gone from this earth, but that was a definite possibility as well. Triple R could have sold her to anyone, used her as a broodmare until her body couldn’t take it anymore, or put her down.
Over the years I had stalked the Triple R website and read any article I could on the ranch and its owners, brothers Reese and Rory. Reese had been the one to pick up Blossom, I was sure of it. No articles, no pictures, nothing ever mentioned Blossom.
The Triple R catered to roping and reining horses, and while Blossom was great, I wasn’t sure that she was a good fit for that life. She and I had mostly done trail riding together, though my mom had hoped I would get into dressage and eventing, since that was more prestigious than just wandering around in the woods.
When I graduated with my undergrad, I had searched the country for a vet clinic to work at. When that search had naturally narrowed down to a fifty mile radius of Triple R… well, that was not my fault.
I was supposed to bide my time. I’d planned to arrive in Sherfield, get situated, and meet the vet I’d be working for in person. I would start meeting the local ranchers and get a feel for the owners of the Triple R. I wasn’t supposed to just show up there.
But I couldn’t stop myself as I passed by the sprawling ranch. The entrance gate with the Triple R logo hanging over the center beckoned me.
I found myself slowing down my rickety car and turning into the driveway. I stopped the car and turned it off. A bit of smoke came from the hood, but that was normal. There were shouts coming from somewhere, but this was a working ranch, so I imagined that people were constantly moving about while they worked, shouting at one another about this and that.
A man rushed out the front door. His boots moved quickly on the paved sidewalk toward the barn.
The barn drew my eye when I had been driving down the road, and it was even more impressive in person. The two story, red monstrosity probably had a hundred horse stalls in it. The white trim was pristine and made the red pop. This was a barn they had put money into, and it made a statement.
Everything about the place screamed high class, which was expected considering what Triple R did.
I didn’t get a good look at the man, except to tell that he was naked from the waist up. That set me to blushing like the idiot I was. Working my way through college, and saving like I did, meant I didn’t have a lot of time for any extracurriculars—dating being one of them. I needed good grades for scholarships. I didn’t make friends very easily. I was poor, but I was raised rich so I didn’t connect with the poor kids. I didn’t connect with the rich kids, because I was no longer rich. I just kept my head down and worked.
I got out of the car, and that’s when I heard her whinny. It was a sound that I would never forget. I almost wondered if I was dreaming as she thundered toward me. I stepped away from my car so that I could greet her. This was how it always was, back when I had her. I’d get out of school, go to where she was in the pasture, and she would run full speed towards me, stopping just in time. And then I’d get a hug or at least the horse version of a hug, where she put her head over my shoulder and pulled me closer to her.
That was exactly what Blossom did. She skidded to a halt in front of me, the stones of the driveway giving way to her hooves. Tears pooled in my eyes as I looked her over. She was older now; some grey hairs covered her nose and made their way toward her eyes, and she was a little heftier, but she was exactly as I remembered her.
“Blossom,” I said, my voice just above a whisper. I lifted a hand to touch her face.
“Get away from her before that horse kills you!” a voice called.
I looked over, expecting to see the man I had seen exit the house, but it wasn’t him talking to me. I recognized Rory, one of the ranch owners, from his pictures online.
