“Yeah, we were the earliest of birds together this morning,” I said, then got my hug from Payton before he ran to Mike. “Bodhi, if you have time now, I can show you Jaina before I start work?”
“Oh yeah, that’d be great.” He kept the eagerness from his tone really well. Downing the rest of his coffee, he pushed his chair back and grabbed his plate.
Jenn took it from him. “No, you go ahead and do your thing, honey. I’ll see you at lunch time.”
He dutifully leaned down to accept a cheek kiss from her. “Okay, Mom. I might grab a nap in Crew’s cabin at some point, so if I vanish, that’s why.”
“Your room is—”
“I know, but it’s quieter there. For now.” Bodhi’s body language told us all that he wanted out of the house and that he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Whatever you need, son,” Mike said in a gentle, yet firm dad tone.
Jenn just smiled, but I could see the worry in her eyes.
“Come on,” I told Bodhi and turned to go pull my boots back on.
As we were about to step off the porch, we could hear Payton say, “Oh, Daddy and Crew are gonna get married and I’m gonna carry the rings!”
His tone suggested he’d forgotten to tell good gossip to the adults, and Bodhi snickered as I started to walk faster toward the stock barn.
“Well aren’t you a handsome boy,” Bodhi murmured to Ezio who had all but barreled into his arms.
“We found him at an auction. Actually the same shithead who I got Jaina from.” I’d filled him in on Jaina’s story in the stockbarn. “He looks a lot better already, and once he’s healed from the gelding, I’ll start training him.”
Ezio hooked his head over Bodhi’s shoulder and pulled him closer with a happy sigh.
Bodhi, who in daylight was somehow even bigger and taller than in the dim morning light, chuckled and hugged the horse back.
“Do you have a horse?” I asked as I went to check on Ezio’s enrichment items.
“Yes and no. I’ve been gone for fifteen years, so the stock horse that I used to ride, Biscuit, passed away while I was in the service. But Imelda Staunton is my lady.” He smiled in the way everyone talking about their heart horse would.
Imelda Staunton was a broodmare, though, not a riding horse he could use for work purposes. And that was assuming Bodhi stayed and found his place on the ranch.
“Ah. Well, Ezio here has at least a year until he’s trained and grown enough to occasionally carry someone your size, two to be fully grown. Just a thought!” I grinned, lifting my hands up when he tried to glare at me.
Suddenly we heard a loud meow from outside the stall, and Bodhi grinned. “And there’s my other lady.”
He patted Ezio and left to meet whichever cat was calling for him. I stayed to refill the slow feeder ball with hay and clean up his paddock now that I was there.
I didn’t have much in the program for the day to start with, so I texted Hawk to ask if I could take Jaina to the agility course. He texted back an affirmative, and that’s how about half an hour later, I was standing in the middle of the now fenced-in course, with Jaina sniffing around the obstacles.
“Let’s try the wobbly bridge first,” I told her and walked over to the bridge that was built between two low ramps.
The bridge hung on strong as fuck ropes, maybe ten inches off the ground in the middle. It wasn’t high, but that wasn’t the point. Instead, it wobbled underneath the horse’s weight in a very realistic simulation of a rope bridge you might encounter in the wild.
Jaina ambled over to see what I wanted her to do.
“I thought you were going to ride her,” Hawk said quietly from the gate.
I grinned. “Nah, where’s the fun in that.”
Jaina wasn’t even wearing a halter; I’d taken that off as soon as we got inside the fence.
“Okay, like this,” I told Jaina, then walked across the bridge myself.
It wobbled a little, but not much. For a moment, she looked at the bridge, then me, before very carefully walking up the ramp and putting her left front foot on the wooden planks, testing it out.
