The silence shuddered between us, thick as smoke.
“Yeah,” I said hoarsely.“We have to avoidthat.Agreed.So, you’re for sure staying for a while?”
“Here is the best place for Vinny.Long term, I never saw myself living in my dead father’s house, running his struggling mixed practice, and raising my brother.Life has thrown me a few curve balls.”She loaded the pens in her pockets.“Time for me to go make you some money so we can be done with this debt thing.”
“Wait.”I’d almost forgotten.I pulled a York peppermint patty out of my pocket and handed it to her.I hoped I hadn’t smashed it too much.
She stared at it in her hand.“What’s this?”
A peace offering.“Welcome to the clinic.”
“Thanks?”Her fingers curled around the wrapper, and for a heartbeat I swear her face softened, something warm flickering through all the tension.Then she turned and disappeared into the exam room.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
Thank you, Mom.
ChapterTwenty-Three
ERIKA
That night,I prepared to return another phone call from the after-hours messaging center.The first two had been routine medication refills—important, but not exactly emergencies.The house was finally quiet after the long day that included the splenectomy surgery, a string of emotional appointments, and my ill-fated attempt to help Vinny with math homework.I was no help at all.He’d gone from confused to offended in under five minutes, said something I pretended not to hear, and disappeared into his room, door closing with finality.
Josh was still out on a call when I had to leave to pick up Vinny from school.I checked my watch—six-thirty.Josh was probably already on his date.A hollow ache pressed beneath my ribs.
Nope.Not going there.Not thinking about it.Not letting it matter.
I took a breath and dialed the next number.
When the caller answered she said, “This is Lisa Hurst, Josh’s mother.My pony has a puncture or bite of some kind on his leg that I can’t get to stop bleeding.I’d really appreciate if you could come out to take a look.”
Josh’s mom?
“Don’t you want to call Josh directly?”I asked.
“I don’t want to bother him since he’s not on call tonight.If you think it can wait, let me know.I can send you a picture.I just don’t know.These horses get a nick on a hoof and then try to die four hours later.If this is too much for you to deal with, then I understand.”
Lisa Hurst pulled reverse psychology on me just like Josh had tried.Seriously?“Why don’t I come out there and take a look at it?”Damn it, she’d manipulated me into it.“Are you okay if Vinny tags along since it’s not quite his bedtime?”
“Sure.I just pulled an apple pie out of the oven.I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a snack while we look at the wound.I can put a movie on for him too.”She hung up.
An hour later, I struggled to get the ornery miniature horse, not a “pony,” to stay still enough to see the source of the blood all over its furry, white front legs.Its tail and mane were a mess of sticks and burrs as if no one braved touching the four-legged devil.Mrs.Hurst tried to hold him in the front by his halter, but the tiny horse who barely came up to my thighs at his withers jumped around kicking out every leg other than the one I wanted to see.
“I’m so sorry,” Mrs.Hurst apologized.She snapped his lead but then jumped when the horse attempted to stomp her booted foot and then bit at her.“Stop it!”At her harsh tone the mini stilled.“I wish Mason or Tim was home.This little turd wouldn’t be acting up if they were.They went down to my father’s house to fix his toilet.Lord love my dad, but the man clogs his toilet at least once a week using too much toilet paper or flushing something he shouldn’t.Sometimes he throws those wet wipes in there, but he never gets the kind that are flushable.Well, he’s on septic, so he probably shouldn’t flush either down there.”
I gave up on trying to get a look and tossed peroxide toward the bloody leg, dousing the hair in the bubbly liquid.A few swipes with a towel while dodging kicks showed me the wound.The “emergency” turned out to be a hole no bigger than a penny.I ducked a flying hoof to clean it further.
I leaned back, proud of my work to announce, “Looks pretty superficial.”
A hind hoof kicked out and caught me in the back of the thigh.The pain sent me forward to my knees, but I’d been around horses long enough to know you didn’t want to be down on the ground within kicking distance of an angry animal.I angled to fall away from the little horse.
“Cut it out!”Mrs.Hurst jerked his halter again, which did nothing to curb the horse’s behavior.Doubtful the little jerk had ever been disciplined.“I’m so sorry about him.Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine.”No.My thigh burned when I stood.It wasn’t a broken bone, but it smarted something awful.After another fifteen minutes I got a decent wrap on the horse’s leg.“Ask Josh to come out in one or two days to take a look at it.”Because I sure as hell don’t want to take the bandage off.“I’ll give him an antibiotic injection and something for pain.”
After cleaning up my supplies, I washed my hands in the cold faucet.
“Come inside and have some pie,” Mrs.Hurst ordered.It hadn’t come out as a request.She marched up to the grand farmhouse perched on the hill.Its wide wraparound porch, lined with rocking chairs, overlooked miles of farmland and forest.The HVAC business and farming had been good to the Hurst family.
