Page 19 of Dragon Her Heels

The incubus pouted. “I can handle being moral support. I’m quite good at handling women.”

Sometimes, the only way to contain the demon involved kicking him in the shins, which I did without remorse. “Just get in the car before I decide you’re staying home.”

Ashley claimed the front seat through the force of a glare, leaving the incubus to share the back with my boxes.

Was I the only actual adult on my street? I feared so. Resisting the urge to sigh, I got behind the wheel, started the engine, and waited for my car to stop its whining and complaining to back out of Ashley’s driveway. “Isaac, as I happen to know you’re a closet truck man, I need a big, manly truck that can haul at least three horses.”

After a moment of thought, he directed me to a dealership thirty minutes away. “You want the largest non-commercial model they have. Those can tow the heavy trailers without an issue. Their biggest model can handle the massive livestock trailers, the kind that can cram twenty horses in the box.”

As my old beater only dreamed about having a navigation panel, I did as always, relying on my memory to get to the place, which was located on the other side of Lakeland. Fortunately for my sanity, Lakeland wasn’t all that large, although morning traffic could snarl anywhere in Florida.

“Where are you taking your horses?” Ashley asked.

“Alligator Bait wants to race, so I’ll be hauling her to a few competitions. She becomes an absolute nightmare should she not get to race. Buttercups? I can trust her to engage in carcass time. Alligator Bait? She mopes and puts up a fuss if I don’t breeze her once a week at a minimum. She’ll be getting all the breezing she can safely handle to condition her for competition. I’m taking her as far as she wants to go.”

“But aren’t all the primary racing horses colts?” my neighbor asked, her tone puzzled.

“Alligator Bait is larger than most of the boys, and her heart’s bigger, too. I will enjoy crushing their hopes and dreams beneath her hooves.”

Isaac laughed. “You’re going to feel guilty you have an excellent filly. But you do know no filly has ever swept the Triple Crown, right?”

I’d done my research on the three races, and fewer than twenty horses had won all three in the competition’s history. “No filly has done it, and the number of horses who have done it is ridiculously low. The Belmont Stakes is the race that usually bars Triple Crown complete victory; it’s close to the Preakness, which makes it difficult for horses to recover sufficiently to win. There have been well over a hundred races, and less than a percent of them have resulted in a Triple Crown complete victory. It’s more common for a horse to win the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness but have a poor run at the Belmont. That will win them the set of races as a whole, though, it’s just not a sweep.” I shrugged. “I’m just giving Alligator Bait the chance to try.” I eyed Ashley out of the corner of my eye. “If you like the races, I need some help grooming the horses, and I can pay for your hotel, food, and everything you need while we’re traveling. It’s going to be a lot of work keeping three horses happy on the road.”

“Let me know when the races are, and I’ll see if I can help,” the woman promised.

Once again, I spotted the flicker of hope in her eyes. I’d abuse the Devil, but I’d make sure the woman could go to the races without her way of life being jeopardized.

“I’ll do that. Once I’m armed with my new truck, we’ll hit the feed store, we’ll make Isaac hold all my pullets on his lap, and we’ll grab lunch. Actually, we’ll get lunch before we go to the feed store. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to want to eat right after handling a bunch of chickens.”

Ashley nodded. “That sounds like a solid plan. I wasn’t expecting to go truck shopping today, but this beats my previous plan.”

I could guess her ‘plan’ involved staying at home and noticing every little thing her lost husband had touched or owned, her heart grieving every moment she stayed.

One day, she’d be ready to accept that he was gone, and I’d do what I could to get her through the process.

Until then, I’d do my best to give her reasons to look forward to tomorrow. It was both the least and most I could do for her.

* * *

One day, I might understand why dealerships insisted people wanted white, black, gray, or silver vehicles. If I wanted a truck with any color whatsoever, I’d either need to select a cherry red or a horrific shade of vomit green. As I refused to subject myself to vomit green, I bought the red one.

The red one came fully loaded, and the instant I could confirm payment, I could drive it off the lot.

Someone had begun the process of purchasing it but had backed out after the dealership had gotten the beauty street ready.

Their loss, my gain.

As a cashier’s check didn’t require a waiting period, I dragged everyone to the bank, losing twenty minutes of my day to convincing the teller that yes, I really did want to write a cashier’s check for over a hundred thousand dollars for a fancy truck. Once I navigated through the nonsense of some guy attempting to convince me a woman had no use for a vehicle meant for manly men, I returned to the dealership, handed over the check and the keys to my junker, and accepted the various fobs, one of which controlled the electric bed cover and one that unlocked the tailgate and the doors.

While I’d rented and driven a truck and trailer to haul Alligator Bait to Tampa Bay, it would take a lot of getting used to in order to handle going from the equivalent of a rusty go-kart to a monster of a truck.

Ashley laughed while making use of the step to climb inside. “That banker really tried to talk you out of the truck.”

Isaac heaved a pained sigh. “On behalf of all males, I do apologize for him. I promise you, incubi are superior beings capable of knowing what a woman wants, how often she wants it, and offering such things at the appropriate intervals.”

I needed to talk to Lucifer about his incubi and their egos.

“My husband was a quarter incubus,” Ashley admitted. “He had a knack for that sort of thing.”