Page 68 of Seeing Harper

“I don’t want to blow up her phone. I was just keeping a promise.”

“Sounds good.”

“She’ll see it eventually.”

“Clay! I’m trying to study here!”

Clay looked over at Cruz propped up against one end of the love seat as he stretched out across it with his laptop, his notebook, and two text books laid out around him. “Oh, sorry. I’ll go in my bedroom. But you did see Sebastian today didn’t you?”

“You don’t have to go in your bedroom. Just stop talking to me. And yes, I actually went by the athlete’s dorm between classes. He was there, snoring. Said it didn’t matter if he skipped classes as long as he makes practice.”

“He’s going to regret it one day.”

“Probably,” Cruz said, already paying attention to his laptop again.

“I have some calls to make. Go ahead and get your studying done.” Still clutching his phone, Clay went to his bedroom and closed the door. He took his wallet out of his pocket and removed a folded sheet of paper with hand-written information on it. He opened it up, spread it flat on the bed beside him, and started making calls. As he waited for someone to answer, he opened the drawer in the nightstand beside his bed and dug around for something to write with, and naturally, that exact moment is the moment his call was answered.

“Hello?”

“Hello, sorry to disturb you. My name is Clay Vega and I was given your information by Mr. Robert Bigsby.”

“Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. How is Robert doing?”

“He’s doing real well. Partially retired, and moving to full retirement any day now.”

“Still at it. I should have known he’d be working with his horses ‘til the good Lord calls him home.”

“Yes, sir, without a doubt. And speaking of horses, the reason he gave me your number and name is that I’m trying to track down a horse that I’m interested in purchasing.”

“Oh, yeah? And which horse would that be?”

“Hephaestus.”

“Old Festus! Haven’t thought about him in a few years either. He was a magnificent animal.”

“Is he gone? Has he passed?” Clay asked, sitting up straight in bed, a look of worry on his face.

“I’m not sure. When my wife passed away I sold him to some people across town. City folk, you know. Not really sure what to do with a horse other than look at them, but his wife insisted she wanted to be able to watch him in the pasture as she drank her coffee. Good folks.”

“Do you know if they still have him?”

“I don’t know for sure. I don’t get out much myself anymore and they’re not on a main road where I’d see Festus if I passed there anyway.”

“I don’t suppose you know their number or their name so I could find out?”

“Why are you so interested in buying an old horse?”

“I’m going to propose to my girlfriend. She’s not much on sparkly things, but you should see the look she gets in her eyes when she talks about him. So, I thought if I can find him I’d bring him home and he’d be her engagement present instead of a ring.”

“Was she one of the kids that used to be around the stables all the time?”

“Were you there when he got out and ran down the road to the tree farm?”

“Yes! I was as a matter of fact. My wife was a nervous wreck because nobody could catch him. He just kept going further and further away every time somebody got close.”

“The little girl that eventually caught him and calmed him down. She’s my girlfriend and still talks about him. She calls him her heart horse.”

“I remember her. She worked at the stables after that, didn’t she?”