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“If the national land gets too crowded, the Bureau of Land Management will move them to state land with or without approval. They must have decided to make the move and we weren’t notified.”
“Wow, you’d think they would have warned us.”
“Nope, no such luck. We’ll want to get the females inoculated with the contraceptive as quickly as we can.”
“If the BLM would just do that in the first place…”
“Right. As soon as I’m done with this”—he held up his cup—“we can hike in back if you’re up to it.”
“I’m up to it. I need to get out of here for a while so I don’t start obsessing. I’m already planning what I can do to make more room for us.”
“What can you do? It’s a finite space.”
“Not really. I don’t need a designated guest room. I’m going to fix it up for your clothes since I barely have room for my own in the big room closet.”
“What will guests do?”
“Guests get the couch,” she said, grinning. “My man gets top choice.”
“Jeez, I’m counting my blessings right now,” he said, grabbing for her.
“I’m happy. One last issue resolved. I’m sure more will pop up now that we’ll be together more, but I’ll handle it.”
“What’s your main concern?” Justin asked.
“That you’ll try to control me,” she said without hesitation. He had done it in the past.
“I’ll make it an act of my will not to be too bossy.”
“Well, don’t be too hard on yourself when you fail at it,” she said, laughing out loud.
“Come on, put your boots on. We’d better spray with bug repellent, too. It’s warming up, so you don’t need that sweater.”
He’d just proved a point, but she let it go. Back inside she changed into her canvas snake boots and grabbed Brulee’s harness and leash and the bug spray. Heading into the woods, they stayed on the trail the wild horses used to come to her property, a well-worn path that was dry that day.
The horses in the woods stopped munching and looked up as the couple passed, familiar humans who might have annoying parties at night, but wouldn’t interfere while they grazed.
On the other side of the wood, in the clearing on the state side of the fence, a small band of horses stood statue still, hearing intruders approaching. Brulee lost her manners and woofed at the new arrivals, and they took off as a group up a small incline and back into the trees.
“Brulee, naughty,” Maggie said. “Look, there are more spotted horses.”
“Aw, she’s okay. She’s pretty smart. That must be the new band. They’re staying on the state side of the fence, so that’s a good thing, as long as they continue over there. At our next wild horse meeting, we’re going to have to address this.”
He approached the fence and took out a small pair of binoculars from his coat pocket to spy on the band. “There’s a pregnant mare.” He handed her the binoculars. “See the black horse?”
“Yes! I wonder if she’ll stick around.”
“If you want, we can take a portion of fencing down. It’ll mean more manure to muck on your side.”
“I don’t mind more horses. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty upset about my Twelfth Night party scaring the horses away. No one has come back.”
“They will. They’re right in the woods, waiting to see if you’re alone and quiet. If we let this other group in, they’ll come to the cottage. They don’t know about any parties.”
“We’ll have to put in a corral for Spooky though. That temporary paddock isn’t going to be enough.”
“Yep, we will.”
Justin took Maggie’s hand, and they kept walking the perimeter of her property until they came to the rescue. It appeared to be busy, with cars and trucks in the parking lot. They didn’t go in.
