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CHAPTERONE
REUNION
SOFIE
I’m so sorry to ask for your help, but it’s one of my horses. Can you please come to my stables?
I regret the text as soon as I’ve sent it.
I don’t know what I was thinking, reaching out to Theo, but I didn’t hesitate when I saw Chief lying on his side, his breathing shallow…I just reacted.
I dip my knees into the hay and try to check for any obvious reasons for his distress.
“Hang in there, Chief,” I whisper, tears running down my cheeks.
He didn’t have an appetite this morning, but I didn’t think much of it since his appetite has decreased since our move to Landmark. I was worried the move might be stressful for him but thought he was handling it okay. Now I’m second-guessing everything.
“You can’t leave me,” I whisper.
Lady neighs in the stall next to us.
“Hear that? Lady says you can’t do this. Okay?”
I sit as close as I can to Chief, praying he’ll be okay, and wait.
“Sofie?” Theo calls about ten minutes later.
My heart thunders in my chest as I sit up and wipe the tears from my face.
“Back here,” I call. “Last stall on the right.”
My voice is shaky, and I try to wipe the wayward tears that are still falling. It’s been eight years since I’ve seen Theo Landmark and before my father died a couple of months ago, I’d thought I’d never see him again. I can’t believe this is happening, that these are the first words we’re saying to one another, like there aren’t a million other things we could say right now, but it’s probably best that it’s this way.
Well, it’s just the way it is, whether it’s the best way or not.
He pauses outside the stall, our eyes meeting for long, weighty seconds, and I’m glad I’m already sitting on the ground because I don’t know if my shaky limbs could handle it otherwise.
Time has only improved my childhood best friend and high school sweetheart. Theo Landmark has always had my heart—as a snaggle-toothed little boy I’d run wild with, as a cute little chatty boy who made me laugh throughout elementary school, as a middle schooler who went through a hair-flipping stage but made it look cool, and as a hot guy in high school whose body was more muscled and mature than his friends.
That boy was gangly compared to the man in front of me now.
And my heart is still all tripped up over him.
He jerks into action, taking in Chief lying next to me. “How long has he been breathing like this?“
“It started right before I texted you. He hasn’t had much of an appetite, but then he staggered a little bit before he laid down, and I panicked. This is just not like him at all. He’s never done this. Lady, in the next stall over—she’s my drama queen, not this guy…Chief.”
My eyes well up with tears again, but I try to keep it together. Chief and I have taken care of each other for a long time now.
“Hey, Chief,” Theo says, studying him.
He goes through the steps of taking his temp, checking his gums, his heart rate and respiratory rate, while I keep my hand on Chief’s back and study Theo. If he’s affected by seeing me again, he’s not showing it. Cool, calm, and collected, he’s a complete professional, while I feel like my chest cavity is being wrung inside out just from seeing him again.
“I’d like to give him a steroid and see if that helps him breathe better. Does he have any allergies that you know of?”
“No, he hasn’t for as long as I’ve had him.”
“And how long is that?”
