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“Here you go, sweetie,” she murmured softly to a sick cow, pouring some feed into its trough. The cow’s eyes seemed to hold a touch of gratitude as it began to slowly eat.
Trent was with Duke collecting another sickly cow that had collapsed earlier that morning. Patti felt a pang of loneliness. She’d spent most of her time since their encounter in Trent’s surgery with her Daddy Dom, and it felt strange not to have him by her side. The memory of what they’d done together—the intimacy they’d shared—played out over and over again in her mind.
It was so raw, so recent, so vivid.
Patti had hoped that their relationship might be able to progress at a normal pace. Sadly, that hadn’t been possible. The work had ramped up and up. She and Trent had almost zero spare time. Indeed, it had been days since she’d spent any time in Little Space. At least she had a date with Trent fixed for later today. They’d be playing together in the nursery, and she couldn’t wait.
“Come on, Lulu,” she cooed to her favorite hamster, stroking her fur tenderly. “You can pull through this.” Lulu definitely seemed better. She wasn’t quite back to her usual self, but she was getting there.
As she fed the animals, something gnawed at the back of her mind. A few days ago, she had come up with an idea to play music to some of the animals. She knew that one of the best ways for animals to recover was to reduce their stress levels. She’d made their recovery spaces as relaxing as possible, she had kept the animals clean and hydrated, and had provided them with all the right nutrition, but she’d still had the feeling that there must be more she could do.
So, she’d looked online and discovered that some animals had been proven to calm down to certain types of music. Horses seemed to prefer soft, melodic music. Cows had been shown to produce more milk to slow-tempo classical music. Dogs, amazingly, had been shown to relax to reggae music and soft rock. And there was nothing on goats or hamsters, so she left them well alone.
The animals that she had played music to seemed to be recovering faster than all the others. It wasn’t a dramatic difference, but it was there—a flicker of hope amidst the sickness.
“Could it be the music?” she wondered, biting her lip. “Or is it just a coincidence?”
Patti knew that sharing her observation with Trent could mean hope. It was a low-cost way of helping the animals to recover more quickly. But what if she was wrong? What if her past mistakes repeated themselves, and her well-intentioned idea led to even more pain and loss? The weight of the decision pressed down on her shoulders, heavy and suffocating.
Patti stroked Lulu the hamster. Lulu seemed to find gentle strokes and minimal noise relaxing, as well as playing with her chew toys. Patti had focused on providing those things for her, and she seemed to be responding well.
“Am I really some kind of animal healer?” Patti said to herself, her spirits lifted by Lulu’s enthusiasm. “The hamster whisperer? The horse relaxer?” Her mind raced with possibilities as she stroked Lulu’s soft fur.
Patti chewed her lip, deep in thought, as she continued her rounds. She carefully measured out food and water for the three horses, all the while playing soft music to them on her phone. Was any of this worth mentioning to Trent? Or would it only lead to false hope, or worse still, would he think she was annoying the animals?
“Thunder, sweetie,” she murmured, approaching the stall of the most severely ill horse. “Let’s sit down and listen to some music for a while.” She placed her phone on her lap and then held out a handful of feed, praying that this would somehow make a difference in his condition.
Thunder nibbled weakly at the offering. Was it her imagination, or was the music helping too?
It should have been a simple decision. She should have just shared her instinct with Trent. Any normal person would do just that.
But Patti wasn’t a normal person. It was true that she’d managed to be relatively open with her Daddy so far, but this was different. This would expose her to ridicule. Or, even worse, scorn. What if Trent told her to leave the animals alone forever?
“I’m probably just seeing patterns where there aren’t any,” she sighed, gently stroking the horse’s muzzle.
Seeing patterns where there weren’t any. That’s exactly what had happened at Alpha. The memory still stung, as sharp and bitter as a mouthful of lemon juice. She couldn’t afford to make another mistake like that, not when so many lives were on the line.
“Maybe it’s best if I don’t say anything,” she whispered, her heart heavy with doubt. “I shouldn’t risk making things worse.”
She knew it wasn’t a rational decision. Deep down, she knew that it was the wrong thing to do. But there was fear in her, and it was a fear that, right now, she couldn’t face up to.
*
He needed this. It had been days of endless toil. Hours of bullshit—literally. Trent was exhausted physically and emotionally.
Earlier that day, they’d come close to losing their first cow. Somehow, the poor thing had slipped through the net. Duke had found it just after sunrise: weak, thin, pale, immobile. They’d had to work together to carefully load it into the trailer and cart it back to the barn. The cow’s breathing was labored, and it was clearly dangerously dehydrated.
It had been touch and go. Thankfully, they’d managed to stabilize the poor thing. He’d been having nightmares about having to deliver a corpse back to the barn. He’d imagined Patti’s face upon seeing the dead animal.
It was a miracle that it had survived.
“I’ve been looking forward to this, Daddy.”
Patti was what he needed, more than anything else. Some time alone with her in the nursery, a space where they could both relax in their own way.
“Me too, babygirl.”
The memory of Patti, stretched out on his surgery table, was imprinted in his mind. He was desperate to take their relationship even further. It had been almost impossible to stay professional. Still, he was proud of the way that they were managing to work. They were a good team. And right now, they deserved this special time together.
