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She nods. “He called a betternaran.” I smile at her pronunciation. “I don’t know what that is.” She says, scrunching her nose.
I smile. “You mean a Veterinarian, baby.” I correct.
“That’s what I said, Mama.”
“Alright.” I concede. “A veterinarian is a doctor for animals.”
“Oh, alright,” she says, brightening up a little. “Can he be my doctor too?” She asks.
I laugh. “Are you an animal?”
“We’re all animals.” She says seriously. “Oli says so.”
I don’t know what kind of conversation she heard where that was the topic, but I may need to have a talk with Oli about little ears. “Point made, but no. You see a pediatrician which is a doctor for children.”
“Can we go check on the horsie mama?” She asks.
So much for finding Ellen first. I grab the papers and lift Dakota into my arms. She’s getting so big. Soon I won’t be able to lift her anymore. Sadness grips my heart. I hope she knows that no matter how big she gets, she’ll always be my baby.
“Alright, big girl. Let’s go check on the horse.”
When we get to the barn, I spot Manuel immediately. He has a huge smile on his face. I feel so much relief and a little surprise when I realize what horse he and the doctor are standing next to. “Maple,” I whisper.
She’s unmistakable, with her dark amber-colored hide and the horseshoe shape on her forehead. But the one thing that makes her stand out is the maple leaf on her right hind quarter. It’s stark white in contrast to the horseshoe on her head which is just a lighter shade of amber.
I thought for sure after I left that Dad would have gotten rid of her. Maple was my sixteenth birthday present, and I immediately fell in love with her. My feet move before I even realize and I’m standing in front of the beautiful mare. I reach my hand out and she sniffs at it before nuzzling into it like she did when she was just a filly.
I giggle lightly and rub up and down her muzzle. After a few minutes, I grab some of her feed and look at Manuel, “Is she alright?”
“‘Course she is. She’s just a little pregnant.” He says, smiling from ear to ear.
His smile is infectious, and I smile back at him. I turn back to Maple, feed in hand. Manuel offers me an apple.
I distinctly remember they were her favorite treat. I drop the feed in the bucket and take the apple in my hand. When Maple sees it, she huffs and moves closer to me. When she’s standing beside me. She bends her head to where it's level with mine and then she does something that takes my breath away. She wraps her neck around me in a hug.
A contented sigh leaves me as I wrap my arms around her and breathe in her scent. I swear she even smells like maple syrup. When she pulls back, I open my palm flat, apple lying on top, and hold it out for her. Her soft whiskers tickle my skin as she eats the apple out of my hand.
“She remembers you,” Manuel says, walking over to rub along her neck.
“I think so too. I figured Dad would have sold her.”
“Nah. He loved this horse as much as you did. Said she was special. Maple had a kinship with you, unlike anything your dad had ever seen. Synergy, he called it.”
It’s true. That was one reason Dad bought her. He felt like I’d get back into barrel racing if I had a horse worthy of it. He was wrong. I never had an interest in it. I just used it as an excuse to spend more time with Shane.
“I remember when you first got her.” Manuel cuts into my thoughts. “You were so enamored with Maple that you literally took a sleeping bag and slept in her stall every night for two weeks.” Manuel laughs as he retells the story.
If he only knew that she was only half the reason I slept in the barn. It was the perfect place to run into Shane regularly, and he had no idea that I was sleeping there. I stopped sleeping in the barn one night when I saw Shane sneaking some girl into the tack room. That night changed everything.
The girl left very upset, complaining about not finishing and how Shane was a prick for leading her on. I may have laughed, catching his attention when he heard the noise. He stalked up to me then and laid a kiss on me that threatened everything I ever thought I knew.
Then he forbid me from ever sleeping with the horses again. I never understood why, but after that night he’d find sneaky ways to kiss me, thus sealing my fate and his.
“Mama, is she alright?” Dakota asks.
I lean down to her level and say. “She’s going to have a baby.”
“She’s gonna be a mama?”
