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She led him into the stall, pet his nose when he hung his head over, and murmured soft words in his ear. Harlan had followed us into the stable, but I motioned him away. I was trying to convey the words get the hell out with my face.
He gave me a knowing look and chuckled. But he went. I would owe him one another time.
“Do you want to see the other animals?” I asked, stepping up behind her so that Penny would see my closeness to her.
“Sure.”
Before either of us moved, I reached out my hand and slowly stroked Penny’s nose. He skittered, but settled when Ev’s hand joined mine. “There you go,” I said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”
We stepped away, Penny still watching us.
“Seriously, thank you.”
“It’s not a problem.” She smiled softly.
“If you want to help more with him, you’re more than welcome.”
Evelyn lit up like I’d flicked on a light switch and she’d been in the dark. “Really?”
“Of course,” I said. “He obviously likes you, and that was more progress than I’ve made with him in a month. I could use the help.”
She blushed. “Thanks.”
We walked outside a little, past the alpacas and sheep, laughing at the one sheep who thought he was an alpaca and followed them around constantly. Alpacas and llamas weren’t generally used as service animals for people with PTSD but had been found helpful for people with emotional or learning difficulties, as well as the elderly suffering from dementia.
And they were always a riot to watch. Big and fluffy with the cutest ears.
When we went back into the stable, I led her to the only other horse we had on the property. For now. I was picking up another one tomorrow. “This is Blanche.” She was a gentle mare that had taken to training perfectly. “She’s going to a rehab center in Arizona at the end of next week.”
“Hi, Blanche,” Ev said quietly. “How did you all get the idea for this place?”
I scratched the back of my neck and looked away. It wasn’t an easy thing to talk about, but after everything that she’d shared with me, it would be hypocritical not trust her. “I told you that all of us were SEALs, but not how we met. When we came back from our various assignments and got out, we all ended up at the same treatment program for PTSD. Government run. The kind of place you get stuck when they have nowhere else to put you.”
Evelyn winced. “Doesn’t sound fun.”
“No,” I said, “It wasn’t. And we all knew that we weren’t getting the help that we needed. Though I give the program credit for getting us to the point where we could admit that we needed help. For men like us, that’s hard to do.”
Evelyn returned my smile as we stepped out of the barn and into the sun. I headed toward the kennels. I didn’t know if she was aware that we kept dogs on the property yet. We kept them pretty locked down because dogs running wild weren’t a good thing for people with post-traumatic stress.
“So we talked about it, and together over some drinks we came up with the idea of a safe place for people like us. A place away from everything, where people could recover. A couple of us had had good experiences with animal-led therapy, so we wanted room for that. Help people any way we could.
“Harlan helped us get this property. Liam and I studied how to train animals properly. Now Grant and Noah help find our clients and place our animals. Daniel takes care of the day-to-day tasks, and Jude is our security. He also helps with whatever needs doing.”
“That’s amazing,” Evelyn said. “Really. I feel like most people would have kept their anger and not wanted to help anyone.”
“There’s plenty who do. Hopefully, some of them can find their way here. So we decided to do it, but we’re not therapists. That’s why we work with some local providers. A psychiatrist and physical therapist who are a married couple, and a therapist.”
Evelyn smiled. “Dr. Rayne?”
“Yes.”
“She introduced herself.”
I was careful not to react. The last time I’d suggested talking to someone, it hadn’t gone well. Nor should it have. That had been stepping over a line far too soon.
“Who’s Mara?” Ev asked. “She was there, Rayne greeted her, but she didn’t say anything.”
“She’s the one who took the job you came here looking for,” I said. “But she’s very quiet, and she has her reasons.”
