Page 16 of Take a Chance (Blue Creek Ranch #1)

Malachi

M y whole system was sputtering. My head was swimming and I could feel my heart beating way too fast as for a few moments, I couldn’t make my feet move.

The screwdriver I’d used to tighten some hinges on the stall door lay forgotten on the floor.

Jaina caught up to the situation and realized it was me down the aisle. She lifted her head, ears perked forward, as she let out the same greeting nicker she had since she realized I was her person.

I stumbled out of the stall and didn’t bother to think about how that or the tears streaming down my face looked. I just went to her and wrapped my arms around her neck.

I swear she hugged me back, pulling me closer with her large head as she kept nickering for a moment longer.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Crew, what did you do ?” I asked, not giving a shit that I was being awfully familiar with my boss while cussing at him in the same go.

He chuckled somewhere nearby. “Well, I colluded with Wyanne and I interrogated Pay, and I told my mother that I got my scheming from her. Then I called Rachel, because I remembered how you reacted to the name of the rescue and figured it was a good starting point.”

There was a loud banging sound close by, like a horse banging on a trailer.

“Shit, I gotta go help Dad with Rowdy,” Crew said and vanished.

Jaina’s lead rope was across her back where Crew had tossed it. She wasn’t going to go anywhere.

I wasn’t ready to confront Crew about any of this yet, so I chose to concentrate on the fact that even if it had been months, my horse still knew me and didn’t seem to hold a grudge for the abandonment.

Yeah, she’d been in a great place, but it hadn’t been where I was, and—she nudged me with her head and snorted softly as if to tell me I was being stupid.

“I know, girl. I know. I love you. You’re the best girl, aren’t ya?” I hugged her head to my chest and she flicked her ears, not to listen to anything special, but just because she’d figured out how to do that for fun at some point.

I laughed, like I always did, appreciating the comedic relief.

“She’s gorgeous,” Wy commented, looking a bit hesitant to approach us.

“Scheming with the boss, boss?” I raised a brow at her.

She let out a short laugh. “I mean, was I wrong?”

I blew out a breath. “I don’t know, Wy. There was a reason she was there in the first place.”

Mike appeared and leveled me with a look. “As my son told me today, a man needs his horse. She’s clearly yours.”

I could hear the capital Y in his words. She was my heart horse, and being apart from her, especially now that I was around other horses constantly, had been rough.

“Pick a stall,” Wy said gently. “They don’t need to go through quarantine because we know where they’ve been and everyone’s been vet checked regularly over there.”

“Yeah, okay.” I let out another breath and looked around. “I’ll put her here in the end.”

There were three empty stalls, two on one side and the last one on the other.

“I’ll have Crew bring the new gelding there, too. We’ll assess him tomorrow.”

I didn’t pick up the lead, I just clicked my tongue at Jaina, and she ambled after me as I walked all the way to the back of the barn. There was another door there, so I could get her out just as fast from here as from the middle.

As I opened the stall door, I realized I’d need to get more bedding for her, but she’d be fine for now.

“In you go,” I murmured as I stood aside.

She went in and sniffed around a little.

“Here.” Mike handed me a few flakes of hay. “To tide her over. Crew has all the information on what they’ve been eating and her tack is in the truck.”

Somehow that was what pushed me over the edge a little. My knees shook, and I quickly grabbed the stall doorway with one hand, trying to play it off like I’d stumbled a bit as I went to give Jaina the hay.

Her tack. Rachel had told me she would keep it for me, for Jaina, because it was a nice set. Nothing fancy, but well-maintained and worn, and perfect for my big mare.

“Here you go, girl,” I murmured, putting the hay down where she could have it.

Wy walked in with a bucket of water. “Here’s a drink for the Miss.” She set it in the corner.

Jaina immediately went for the water, drinking happily as Wy smiled at her.

“That’s one fine horse,” Mike commented, and Wy nodded eagerly.

“She’s stunning, Mal.”

I was pleased. She was still in excellent condition. Rachel’s people had clearly taken great care of her. I really needed to text her or something.

The clip-clopping of hooves down the aisle interrupted us, and Jaina glanced over, then put her head back down to grab some hay.

“This is a tricky one,” Crew said, but he sounded more amused than anything.

The gelding that was bopping toward the stall next to Jaina’s was clearly a character. With some horses you could just tell.

“What took you so long?” Mike ribbed his son, grinning.

“I took him for a little walk, because he was being a pest. I have a feeling we need to put an extra chain on the stall door,” he spoke as he let the gelding in.

“I’ll go grab one,” Wy said and headed toward the feed room where we had all the bits and pieces we might need.

Mike went to grab more hay for the gelding, and Crew came to peer into Jaina’s stall.

I realized I couldn’t be near him right then. I cleared my throat before he had time to talk. “I’m going to go grab some more bedding for them.” I ducked out, leaving him in Jaina’s doorway.

I made quick work getting their stalls comfy, then went to put the bedding cart back where it belonged.

I was late for getting Pay—it hadn’t escaped me that Crew had smoothly switched my son’s preferred nickname when mentioning him—but I knew he wouldn’t mind too much. Not while he could spend time with Mrs. Jenn, his new favorite person.

I spent a little more time with Jaina, then started to leave her stall when Crew walked up to us.

“I put Jaina’s tack in the tack room,” he said a bit stiffly, as if he wasn’t sure of the reception.

I nodded, not sure what to say to that. “Thank you.” Then I glanced away from him. “I don’t know what to… how to deal with this right now.” I had no actual words to explain the inner turmoil yet and I needed time to think everything through.

“That’s fine.” He gave me a weak grin, clearly equally uncertain. “When you figure it out, you know where to find me.”

“Yeah.”

When I told Pay that Jaina was back, he hugged me extra hard. To my surprise, he asked if he could go see Jaina at the barn one day.

I promised we could do that, but it still floored me when he murmured “I’m so happy you got Jaina back, Daddy. You’ll feel much better now” just as he was falling asleep.

As I tried to do the same in my own bedroom a bit later, I couldn’t really come to any conclusions about how to deal with what Crew had done.

On one hand, he’d given me the one thing that I needed to feel like my life had some semblance of normalcy. He’d given me my heart horse back.

But that was also it. He’d given her back.

He’d chosen to act behind my back, and he’d used his money to go get her—and Rowdy, who I assumed was an extra expense and thus not my problem.

Rachel would’ve taken the adoption fee either Crew or Mike would’ve insisted on paying, even though she would’ve tried to not let them do that at first. That was just who she was as a person.

I knew what the biggest issue was with how I was processing this.

It was the fact that I still didn’t believe any of this was real.

If all of this fell out from under me, where would that leave Jaina?

I wouldn’t have a place to take her. Besides, I hadn’t paid for her, so she wasn’t actually mine again.

She belonged to either Crew or Blue Creek.

I tossed and turned, until my exhaustion took over. Too soon after, my alarm rang to let me know it was time to go again.

I got through the morning routines and dropped Pay off like usual. That there was a “usual” was a bit of a mindfuck, really.

I made my way to the broodmare barn to see if Crew had anything specific in mind for me for the day.

He was leaning to the door of one of the mares, looking at something intently.

Unable to help myself, I went to stand next to him. “What are we looking at?”

He grinned. “Watch her belly,” he replied very quietly.

The perfectly round mare, clearly due at any moment, was munching on some hay, never minding the audience. Suddenly her side bounced. Then again.

I chuckled. “Ah. Someone’s eager to get outta there.”

“Imelda Staunton is due any day now, yes.” Crew let out a satisfied sigh and stepped away from the stall.

“Did you have anything specific for me today?” I asked before he could start on any other subject.

He squinted at me in a way that was decidedly assessing. “Yeah, actually. Since Jaina has been living a life of leisure lately, you should start her easy. So go check the fences in the back pasture.”

I narrowed my eyes minutely. “You sure that’s the most pressing task for the day?”

It wasn’t. We both knew it. There would always be something more important, because I’d already learned the Harringtons were meticulous about the fences.

Crew drew to his full height and leveled me with a look. “Are you questioning me, Mal?”

Yeah. There it was. He was my boss, and I better fucking remember it.

“Not at all.” I swallowed the “sir” that almost popped out of my mouth. “I’ll get to it.”

“Good.” He turned and walked toward his office.

I gritted my teeth until I made it outside, then I forced myself to exhale. Jesus Christ.

Wy took one look at me when I entered the stock barn and widened her eyes.

“Please don’t.” I went past her to grab a two-way before I forgot. “I’m taking Jaina to the back pasture. Fence check.”

“That sounds like a good way for her to settle back into being a working horse,” Wy said gently and quietly as she followed me to Jaina’s stall.