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Chapter Sixteen

“ M atty?” Luke rolled into Matt’s office-y small bedroom. There was all sorts of other shit in there, including tack Matt was mending, and there wasn’t a whole lot of room for his wheels.

“Yo, Lulu. What’s up?” Matt was doing some sort of paperwork, but there was a genuine, happy smile for him. “You needing a ride out to McConnell’s?”

“No.” No, he’d been sitting in the front room watching some silly crime show and had seen a commercial for that wounded veteran charity. “I been thinking.”

“Explains the smoke, but spill. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“You want a cup of coffee or something? I’ll even make you decaf.” Luke teased Matt about not being able to sleep if he drank coffee in the evening.

“Oh, dude. This is a serious conversation. Let’s have leaded.”

“Cool.” He backed out of the room so he could lead the way to the kitchen, which was where all real talks happened .

Matt followed along, pulling out the cookie jar while he made coffee.

“Cookies? Wow, you must be worried,” Luke said, his nerves settling a little. Matty must have been worried he was leaving. That wasn’t it at all. In fact, he thought he’d found just the calling that would lead him to stay in the area.

“Yeah, a little. Are you going to move away? Do I need to kill McConnell?”

“No.” He took a deep breath. “What do you know about horses for therapy? Like for PTSD.”

“Not a lot. I know that there’s a shitload of people doing therapy for kids—Down’s syndrome, for sure.”

“Right. I was thinking about it. Like, how the work has helped me. I know a lot of guys who are having trouble readjusting. Physically and mentally. I want to try to do a—well, a place they can come spend time with animals.”

Matt tilted his head. “They sure helped you. I mean, they seem to make you happier.”

“They do. And I know some of them are rescues, too. I mean, I wouldn’t want anyone messing with your roping horses, but Angel and Leaf and the damned donkey? They really need me as much as I need them.”

“Yeah, they need love, Lu. Seriously.” Matty handed him a cookie.

Luke traded it back with a cup of coffee. “Right? I mean, I don’t know where to do it, but I want to try. I don’t even know where to start.”

“At the beginning, I guess. We talk to Momma and Preacher.”

“That works.” Luke had to grin, because Matty figured their folks knew everything. Preacher did kinda seem omniscient.

“We’ll need land, horses, equipment and shit. Barns. Feed. Tack. Are you intending on having guys ride? ”

“I don’t know. I mean, I’m in no position to teach that yet.” He was like a newborn foal anytime he tried to stand up. Still, he was standing, wasn’t he?

“I probably could. I’ve taught lots of folks. Bet we’d have to have them wear helmets, though. Insurance and shit.”

“Sure. I mean, we can always start out with just the guys with PTSD on the riding. The injured guys can do grooming and feeding and stuff.” Luke’s heart swelled with pride and love for his twin.

Matty never even thought about saying no to him on this.

His brother was in, all the way, just because Luke wanted it.

Just because Luke needed this. “Thanks, Matty.”

“For what?” He got a curious look for about half a second. “We’ll need like a decent house for people to stay at. Having enough bathrooms for folks is gonna be a challenge there, as houses aren’t made to be equal that way.”

Luke chewed his lip. “Let me talk to Rory. He has a ton of properties. Maybe he has something we can use.”

“Tell him we want the land connected to us here. I know he’s got it.”

“He does. He’s got us mostly boxed in.” Luke chuckled. “I like to think he was protecting you from Harris. He sure seems to think that was it.”

“I don’t need protection, but that’s still kind, I guess.”

“Uh-huh.” Luke bit back a grin because Matt sounded more chagrined than grateful. “I’ll holler at Momma tomorrow morning, make sure it’s okay to come to lunch on Sunday?”

Matty rolled his eyes. “Because she’s going to tell your happy ass no. Dork.”

“Hey, they might have plans. Preacher does actually work on Sundays sometimes.” Not much. He was mostly retired after the stroke he’d had.

“Yeah, yeah. So you want to work with rescue horses, huh? We might could get grants or something. Folks love that shit. ”

“I bet we’d get more grants for the horses than we would for soldiers.” Luke wasn’t bitter about that, really. He got it. Animals didn’t have a voice, and folks figured humans had people to care for them.

“There’s way more horses here than soldiers, Lu.”

“You think?” he teased. “I guess that’s totally true in Texas.”

“Least this part. In Killeen, I reckon not so much.”

“Right.” That was a big base, Fort Cavazos. He’d been Navy, stationed mostly in California when he wasn’t deployed. He’d loved it out there too, but this was home, and he knew now it always would be.

Luke grabbed a cookie so he could dunk it in his coffee. “You want to grab my laptop? I can do some research, let you get back to your paperwork.”

“Ew. Paperwork sucks, man. This is way more fun.”

“Cool. Then you can sit and brainstorm with me.” He beamed at Matty, so tickled he might as well have had a feather up his ass.

“That works. You want another Oreo?”

“God, yes. But give me two so I can make a double.”

“Save the other sides for me.”

“This is why we’re twins.”

Matt nodded, happily taking the crispy cookies from him when he peeled them away from one side of the cream.

Maybe, just maybe this was gonna work.

Hell, between him and Matty, it didn’t have a choice.