Keeping Chilly (The October Horses Book 3) Page 3

  “Come on.” Nicholas wrapped an arm around my shoulder and steered me toward his car. “Let’s get you home.”

  Our drive back was mostly silent. I stared out the window, struggling to process everything that had happened. How could a day that started out so full of sunshine and promise end up so badly?

  The horses were already unloaded and put away by the time we got back and Jeremy had brought in all the boarders as well. Everyone was bedded down eating a late lunch or maybe an early dinner. Our two new young racehorses, Poppy and Jet, were out in their paddocks munching on hay nets.

  “Julie called. Chloe has gone in for surgery,” Jeremy said gruffly from where he was brushing Dragon in her stall. I could see a blob of cream at the side of her mouth where he’d already treated her cut. “Lorne wants to head up to the hospital whenever you two are ready to go.”

  “You’re not coming with us?” I asked slowly, noticing the sort of possessive way he’d draped an arm over Dragon’s back.

  “No, I don’t do well with hospitals. Besides, Chloe doesn’t need to see me. You can text me to let me know how she’s doing. Lauren called and invited me to their barn dinner tonight. It’s for the whole team to celebrate their wins.”

  He didn’t meet my eye when he spoke and I felt an uneasy churning in the pit of my stomach.

  “You’re going out for dinner to celebrate?” I said incredulously. “While Chloe is in the hospital having surgery?”

  “Yes, yes I am.” He ran a soft-bristled brush down Dragon’s neck slowly. “It’s been a long day and I need to blow off some steam.”

  He can’t be serious, I stared at him in bewilderment. But apparently, he was.

  “Right, let’s go then,” Nicholas cut in before I could argue any further. “Lorne will try and drive himself if we don’t head him off soon.”

  “Fine,” I said, leaving the barn with a reluctant backward glance at Jeremy.

  He was working a brush through Dragon’s unbraided mane, talking to her in a low, soothing voice. Looking at her like she was already his horse.

  The important thing to think about right now is Chloe, I reminded myself.

  I would have to worry about Jeremy’s strange behaviour later.

  Chapter 4

  Bree

  We had been right to not let Lorne drive himself. He was more upset than he’d let on earlier. He twisted his cap between his hands the whole way to the hospital, his face white and his lips pinched tightly together like he was in pain. I wasn’t doing much better honestly. Part of it was worry about Chloe. But the other part was that I didn’t want to step foot in a hospital again for a long, long time. I knew that Lorne felt the same way.

  I’d nearly lost my life here. And Lorne’s wife and soulmate, Gretta, had passed away when we’d been in the nearby palliative care center together. It wasn’t a time either Lorne or I wanted to remember.

  Nicholas met my gaze in the rear-view mirror and sent me a reassuring smile.

  The parking lot at the hospital was full so we had to find a spot in a far back corner and walk all the way to the front door.

  I knew Lorne was in a hurry but the closer we got, the slower his feet went, the less he spoke and the more he hunched his shoulders into a protective curl. Which was alarming since he was usually full of vigor and sass. Not much usually got Lorne down but this whole accident had clearly shaken him.

  “Lorne, you know Chloe’s going to be okay, right? It’s just her leg,” I said, attempting to sound like I knew what I was talking about.

  “It was a bad fall, Bree,” he said quietly, pulling his cap off and gripping it between both hands. “Dragon tripped when she spooked. She fell right over on Chloe. For a second it looked like ….” He broke off and I reached out and took his arm, squeezing tightly.

  I could imagine what it had looked like. Especially if Chloe had blacked out for a second.

  “Dragon spooked when Titan fell?”

  “Yes, he made this horrible sound when he went down; I’ve never heard anything like it before. All the horses nearby were terrified and a few of them bolted. Which upset Dragon. Another horse nearly ran into her and that’s when she leapt sideways and fell.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “Titan was a good horse.” Lorne shook his head, looking a little like his old self again. “It’s a real shame his rider lost him like that.”

  I was about to answer but just then the front doors whooshed open and that antiseptic hospital smell hit me. I gulped, suddenly needing all my wits to focus on not throwing up or bolting outside. Only my grip on Lorne’s arm anchored me down.

  Luckily, Nicholas took over, marching us up to the desk and finding out exactly where we needed to go to find his mom and Chloe.

  “Third floor,” he said, herding Lorne and I to the elevator.

  We saw Julie the second the elevator doors opened. She was halfway down the hall sitting on a plastic chair, a cardboard cup of coffee in her hand and a magazine spread open on her lap.

  She broke out in a relieved smile the second she caught sight of us.

  “She’s going to be okay.” Julie stood up, stretching her cramped muscles. “She’s already out of surgery. The break was clean, they just had to reset it. She’ll be in a cast.”

  A wave of relief shot over me and tears stung my eyes.

  “Can we see her?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice steady.

  “Yep, if we wait an hour or so, we can. But she won’t be up to much conversation. Are you guys okay waiting that long?”

  “Of course, we are,” Lorne said. “I want to see that she’s okay with my own eyes.”

  “Are her parents here?” I asked.

  Julie’s expression fell and she made a disapproving noise in her throat.

  “Her dad is out of town right now and her mom … her mom said she wasn’t going to come.”

  “Seriously? She really holds that much of a grudge?”

  Julie shrugged and looked away.

  Chloe’s mom was kind of an intense woman. She’d practically disowned Chloe for putting off university until next year in order to focus on riding. That’s why Chloe had had to move in with us in the first place; her mother had kicked her out. Chloe hadn’t seen her mom or her little brothers in months.

  “She made sure that Chloe was going to be okay and that we were taking her back to the farm with us,” Julie said slowly. “But, no, she’s not coming to see her.”

  I gritted my teeth and shook my head. My own parents had been amazing when I’d been in the hospital; they’d barely left my side and had been my strongest advocates. I couldn’t imagine my mom not dropping everything to be there if I was hurt.

  “Maybe we should all get something to eat while we wait,” Julie said, “I remember how fantastic hospital food is. It will be just like old times.”

  She grinned at us and we all groaned.

  Julie had spent her own terrible time at the hospital many years ago when she’d been in a car accident that had ended her riding career. She’d also lost her husband, Nicholas’s dad, in that accident. That had been when Nicholas was a kid but I knew that they both still carried the scars from it. Even after many surgeries, Julie still had burn marks across her body, including her face and arm. I barely even noticed them anymore but new people often gave her a surprised second glance when they first met her.

  We filed downstairs to the cafeteria and, despite my anxiety at being in this building at all, my stomach rumbled in anticipation as soon as I smelled food. This hospital actually had a pretty good head chef and their kitchen team made it their mission to make the food as tasty as possible. Unfortunately, I’d been too sick during my extended stay here to appreciate that very much.

  “Carbs,” I said, my mouth watering, “I need carbs now.”

  I ordered whichever pasta had the cheesiest sauce on the menu, a side of garlic bread and chocolate cake for dessert. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in years.

  I was too focused on food to join in on the conversation but I half listened as Julie and Lorne talked about the horse show and how we’d done that morning before the accident. Nobody talked about Dragon or what was going to happen to her now that Chloe couldn’t ride.

  The problem was that Dragon was a heck of a lot of horse. Too much for me or Adie to ride. Unless we wanted to take on another rider then Jeremy was the obvious choice. But we all knew how badly Chloe would react if it came to that.

  We were back upstairs before the hour had passed, waiting anxiously outside Chloe’s door until a slightly irritated nurse ushered us inside.

  “Just a few minutes,” she told us. “She needs to rest. You can pick her up tomorrow.”

  We filed up to Chloe’s bedside and I gulped to see how pale and small she looked in the hospital bed. Like a little kid.

  She shifted as we approached the bed and her eyelids drifted open.

  “Hey, Chloe,” Julie whispered. “How are you doing, girl?”

  “Hi,” Chloe smiled sleepily at us and waved a languid hand in our direction. “Is Dragon here?” She asked dreamily. The pain medication was apparently in full force.

  “She’s safe at home,” Lorne said gruffly. “Eating her body weight in hay.”

  Chloe laughed and her eyes fluttered shut again. “Don’t let Jeremy ride her, okay? I’ll be back tomorrow. Promise me.”

  Lorne patted her hand gently. “Just go to sleep now; we’ll worry about that later.”

  “Promise me.” She frowned even though her eyes didn’t open. Her grip on Lorne’s hand tightened.

  But luckily, he didn’t have to answer because Chloe yawned and snuggled deeper into her pillow before beginning to snore softly.

  “I guess we should go,” Julie said. “We’ll pick her up tomor
row.”

  The second we were out of the hospital I took a deep cleansing breath of fresh air and wiped my damp palms on my jeans. I felt like I’d escaped from a prison somehow, even though it was a perfectly nice hospital.

  Around me the others were doing the same and I guessed that it was nearly agony for any outdoorsy type of person to even think of being stuck in a bed for longer than a day. I never wanted to go back there again.

  Visiting that place had reminded me of how lucky I was to be alive. It was a good reminder of how I had to live each day fully and not take a single second for granted. Chloe’s accident could have been much, much worse.

  Chapter 5

  Maisy

  I wouldn’t let those idiots take me to the hospital. I wasn’t hurt. Not in the broken bones and blood sense anyway. I was fine on the outside.

  It was the inside of me that had been carved out, hollowed, stripped of everything that was good and right with the world. Only an agonizing dark void was left. There was no doctor’s cure for that.

  My bond with Titan, the best friend I’d had in this world, had been severed without a second’s notice. Nothing. No warning. Just there one second and then, blam, gone. Like the best part of me had been brutally erased.

  I couldn’t even comprehend what had happened at first. It felt like a joke, a prank someone was playing on me. Ha ha, your horse fell in public and nearly crushed you. That I could have handled. I kept expecting him to get up. To lift his big, beautiful head and lumber to his feet like he did after a good roll.

  But he didn’t. And all those people were screaming and pointing. And I couldn’t think. It felt like there was something I should be doing to make it better. Some magic words or a talisman I could use to bring him back if I only knew how.

  But there was nothing. Just this unbreaking loneliness.

  I was glad when I could take out my anger on the ambulance attendants who came to hover around me. I was glad when I could rage at the bumbling vet and tell him to get the hell away from my horse. Anger felt so much better than the bewildered hurt.

  It was a relief when everyone finally left me alone. I didn’t have anyone with me at the show that day. I had been doing a simple demonstration. It was supposed to be a quick hour out of my day. A goodwill gesture to do something about rebuilding my shoddy reputation after my old coach, Dirk’s, public downfall. It was one of the conditions of me staying on the European Development Team. I had to do all this public outreach crap to prove that I wasn’t a terrible person.

  Not that what had gone down with Dirk had had anything to do with me. Sure, I’d ridden with him for years but he hadn’t done anything shady to me or Titan. And I hadn’t seen him do anything to the other horses, or the riders, either. Not really.

  I hadn’t even boarded at his barn. I’d trailered in for my lessons and trailered out again. I’d been completely focused on my own riding and career. When the group launching the complaints against him had asked, no begged, me to testify, I’d turned them down flat. It wasn’t that I’d been protecting Dirk; the whole thing was just none of my business and I’d tried to stay out of it.

  That should have been the end of it. But it wasn’t. By the time the gossipy horse community was done with me there had been nothing left of my reputation. There’d been nobody left to stand with me at all.

  Which meant that there was no one around to back me up when I wouldn’t let that hack vet near Titan. He was trying to be helpful, on some level I knew that, but he wasn’t my own vet. He didn’t even know Titan or care about him. And, on a more basic level, he wasn’t the guy who knew what to do with the insurance company when a beloved, but high priced, horse died. There were forms to be filled out properly and calls to make. And the only one I trusted to do that right was my own vet, Monica.

  This is the end of my dream, I thought bleakly. Titan had been a one-shot gamble for our family. And unless I found an owner willing to take a chance on me, or bought a foal and waited the six years it took to get it going properly, then my dream was dead in the water.

  All those thoughts whirled frantically through my head while I waited crouched down beside Titan. Guarding his still body like a tiger protecting her cub until Dr. Patel arrived and I could finally let down my guard. I knew I looked like a crazy person to the audience of people still milling around. But I didn’t care. Titan was all that mattered.

  Monica Patel had known me my whole life, so the second she arrived she took two steps toward me and then wrapped me in a tight hug. I sagged against her for just a second, silent sobs wracking my body. The relief of being in the presence of someone who was definitely on my side was almost overwhelming. She knew how much I loved this horse.

  “Go home, Maisy,” she said gently. “I’ll take care of him from here.”

  “There will be an autopsy?” I asked in a raw voice, wincing at the thought of my beautiful partner being laid out on a table somewhere to be cut open.

  “Yes, a truck is coming to take him back to the hospital. Don’t worry, we’ll find out what happened to him. I’ll call you tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. Maisy, I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

  That nearly undid me again. I knelt down one last time to wrap my arms around his beautiful head and kiss him softly in that hollow spot over his eye. The spot I knew so well.

  “Goodbye, sweet boy,” I whispered. None of this was real. This must all be a dream. I could hardly force myself to walk away from the body. Some part of me was screaming that this was all wrong, he wasn’t really dead, and I shouldn’t be walking away from him. Surely, it was some sort of joke and he’d pop up any second, giving himself a good shake, and march back to the trailer with me.

  Sorry for scaring you, mom, his expression would say. Can we go home now?

  I packed the trailer like a robot, snarling at anyone who tried to break through the fragile wall I was trying to build up around myself. Whether they were well-meaning or not, I couldn’t take a second to think about what was happening back at that ring or I would stop functioning completely.

  I couldn’t think about the sound Titan had made as he fell. The breath that had whooshed out of him. The utter fact that there had been nothing I could do to save him. No last minute life-saving measures I could fix with money or a phone call to friends or by begging the vet. Nothing. He was there and then he was gone.

  Gone. How could Titan be gone? He was everything.

  I focused on the road, coaching myself through every little step I needed in order to get home safely. Put the key in the ignition, Maisy, not too much gas, blinker on. This is a stop light. I drove carefully, like there was still a horse in the trailer who would care if I drove too fast or took the corners too sharply.

  Step by step I made my way home. To my farm, which wasn’t a home at all without Titan.

  Rory, my ancient childhood pony, bellowed from the driveway as soon as he saw the trailer and my heart seized in my chest. How would I explain to Rory that his best friend hadn’t come home with me? Would he think I’d sold Titan? Had forgotten him somewhere? Had I betrayed the deal we’d all had to be together forever?

  Forever. Just this spring I’d refused another good offer on Titan. One I was crazy not to take. Even my parents had urged me to consider it. But I couldn’t do it. He was too much a part of the family to just sell. And now…

  Ignoring Rory’s neighs, I unpacked the trailer one item at a time. I couldn’t remember who’d taken off Titan’s saddle and bridle. Even his boots. There was a lock of tail hair in a plastic bag. When had that happened? Who had put them back in my trailer?

  I threw the saddle on its rack without even checking it over. It was an expensive gift from one of my sponsors. It had been custom made for Titan’s broad back. Maybe the tree had been broken in the fall but I didn’t care. It would never fit another horse like that again.

  I threw my saddle pad and his travelling rug in a heap in the corner, tossing his brushes after them, hard enough that they hit the wall with a thud.