As the screen door banged shut behind him, he saw Caroline bending over near her car petting their two Australian Shepherds and Golden Retriever. Their tails were wagging, and they were licking her face.
“They sure are lousy guard dogs, but they make a great welcoming committee.” Connor jogged down the porch steps and walked toward them.
“They’re very sweet.” Caroline stood up and pulled her blond braid over her shoulder. “What are their names?”
“Yeah, they’re sweet, and spoiled rotten. The Golden is Allie. The red one is Ace, and this one here is Blue, since he has blue eyes.” Connor knelt down and scratched Blue behind the ears.
“Blue ’cause he has blue eyes? That’s quite original of you.” Caroline grinned down at him.
“Hey now, I was seven. This guy has been my buddy for a long time.”
“Aww, alright. No more grief over his name.”
“Thank you.” Connor straightened and looked out across the parking lot to the barns. “I thought maybe we’d start with a tour before we get to work? I could show you the barns and some of the horses.”
He watched as Caroline’s gaze followed his down to the barns. Her smile started to fall from her lips, but she recovered before she answered. “Sure, sounds good.”
As they walked side by side to the first large barn, Connor glanced at her from the side, searching for any signs indicating Ryan had told her about what had happened yesterday, or that he had taken his anger out on her. But Caroline seemed fine, a little tense, but that was normal, considering they were about to walk into a barn full of horses.
“What?” Caroline turned her head and caught him looking at her.
He looked toward the barn, thinking of what to say. “So, uh, how was your Friday night?”
“Pretty quiet. I just stayed home and studied. What about you?”
Connor worked to keep the shock off his face. “The same, actually. You didn’t do anything with Ryan?”
“No, he had a late practice.”
Connor nodded his head as they entered the first barn. “Anyway, this is where the broodmares and babies live.”
Caroline’s eyes widened as she stepped inside the door. Her eyes looked over everything. Connor tried to see it for the first time through her eyes.
The barn was immaculate. The aisle was lined with spotless black rubber mats. Each stall had a halter and lead rope hanging next to the door, in identical placement. Every horse had a net full of hay and sparkling water buckets.
“Wow.” Caroline interrupted the silence. “This is incredible.”
“Thank you. I’m lucky to call this home.” Connor walked to the first stall, answering the soft nicker that called out to him. He reached out and scratched the mare behind her ears.
Caroline followed him and read her nameplate out loud. “Power of a Dream. That’s pretty.”
“Pretty just like her.” Connor agreed. “We call her Dream. She was my sister’s jumper.”
“Is that the ranch’s focus? Jumpers?”
“And eventers.” Connor watched for any kind of reaction from her as he said the word. “Really all sport horses, including some Thoroughbred racers. We occasionally do other types, if a client has a specific request.”
“That’s awesome.” Caroline kept her eyes on Dream, taking in her sweet face and kind eye. She took a step toward her and lifted her hand.
“She’s a love bug. She won’t hurt you.”
Caroline nodded as she let the mare smell her. She reached up and scratched her the same way Connor had, smiling as the mare leaned into her touch.
“See, I told you she’s a love bug.” Connor fought off the memories that tried to swirl to the surface as he watched Dream with Caroline. The scene was one he’d seen play out a million times between his sister and her horse.
“Yeah, she is. I’m guessing she’s retired now? Since she’s in the broodmare barn?”
“You got it. She’s in foal with her first baby.”
“How high did she jump?”
“She was competing at three feet, six inches to three feet, nine inches, but they were jumping about four feet in practice. She had the talent and heart for more, but uh, plans changed, I guess you could say.”
Caroline turned to face him as she heard the change in his voice, but she kept one hand on Dream’s cheek. She studied him for a minute before a small smile crossed her lips. “I can understand that.”
Yeah, I know you can, he thought to himself. He gave Dream one last pat, letting his hand run down her white blaze. “You ready to continue?”
“Sure. Bye, Dream.” Caroline followed him down the rest of the barn aisle.
Every few stalls, he would stop to tell her something about each mare or weanling they passed. He noticed that her interest seemed genuine, as she walked up and greeted a few of the horses.
“This is the training and boarding barn,” Connor told her when they walked into the second barn. It mirrored the first barn in style and size, but there were three tack rooms, one at each end and one in the middle. There were also wash racks and cross ties throughout, giving clients a place to wash, groom, and saddle their horses.
“You guys do training and boarding, too?” Again, Caroline’s eyes swept the aisle, taking it all in.
“We don’t do the training part. Two trainers run their businesses out of our facility, one for eventing and one for dressage.” Connor saw her stiffen a little this time when he mentioned eventing. “My mom manages the boarders.”
“Did your parents start this place?”
“No, actually my grandfather did, my dad’s dad. My dad took over after he graduated from college and married my mom.”
“So, it’s a family tradition.” Caroline peeked into the large tack room near the entrance. “Is that your plan then, too? To run it when you’re done with school?”
“Pretty much. I just love this place, and what we do here. Even if it wasn’t in the family, I think I’d find something like this to do with my life.”
“I think you would, too.” Caroline smiled at him. “Can I ask what your favorite part is?”
“Of course.” Connor began leading her down the aisle. “The breeding part is. I enjoy looking at pedigrees and analyzing competition results, whether that be dressage scores or racing times, or jump penalties. I look for patterns. Like, does a certain pedigree line have a knack for knocking rails, or going clear? Does a specific stallion throw babies that are always in the top three after dressage? When I find those patterns, I then try to see what they’ve been crossed with, and what works and what didn’t work. If that makes any sense at all.”
Caroline didn’t say anything, causing Connor to look up at her. She was staring at him, but Connor couldn’t read the expression on her face.
He stopped in front of the stall they were passing. “I’m sorry if that was more information than you were looking for.”
Caroline laughed. “No, don’t be sorry. I can see you’re passionate about it and you don’t need to be sorry for that. I’m impressed, that’s all. And maybe a little jealous.”
Connor tried not to blush from her compliment, focusing instead on the last part of her statement. “Nothing to be impressed over. Can I ask why you’re jealous?”
Caroline looked straight into his eyes, and Connor could sense how serious she had become. “Just that you seem to have life all figured out, I guess. You kinda sound like someone who’s being doing this for years, not just starting.”
Connor chuckled. “Nah, I don’t have it all figured out. If you think I sound smart, you should hear my dad go on about it. He’s way better than I am.” Connor started walking again. “You ready to see the stallions?”
“Sure.” Caroline fell into step beside him. “I bet you’re not as far off from your dad as you think. Even if you are, I have no doubt you’ll catch up.”
Again, Connor had to work to keep the heat out of his cheeks. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
They walked in silence to the smallest barn on the property. It had fewer stalls than the other barns, but they were bigger, and each one had an outdoor area attached to it, giving the stallions the option of being inside or out. The sweet smell of alfalfa filled the air as the stallions munched on it.
“How many stallions do you guys have?” Caroline twisted the end of her braid in her fingers as they stepped in.
“Four, or I guess I should say five. My dad just left to pick up a new one after lunch. We own three of them, including the new one. The other two we stand for their owners.”
They came to a stop in front of the first stall. A light gray head hung over the door with his ears perked. Connor walked up to pet the stallion, but Caroline stayed back.
“Just Jasper,” Caroline read the nameplate. “That’s cute. What’s his story?”
“He’s a Thoroughbred, off the track. He ran pretty well locally, won a few out-of-state, too. His babies haven’t done much on the track but are proving to be good jumpers. We’re mostly advertising him for sport horses now.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “You can come closer. He won’t hurt you.”
“I’m okay here. He’s gorgeous.”
“Yeah, he is.” Connor studied her and could see in her eyes that she wanted to get closer. “I promise he won’t do anything. He’s as sweet as they come.”
She paused for a moment before nodding her head and creeping closer. She lifted her fingers for the stallion to smell, staying close to Connor as she did. Jasper breathed into her hand, then licked her palm. Caroline giggled under her breath, reaching up to stroke his face.
“What about the other three?” Caroline leaned her shoulder against Jasper’s door and ran her fingers through his forelock.
“There’s Magician, a Hanoverian.” Connor pointed toward a blood bay resting in the corner of his stall across the aisle. “He does dressage and still actively competes at third level.”
“He looks amazing, really fit.”
“You should see him go under saddle.” Connor’s eyes moved down the aisle. “Over there we have Still Around, a Swedish Warmblood. We call him Comic. He evented through preliminary, then suffered a tendon injury. He could probably still compete at the lower levels, but he’s a half-brother to a horse who won a couple of five stars, the highest level there is, so the owner decided to breed him instead.”
As Connor talked about him, Comic appeared over the door. He bobbed his head up and down and flopped his lips together, making a noise that sounded almost like applause. “I think I see why you call him Comic.” Caroline laughed.
“Oh, yeah. He does all kinds of little tricks like that.” Connor looked at the last stallion in the barn, the one next to Jasper. “And then we have Red Oak, or Oakley, as we refer to him. He’s a Thoroughbred, but never raced. He’s a retired Grand Prix jumper.”
“They’re all so impressive, Connor. I don’t know how anyone could ever pick which one to breed their mare to. Or how you guys decide which ones to breed your mares to.” Caroline was still petting Jasper, scratching a spot high up on his neck. The stallion’s eyes were closed, enjoying the attention.
Connor laughed. “Like I said, it’s about analyzing pedigrees and results, and looking for the patterns. It’s as simple as that.”
“Yeah, sounds simple enough.” Caroline rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, we should probably head to the house and get started.”
“Good point. Alright, Jasper, you be a good boy.” Caroline gave the horse one last pat. Connor’s boots clicked down the aisle as Caroline followed him out of the barn and to the house. Walking in silence, Connor noticed as Caroline looked back several times at the barns and the pastures.
As they started to walk up the porch steps, Connor heard the rattling sound of horse trailer tires. He turned to see the farm’s small trailer spiraling down the curves of the driveway, his dad behind the wheel. Parking in front of the stallion barn, he climbed out of the truck and met another man who walked out of the barn. Caroline followed Connor’s eyes.
“That’s my dad and our stallion manager,” Connor informed her.
“So that’s the new stallion you said was coming?” Caroline watched as they opened the trailer door. Two pricked ears could be seen in the shadows. A tail swished back and forth as hooves stomped and pawed the floor.
“Yeah. He’s a Thoroughbred. He was actually born here, but we sold him a couple years ago. The people who bought him sold him again, and he ended up in the wrong hands. He’s now been neglected and abused. The rescue that picked him up found our information on his registration papers and asked if we’d take him back.”
“That’s so sad. But great that you guys were able to get him back.” Their assignment forgotten, Caroline and Connor watched the horse back out of the trailer. “What’s his name?”
“He’s registered under The Lighthouse, barn name Edison.”
Neither of them moved toward the house as they admired the horse. Even though his ribs and hip bones stuck out, Edison was gorgeous. A blond mane and tail stood out against his rich red coat. His athletic ability was easy to see as he walked, a light spring in each step. As Connor’s dad tried to walk him into the barn, the horse leapt up, trying to pull away. He reared, pawing at the air.
“Whoa. It might take a while for him to trust us.” Connor heard Caroline gasp as the stallion landed and kicked out with his hind legs as soon as his front feet touched the ground. Connor’s dad was careful to keep ahold of him. “Poor guy. I can’t imagine what he’s been through to act like this.”
Caroline didn’t answer. Connor tore his gaze away from Edison to check on her. Her eyes were frozen on the scene in front of her as the men somehow got the stallion into the barn. Her face looked as white as chalk, and her arms were folded across her stomach.
“Caroline? Are you okay?” Connor watched as she tried to swallow but ended up coughing and choking instead. He took a step toward her, but she held up her hand.
When she could speak, she looked at him. “I’m okay. Just swallowed wrong.”
Connor knew that was a lie, but as he studied the sweat beads on her forehead, he decided to let it go. “Alright, well, let’s get to work then.”
Inside the house, Connor lead Caroline toward the island in the kitchen where he had set his laptop. “I thought we could work here.” He pulled out one of the stools, inviting her to sit. “Do you want anything to drink?”
“Water would be great. Thank you.” Caroline pulled herself up onto the stool.
Connor reached into the cabinet and pulled out two tall glasses that were etched with a floral pattern. After filling them with ice and water from the dispenser on the shiny black fridge, he sat them down and circled around behind her to sit on the stool next to her. Opening his laptop, he typed in his password and called up the PowerPoint app so they could start formatting their slides.
They worked together well and had many of the same ideas when it came to slide design and how to present the information. Caroline smiled and laughed as they worked, relaxing more with each minute that passed. Finishing the PowerPoint, they scripted out what they would each say.
“Got any plans for the rest of the weekend?” Connor closed his laptop as Caroline stood and stretched.
“No, not really. Just more studying and homework. Chemistry takes more effort than anything else.”
“Oh, yeah. It did for me, too. I bet it helps now that you have more time, since you quit your manager job with the softball team.” The words were out before Connor could stop them. He pressed his lips closed and didn’t look at her.
“How’d you find out about that?”
“I, uh…just heard about it. That’s all.” Connor looked at her, shrugging his shoulders.
“You’re kinda bad at lying.” A small smile found her lips. “You can tell me. It’ll be okay.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Don’t know about what?”
“Th
at it’ll be okay.”
“It will be.”
He hesitated, but the look on her face and the tone of her voice made him believe her. “Ryan told me.”
“Ryan?” Confusion settled into her expression. “When did you talk to him?”
“Yesterday. He watched us during class, then came up to me in the parking lot when I was leaving.”
“Ryan was at the farm?” Caroline’s confusion turned to shock.
“Yeah, he was there.”
“You didn’t say anything to me during class about him being there.” Caroline’s eyes searched his. Connor wasn’t sure what she found there, or how to reply. She looked down and shook her head. “What did he say to you?”
“Nothing too important.”
“Connor.” Caroline looked back up at him, her eyes firm.
“Maybe you should talk to Ryan.”
“Connor. Please. Just tell me.”
Connor couldn’t handle the begging in her eyes. He exhaled through his mouth, the air whooshing from his lips. “Alright. He asked me what was going on between you and me. I told him we were just partners for class, but he didn’t buy it. He said you’ve changed, and that he knows it’s my fault, and that if it weren’t for his baseball scholarship, he would have knocked me out.”
Caroline’s mouth fell open and all the color drained out of her cheeks. She gripped the back of the stool, her knuckles turning white. Connor didn’t know Ryan, but from Caroline’s reaction, he could tell the information he had given her didn’t match the boy she knew in her heart.
Thirteen
Caroline felt the blood coming back into her cheeks as she managed to take a deep breath. Straightening and releasing her grip on the stool, she worked her fingers to get rid of the pain the tension had caused in her elbow.
“I shouldn’t have told you.” Connor’s voice was full of concern, just louder than a whisper.
“No, I’m glad you did. I don’t know what got into him.” Caroline shrugged her shoulders. “I’m sorry he threatened you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can take it.” Connor puffed out his chest, a goofy grin on his kind face. Caroline felt relief as she saw the light come back into his brown eyes.
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