Shattered Hearts ePub (3 page)

“It must be nice to be able to study from home,” I ventured as I tentatively opened a kitchen cupboard in search of a glass.  I’d wanted to go to college once.  That dream had been snuffed out in a hurry, like a flame that’s threatening to light the world on fire. 

“Other cupboard,” Maggie said helpfully as I searched for a drinking glass.  “And I don’t know, so far college isn’t at all what I was expecting.  I was supposed to take my first year on campus but then...” 

She trailed off and glanced at the framed photo of her, Nate and their smiling parents that hung on the wall.  Then she flipped her hair over her shoulder as though trying to brush the painful memories aside.  “Maybe it will be different next year when I move to the city,” she said rather unconvincingly.

“What are you studying?”

“I want to be a veterinarian.”

“Wow, that’s ambitious!”

Maggie smiled.  “I love animals.  So did my mother.  I guess I get it from her.  You never said how you slept?” she said, changing the subject.  “If you don’t like the mattress then we can –”

“The mattress was fine,” I told her.  “And I slept...fine.”  That wasn’t completely the truth but flipping the mattress or using a different pillow wouldn’t fix my sleep disturbances.  There was no point in telling Maggie that I’d been plagued by nightmares for most of the night – it was unfortunate but it was something I’d simply learned to accept.

“Good.  I’m just about to make some coffee if you’d like some,” Maggie offered.  “And there are like, ten different kinds of cereal in that cupboard,” she said, pointing to the one above the fridge.  “I got some coupons in the mail and kind of went overboard at the grocery store,” she blushed.

“Thanks, but I’m not much of a breakfast eater,” I replied, taking a sip of my water. 

“Nate’s the same way – when we were kids our mom practically had to force him to stop for breakfast before heading out the door to catch the school bus.  Speaking of Nate, I told him he needed to take you on a tour of the farm this morning,” Maggie said, climbing to her feet.  “I’d do it myself if it wasn’t for the stupid class chat...anyway, I’ll go get him.”

“No!” I interjected, perhaps a bit more passionately than I’d intended.  I already got the impression Nate didn’t like me being there so the last thing I wanted to do was give him actual reasons to dislike me.  I didn’t need to be getting on the bad side of a guy with a fiery temper – been there, done that.  “Don’t wake him on my account.” 

“Wake him?” Maggie laughed, apparently amused by the idea that her brother would still be asleep in bed at a quarter to eight in the morning.  “He’s been outside doing chores since before dawn,” she informed me.  “He does it every morning...sometimes I don’t think he even sleeps.  I don’t know how he does it.  He doesn’t know when to rest, and it isn’t healthy.  That,” she said, lowering her voice conspiratorially, “is why we need you!  He might not know it yet, but you’re going to save him, Amanda.”

I flushed and looked down at my feet.  “I don’t know about that,” I mumbled, feeling awkward.  I hoped I wasn’t biting off more than I could chew.  Maggie seemed every bit as confident in my ability to help save the family farm as Nate seemed cynical.  The last thing I wanted to do was let her down – or prove him right.

Just then the door slammed and I heard Nate’s heavy footsteps on the hardwood.  “Maggie!” he shouted as he clomped through the house.  “I need you to – oh.”  He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me standing in the kitchen, water glass in hand. 

It was hard not to notice how muscular Nate was beneath his clothes.  Even though I knew better, he looked like a guy who spent hours a day obsessively working out at the gym.  All those long days of hard labor in the field had made his body hard and chiseled like that of a bodybuilder. 

Quickly, I averted my eyes, not wanting to stare.  “Good morning,” I said softly, hoping that we could get off to a better start today than we had the previous night. 

“Morning,” Nate mumbled, his tone mellowing just a little when he addressed me.  “Maggie,” he said, turning his attention to his sister, “I need you to help me with Penny.  She’s too spooked to let me near her today and her hooves need attention.”

“Can it wait?” Maggie asked from her seat at the kitchen table as she opened up a small, basic-looking laptop.  “I can’t leave right now – I have a mandatory class discussion and I kind of need to keep my grades up if I’m going to get into the veterinary medicine program.”

Nate sighed.  “We’re behind as it is.  I need to get out into the field as soon as possible, but okay,” he relented.  “Your education comes first.  I guess I’ll just have to work extra late tonight if the rain holds off.”

“Is there something I can do?” I asked him, eager to make a good impression.

“No,” he said flatly.

Maggie looked up from her laptop.  “Maybe Amanda
can
help,” she told her brother. 

“Are you crazy?  There’s no way she’s cut out to deal with Penny,” Nate insisted, talking about me like I wasn’t even there.

Immediately, I took offense to his assertion.  Nate clearly had no faith in my abilities whatsoever, and it was pretty unfair of him to judge me without even giving me a chance to try to prove myself.  He was kind of being a jerk.  “Who’s Penny?” I asked, looking from him to Maggie.

“She’s a wild horse my mother took in shortly before the car accident,” Maggie explained to me.  “Penny had been badly mistreated and was terrified of people when she got here.  She’s calmed down somewhat over the past year, but is still very skittish.  Neither of us have our mom’s touch when it comes to rehabilitating abused animals, so gaining Penny’s trust has been a slow process – she has good days and bad.”

I noticed that Nate visibly flinched when Maggie mentioned the accident.  Then he crossed his arms and stood there with his biceps bulging, an angry scowl hiding whatever other emotions he was feeling.

“What do I need to do to help?” I asked, touched by Penny’s sad story.

“Well getting near enough to Penny to groom her or anything like that is basically a two-person job,” Maggie explained.  “One person tends to her needs and the other one has to stroke her head, talk to her and try to keep her calm.  Otherwise she panics.  If you can keep Penny calm while Nate –”

“Maggie, we’re talking about a wild horse here, not some domesticated pet,” Nate interjected gruffly.  “No offence,” he said to me, “but dealing with a horse like Penny isn’t for the faint of heart.  It can be dangerous if she gets spooked and goes berserk.”

“I bet Amanda would be good at keeping Penny calm,” Maggie insisted, refusing to back down despite her brother’s objections.  “You have a nice soft voice,” Maggie told me.  “That’s exactly what a horse like Penny needs – someone gentle and non-threatening to reassure her.”

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Nate argued stubbornly.

Maggie held up a hand.  “Shh,” she told him, her eyes focused on the screen of her laptop as she began to type something.  “My class discussion has started, so I don’t have time to argue with you anymore.  Just take Amanda out there and see how Penny responds to her,” she ordered.  “And show Amanda around the farm while you’re at it.”

Nate sighed but said nothing.  I was beginning to understand the dynamic between the siblings.  Nate was the overprotective cowboy that was rough around the edges, and Maggie was the sweet, loveable little sister.  But when it came down to it, she knew how to hold her own and get her way.  She wasn’t deterred by Nate’s gruff demeanor, either.  Interesting...

“Amanda,” Maggie said, looking up at me and shooting me a subtle wink, “don’t let Nate give you a hard time, okay?  His bark is worse than his bite.”

Nate rolled his eyes and abruptly turned on his heel.  “Come on then,” he growled at me over his shoulder.  He walked out of the house with strides so long and fast-paced that I practically had to run to keep up with him.  He certainly wasn’t going to win any awards for his charm, I thought to myself wryly as I scrambled after him.  What a jerk!

“Y
ou could at least wait for me!” I finally called out when I’d had enough of chasing Nate across the farmyard.  At first I’d simply tried to keep up with him, but the longer he made me chase after him, the more annoyed I became.  Even more infuriating, he was going about his regular chores without so much as even acknowledging me.  How was I supposed to learn anything if he didn’t teach me?

Nate stopped dead in his tracks and turned on his heel then, practically making me crash into him.  “What did you say?” he demanded.

“I get it,” I told him, uncharacteristically speaking my mind.  “You’re a big, bad cowboy who has something to prove and doesn’t want me here.  Okay, fine.  But since I’m here, why don’t you let me help instead of going out of your way to be rude to me?”

The corners of Nate’s mouth turned upwards as though he found what I’d said humorous.  I hadn’t been expecting that reaction and it threw me for a loop.  “That’s really what you think?” he asked curiously, his eyes searching mine.

“Huh?”

“You think I’m a big, bad cowboy with something to prove?”

“Aren’t you?”

Nate shrugged.  “I don’t think you have any idea what you’re talking about.  You don’t know a thing about me.  And I don’t need you barging in here telling me what to do, either,” he added almost as an afterthought, his voice growing gruff.  “You work for me, got it?”

“Then let me work for you,” I shot back, hands on my hips.  I felt like I was channeling ballsy, no-nonsense Mina Sinclair rather than being myself but hey, whatever works.  “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.  Just stop being such a jerk!”

For a moment I was afraid I’d gone too far.  After all, I’d only just met Nate Avery and even if he didn’t act like one, technically he was my boss.  But he simply looked me up and down and then nodded his head toward a nearby wheelbarrow.  “We need to take that to the barn with us.”

Triumphantly, I retrieved the wheelbarrow.  Even though I hated confrontation I’d stood up for myself...and it had paid off!  Instead of getting angry with me for speaking my mind, Nate had given me what I asked for.  It was a satisfying realization. 

When I returned to Nate’s side with the wheelbarrow a few moments later, he’d slung a couple of burlap sacks over his shoulder.  Wordlessly, he took off walking toward the barn at the edge of the property.  I followed, dutifully pushing the wheelbarrow in front of me.

This time I couldn’t help but notice that Nate had slowed down his pace.

*****

P
enny was a beautiful white mare with fire running through her veins.  Standing proud and tall in a large, grassy outdoor enclosure, she eyed us warily.  She reared up on her hind legs as we approached, throwing her head back and whinnying. 

“Easy, girl,” Nate said as we approached her.  His voice was gentler and kinder than I’d ever heard it before, and she seemed to respond well to his quiet reassurances.  He motioned for me to stay where I was and then took a few steps closer to her.  She stilled then and allowed him to carefully stroke her mane.

“She’ll be afraid of you at first,” Nate cautioned as he soothed the finicky mare.  “She doesn’t like strangers and is distrustful of everyone new.  You’ll need to approach her very slowly and be prepared to get out of the way if she rears.  You don’t want her to come down on your foot and you don’t want to cause her to lose her balance,” he advised.  “You can come a little closer now but don’t make any sudden movements.”

It was clear that Nate was protective of Penny.  Cautiously, I took a step forward.  Penny appeared hesitant and for a moment I thought she would shy away from me.  But after a brief deliberation, she seemed to conclude I wasn’t a threat and stayed where she was.

“Huh,” Nate remarked, turning away to get his grooming equipment ready.  “She must like you; most people can’t even get that close to her when they first meet her.”  When he turned back around his jaw dropped.  “What are you doing?” he demanded, clearly shocked by what he saw.

Almost instinctually, I’d taken another step forward and had extended my hand.  Instead of balking, Penny was sniffing it curiously.  Then her tongue came out and she tentatively licked my open palm, enjoying the slightly salty taste of my skin.

“I don’t believe it,” Nate exclaimed as Penny allowed me to reach out and run my hand over her sleek coat.  “She’s never let any stranger do that before.  If anyone else had tried that, she’d be going ballistic right now.  That’s insane.  You’ve been around horses before, haven’t you?”

I nodded and then whispered soothing words in Penny’s ear.  It twitched in response and she gazed into my eyes like she understood me.

“Wild horses?” he pressed, perplexed.

“No.”

“Huh.”  Nate was quite obviously amazed by the way Penny was responding to me. 

I couldn’t explain it myself.  I simply felt a strange connection to the beautiful white mare, as though she and I spoke to each other on a soul-to-soul level.  From the moment I’d first laid eyes on her, I felt as though I “got” her.  I knew what it was like to be powerless and afraid, too.  Maybe she sensed that in me.

“So how did your mother come to rescue Penny?” I asked curiously as I stroked the white mare’s mane, keeping her still for Nate so he could do his thing. 

I wasn’t sure but I thought I saw Nate wince when I mentioned his mother.  “My mother had a reputation around these parts,” he replied as he skilfully tended to Penny’s hooves.  “She would come to the aid of any animal in need – birds with broken wings, stray cats...you name it.  She’d nurse any sick or injured animal back to health no matter how much time and effort it took.”

“Wow, it sounds like a big undertaking.”

“It was like a full-time job with no days off, but my mother was passionate about it.  Growing up, there were always animals on the farm.  She’d never turn a creature in need away.  So when a nearby shelter ended up with Penny, the director called my mother.  If she hadn’t taken Penny in, the shelter may have had to euthanize her due to a lack of resources.”