Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
But I hear her long before Mack spots her.
“Oh my god! Oh my goodness!” she shrieks, nagging Ben already to get his phone out and take a picture.
Mack groans from behind me once he reads the situation.
Even Lucy chimes in with her own disappointment this ride’s coming to an end.
She breaks wind so loud and long that Mack trots up next to us to get out of its range. Both of us laughing despite everything and Lucy whinnying now she’s said what she thinks about it all.
“Looks like she’s all packed,” Mack observes, giving me a worried look.
It’s the first and only time I’ve seen him look like he isn’t in command of something.
“I’ll go talk to her, see what’s going on,” I tell him.
But mom and Ben are trotting up to greet us faster than we’re taking our time to get there.
“What did you do?” she shrieks louder, aiming her big mouth at Mack. “What did you do to my baby girl!?”
My neck swivels to see his expression shift. His mouth half open, as if he’s about to say something.
“What did you do to get her back on a horse of all things? Oh my god, thank you! Tina, look at you!” she gushes.
Looking proud of me for once, but she also seems… different.
Like, not so uptight.
Noticing the way her new man Ben looks at her, it doesn’t take much to realize that obviously mom got what she needed so badly from Ben last night.
It might work in my favor if she’s so relaxed. She’ll take the news better….
I’m proud of myself, and of Lucy for putting up with me. Getting back riding makes me feel like I wasted a lot of years telling myself I couldn’t do it ever again.
When all I really needed was a little nudge from the right friends.
Mom’s attitude towards Mack seems to have softened too, and she thanks him again for helping me ride again.
“You’ve no idea how much I’ve wanted to see her riding again,” she says a few times, but giving me a strained look.
The ‘this is nice, but we have to go’ look.
“Oh, Tina’s quite the rider,” Mack drawls. Shooting me a micro smile and winking, making me flush.
“Why are the bags packed, Mom? You don’t have to go until…,” I start to ask her.
Looking for my opening to tell her I need to talk to her. Alone. And like right now.
But as I let myself off Lucy, expecting Mack to do the same, the shrill but firm tone of old Mrs. Corbett seems to fill the whole valley as she comes rushing out from inside.
Holding her apron and long skirt up with balled fists, showing the old style lace up boots she has on as she marches over to us.
Mom stands with her mouth hanging open.
Ben looks at his feet.
My eyes shift to Mack, and his eyes are narrowed with a stern brow. His whole body tense and ready, as if he somehow knows what she’s about to say.
“It’s the Wilson’s Mare!” she cries out with emotion.
“She’s in breech and the vet’s two hours away. If ye had yer bloody radio on, I’d have told ye sooner!” she scolds Mack.
But he doesn’t pay any mind to being told off by her.
With a growl of annoyance, his steely gaze has my full attention.
“I have to go…but I’ll be back. Don’t go until I get back,” he commands me.
Instantly whipping Ruby into action with a single nudge of his heel, the huge mare keen to obey and sensing the urgency, she bolts off at speed.
“C’mon, girl, fast as you can!”
It all happens so fast, almost as if the world’s running at too many frames a second.
And as heroic as it all looks and sounds, I can’t help feeling like I might never see Mack again.
He’s promised himself to me, but it’s clear a man so great and so large, he has more than just me wanting him. And for a dozen different reasons.
Mrs. Corbett sighs bitterly, but her mood shifts to relief as she watches Mack ride like the wind up a narrow track.
“He’ll know what to do,” the old woman murmurs knowingly. “And he’ll get there a lot sooner than that vet!”
Lucy snorts and stamps, calmer by degrees when Mrs. C takes her reins from me.
“I’ll get Lucy seen to,” she says crisply. “You’ll miss your flight,” she adds, crimping her mouth.
Studying me intently once I feel the tears welling up.
“But Mack said,” I croak.
“Honey, she’s right,” my mom clips, eyeing her watch and rolling her eyes.
“There was no way of letting you know, but the airline bumped our flight forward a few hours. We got to go,” she says with rising urgency, sounding more like the old mom now.
Making me think Ben might have his work cut out for himself after all.