Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25316 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 101(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25316 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 101(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
“Why can’t you? You’re more limber than you give yourself credit for.”
“No, no, not that. I just thought we were supposed to keep our thing on the, you know, down-low.”
Jack sighs, tapping his fingers on the table. “It’s a small town. Even if all my wranglers, you, Sarah, and I kept our mouths shut, the news would get out somehow. So I don’t feel any reason to deny myself your touch for their sake.”
“So we’re going to rub their faces in it instead?”
“Hey, I want to show the girl I love to the world. Is that so wrong?”
My face turns an even deeper red. He hadn’t said the words to me directly, but even the suggestion was enough to get those butterflies in my stomach working overtime.
He leans against a nearby brick wall, taking a sip of his soda. “So, Lily, I was wondering...”
“Hmm? What’s up?”
“What’s your long-term plan in life? Or is that too much to ask a twenty-two-year-old?”
“I have ideas, but why do you want to know?”
He shrugs. “Just curious. We’ve had plenty of good times already. I just want to know more about you. I know you’re a horse girl, or otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Or is this just like, something to raise money so you can go to college and be a marine biologist or something like that?”
I chuckle. “Nope. You read me. Horse girl. Grew up in a city, but my mom would take me out into the country for rides whenever she could. So I wanted to do something with them.”
“Anything in particular?”
“You’re also right in the raising-money part. I want to become a veterinarian. Figured I’d get some money together to lessen the student loan burden and have my years in college be more comfortable with a little spending money.”
He shakes his head. “Just open a clinic? Ain’t most of the jobs for vets dealing with people’s dogs and cats? Not to knock that, they need help just like anyone else. There are horse vets too. I deal with them a lot.”
“Bingo. I want to help sick horses as my specialty. If I had complete control over my destiny with money being no object? I’d focus on rescuing and rehabilitating injured and sick horses.”
“Hmm,” he says, stroking his chin.
“Just like dogs, there’s a lot of people who get horses and don’t understand the responsibility that comes with it. Or literally the puppy thing, where they get a pony and don’t know how to deal with the giant beast it grows up to become. So they neglect it. They abandon it. And that seems to be a quick path to an early death for them. I’d like to stop that where I can.”
Jack looks my way, his eyes wide and sparkling with admiration for me, a smile on his face. He’s all ears about what I’m going on about. It resonates with me, in a way that he’s not being condescending, treating me like some little girl who is dreaming of sunshine and rainbows, but like what I’m saying is both noble and possible.
“Ideally, I’d be able to home them. Maybe until someone who is worthy can adopt them. Maybe I’ll just keep them all to myself. I’ll figure it out when I get there, I guess. Not like my dream is coming true tomorrow.”
“If I could snap my fingers and make that happen for you, I would.”
“Is this where you reveal you’re a genie, but there’s some arbitrary pact with Sarah where you can’t make my every wish come true?”
“No. Not that. You'd still need to go to veterinary school. Can’t do that overnight.”
I giggle before taking a quick sip of my own soda. “What about you? Just happy keeping the family horse ranch going?”
He shrugs again. “I don’t think just raising horses is sustainable from a business sense, to be completely honest.”
“Most people are going with these newfangled things called cars to get around in, yes.”
“Horseless carriages, who would have ever thought of such a thing?”
I laugh more. It’s just so easy to do around him.
“If I merge the Perry ranch with my own, I’m going to go in a new direction, I think. The demand for horses won’t remain, but people still love the animals, as I’m sure you understand.”
“The romance, the history, the majesty. There’s just so much to love about them.”
“And there’s a growing subset of people who think anything with animals is bad for the environment, and should be tossed aside as a relic of the old world.”
“Greenbluff doesn’t seem to be a hotspot for vegetarians. I’ve gathered that much.” Outside the Thomas and Perry horse ranches, there were also a good deal of beef ranches.
“So I’m going to bring those together. I’m going to push the ranch to be as eco-friendly as possible, and pivot to more of a tourist destination. Take care of the land, let people enjoy that experience of riding across the desert and prairie, just like their ancestors did. Try to give horses a spot in a growingly technological world.”