The Stallion Saviour

Chapter 15

Golden Air
^^^^^^

After 2 am I gave up on sleeping. My mind was just to cluttered and confused to settle down. I sat up in bed, the shelf finally gone, and rubbed my stinging, tired eyes.

On pure impulse I got up from bed and walked out of my room and then the house. I ignored the questions that popped up in my head and just continued to walk.

Eventually I ended up in front of Thunders stall. Thunder was laying down, but his head perked up when he noticed me at the door.  I unlocked the bottom gate and stepped into the clean, hay filled stall.

I walked over to him and sat down in the crook, his neck and chest created. His warm, soft coat felt silky beneath my fingers. Thunder sighed as he laid his head back down and fell asleep.

I continued stroking his neck as I laid my head down on his shoulder. Eventually my eyelids grew heavy and I closed them, welcoming some much needed sleep.

***

The feeling of warm hands wrapped around me brought me out of my slumber. I looked up in shock, but quickly relaxed when I realised it was only Brian.

"What are you doing here?" I asked groggily. Brian smiled softly and tightend his hold on me while taking the porch steps two at a time.

"Well I came to see how Summer's doing. After knocking on the door and realising it wasn't locked I went searching for you. I must say, I was quite surprised to find you in Thunders stall." Brian chuckled as he spoke to my sleepy face.

I felt the old, scratchy couch on my back and groaned. I hate this damn couch.  I felt it dip at the other end, peeking from eyelids heavy with sleep I looked at the one and only Brian Stardy.

He really was a sight for sore and tired eyes.

"You want some coffee?" I finally asked when my brain cleared up,  Brian grinned and nodded his head quickly.  I dragged myself off of the couch and into the the kitchen. Once there, I turned the kettle on and then looked at the filthy dishes in the sink.

I knew I forgot to do something last night...

Brian came sauntering into the kitchen,  but paused when he saw me scrubbing at my grimy plates. I heard him walk up behind me, but didn't pay him much attention until he took the soapy plate out of my hands, rinsed it and then dried it. Eventually he took over the dishes as I went to get dressed.

"You doing alright here?" Brian asked over his steaming cup of coffee. I looked down at my own and shrugged. I felt numb, emotionless and mentally tired.  Brian must of sense my mood change since he got up and sat down in the chair beside me. His arms quickly enveloped me in a warm embrace.

"Hey May, you wanna talk about it?" I was surprised that he actually asked me and not commanded me. I sighed and rubbed my head, dislodging a piece of hay.

" Wilbur kissed me, twice..." I admitted quietly.  Brian closed his eyes for a second and exhaled slowly.

"And that's a bad thing, because..." He trailed off as he looked at me expectantly. I stared at his chiseled, strong face, and bit my lip to prevent myself from saying anything stupid.

"It's a bad thing, because I thought anything like that was never going to happen between us. He hurt me before Brian,  he really hurt me, and I thought I was over that, over those feelings I had for him so many years ago. It's been almost seven years since I confessed everything and he just turned me away." I exclaimed as I crossed my arms. Brian's eyebrows furrowed with worry and sympathy as he looked down at me.

"You know I always thought he was stupid for turning you away." Brian smiled as he leaned his head towards me.

"Why?" I questioned curiously,  my eyes flitting up to his. Brian bit his lip as he gave a small shrug.

"Well it's obvious that you're an amazing woman and not scared to follow you're heart, even when the place it's leading you to isn't the place you'd choose to be." As he said this his eyes slowly drifted over my face, probably scanning my reaction.

I was speechless, totally and utterly speechless.

"Why don't we go out for a ride, I brought Golden Air with me, so you can take Thunder." Brian suggested as he took our mugs to the sink and rinsed them. I nodded my head in agreement liking his thinking.

Dragging myself up to my room I quickly changed into riding clothes and met Brian outside the house, he was already tacking Golden Air up when I reached them.

"I'll just go get Thunder." I informed Brian as I made my way to Thunder's stall. His grey head was already poking out of the door, watching me carefully as I made my way over to him. Not needing a halter to lead him out of the stall, I simply opened the gate and allowed Thunder to exit. He already knew the drill and made his way over to his tack.

Tacking him up was quick and easy, a few minutes later we were walking side by side with Brian and Gold. We had no destination in mind and wanderd languidly around the ranch grounds. Talking aimlessly about everything and anything.

For being two stallions, Thunder and Gold got along quite nicely, there was a slight competitiveness when galloping, but otherwise they behaved themselves. I was once again awestruck at how sound Thunder was, and my heart swelled even more for the grey stallion.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do with the ranch?" The sudden question caught me off guard and I struggled to formulate a coherent sentence.

After a minute of pondering about what to say, I gave up and hopelessly shrugged my shoulders.

"I have no idea..."