Free Rein||Broken Home/Pin

Chapter 4

Amber POV:
I'm at the stables around 8 and Sam is the first to greet me. "Morning Sam" I smile. "Hey. I had a feeling that you would be a bit later. Jet lag?" She asks. I nod. "Still getting used to the time zone" I tell her, causing her to nod.

"Anyways, the barn needs sweeping and the horses need water and their stalls need to be mucked. Pin already fed them this morning so your off food duty this morning. After that, the days yours until it's time to rotate the paddocks and bring in the dinner hay and water and some fresh shavings for the night. If you need me, I'll be in my office. Oh and Sparrow is still in a stall. She's still adjusting I think, but when you feel she's ready to be turned out, go right ahead. You know where the mare paddock is" she finishes. "Alright. Have a good day" I smile before heading off to clean and fill the water buckets in the stables.

Before I start with my chores, I head to the tack room and open my tack box. There was a container full of horse cookies, sugar cubes, and on. I grab a few cookies before heading off to see my mare. I call her name and her head pokes out and she nickers at the sight of me. "Well hello to you too big girl" I smile, offering her the cookie. She takes it gently out of my hand and searches for more.

"Hey. Greedy guts. No more for now. Later" I smile and rub her forelock. I noticed that she had shavings in her mane, tail, and forelock and on her side and belly. "Someone's been rolling" I smirk. "I wonder who?" In response, she sneezes in my face. "Yeah. I love you too" I say, wiping off my face. "I'll see you soon big girl" I kiss her nose before walking off.

"Hey Amber" I hear a voice. "Oh, hey. Jade right?" I ask. "Becky" she corrects. I blush slightly. "Sorry, I'm not very good at remembering names" I admit. She laughs. "Don't sweat it. Anyways, Jade, Zoe and I were going to go on a trail ride later. If you could come, that would be horseome". I couldn't help but laugh at her attempt at mixing horse and awesome. "I'd love to. I just have some work to do around here first" I tell her.

"That's no problem. We're not going until around lunch anyways. We may bring a picnic. Lessons are this morning, which reminds me. I have to get Bob ready for hot Marcus. See you later Amber" she exclaims before running off. Bob. Funny name for a horse. Cute, but funny. Wait. Hot Marcus??? Ok then......time to do work. I grab the hose and head towards the stalls.

I enter the first stalls and check inside the bucket. Clean. I fill it with some water so it was at the top before moving to the next stall. The water bucket wasn't as clean. I bring the bucket outside and dump the water, hose out the bucket and refill it with fresh water.

I keep repeating the process until every water bucket was clean and filled to the brim with fresh water. I ended up getting some on myself, but, oh well. I'll live. Now, for the less fun part of being a horse owner. Mucking. I grab a wheel barrel and a pitch fork before going to the furthest stall. I prefer to work my way inwards.

As I'm walking, I spot Pin in one of the stalls. He too was mucking them out and by the looks of it, he had done all the ones before this one. He suddenly looks up. "Hey. It's rude to stare you know" he jokes, standing up straighter.

"Who said I was staring?" I joke back. "And even if I was, you would have to be watching me to know that I was watching you. Who's staring now?" I fold my arms over my chest and smirk at him. His mouth opens and closes a few times before he rolls his eyes. "Only you would say something like that" he smiles. "I'll take it as a compliment" I smile back before going to the stall beside him and mucking it out.

I was mucking stalls for about 2 hours with Pin before they were all completed. After all the stalls were clean, I grab a broom and sweep up any excess mess that had been left. After everything was swept and as spotless as a stable can be, I put the broom away and stretch, as my back was aching a bit. Pin did the same.

"Oh. Pin" I look over at him. He looks at me. "My aunt says hi" I say. "Which one?" He asks. "Amy" I smile. "You're staying with Amy?" He asks. "Yeah. Why?" I ask. He shrugs his shoulders. "I was just curious. Amy was always nice to me. I haven't seen her in so long" he smiles. "Well, she is a fan of you. Maybe one day, you can come for dinner. I'm sure she won't mind" I suggest. He smiles. "I'd like that. Thanks" he nudges my shoulder.

"Anytime. How's your dad?" I ask. "He's good. We're both good" he says. "You ever hear anything from you Mom?" I ask more shyly. He shakes his head. "I don't think she'll ever be coming back" he frowns, looking down. I put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry" I give him a sad look. I shouldn't have brought the subject up.

"Can I ask you one more thing?" I ask. "You just did" he jokes. I roll my eyes. "Why did you guys sell Raven. He's a one of a kind" I ask. "My dad was broke and we were so close to losing everything. We didn't want to, but we had no choice. Elliot offered us so much that we couldn't refuse" he explains. I nod. It makes sense. But something clicked.

"Wait. Elliot? He had a daughter" I state. He nods. "Mia". I groan silently. Of course him of all people would want Raven for his daughter. Pin must have read my facial expression. "Yeah I know" he says in a rather annoyed voice.

"Can I ask you something now?" He asks me. I shrug. "Sure".  "Why are you really back?" He asks in a serious tone. I felt as if my heart stopped beating. "Amber. There you are. We're grooming our horses before we go for our ride. You're still coming right?" Becky's voice says from behind me.

"We'll talk about this later" Pin mutters so only I can hear before walking away to somewhere.

"Amber?" I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Yep. I'll go get Sparrow" I smile before heading off to get my horse. Do I really want to tell Pin why I'm back?