Finding Home

Chapter Four

Dinner was...something. It had started off fairly awkward, but soon enough everyone was having a good time.

"Hey." Bailey says after we had eaten. "You want a tour of the place?"

"Oh, Mark already gave me one." I reply politely.

"No no no no. I mean the real tour. Like, of the property." She says with a small grin on her face.

"Are you sure? That's like, seven hundred acres and it'll be dark in about two and a half hours." I reason.

"Perfect. The darker the better." With that she turned and began to walk out the door, leaving me standing in the hallway. "Well? Are you coming your not?" She laughed, holding the door open as I stepped over the threshold.

"Come on. We're going by horseback." She informs me, leading me towards the barn. I stop in my tracks and she notices my absence. "Something wrong?"

"I've never ridden a horse before." I respond in a small voice. Why am I so embarrassed that I can't ride a horse? Lots of people can't.

"Figures. It doesn't matter, we'll go the safe route instead."

"Alright." I silently pray she doesn't try to put me on Chev. We walk into the barn and she flips the lights on as the horses all look up to see who had disturbed their dinners, and then resumed munching away nonchalantly. Bailey leads me too a stall with a rather large buckskin horse that I recognize as Shiloh.

"Seeing as you've never ridden before, I'm going to put you on Shiloh. Now, he's a bit rowdy, not quite as bad and Cheveyo, but he's almost there. I figured we might just start you off on the toughest horse to handle so you can get used to it and then when you can relax on a horse, we can move you down to a few of the calmer horses." She informs me, sliding the bolt in the stall and grabbing Shiloh's dark green halter. Noticing my look of complete and utter terror, she laughs. "I'm kidding. Shiloh is definitely a beginner's horse. He's kind of old and slow, and he's got a real easy gait. Don't worry, you're in good hands." She reassures me as I sigh in relief.

"Phew. You really freaked me out there." I laugh, hoping I didn't look too scared.

"I know. The look on your face said it all." She remarks, followed by an imitation of what my facial expression must've been. I laugh and she grins, tying Shiloh's halter rope to the post and then leaving to go get his saddle from the tack room. I approach the old horse wearily, and reach out my hand and place it on his neck. Shiloh jerks his head around to see who touched him and I overreact just a bit; and by that I mean that Bailey walked in seconds later to find me thrown into two bails of hay and some cleaning supplies.

A look of concern crosses her face for half a second before splitting into a wide grin. She bursts into a fit of laughter, her dark green eyes lighting up as I lift myself from the ground and wipe the dust off of my jeans. All the while, Shiloh just watches us, lazy eyed. Bailey is now leaning against the horse's torso, apparently laughing too hard to support herself. I was not making a good first impression.

Finally she calms down and stands up straight, clutching her side. "What the hell did you do you big goofball?" She teases, though I'm not sure whether she was talking to me or Shiloh. I answer anyway.

"I tried to pet him but then he whipped his head around and I thought he was going to bite me or something and so I jumped back and fell." I reply, my face flushed from embarrassment.

"Aw come on now. Shiloh wouldn't hurt a fly. There's no need to be scared of him." She reassures, moving her hand in circles around his neck. I quickly notice that she moves her fingers in a specific pattern across his skin, like a routine.