Mystery at Brightfields

Chapter 13.

She didn't dream at all from her 2.5 hour nap. Zoe just remembers her head hitting the pillow and moments later waking up with her alarm. She needed a shower. Badly. Spending all night in a horse stall will probably do that. Zoe avoided looking at the 3 messages that Pin had sent her that morning. Right now she was more focused on sleep and showers. Ugh. Maybe 30 more minutes of sleep.

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After her much needed shower, Zoe finally felt like her head had cleared from yesterday and all nights activities.

Pin was back.

Part of her was hurt. Part of her was relieved and happy. She wasn't sure which part had a higher percentage. Zoe pulled up Pin's messages from her phone. 

P: Morning. Hope you got some sleep in bed...alone...

P: I mean without Marcus. 

P: Nevermind. I'm being weird. Talk soon?

Zoe rolled her eyes. The feud between Marcus and Pin was still existing quite obviously.

A lot happened yesterday. Not even just everything with Layla and Laycee. She thought of the houses they had looked at she hadn't even got to see the room that her mom had picked out for her. Zoe looked around her little room in Grandpa's house. It was homey. But it wasn't her home. LA wasn't her home either. She never felt at home there, maybe this new house would be a new start for her and finally be some where she felt that she totally belonged. Either way she knew she belonged with Raven. 

And Raven was hers all because of Pin. Relationships were confusing. 

Zoe pulled herself off the corner of her bed and willed her legs to go back down the stairs. Everyone was out of the house. Grandpas was probably with Wilma, Rosie probably at the barn obsessing over Laycee, and no idea where her mother was. She grabbed a granola bar out of the cabinet and shoved it in her mouth as she walked out the door. 

The air was decently warmer than what it had been overnight. She still had Pin's jacket on. Just because. She hopped over the fence and began the trek to the barn. 

Walking past Layla's pasture she noticed her body had been removed. It hurt her heart still. Zoe leaned on the fence to catch her breath and pull herself together before going back  into the barn. That little mare hadn't been around for very long, but she had made a deep impression on a lot of people. 

The stable yard was surprisingly quiet. Zoe checked over the stall door at Laycee who was laying flat out on the blanket. She must of gotten all of her energy with Becky and Jade. Whew. Zoe couldn't handle foal energy at the moment. She was still in Zombie mode. 

Zoe walked by Raven's stall and he stuck his head at the door to greet her. It made her smile. He always did that. Another deep breath and she headed into the tack room. 

Becky and Jade were sitting on the couches cleaning their tack. They updated her on Laycee's feeding and her cuddles with them.Of course Marcus had stayed around for another feeding after Zoe had left. Sounds like him. Jade was glowing just talking about the foal. Laycee was going to be an adventure for her, that's for sure. 

Marcus walked in, still in pajama pants looking about as dead as Zoe felt. 

"Saw the vet pull in, figured I would meet you and see how successful our night was." he said with a yawn. 

"How much sleep have you gotten, Marcus?" Zoe laughed. 

"Yeah about 45 minutes and pretty sure I fell asleep in the shower." he mumbled. 

They headed out to meet the vet. She had a few bags in her head and greeted them with a smile.

"Morning Brightfields! I have some goodish news. But it does mean probably 2 more nights on your own with feedings. There is a nurse mare on the island. She does have a currently foal with her but after I called the owner decided that it would be as good as time to get the foal weaned. You guys would just have to decide if you want to bring her here, or have the foal go there. I would recommend trying to bring her here as moving that baby could be a task. The owner is more than happy to lend her for a few months. He has unfortunately been in the same situation before and knows how important a mare is to a foal.  "

Zoe looked at Marcus with a smile and she heard Becky cheer. It was finally some good news. 

Jade spoke up. "Becky and I can take tonight. We'll ride and then head home for a bit and then come back for the night shift. It'll just be an end of the summer sleep over. You and Marcus need to sleep in a bed for the evening..not the same bed. Obviously..." She stammered. Lol thanks Jade. "If you guys want to take the last night I can be there early in the morning to trade off?"

Becky nodded in agreement.

"Sure. Sounds good to me, Mar..." Zoe started 

"I'll take the next night  with Zoe if she feels up to it." Pins voice spoke up behind her. Her voice caught in her throat. He was here. She felt immediately nervous. 

"Whatever you want Zoe." replied Marcus. Semi scowling in Pin's direction. But he looked too sleep deprived it didn't really look like much of a face. 

"We can figure it out later." said Zoe. She had over 24 hours to sort all the shit out. 

"Sounds great guys. I brought some gifts from the clinic." Vet Baker said.  She pulled two foal blankets out of one of the bags. One pink and one purple. She then pulled out a pink foal halter. 

Zoe heard Becky and Jade awe-ing behind her. Okay, the tiny horse stuff was cute. Little Laycee was going to be a spoiled girly girl. 

Ignoring that Pin was standing right beside her, they followed the vet into the stall to see Laycee in her new garb. While Laycee was still mid nap the vet slid the halter over her face. 

"Ok, the purple blanket is going to be more of a sheet. It will offer some rain protection as well as it is slightly bigger than the pink, which is thicker and is going to be your overnight blanket. She can wear the pink during the day for right now until it gets colder and overnight I would put her in the purple, if it drops below 30 degrees I would put her in the pink with the purple on top." she explained. 

And Laycee looked adorable. 

Jade and Becky headed back to the tack room to mix up another feeding, Vet Baker headed out to another call and Marcus went back up to the house to grab a bit more sleep. That left Pin and Zoe. 

Now or never.

"Soooo. Hows it been?" asked Zoe. Turning to him. 

He grabbed her into a hug. Zoe hesitated at first, but Pin felt right. He always felt right. 

"I missed you." He mumbled into her hair. Zoe sighed into him. She had missed him even more than she realized now that she was back in his arms. 

Pin continued. "I'm sorry I didn't call more. I didn't want to bug you. I wasn't sure how we left things and I didn't know if when I came back you were going to feel the same way...sooo that's one of the reasons I didn't want to come back yet. I wasn't sure if things were going to be the same."

"Pin. I needed you. There were days over the last month I was frustrated or stressed or sad. And I needed you and you were not there for me. You didn't return my calls or text. I felt abandoned. I felt alone. I felt that you left and decided that you weren't going to come back to this life. That you left us. Left all of us."

He pulled back and looked into her eyes. 

"I'm sorry. I wanted to give you your space. Even though I didn't call, I did do something." he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a stack of folded papers. "I wrote you. I wrote what I did every day, things I saw, food I ate. Thoughts I had. I wrote them all down for you."

Well shoot. Thought Zoe. That was pretty sweet of him.