Meant for Me | ✔️

6) Beneath the trees

Friday, August 8th.

Z A C

Friday morning meant a hell of a lot more work than the rest of the week. The stables needed a total wash out, the horses needed to be brushed, their troughs had to be scrubbed and refilled to last the weekend. The farmhands took off and didn't come back until Monday morning but living here meant that I could do the smaller jobs during Saturday and Sunday.

I stood at the threshold for stable eighteen and hosed down the walls, floors and door. Strands of hay floated on the water and washed down toward the barn guttering. Sometimes this shit got a bit repetitive. It was the same routines. The same conversations each morning and afternoon. I didn't mind the time alone though, quiet to think and consider what else I'd be doing if I wasn't scrubbing shit off a stable floor.

"Zac."

I turned and looked at the barn entrance where Hallie was standing in her overalls, gumboots and eyes wide with concern.

"What?"

"Lavender is missing."

"Fuck," I dropped the hose and ran straight past her. Lavender, the foal that had not long begun its training, was notorious for getting out of the paddock. She was clever, keen and a fucking pain in the ass. She's a purebred Arabian, our second Arabian horse and when she's trained, she'll sell for no less than eighteen thousand dollars. But right now, I doubt I could pay someone to take her. 

"Keep the phone on," I pointed at Hallie's pocket as I swung a leg over the dirt bike and kicked it to life. There wasn't a lot of trouble that the foal could get into around these parts, but she could be stolen and it wouldn't have been the first time something like that has happened.

Hallie was older, late sixties so while she was fit enough to be on her feet training the horses all day, it would be faster if I went searching alone. She nodded and threw a rope into the pack attached to the side of the bike which rumbled and growled when I gave it a rev and kicked the stand up.

Dust flew behind me as I tore down the drive, through the paddock and across the landscape. There was a good stretch of land that was nothing but grass, a foal would have a hard time hiding in such open space. But before long, trees started to become thicker, the grass longer, the trails that shot off in different directions increased.

I had no plan apart from scour every inch of each trail until I found her. The sun was hot, searing and relentless so if she didn't have water, she'd get tired and lie down sooner rather than later.

It must have been a good two hours and the third trail that I was on before I had much luck. Luck that came in the form of a few horseshoe prints in the thick dirt. The river beside me was slow and calm, shallow enough that I could see the rocks at the bottom and trees overhead offered sheltered spots where the water would have been cooler. And that's where I saw her, sitting in the grass with her mouth in the river.

The relief was a weight off, but I was surprised to find that she wasn't alone. Beside her, running a hand across her back, was a woman. Her long black hair fell down her back, her skin was warm, bronze, when she peered over her shoulder, her big round gaze widened with surprise. It was the woman that Raine brought to brunch last weekend. What the fuck was she doing around here?

I switched off the bike, kicked the stand down and hopped off, approaching with caution so that I didn't startle Lavender and send her running again.

"Beverly?"

The woman shot me a narrow glare but continued running her small hands down the length of Lavender's back, her nails were a pale pink and her skin was smooth. Like the morning we met, she was in a fitted dress that sat high on her thighs. This time it was a maroon red made of silk material.