“I see riding a horse has made you cocky.” He plays along.
“Something about being out here.”
“You keep it up with that tongue of yours and I’ll dip you into that water over there.”
“I can’t swim.”
“Even better.”
“Now who’s the cocky one.”
He snorts a laugh.
I snort one, too.
This could be fun. Gunner and I as friends. Never had a male friend before. Never had too many friends, come to think of it. But I won’t go there. If anything, in the last year, I’ve learned to live in the here and now. I don’t focus on the past. Never have. It’s today and tomorrow that counts, not yesterday. I look over at Lollipop, who’s still drinking from the stream. “You ever breed her?”
“Yeah. A couple of times.”
“She’s not pregnant now?” I ask, noticing that she’s got a bit of a belly hanging down.
“No, it’s not breeding season. She’s just fed really well is all. Plus, she likes to drink a lot.”
“Do you breed her with him?” I ask, gesturing to the stallion next to her.
“Na, we don’t breed her naturally. It’s too dangerous.”
I lift a brow.
“We artificially inseminate her. Horses mate and the mare almost always gets hurt. Insemination is safer. Plus, the stud we have comes from fantastic stock. Can’t breed better horses than that. Folks come from all over when Lollipop’s gone into calf. Prize-winning horses she’s brought for us.”
“Really? So, horses in the wild get hurt?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I imagine so. But then they aren’t being bred for show, right?”
I frown. “That’s true.”
A bird flies over the horizon of treetops and I look up, drinking in the smell and sounds of nature, and I can’t imagine never having experienced this before. “How come you left this, Gunner?” I blurt softly, not realizing what I’m asking. He mentioned before that it was somewhat of a painful subject.
“Hard to believe, isn’t it.” He comments, seemingly impressed that I’m enjoying myself so much.
“It is.” I sit back in the chair, resting my head against the backrest, totally at ease.
“Well, I suppose the only way to explain it to you is like this.” He licks his lips and sits back, mirroring me. “If Felicia died tomorrow, suddenly, and everyone around you was in your face, expecting you to know what to say and do, would you want to stick around?”
I consider that for a moment. In the time that I’ve been with Felicia, she’s grown to mean more to me than most. The relationship that I had with my folks was forced and complicated. But what I have with Felicia is so fitting and natural, I can’t imagine how I’ve gone my whole life without knowing her as well as I do now. If I lost her, well I’d be…lost. “I suppose not.”
“My brothers were looking down on me for it, of course, especially since my mama wasn’t doing well and all, but that’s how I dealt with it.”
“I guess I’m the same way, Gunner. That’s mostly the reason why I wanted to leave Clarkstown, too. Living in that house deep away from everyone for so long, I craved more. I suppose I was running in my own way. My folks fought with me tooth and nail, and I was shocked when they agreed to it, but then I found out about the repercussions. I decided no matter what it was worth it.”
“And was it?” he asks, looking over at me, and I’m not sure if he’s asking if it was worth the risk to have what we had, or if it was just worth it to be free of my folks in whatever form that was at the time.
“It was.” I answer with a warm smile. The only regret I have is that I had to leave Gunner. “I don’t know…I don’t know where I’d be right now if I hadn’t gone. Probably still stuck in that awful place with my folks.” I pause, searching his eyes. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat, Gunner. I can’t tell you how much my life has changed since taking the plunge. Since taking that risk. And no matter what happens, I’ll never regret it.”
“I’m glad. I’m glad you got past that. Nothing in life worth fighting for is ever easy, my mama always says.”
“So, how come you came back, Gunner?”
