Sure, sweetie. Whatever you say. -Jenny
I’m pretty sure it was Winnie. You can’t sing either, Jenny. Just sayin. -Tomás
Guilty as charged. -Winnie
I SING GREAT. Lila says so. -Jenny
12
JONAH
A few daysafter I shoe Rosie, I head back to the horse rescue to check up on Fuzz. I’m worried about the infection and even though Beau can handle things without me, I know he has many other patients at the moment. A few horses at one of the local ranches are sick with a virus, and he’s been trying to help them control the outbreak.
Inside the barn, I make a beeline for the office, just to let Candice and Beau know that I’m around. The door is shut, so I raise my fist to knock, but then hear strained voices coming from inside.
“I know what I need to do,” Winnie says. “I’m going to leave. I’ll leave in a few days and go somewhere even further away. Maybe California or?—”
“No! Absolutely not, Win. You are not leaving,” Candice says, raising her voice in a way I rarely hear her do.
“I have to! They know I’m here and I don’t want them coming to find me.”
“Do you really believe their P.I. won’t find you? Following you out of the state from here won’t be difficult.”
“Okay! Fine! I’ll move every week. I’ll run as far away as I have to. Because what else am I supposed to do? I can’t accessmy trust fund and pay for I don’t know, bodyguards or a lawyer or whatever else I might need to protect myself.”
“Fuck,” Candice says. “I’m sorry. I just think you’re safer here.”
“I think I need to run for a while longer.”
“I don’t agree, but I’ll never try and stop you. Just think about it for a bit, okay?”
“Sure. I’m going to get going,” Winnie says, and then mumbles something I can’t hear.
The door to the office flies open and Winnie walks out. When she sees me she mutters, “Just perfect. I assume you overheard everything?”
And then she hurries past me, giving me a glimpse of her tear stained cheeks. On instinct, I follow her. She’s not my problem, but then I’ve never been able to ignore someone who needs my help.
She books it out of the barn and to the paddocks in the back, and I do my best to keep pace with her. But damn, she’s got long legs and clearly wants to get away from me.
“Stop following me!” she calls out.
“Not a chance,” I yell back.
Finally, she stops by the paddock that Rosie is in, and hops onto one of the fence rails. I stand beside her, and give her a few moments of silence.
“Why are you here, Jonah?” she asks.
“Because you’re clearly upset and I wanted to see if you needed my help.”
“You know, I actually have the money to help myself,” she says wistfully. “I have enough of it that I could fight whatever my parents throw at me, and buy my own house here, and build my own life, just like I’ve always wanted.”
“But?” I ask, slightly bewildered by what she’s getting at.
“But I’m not old enough to access my trust fund yet. So really, only thirty-year-old me has the money to do all that. To save herself.”
“And there’s no other way to access it?” I ask, even though I know fuck-all about trust funds.
“Unless I get married, no,” she says flatly.
