Bucky gave me the side-eye and marched his ass back deeper into the stable and then wagged his traitorous tail at Lake.
“Your name is Bucky? Aww, how sweet. Who’s a good boy?” Lake cooed at the black pit-mix.
The thing was, I was Bucky’s favorite human. Had been since I had adopted him from an event three years ago when he was a tiny puppy.
I stopped and glared at Lake and my traitorous dog.
“Is your daddy grumpy?” Lake continued the baby talk that grated on my nerves. “A big grump of a daddy, huh?”
Watching Lake’s hands in Bucky’s ruff and the dog being so incredibly happy made me twitch.
“What are the others called?” Lake asked, never taking his attention from Bucky. “And why didn’t the drafts have name plates on the stall?”
The first question was easy, the next one, not so much.
My anger left me, and I walked back to the stable door, leaned my hip against it, and took off my ball cap. I ran my fingers through my hair and put the cap back on.
“That’s Sophia, Rose, Blanche, and Dorothy.” I pointed at the white, tan, brown, and blue pit bull mixes respectively.
“Aww, Golden Girls, and one Winter Soldier,” Lake cooed, then got up to go lean against the other side of the double-wide doorframe.
I licked my lips and looked out toward the arenas on the other side of the yard.
“Ruth picked them out of an auction. Someone was eyeing them to sell them to a slaughterhouse.”
Lake made a face. “When was this?”
“A week before she passed, give or take.” I sighed and turned to look at all the names on the stalls closest to them. “She had this belief that if the horse didn’t have a name coming in, the name would follow.”
Lake’s voice turned soft with understanding. “She didn’t have time to name them.”
“No. And then there was the funeral and everyone was so…numb. It’s been rough around here, and we’ve been doing our best, but without her—” My voice broke and I shook my head, choked up all of a sudden.
Lake pushed away from his spot and approached me carefully. Like I was a spooked animal.
“Hey, she was your friend,” Lake said quietly. “It’s okay to be fucking sad and angry and just…feel things.”
I wiped under my eyes and chuckled wetly. “My best friend.”
“Yeah, Hudson told me.” Lake stepped right in front of me and peered at me, then placed a hand on my arm and squeezed gently.
Before I had time to react, Lake took a step back again.
“Maybe we should figure it out together? The names for those two? A fresh start?”
I made a non-committal sound. It wasn’t a bad idea, I just wasn’t quite there yet. Which was stupid, it had been months now.
“But no rush,” Lake added, as if reading my thoughts.
Bucky came to nose at my hand, and I patted his head. Lake went to look outside and sighed happily.
“I love the clean air.”
I cleared my throat awkwardly. “Yeah, I think I take it for granted sometimes.”
“I had a horse once,” Lake said in a thoughtful tone. “I had always wanted one, ever since I was a kid. Then we visited here that one time and I couldn’t stop talking about them.”
“So you got one?”
