It had been a point of contention between myself and Ruth, the way I took care of the dogs and cats. Ruth had told me they—except for Bucky—were the rescue’s responsibility. She would’ve given them the same care I did, of course, but somehow, I wanted to put in more effort and more of my own money. Eventually someone, likely Hudson, told her to back off and she did.
Maybe it was pride. I wasn’t sure exactly. I kept taking care of the critters and left the horses, donkeys, and goats for Ruth. I did make a concession and bought myself a bigger TV and kept getting all the books I wanted to read without thinking about whether I should or not. That kept Ruth happy as well.
Fucking hell. I really missed her. Ruth had been a light. Full of fierce common sense and a sense of justice that caused her to blow up at people who stood in her way. It was more often that I stood between her and someone she got ticked off at than the other way around. We’d been a team, and now, I felt…bereft.
* * * *
In the morning, I got up early as always. I made myself a breakfast smoothie and took it to the stable with me.
Without Ruth, there was always more to do, and I was fully behind the idea of having more volunteers living on the farm, because it would help with the routine stuff like morning feedings and moving the horses to and from the pastures and so on. Oh, and cleaning the box stalls and paddocks, because whoa boy did shoveling shit become tedious after doing it for years and years. Having more time to dedicate to the rehab and training side of rescuing sounded perfect to me.
I was measuring the feed and listening to the horses fuss, when a new sound, calm, even steps, carried to the feed room.
“Morning, everyone,” Lake said to the horses. “Aren’t you pretty. Yes, yes you are.”
“In here,” I called out.
We had a system. It was better to show Lake what we did with the feeding instead of telling him.
“Hey, morning!” Lake’s tone was surprisingly awake at this hour. He was clutching a travel mug that was likely filled with something caffeinated. Then, he noticed my drink on the shelf nearby and grinned. “A smoothie?”
“I don’t like to eat much for breakfast, never have. So at some point, Ruth started to insist I at least make a healthy smoothie with some protein powder in it to keep my motor running.” I smiled a little, measuring the joint supplement I preferred to use for the horses and donkeys who needed it. “Her words, not mine.”
Lake looked wistful again. “Fuck, I hate I didn’t get to know her.”
“Yeah, but I think part of why she wanted to help more LGBTQ kids was you.”
That seemed to surprise Lake. “Really?”
“Yeah. I guess she had never come out to your parents, and then they were driving to Chicago a couple of years after they kicked you out.” I took a long pull from my smoothie straw and put the cup back on the shelf. “She asked about where you were. What college you went to, that sort of stuff. They told her exactly why they are fucking awful so-called parents, and she told them to fuck off her property because if you being queer was too much, then she would be, too.”
Lake listened to me with a sort of awe in his expression, then put a hand over his mouth as his eyes filled with tears.
I might not have been on the best terms with my own family and rarely talked to any of them, but it was clear Lake had thought he had no family that cared for him. I put the supplement bottle in its place and reached to touch Lake’s arm.
“Hey, it’s okay. She loved you, even though she didn’t know you. After she found out what had happened, she wondered if she should contact you somehow, try to find you, but we didn’t know where you’d gone and neither did your parents. She thought maybe you’d find her if you wanted to be around family, you know?”
Lake shook his head and wiped his eyes. “No, too close to…to them.”
“Yeah, that’s what I told her it probably was, and she accepted it.” I counted the buckets I’d piled on top of each other in the feed cart and changed the subject. “So, all these buckets are for the animals who need special supplements and stuff. There’s a name on each one and I stack them like this since they don’t have much in them.”
I continued to explain the feeding process to Lake, who listened carefully and helped me with the feeding itself. Lake patted each horse—except Ursula, who hated to be touched and just wanted her food—and left them to eat.
Then, as we approached the siblings, Lake calmly fed them and then peered at them thoughtfully.
“How about Hope and Truce?” he asked quietly, then glanced at me.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah. Yeah, I like those names.”
Lake ducked his head, looking pleased. “Now, show me the goats. I wanna meet Andy’s kid.”
Chuckling, I pushed the cart to the other side in the back where the rest of the critters were.
Chapter 7
Lake
Meeting all the horses, donkeys, and goats was interesting. They were very different from one another and how they wanted to be treated.
