“Toss it to me.” I caught it and Hope jerked a little. I showed her the apple and bit off a piece myself, because Rey had read somewhere that too big pieces might cause problems if they scarfed them down. I spat the piece onto my palm and held it out for her.
She felt around for it with her soft, whiskery lips, and crunched away. I bit off another piece as I took hold of the lead rope.
“Let’s go see where Truce and Theo are,” I told her, and gently guided her into a turn so she wouldn’t bump into my chair.
As soon as we got to the side of the house, I could see Theo and Truce coming toward us.
Truce let out a happy neigh and Theo let him jog toward his sister, keeping pace with him easily.
“What happened?” I asked automatically.
“Hand me that.” Theo pointed at the apple.
He did something with his fingernail, and it took me a few seconds to realize he was slicing the skin of the apple around, and then he easily pulled the two halves apart. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind to try to halve an apple without a knife.
He gave Truce the bigger half and handed the one I’d bitten pieces out of to me. I gave it to Hope.
“I managed to get the lead ropes tangled as I was moving them and dropped hers. Which she surprisingly easily realized meant freedom.” Theo barely smiled, but it was there in the twitch of the corner of his mouth.
“Well she stopped as soon as she saw us.” I patted Hope’s neck. “She’s a good girl when she wants to be.”
“Us…?”
“Yeah, Rey was in the doorway, reading. He was the one who ran to get the apple so she had something to distract her from the Great Freedom.”
Now Theo smiled properly. “Is he still there?”
“Wanna go see?”
He nodded.
We walked the horses around the corner, where Rey was awkwardly hovering in the doorway, clearly worried.
“Everything’s fine,” I called out to him.
His eyes began to shine with excitement as he saw that we were bringing the horses closer.
“There’s no space with the chair like that, but at least you can see them,” Theo said, nodding toward the lounge chair that was in the way of us getting to the door safely with two big horses.
“Uh…” Rey looked at the horses longingly, then at the chair and the space around us.
“Here,” Theo said and held out Truce’s rope. “You grab him and I’ll take Hope and get her closer.”
Without considering the ramifications of holding the skittish gelding like this, I accepted his lead and gave Hope’s to Theo.
As Theo guided her gently toward the back door, I patted Truce carefully.
“You smell like an apple, boy,” I told him and he snorted lightly, as if to sayno shit, Sherlock.
He wasn’t going to let his sister out of his view, and he concentrated on her enough that I could sneakily scratch him behind the ears and straighten up the neck of the halter where some of his thick mane had gotten all messy.
He stood so still and almost-relaxed, that I could turn my attention to where Rey was standing on the top step, reaching over to pet Hope with an ecstatic, peaceful expression on his face.
He and Theo were talking quietly, and I couldn’t help but hope this was the beginning of him getting more comfortable with the outdoors. I didn’t understand his agoraphobia that well, but I’d read about it, and it seemed pretty similar to some things I’d found online.
I wasn’t sure how his general anxiety coincided and mixed with the fear he had of going outside. He needed therapy, of course, but he had refused vehemently. I hoped he’d find someone,anyoneto talk to about what had led him to this situation.
Truce perked his ears toward the house, and I faintly heard a car door slam shut. Truce jerked a little, and I immediately made sure I had a firm hold of his rope.
