“Hey, girl, where are you going?” Lake asked, trying to appear calm.
Hope seemed surprised to see him, so she slowed down and then stopped.
“There you are, pretty girl,” Lake murmured, stepping closer carefully.
My mind whirring, I stepped inside and ran into the kitchen to get an apple. There’d been a lead rope attached to Hope’s halter, which meant she’d gotten away from Theo somehow.
“Lake, here,” I said, holding out an apple, as I leaned out of the door.
“Toss it to me.” I carefully threw it, and Lake caught it, the massive horse next to him jerking a little.
I watched him bite a piece off the apple—I felt proud having taught him that you shouldn’t give horses huge pieces because they could choke—and gave it to her. Then he picked up the lead rope and gave her some more.
“Let’s go see where Truce and Theo are,” he told her, then gently guided her into a turn to avoid her trampling his chair.
That’s when I realized Theo had likely been leading both her and her equally massive brother Truce.
He led Hope back around the corner, and I heard him talk to Theo, but couldn’t tell what they were saying.
I hoped Theo hadn’t hurt himself, so I hovered in the doorway, trying to listen in on their conversation.
Then suddenly they came around the corner with the horses.
“Everything’s fine,” Lake called to me.
Excitement bubbled up inside me when I saw them bring 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 them getting to the door safely with two big horses.
“Uh…” I looked at the horses and the chair, trying to see if there was any way we could make this work.
Now that he was here with an actual horse—or two—I wanted nothing more than to get to touch them.
“Here,” Theo said and held out Truce’s rope to Lake. “You grab him, and I’ll take Hope and get her closer.”
They switched, which meant that Lake was now holding onto the more skittish gelding. Hope was as solid as a horse could be, but Truce had still not gotten to that point after being mistreated in their previous life.
As Theo guided her gently toward the back door, Lake patted Truce.
He murmured something to the horse, then patted him and even managed to straighten his mane from under the halter.
I then forgot all about them, because a wall of dappled gray appeared in front of me.
“This is Hope. Hope, say hi to Rey,” Theo said evenly.
I held out my hand to her. She sniffed at my palm, her long whiskers tickling like crazy.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have any more apple.” Even so, she let me pet her forehead that was probably as wide as my head if not more. “She’s gorgeous.”
“That she is.” Theo got a piece of carrot from his pocket and handed it to me in sly move that made Hope’s ears perk.
“Here, girl,” I murmured, then smiled as she gently lipped my palm to get it. “Such a good girl.”
She shook her head, making her thick mane fly.
Suddenly, her ears turned toward the house, and I could hear a car door.
Truce perked up behind her, but since Hope was in the way, I couldn’t see Lake. I assumed he was about to get nervous.
