I help him clean up and then I follow him out to the barn.
He pulls the big door to the right, and we walk through. This barn is huge, with a half-open loft at the one end and at least fifteen stalls. Killian walks over to an area and grabs a bag.
“Here.” He hands it to me. “Apples are a horse’s best friend.”
I smile. “Thanks.”
We walk through, stopping at a few stalls, giving apples to the horses and petting their necks. Each one is beautiful, but I’m completely enamored with the last one we come to. She’s taller than the others, but lean and the most stunning shade of black. Her mane is as dark as her coat.
She’s stunning.
“This was my first horse,” Killian says as he rubs her nose. “This is Midnight. She’s been with me a long time, right girl?”
“How did you get into horses?” I ask.
“My sister, Alicia. We grew up in Colorado in this small town called Infinity Ridge. Anyway, they have a horse ranch there and she would go over after school, muck out the stalls, and talk to Mr. Stone about one day being able to buy one of his horses.”
I smile. “Did she?”
Killian sighs and shakes his head. “No, she never could. My family was poor. We could never afford to take care of a horse, let alone cover the price of it. However, Mr. Stone was one of those men who believed in hard work and he allowed her to pick one horse she loved and he promised to let her ride anytime she wanted, if she promised to take care of him.”
I lean against the stall door, reaching my hand out to pet Midnight. “He sounds like an amazing man.”
“He is. My sister was there every single day, taking care of her horse. Of course, as her younger brother, I wanted to be there too.”
Sounds like my brother. “Ahh, little brothers and their need to be annoying.”
He grins. “I asked Mr. Stone if the same applied to me—it didn’t.”
I burst out laughing. “I didn’t see that twist.”
“I wasn’t half as dedicated as Alicia. However, about eight years ago, when my sister was diagnosed with cancer, I went to the Heartstone Ranch and bought her Midnight.”
My chest tightens and I keep my gaze on his. “You bought her this horse?”
“Yes. And I bought this ranch when she got sick so I could keep them both here.”
I gasp. “Wow, that’s…beautiful. You bought a farm for your sister?”
“A few other reasons too, but yes.”
This ranch clearly means more to him than I imagined. Of course all people love their businesses and no one wants to see their work fall apart, but there’s a deeper meaning too.
“Did your sister live here?”
Killian looks at Midnight and rubs her nose. “She did. It was her dream to live on ranch like this.”
“How so?”
“We left Colorado as soon as we both could. I went to college in Boston at eighteen and never came back. Alicia met a guy and moved a town over from here. He left her when she was diagnosed, said he didn’t sign up for years of agony, whatever the fuck that meant. Not that life with him was all that great. They barely got by and then she was sick and without anything. By then, my company in Boston was doing extremely well, so I came here, bought the ranch so she could be around her horse and not have to worry about finances.”
I reach my hand out, resting it on his arm. “Killian, that’s so…amazing. I hope you know that. For her to have that peace probably meant the world to her.”
“I hope so.”
“I can assure you, it did.”
He smiles. “Thank-you.”
