those legs up and up, and I swear the belly is at my eye-level. Its long neck stretches out, swiveling to get a good look at me. She has pitch black eyes, and I’m pretty sure she just stole my soul.
“She’s gorgeous,” Maddie says next to me in a hushed whisper. Okay, yeah… Mona Lisa is a baby. I don’t even really register the massive brown horse standing just behind me, a rope swinging from its halter and down to Mad’s hand.
“Mmm,” I mutter. The thing is pretty, but it would flatten a person into a pancake if it ever took a seat while they just happen to stand behind it.
Does Candace ride that thing? And she gives me guff about Gertrude.
“Okay,” Candace says, and I turn away from the white beast. She signs for Luke while she talks. “Luke’s going to take you out that way. Pete and I will get Pearl and June ready.”
“I call June,” I blurt out. I want nothing to do with Miss Soul Sucker. I’ll take the thief any day.
Candace and Luke share a look, and Luke chuckles and heads out with Maddie.
“What’s that about?”
“June has an exercise buddy.” Candace jogs over to the farthest stall, and I step back, waiting for another horse to barrel out. Instead, it’s a foot-high dog, its long chestnut fur covering most of its face.
“Who’s this?” I ask, a grin playing on my face. “Leonardo DaVinci?”
“Her name is Peaches.”
“No paintings this time?”
“She’s Luke’s.”
I raise a brow. “That big cowboy out there owns this froofy dog?” The Pomeranian mix yips and pants, dancing in a circle around Candace’s feet, and I stifle a laugh.
“She’s tougher than you think.” Candace gives me a playful punch to the shoulder. “Just like me.”
“I recall a spider incident not too long ago.”
“And I recall I killed that sucker.”
“On instinct.”
“Well, yeah.” She brushes past me, a perfume of candied apples filling the air for a brief second. Maybe she made some before she came here. That pie she made was the best damn thing.
She gets June ready, the horse still not giving me my hat back. I stand in front of the stall, the yippy dog bouncing around my feet. I try to trick June by pointing and jumping up to snag my beanie, but June’s much faster.
“She ever gonna give it back?” I ask Candace, and her dark brown eyes lift to my hat sticking from June’s teeth. Her lips purse together to hold back a laugh.
“Ask her nicely.”
“What?”
“Just say, ‘June, can I have my hat?’”
“And that’ll work?”
“Maybe.” She lifts a shoulder. “She understands a lot.”
My brows go up, but hey, what the hell? I look the brown spotted thief in the eye, trying to ignore how big her teeth are, and say, “Hey there, June. Mind if I have that back?”
June bobs her head up and down, and a smirk hits my lips.
“You do mind? But my noggin will get cold.”
She rumbles her lips around the hat, loading it with horse spit. I make a face and take a step back. “Never mind. You can keep it.”
The horse bends, putting her mouth inches from my face. I eye her warily, watching the spittle run down the material of my now lost forever beanie.
“Nope, I’m good,” I tell the horse, tentatively pushing her muzzle away. Wow, didn’t realize how soft horse noses were.
June doesn’t move, and my heart beats about a hundred times in the few seconds we have a stare off. Then, just when I’m thinking I should move, she sneezes.
I mean, she blows everything in her mouth straight at my face.
My hat, chunks of hay and carrot, and horse loogey covers my skin. I pinch my eyes shut, jolting at the sudden impact. Laughter and whinnying fills my ears, and I take a hand and wipe slowly down my face.
“Oh… my… gosh…” Candace wheezes. She’s bent at the waist, tears filling up those big brown eyes. The freckle in the corner of her mouth all but disappears as she cracks up at my expense.
“Luke is full of shit,” I say, whipping my hand at the ground. Spit and hay spatter across the stable floor.
“W-why?” Candace says, unable to regain her composure.
“He said the horses hadn’t eaten.” I point to my hay and carrot covered face. “I call bullshit.”
“Actually, that could be last night’s dinner.”
“Fabulous.”
“At least you got your hat back.”
“Yay.”
Candace wipes her cheeks free of laughter-tears and grabs my jacket sleeve, pulling me toward a sink kept on the side of