had to, we would all chip in to save it without batting an eye.
“How much it will take to save Honeycutt Stables?”
Chapter Sixteen
Melissa
Just put one foot in front of the other . . . that’s it. You can do it, girl.
I slugged yet another forkful of hay into yet another stall. The horses needed tending. Food, water, walk, food, water, put in for the night. Thankfully, I was so used to it I could do it in my sleep, which I pretty much was.
Sleep . . . it seemed so trivial. I was afraid to do more than doze. I didn’t want to miss a second with my mom. I didn’t want her to be alone for a moment. Even when I had to come home to do chores twice a day, I was terrified that she would slip away while I was gone. Without me there to hold her hand. And some ridiculous part of me thought I could stop it.
My mom was dying.
I checked the troughs, making sure everyone had fresh water. I was about to let them out into the paddocks when I heard footsteps.
Scratch that. I heard bootsteps. Familiar bootsteps. My heart started to thud.
“Melissa?”
I turned, and there he was, looking like he stepped out of my daydreams. I gave him a wobbly smile. He looked so good, so real and solid and healthy and alive. It nearly undid me.
“Hi, Nick,” I said, feeling like I was about to cry. And then he was there, holding me against his big, warm, strong chest. I couldn’t hold back the torrent a second longer.
Even though I’d been crying here and there, I hadn’t let the dam burst. I couldn’t do it in front of my mother. I hadn’t even let myself go when I was alone with the horses, though I did leak tears almost constantly like a drippy faucet.
I knew I looked awful. Red eyes and mussed hair and everything. I hadn’t looked in the mirror in days or thought about how I might look. But it didn’t matter. For a moment, the whole world slipped away.
With Nick’s arms around me, I felt safe. I felt everything I’d been holding back. I put down my load only because Nick was there, willing to pick it up for me. Just for a minute.
I was well aware that crying all over a guy was definitely not the way to a man’s heart. Even I knew that. Didn’t matter. He offered and I took him up on it. I had to. I had no other choice. And it felt so good to let the tears come. It felt so good not to be alone in my pain.
It feels like coming home.
Suddenly, I was a little girl again, crying my eyes out in someone’s arms. Not ‘someone’ this time. Not my mother or my father or the bossy grandmother I had known as a child. Nick. Nick was here and he was going to make it all okay.
Well, for a minute, anyway.
“I heard about your mom,” he said against my hair, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I am so sorry, Melissa. I was worried.”
“I didn’t mean to make you worry,” I said, and the storm of tears came again, soaking the leather of his jacket. I hadn’t known what to say to him. Part of me had still been in denial of what was happening. Telling him would have meant admitting that this was it. That this was the end. “I’m sorry.”
He squeezed me.
“Don’t be silly.”
I fought my tears, wiping my face and looking up at him sheepishly.
“I need to finish this and get back. I promise I’m taking good care of Hendrix.”
“I know you are,” he said, taking the bag of feed I was about to lift. “You should hire someone to do this for you.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to tell him we were barely holding on. We couldn’t afford to hire anyone. Not even some high school kids to help out as an after-school job. But I also didn’t want him to think I was an idiot. We should hire someone. Multiple someones. But we couldn’t.
“Can’t. I’m almost done, anyway.”
“That’s enough for the day.”
“But,” I protested as he guided me to a stack of hay. “I have to—”
“Sit. Down.”
I stared at Nick. His voice was firm but not harsh. Authoritative. He meant business. I’d never heard a voice like that from him before.
I sat.
"Listen very closely, Melissa. You are going to rest for a few