Safe and Sound by Caitlin Ricci

Author:Caitlin Ricci [Ricci, Caitlin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-783-9
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Mason

IT STARTED raining on our way back to the rescue, so I thought maybe Oliver wouldn’t want to take pictures of the horses, and me with them too, after all, but once we got there, he followed me into the nearest barn.

“Which is your favorite right now?” he asked me as he ran his fingers through his wet hair. His camera and the stuff for it were in a big plastic case, which I assumed was waterproof since he didn’t look all that worried about it.

We were in the intensive care barn, and I didn’t do much work with these horses at all, so I didn’t know them very well. “These are all the sick or injured horses, or the ones that just need a lot more weight put on them and can’t be out with the others yet,” I explained as I looked into each stall to check on the horses one by one. It was habit. “I don’t spend much time in here, only Eli really does. Him and the vet.”

“Jesus,” Oliver hissed, and I turned to see what had caught his attention. I found him at the stall of a recently brought in neglect case, and looking at her made me both angry and sick to my stomach.

“She was neglected,” I explained, as if he couldn’t already tell that just by looking at her. We used a scale to determine just how bad off a horse actually was, and it went from one to nine based on their body condition. A yearling Arabian filly like her should have been about a four probably. She was severely in the one category with every bone in her emaciated body clearly visible.

“What’s her name?”

I shook my head. “She doesn’t have one. Not yet at least. We really only just got her in two days ago, so everything is happening kind of fast for her. She’ll probably never be rideable, just because the neglect has stunted her growth, but once she’s healthy, someone may want to adopt her as a friend for another of their horses. Or she may stay here. We’ve got a few permanent residents here, though they’re mostly older horses that are too lame to be ridden by anyone.”

“What would you name her?” Oliver asked. He took out his camera and began taking photos. I was surprised that he was taking some of me too. I still had all my clothes on.

“Star.” It was unoriginal in the extreme, but she did have a little white mark on her forehead to break up her bright red coat.

Oliver smiled over at me. “You don’t want to pet her? She seems friendly.” She was currently chewing on the arm of his jacket.

“She is. But looking at her makes me sad.”

He stopped taking pictures of her to come over and hug me. I liked being in his arms, even though I knew I wasn’t the only one he held like that. And when he kissed my head, that felt really nice too.

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