Blazing the Trail (Sunshine & Shadow Book 5) (6 page)

“She’s just a horse,”
April murmured. Then she repeated it louder. “She’s just a horse.”

“A wild horse, April!
Move!” Kip yelled, wrestling with Charger again.

“She’s not wild. She’s
scared. Look at her!”

April held up her hands
and the horse leaned away, ears back. She lowered them slightly and the ears
flicked towards her again.

“There,” she said,
sighing. “Everything’s okay.”

She glanced down at the
mustang’s fetlock and held her breath. The blood was now flowing freely,
covering her hoof in crimson ink.

Looking back into the
horse’s eyes, April could see the confusion.

April smiled gently at
the mare. “It’s okay.”

The mustang had a willow
branch tangled in her long, white mane. April wanted nothing more than to pull
it free and watch the flow of pearl cascade over the magnificent animal’s
shoulder.

“Willow,” April murmured.
“Her name is Willow.”

She made eye contact with
Kip and he looked away.

“We need to get Willow
home,” her dad said.

Kip and Caleb moved away
from April, urging the mare gently. She backed up enough for April to stand
safely.

Mounting Chinook, April
looked over at her dad, feeling a smile appear on her face. It was the first
time in months she had been truly ecstatic. They had saved a life.

Pulling the reluctant
mustang back to the ranch was a struggle. Kip and Caleb led the group, with
April and her dad pushing the horse from behind. Hailey and Adam were on each
side, stopping the mare from darting either way, and pulling a cowboy off their
horse. This arrangement proved difficult in the narrow stretches of the trail,
but soon the group was approaching Blue Haven, and April relaxed. She petted
Chinook’s sweaty neck.

“We did it,” she
whispered to him.

They turned the mustang
loose in the round pen, leaving the lariats dragging from her neck. April
untacked in record time and rushed to give her some water. She filled a bucket
from the well and carried it into the corral. The mare stood as far from her as
she could manage and April set the bucket down and retreated back to the gate.
Slipping out, she climbed the first rail and watched.

“Come on, girl,” she
murmured. “Aren’t you thirsty?”

The horse just looked at
her warily.

“She won’t drink with you
there,” a voice said from behind her.

April turned around as
Kip approached. He climbed the fence beside her.

“She will,” she said,
stubbornly.

“Come on, April. Leave
her alone. She needs to relax before she’ll eat or drink anything. Otherwise
she could colic.”

April knew Kip was right
but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“I can do whatever I
want, Kip,” she said.

Kip stepped off the
fence. “Yep, you sure can,” he said. He turned his back on April and she heard
him suck in a breath. He patted her on the shoulder. “You did good out there,
kid.”

April smiled as he walked
away.

That night, April dreamt
of mustangs with long, flowing manes and meadows filled with wildflowers. She
woke up restless. Looking over at the clock, she sighed. It was already
morning, yet she felt like she hadn’t been asleep at all.

She pulled on her jeans
from the previous day and shrugged a thick sweatshirt over her head. Running
down the stairs, she met her dad in the hallway.

“Morning honey! Sleep
well?” He opened the office door.

“Yeah, great!” April said.

He raised his eyebrow.
“Me neither.”

“How did you...?”

Her dad tapped his
temple.

“Right,” April said, as
he disappeared into the office. “Father’s intuition.”

Laughing, she headed to
the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. Sipping it, she wrapped her
hands around the mug and looked out of the window. She could see Kip carrying
an armful of hay towards the round pen, and she nearly ran from the lodge.

She reached the corral as
he was tossing it over the fence. Her eyes searched until they found the empty
water bucket in the middle of the sand.

“It was empty this
morning,” Kip said. “I filled it up and went to get hay. Guess the mustang was
thirsty.”

“Willow,” April said as
she stepped up onto the fence. She peered over and watched the horse begin to
nibble the hay.

“Willow,” Kip confirmed.

April’s eyes travelled
down the mustangs injured fetlock.

“Her leg...”

“Yeah, we’ll have to
doctor her today. Probably need to get some tranquilizer too.”

“We don’t have any?”

Kip shook his head. “Not
a big deal. It’ll take me an hour to run to town and get some.”

“Can I...Can I come with
you?”

Kip looked at her.
“Danielle’s coming with me.”

April turned back to the
horse, feeling the rejection hit her in the stomach. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s
fine.”

He was quiet for a
moment, the only sound was the rhythmic munching of the mare.

“I wonder what Linda will
say when your dad calls her.”

“You think she’ll want
her back?” April asked.

Kip shook his head.
“Doubt it. Linda’s not really doing the horse thing anymore, not since Danny
died, anyway.”

“I want to keep her...”
April murmured. “My Willow.”

“It’s risky keeping
domesticated mustangs when there’s a wild herd nearby. Chances are they’ll be
taken by the stud. It happened to this one once; how would you feel if it
happened again?”

“Chinook hasn’t been
taken.”

Kip raised his eyebrow.
“Even I can admit, the relationship you have with that horse couldn’t be
broken. But Chinook’s a gelding. What would a wild herd want with a gelding?
The studs come to take domesticated
mares
.”

“They just go with the
wild ones?”

“Not always. I heard Danny
had fourteen mares in his back pasture and the wilds only got five, which means
the other nine were either too domesticated to recognize the blood connection,
or too dominant to be bossed around by the stallion. Either way, it’s for the
best. Those ones couldn’t have survived out there.”

“The other ones that got
taken...” April said, “Do you think they are alive?”

“Maybe, but...maybe not.
Willow was, though, right? Maybe they’re all as strong as she is.” Kip nodded
his head. “Sometimes I wonder if they’d be better out there, without humans
messin’ them up.”

“I didn’t even know there
was still wild mustangs this close.”

“No-one really likes
talkin’ about ‘em,” Kip said, stepping away from the fence and heading towards
the barn.

“Why not?” April said,
following him.

“Folks get scared when
someone says they saw a mustang in the mountains.”

“But...why? They’re just
horses.”

“Horses that can travel
by the hundreds. They can strip a pasture overnight. Ranchers call ‘em
parasites. They’ll starve off domesticated herds.”

“They’re just trying to
survive.”

“Yeah, but put yourself
in your dad’s position. If a mustang herd moves in on Blue Haven land, not only
does he have to worry about them taking his mares, but what about grazing the
cow pastures down to nothing? Then he can’t feed his animals. Which means he
can’t feed you and your mom. Having mustangs around really is as bad as having
a parasite infestation.”

“I’d just catch them and
train them.” April nodded tenaciously.

Kip laughed. “All of
‘em?”

A car came up the
driveway and stopped by the lodge. Danielle stepped out, her gleaming blonde hair
shining in the sunlight.

Kip tipped his hat to
April.

“See ya,” she murmured as
he walked away.

Stopping by the doors, he
turned back to her. “I swear to God, April, if you try and gentle that mustang
while I’m gone, you’ll be in serious shit from me.”

April kicked sand in his
direction, smiling. Once he had disappeared, and she heard his truck start and
then leave the driveway, she busied herself in the barn, organizing the tack
room, which had been severely neglected since she had been absent from Blue
Haven.

Hailey joined her, and
soon the two of them had the room looking neat and tidy.

“I saw you talking to Kip
by the round pen,” Hailey said as they were finishing up.

April nodded, smiling.

“So, he’s forgiven you.
It’s about time.”

Her smile faded. “I don’t
know if he has. Maybe.”

“Well, figure it out. The
longer he’s with Danielle, the harder it’s gonna be.”

“What are you talking
about?” April frowned. “What does Danielle have to do with anything?”

“You need to be with Kip, April. Everyone
knows that.”

“Everybody, except me! I want Kip to
forgive me because he’s my best friend.”

Hailey nodded, biting her lip. “Let me ask
you a question; do you like Danielle?”

April looked at her hands, still fiddling
with a piece of leather that didn’t have a home yet in the newly-organized tack
room. She nodded. “I don’t
dislike
her.”

Hailey raised her eyebrow.

“Fine,” April said. “No, I don’t
particularly like her.”

“Why not?”

Hailey slid to the floor against the wall
and April mirrored her.

“I don’t know...”

“Come on, April. Think. Why don’t you like
her?”

April shook her head.

“Come on! What’s wrong with her? Is she
mean? Is she a liar? Does she use him for something?”

“No, she...”

“What? What does she do that is so
terrible, April? What is it?”

“She makes him happy!” April said,
standing up. Her fist clenched around the strap. “And...I used to make him
happy.”

Hailey nodded. “So you’re jealous. The
thought that someone else is making him happy now drives you crazy.”

“She took my spot, Hailey! She took...”

“Him,” Hailey finished for her. “She’s
taken him, from you.”

April looked at the ground, ashamed of
herself. From the second she had arrived back at Blue Haven and learned about
his new relationship, she had felt replaced. She had felt cheated, all over
again.

“You love him,” Hailey said.

April slid back to the floor, putting her
head in her hands. “Yes,” she murmured. “Yes, I think I love him. Why else
would I feel like this? Why else would I
hate
her? She took what was
mine, Hailey.”

Hailey nodded. “Finally,” she said,
“You’re finally admitting it.”

April looked across the room at Kip’s
saddle. She could almost see him beside it; a sight so burned into her memory
that she didn’t think she would ever forget it.  

“What am I going to do?” she whispered.

Hailey joined her, putting an arm over
April’s shoulder. “We all know that he loves you, but...”

“I hurt him, yeah, I know. I wish I could
go back and change what I did, but I can’t. So what do I do
now
?”

Hailey wouldn’t meet her eyes. “You can’t
force anything, April. He’s with Danielle now. He chose her.”

“If you love someone, let them go, right?”
April’s eyes filled with tears.

“Maybe your happy ending with Kip is how
it started; best friends.”

“But...how can I be his friend, feeling
like this? It feels like someone is squeezing my heart...It’s horrible.” The
tears rolled down her cheeks and she blinked, clearing her vision.

“You’ve always loved him, April. You’ve
always felt like this.”

“But I didn’t
know
.”

“On some level I think you did. But I
think you love him so deeply that even your subconscious mind just wanted what
was best for him; wanted him to be happy, even if that happiness wasn’t with
you. Maybe in the future, you guys will be together; who knows. But for now...”

“For now,” April murmured, “I have to let
him be with her.”

Hailey nodded.

April buried her face in her arms and felt
Hailey rub her shoulders. She couldn’t believe what had transpired in the last
hour. In a way, Hailey was right; April had known all along that she had
feelings for Kip, but she had misread them because they were too alike. And
now, she had lost him.

A vehicle came up the driveway. April
looked up.

“They’re back,” Hailey said.

“I can’t be here. I’ll do the right thing;
I’ll leave them be, but I can’t see them together right now.” She stood up,
brushing Hailey off.