Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Finding nothing under the tractor, I moved on to the engine itself, looking to make sure that none of the parts inside had finally broken down to the point of needing replacing. My parents had reinvested most of the money into the horses, so the equipment was often forgotten about, to their detriment.
“Hey, bro,” I heard from behind me, and I turned around to see that Austin had come up behind me.
“Hey,” I said, setting my wrenches down on the little grease cloth that I’d left on the side of the truck. “How are the girls looking?”
The horses from the barn that I’d been working on had all been mares and given that most of our energy went into our breeding, we always needed to ensure that our girls consistently had a clean bill of health before we started breeding any of the mares to some of the neighboring stallions. Austin took the responsibility extremely seriously and gave his girls’ consistent check-ups.
“Most of them are looking pretty good, but I’m worried about Sage and Rosie,” he said, and I was surprised by the anxious look on his face. There wasn’t much that made Austin nervous, so for him to be looking like that started to pique my own worry.
“Why? What’s wrong with them?” Sage and Rosie had been with us for a few years, and each of them had only bred once. They were both gorgeous Andalusian thoroughbreds and had proven pretty inspirational for some of my writing in one of the latest short stories that I’d written. If they ended up being fatally ill and needed to be put down, it would be a huge blow to our finances, especially after we’d invested so much into them.
“It’s looking like they’re developing founder,” he said.
“Shit,” I said, turning around and sitting down in the grass. “Shit. What are we going to do?”
“Well, I’m going to need Doc Boyd to come out and take a look at them so that he can confirm whether or not it’s true,” he said. “He’s the one who’s going to need to sign off on the treatment plan for them, after all.”
“Okay,” I said. “Then we’re going to have to call him right away. We need to start treating them right now.”
“Yeah,” he said, biting down on his lip, before the setting of his eyes seemed to change imperceptibly and they darkened a bit. “I just hope that he’s actually the one who comes out, and not Lucy. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to deal with her if she starts contradicting me now that she’s an official vet.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, unsure about whether or not I should call him out on how much of a jerk he sounded like. “Well, you should know then that she and her parents are coming to Christmas Eve with us.” I shrugged. “Just figured you should prepare your ego in advance.”
He groaned. “Amazing. Then she can get the outsmarting started right away, and on a holiday, no less.”
I blinked at him a couple times before turning away from him and turning back to the engine. “If you say so.”
As much as he might complain about her, there was something about the set of his jaw that told me he wasn’t that disappointed about the prospect.
9
AUSTIN
The hot water sluiced over my shoulders as I thought over my day, thinking about my work and what I’d discovered about Sage and Rosie. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about them since I’d packed up to leave the ranch, having taken all the pictures I possibly could as I packed them back into their stalls. I made some temporary padding for their heels out of some extra saddle blankets that we had on hand so that I could at least stabilize them until Doc was able to make it out.
I’d sent the pictures to Doc Boyd with a brief explanation as to why, and then I’d immediately gotten a call back. That was the great thing about Doc Boyd—you were never in doubt that he cared.
“Yeah Austin, I’m afraid you’re right. It definitely looks like founder,” the old veterinarian said as I drove back to the small house I shared with Aaron, half in a daze with my worry for the two mares.
“What should we do, Doc? The usual?” I asked as I ran my hand through my hair, pulling up to the stop light. “I can get everything ready for you to come out tomorrow to see to them, if you can.”
“I can’t tomorrow, unfortunately,” he said. “I’ve got a full slate of appointments in the clinic, but I’ll let Lucy know. She’ll also probably be better than me at creating a treatment plan; she’s gotten to know all of the most modern methods for dealing with founder, so you’ll definitely be in better hands with her there for this.”