Page 11 of Stolen Dreams

I walk into the barn, seeing no one lingering around as I store my things in the kitchen.The coffee is started, but I’m going to get my ride in before it starts raining.Finding Bobby and Sammy standing in front of Emmett’s desk, I make my way into the barn.“Good morning, boys.”I smile at them, and they both look up at me.

“Morning,” they mumble, turning back to the clipboard in front of them.“Everything okay?”I ask, feeling the tension in the room.

“Yeah,” Bobby quickly says before he tosses the clipboard down and walks toward the stall like his pants are on fire.

“What is going on?”I look back over at Sammy.

“Emmett and Charlie are both out for the next couple of days,” he relays, his eyes watching Bobby go over to talk to Hector.“Left Bobby in charge, and he’s panicking a little.”He snickers.“I told him he’ll be fine.”

“They are away for the next couple of days,” I say, shocked, “since when?”

Sammy shrugs.“Not sure.Charlie is the one who called Bobby yesterday and said Emmett had a family emergency.”His words make my head spin.“You going out riding?”

“I was going to,” I reply.“I’ll saddle her myself.I know you probably have a million things to do.”I take my saddle down, walking toward the stall.“Good morning,” I say halfheartedly, my mind still reeling from what Sammy told me.A family emergency?From what I know, Emmett has no family.He would spend Christmas with Charlie, and then on all the other holidays, he would either take off or work through them.In the seven years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen anyone visit him.I’ve never heard anything about any family members.

Saddling Rosy, I walk her out of the barn.“How about for today if we just go for a walk?”I ask as I mount her inside the fenced arena.“It’s going to be a stormy day,” I say once I guide her to the path that leads to the forest.“Do you know this is the first trail I ever went on when I got here?”I look down at her.“I was so scared.”I think back to that day.

I walked into the waiting area, slower than I would normally walk, unsure if this was even a good idea, but then thinking, what could possibly happen?I mean, I loved horses, but I wasn’t sure that the horses were going to help heal me.

Charlie was behind the desk and looked up as soon as I stepped in.I had come by myself, wanting to take some steps of independence and see if I could actually do it.Or have a complete and total full-blown panic attack.It was fifty-fifty.I had a panic attack at the stop sign right after I left my parents’ house, but I made it here all by myself.I considered that a win in my eyes.It was a half-glass-full kind of thinking instead of half-empty glass.

“You must be Lilah.”He smiled at me before picking up the phone, and then I heard his voice through the intercom system.“Emmett, Lilah is here.

“We had a trainer all ready for you,” he said, “but he called in sick this morning, so we have the second-best thing.”I looked at him, thinking this must be a sign not to do this and contemplated turning around and running back to my car.

I was in the middle of this struggle when I saw him walk out of the side door.He had a baseball hat on backward.His face was filled with brown dust, but his blue-green eyes were bright and clear.His jeans were also as dirty, if not dirtier, than his face but not as dirty as the boots on his feet.“Hello,” he said, “I’m Emmett.”I expected his voice to be gruffer than it was.But it was soothing, and I felt more comfortable.

“Lilah.”I didn’t know whether to put my hand out to shake his or not, so I just kept it by my side.

“Come this way; we’ll get you a horse.”He motioned with his head and turned to walk back out the door he just stepped in from.I had no idea what was going on, but I followed him.“Have you ever ridden a horse before?”he asked as we walked into the barn, and I saw the long hallway with stalls on each side.

“Yes,” I said softly.“Since I was little, but not in the last year or so, even before…” I trailed off, not sure I wanted to tell him that a horse race was probably what got me beat to shit, when I stopped in front of a horse that looked like it was a champagne color.She was pushed into the corner, her eyes on the door and then on me.Looking into her eyes, I felt that she was just as scared as I was.I stayed stuck in one place.Emmett stopped walking as he moved back to me.“She’s so pretty,” I said of the horse, and he smiled at me.

“She is.Her name is Juliet,” he said, and I couldn’t help the smile that filled my face.

“Like in Romeo,” I asked, “Juliet?”

“Sure.”He put his hands on his hips.“She’s new,” he said, walking to the door and opening it for me.“Come and meet her and see how she reacts to you,” he said.It was the first day since the accident I felt safe.I knew that whatever would happen, I would be okay.Day after day, I came to the barn, and day after day, he was kind to me.Day after day, he was patient with me.Day after day, I felt the little cracks I had in me start to be filled up.

“She ended up liking me as much as I loved her,” I tell Rosy as we round the path, “and a year later, I forced Charlie to sell her to me.”I smile when I think of her.“She’s in the other barn, and every single night, I ride her.Maybe one day you two can meet.”I stop talking and think of Emmett.Frustrated that in the whole time I’ve been here, it’s like I don’t even know him.It started on that very first day.I started crushing on the man.It was silly, and even I knew it was silly and would never go anywhere.But as the days turned into weeks, the crush stayed and cemented itself into my heart.Now I need to break free from it.I need to jackhammer him out of my heart.I need to let it go.

When we get into the fenced arena, I push her a bit to get her legs warm, knowing she is in the rotation for the day.Putting her back in her stall, I grab her water before I grasp my mug and a cup of coffee.

“I thought he didn’t have a family,” Hector whispers to Sammy as I walk by them.“So strange he has never mentioned them.”

I look down, trying to ignore the burning in the pit of my stomach.Instead, I bury myself in my work, getting all things in place for the day.

I work past six o’clock, and when I walk into the barn, my eyes go to his desk where he always is when I leave, except today it’s empty.There is no leering look, no telling me I’m doing something wrong even though I’m not.There is nothing but quiet dead air.

“Bye, Sammy,” I say, holding up my hand to him as I walk from the kitchen toward my car.

“See you tomorrow.”He holds up his hand as he leads a horse outside.

My phone rings, and when I look at it, I see it’s Sierra.“Hey,” I say, putting the phone to my ear.

“Sorry, I know it’s last minute, but I’m going to have to push off book club tonight.”I can hear her rushing on her end.

“The guy I’ve been exchanging messages with on the dating app finally set a time and place.”

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