Page 44 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
Hunching his shoulders, he turned away and entered the quiet barn. The morning trail rides were over, meaning the tourists left them to their blissful peace.
Most of the horses were in their stalls except for a few still out with their owners. Spencer took a bite of his cheese sandwich as he stopped outside a familiar stall. A sign hung on the cracked wood, reading “Harbinger”.
The horse who’d once been Spencer’s best friend. He told Hadley she couldn’t be friends with a goat and hidden how he felt about Harbi. “We’re a pair, aren’t we, buddy?” Both angry at the world, both looking for people to blame.
Harbinger had never been an easy horse to handle. There’d been a time when only Spencer would even try. It formed a bond between them. They’d both been young men stuck in cages and searching for freedom.
Spencer finished his sandwich and juggled the apples in front of him. Harbinger followed them with his eyes before looking away.
“You’re trying to pretend you don’t want one.” Spencer snatched both apples out of the air and held one out in his palm.
Harbinger glared at him from the back corner of his stall.
“You know you want it.”
With a snort, Harbinger walked forward, stretching his neck out to snatch the apple from Spencer’s palm.
Spencer turned to drag a hay bale over and opened the stall door. Harbinger backed up as he dragged the bale inside and sat down, his back against the wall.
Biting into the second apple, he sighed. This was what his life resorted to. Eating lunch with an animal who hated him.
He met Harbinger’s eyes. “You can’t keep being a jerk, Harbi. I won’t be here forever, and I don’t like the thought of you being antisocial when I’m gone.” He needed to be ridden and taken care of, not avoided.
He finished the apple and yelped when Harbinger snapped the core from his hand.
A giggle came from outside the stall. He lifted his eyes to find Hadley staring through the bars above the stall half-door.
He stood and brushed straw from his butt. “I thought I told you not to come near Harbinger’s stall.”
“He doesn’t seem so ferocious.” She tried to step through the swinging door, but Spencer blocked her path.
“This is not a goat you can charm into being your lap dog. Harbinger is a strong horse with an anger streak that’ll get you hurt.”
She met his eyes in challenge. “You two make a good pair then, don’t you?” Her eyes softened. “Why are you so mad at the world, Spencer Lee? What happened to you?”
He couldn’t tear his eyes from hers as she tried to uncover his secrets and see into his soul.
He’d never told anyone his true reason for leaving. Only Victoria knew what happened those years ago.
Hadley dropped her voice. “Why are you so scared of smiling?”
Because smiling meant forgetting. It meant moving on.
“You don’t want to know me,” he whispered. “You won’t like what you’ll see.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible.”
Her words should have shocked him into action, they should have made him step away from her and do the sensible thing.
But he’d never claimed to be sensible.
“Walk away,” he growled.
She shook her head. “Not until I figure you out.”
A long nose shoved him sideways as Harbinger tried to get past him to Hadley. Spencer whirled around, his arms thrown out in front of him. Harbinger kicked the ground.
“Hadley, get out of here. Now!”
