Page 2 of Coiled Tight
Oh, shit.
What if this wasn’t the front gate? I had used the app on my phone to come, but everyone knew those apps couldn’t be trusted when far away from civilization, and…
Breathe, Cam.
The worst-case scenario would be that I was in an enclosure with one of the big animals, but those, I knew, were not only fenced but used the natural undulations of the ground to divide them. I hadn’t gone through any depression in the terrain, so I was just…
Somewhere on the edges of the three thousand acres they owned.
“Um.”
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Is there a problem?”
My heart rate picked up to the point I worried things could get bad real fast. I didn’t have anything with me. Well, I did, but it was in my suitcase, and I didn’t know if I could go through unpacking the whole thing in search of a Xanax.
I wasn’t supposed to depend on them anyway, or whatever fancy words my doctor had used.
Some people online said to ignore that advice and called it ableist and a million other things, and some days, I was prone to agree with them. Other days, I just didn’t know, and it was too exhausting, and I just wanted something to go well for once and?—
“I don’t think I’m at the front gate.”
Did I enunciate more clearly this time? I couldn’t tell. The last thing I needed was for Hot Voice—presumably the sweet old man’s son, even though I didn’t feel inclined to run on assumptions anymore—to think I’d hit my head somewhere.
“What do you—” A heavy breath accompanied what I was sure would have been very colorful language if he hadn’t stopped himself. “Share your location with me; I’ll call one of the hands to take over here.”
So now on top of putting him out, I was inconveniencing yet someone else. Sure. This was fine.Totally fine.
“Okay,” I said meekly. How could I not feel like a tiny ant he couldn’t wait to step on? “I’m really sorry.”
I would gladly step on myself if it stopped this whole thing.
Thankfully, I had enough wits about me to end the call before he could say anything else. Going through the motions of sharing my location was easy; I’d made it a shortcut because of how many times I needed to have someone pick me up, all the times I’d panicked and thought someone should know where I was seen last or…
Yeah.
Well, being here was going to be an adventure, that was for sure.
An adventure where everyone hated me, but hey, I deserved it.
It didn’t feel great, but…
Welcome to my life.
two
saúl
“You’ve got any idea how the new vet ended up in our back gate, Swiftheart?” I rubbed my mare’s neck before I mounted her. It was a good thing I’d been cleaning up the horse stables when the guy called. And lucky that I had network. I had to speak with my father about hiring people without my supervision, or without letting me knowwhen to expect them, but that would be a problem for another day. Besides, I could tell how that conversation would go. It had taken me more than a few decades, but I’d learned the lesson: this place ran more smoothly if I just adjusted to the old man’s whims. “Yeah, me neither.”
Despite her name, Swiftheart didn’t love to ride fast, but she loved the prairie grass that sat near the back gate, so it was never a struggle to get her moving in that direction. She wasn’t the only horse who still loved riding, but she was the most docile one when it came to meeting new humans.
She worked great for the few times we felt forced to open our gates to the public. Everyone gawked and awed at her gorgeous chestnut color and the shiny white patch between her eyes.
She was a beautiful specimen, that much was true, but I was the sentimental fool who favored her over the others because she’d been the first foal I’d helped birth all on my own. Everyone had thought neither the mother nor her would make it. They had even considered putting a stop to their suffering.
