AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kellan led Gunner into his stall. Rubbing the horse’s withers, he treated him to an apple. He’d gotten him as a young colt when he was sixteen, and they’d been inseparable ever since. Their bond inexplicable, he felt closer to the animal than he did with most people.
With the exception of his family, he wasn’t much of a people person anyhow—that was Tanner. And that’s how he’d always been. Was just his nature. Kellan didn’t see that as a fault within himself or something that needed to be fixed. He just wasn’t very good at pretending.
Not that he didn’t get on with folks. He did. Kellan could carry a conversation for a short while, but he didn’t enjoy them unless they served a purpose. It seemed to him people tended to talk without thinking. He preferred to listen, think, and consider before he spoke, so his words were deliberate, chosen, and few.
Daisy neighed from the next stall. He went over to give the mare a pat. “You lonely? Missing our girl?”
“She ain’t. Arien comes by every day after school to give her a good brushing.” His brother’s head popped up from the crossties where he was picking Tux’s hooves. “She babies that horse. Caught her braidin’ Daisy’s mane the other day.”
“Chrissakes.” Kellan snickered. “She needs to be exercisin’ her, not puttin’ her in silly braids.”
“Have you asked her to ride with you?”
He didn’t bother to answer. Huffing out a breath, Kellan gazed up at the exposed-wood beams. Tanner knew he’d done no such thing. And what would be the point? Being around her more than he had to be would just make it harder later.
“Might try talkin’ to her, brother, ’cause that was a real dick move, even for you.”
“What?” He knew where this was going. Exasperated already, Kellan offered Arien’s horse a handful of oats.
“Cassie.”
“Yeah, okay.” He turned around to meet his brother’s stare. “Don’t think she cares and I don’t need to talk to her.”
“You’re wrong there. I think you do,” Tanner countered, unhitching Tux from the crossties. Damn fool was in love with her already. He could see it all over his face.
“Got nothin’ to say to her.” Brushing oat residue from his hands, Kellan shook his head with a smirk. “Heard enough.”
“What the fuck you talkin’ about, Kel?”
“At the bonfire. She didn’t see me, but I was listenin’.” Propped against the door to Tux’s stall, he kicked at some straw on the floor. “Arien got her pretty little panties twisted, makin’ sure everybody knew she wasn’t about to have her stepbrothers sharing her like some candy bar…” Gripping Tanner’s shoulder, he exhaled. “…and she ain’t stayin’.”
Sorry, brother.
“Arien doesn’t understand yet. All the more reason you need to talk to her.”
And say what? If Arien was of the mindset that their ways weren’t right, just because they were different, it wasn’t up to him, or anyone else, to convince her. More love is more, baby cakes. It’s that simple. She’d have to see the truth of it, learn the goodness of it, for herself.
“All she ever talks about is leavin’. Get your head out of the clouds, Tanner. She’s just gonna break that big ole heart of yours.”
“You’re wrong, Kellan.” Adamant, his brother stood toe to toe with him.
This once, he hoped he was. “Reckon we’ll see.”
He’d been struck by Arien the moment he first held her picture. The vision tangible at last, right there between his fingertips, this powerful current surged throughout his body. There was no denying it. His father had been right all along.
“Couldn’t help but overhear,” Matthew said, wiping the grime off his hands as he came out of the tack room. “And let me tell you, son, your brother ain’t wrong. You’ve got to be her friend before you can expect to be anything else.”
Hooking his thumbs on the belt loops of his jeans, Kellan shrugged. He should at least try, he supposed.
A hand on each shoulder, his father looked him square in the eye, proclaiming with a single nod, “You and Tanner have been generously favored. It’s just as I saw it, Kellan. Arien’s home is here. She’s not goin’ anywhere.”
He went out the back door, Tuesday faithfully following him through the snow. Flurries gently fell, but it didn’t feel all that cold, so he didn’t bother zipping up his coat. He’d left Tanner and his dad in front of the TV watching Sunday afternoon football. Jennifer had a rib roast cooking in the oven. Arien was keeping to herself in her room making pictures pretty, or reading a book, or whatever the fuck else she got up to in there.
“Heh.” Stickin’ pins in a voodoo doll of your ass, more than likely.
He was halfway to the toolshed when Tanner called out to him from the house, “Hey, where you goin’?”
Without looking back, Kellan raised his hand in a wave. He needed to think, and he needed some time alone to do it. Away from the house, the football game he didn’t give a shit about anyhow, and her.
