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“She’s doing okay.” Wrenley sighed. “You know as well as I do how hard this is. She’s in denial over the fact she’s starting to have real dementia symptoms, which makes it harder for us to know right where she’s at. I can’t imagine dealing with what she is right now, but being in the medical field, I know it’s better to be honest and open about the things she’s going through rather than hiding them. I don’t know.”
I reached over and put my hand over my friend’s. I could only imagine how hard it must be for her to watch her mom go through this, but if there was anyone who was strong enough to handle it, it was Wrenley. She was by far the best nurse I knew, and she and her mom had a good relationship with each other.
Though it was hard for her, and I knew it was hard, it didn’t change the fact that my friend was strong, and she wasn’t going to turn her back on her mom. And I wasn’t about to turn my back on her, either. I was here to support both of them, no matter how she needed me. But, it was also nice to have someone to talk about my own issues with.
Even if we both were just ranting and unable to solve each other’s problems, we still had the other person to talk to, and that helped with some of the stress I was feeling. I still had Romeo on the back of my mind, and I wasn’t sure what to do about him. I had high hopes he was going to be okay.
He had been through some shit, but then, so had the people who were coming through the facility, and I had just as much faith in Romeo coming through this and being okay once he reached the other side as I was with any of the other clients who came through my doors. I wasn’t the kind of facility that helped animals that were in need, I used the animals to help people who were in need.
So, I needed the animals who were living at my facility to be prepared to help the people who were coming through. Of course, I wanted my horses to be comfortable, and the only way I was going to make it through to Romeo was to find someone who was able to help me with training him. So far, things weren’t going as well as they could be, that was for sure.
“How are things going with your new recruit?” Wrenley asked.
“He’s okay.” I sighed. “I thought I was going to be able to find a spot with my usual trainer, but he’s all booked clear through the next three months. I can’t have him living at the facility getting fat and lazy while I’m working with the other horses and the clients. Something is going to have to work out with him, I’m telling you.”
“I still have the information for that guy I brought up last week,” Wrenley told me, and I felt a rush of relief.
“You do?” I gasped. “Thank goodness for that. I felt really stupid last week after talking to Brian and finding out I was going to have to figure something else out with Romeo. I should have taken the info from you just in case it didn’t work out with my usual. Now I was just hoping you still had it.”
“Of course I do,” Wrenley said. “I kind of just shoved it in my purse and forgot about it.”
She laughed at herself, but I was glad to take the slip of paper with the information on it from her. I saw the guy’s name. Cole Hudson. There was something about the name that seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it right away in my mind, and I figured I would just find out later.
“I have to warn you about him,” Wrenley said. “He was a little more of a handful as far as people in the ER go, and I’m not quite sure how he is as a trainer. I just know he overheard me talking to you the other day, like I said, and he wants to help out if he can. I’m not going to be telling you one way or the other if he’s really any good, so if he turns out shit, don’t hate me.”
“I won’t.” I laughed. “I just need someone who’s willing to put in the work right now. I’m not sure there’s anyone who’s going to get through to this horse very quickly, but that’s okay. I’m not in a hurry to get him out with the clients. I just want him moving in the right direction.”
“If this guy is half the trainer with horses as he is a pain in the ass with a broken leg, he’s going to have this horse serving tea on his back if you’re not careful,” Wrenley said and I laughed again. She had some real horror stories of dealing with people out of the ER, but it sounded like this one was really holding his own.
I’d laughed at the situation the other day, but now that I was more interested in hiring this guy myself, I was a lot more hooked on what she had to say about him.
“The only thing I can say for sure is that he seems to know what he’s doing when he’s talking about horses. I don’t know a lot about them myself, but from what I heard from the next shift that came on was that he really had a lot of great information for another of the nurses who was there,” she said.
“As long as he has some sort of idea what he’s doing, I’m happy,” I assured her. “Thank you so much. I’m going to give him a call or something first thing in the morning and see what we can work out.”
“Good luck. Just don’t let him break his leg again. I don’t want to deal with that all over,” she said.
“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “I’m not sure I have the insurance to send him with a broken leg.”
“You kids and your insurance,” my friend teased with a shake of her head.
“What are you going to do about it?” I laughed.
It didn’t take long before the conversation took another turn, but I had Cole Hudson on the back of my mind. I was curious about him now. I hoped he was really as good of a trainer as he evidently claimed to be, but honestly, I had no choice but to use him.
I just hoped it would work out for me.
Somehow.
