Paternity Lessons. Maris Soule
and Tyler felt her words stab at his heart.
She was right He was the one responsible. He’d put the horse in that stable.
He felt Shaunna’s hand on his arm, a light and reassuring touch. “You didn’t know,” she said softly, and he glanced her way.
She was nearly his height, her dark hair pulled back and braided in a single loose braid that hung down to her shoulder blades. Again there was a feather woven into the braid, this time only one, and in the dim light of the barn, her skin tones looked darker.
He’d thought of her often since leaving her. Not that he’d wanted to think about her. Somehow her image just kept popping into his head—memories of how she’d looked, the sound of her voice and the warmth of her smile. Images that had excited him, just as now the touch of her hand and husky sound of her voice had his pulse racing.
“Look at him! He’s not any better off here. This place is no better than the other one,” Lanie said accusingly, and Tyler’s attention returned to his daughter.
“Things may look the same,” Shaunna said, her voice calm and soothing as she walked over to stand beside Lanie. “But he’s better off here. It’s going to take time.”
Tyler also moved closer so he could look into the stall. What he saw made him ill.
The horse was standing against the back wall, eyeing them with a wild look. Tyler could see the horse’s ribs, their sharp delineation a reminder of the other stable owner’s solution for handling ill-tempered horses. What had probably once been a beautiful mahogany coat was now a rough, scruffy, dull red brown, hair missing in some places and in other places so matted with dung they formed hardened clumps. The freeze brand on his neck—his identification as a wild horse—was barely discernible beneath the filth, and his black mane and tail were a twisted, knotted mess. Dirt had turned the white star on his forehead and the white sock on his foreleg a dusty brown, and even at a distance, the smell of him was vile.
The only bit of white that Tyler could see was in the horse’s eyes. And it wasn’t a good sign.
“All we did yesterday was transport him here and get him settled in the stall,” Shaunna said, speaking more to Lanie than to him. “I want him to get used to the smells and sounds around here today, then tomorrow we’ll open the door so he can go out.” She pointed toward the left side of his stall where the outline of a solid door could be seen. “All of my stalls have direct access to an attached paddock. I felt this stall would be best for your horse since it was built for a stallion. It should hold him.”
“He’s a gelding,” Lanie snapped, looking at Shaunna as if she were stupid.
“I know he’s a gelding. He’s also a Mustang, and Mustangs, especially those that were born in the wild, are a lot more wily than horses bred in captivity. Until he decides we aren’t the enemy, we’re going to need something strong to hold him. Otherwise, you’re going to be looking all over Bakersfield for your horse.”
“He never tried to get out at our place,” Lanie said defiantly.
Shaunna didn’t lose her composure. “That was then, this is now. At that other stable, he discovered that he could get out. That’s why they were keeping him in a stall all the time. We’ve got to show him that he can’t get out.”
“I want to touch him, pet him,” Lanie said, and stuck her arm through the bars on the stall. “Come here, Magic,” she called.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Shaunna warned.
Lanie glared at her. “He’s my horse.” Using the flat of her hand, she slapped it against the inside of the stall wall to get the horse’s attention. “Magic, come.”
The Mustang came.
With a lunge, he sprang toward Lanie, his teeth bared and his ears laid back. The horse’s squeal of anger sent a chill down Tyler’s spine, and he automatically grabbed Lanie, pulling her off the box and out of danger. The two of them landed on the concrete floor of the aisle, Lanie on top of him. The breath was knocked out of Tyler, but not out of Lanie.
“You ruined him!” she yelled, scrambling to her feet. “Everything’s ruined!”
She looked down at Tyler, hatred in her eyes, then turned and ran back down the aisle and out of the barn toward the parking area. Shaunna watched Tyler push himself up from the floor and brush off his khaki slacks. She saw the dirt on the back of his slacks but said nothing. She wanted to know what his reaction was going to be and kept her eyes on his face.
He sighed, shaking his head as he watched his daughter leave the barn. Then he looked at Shaunna. “Well, so much for the horse helping the two of us establish a relationship. I think, if anything, he’s driving a bigger wedge between us.” Then he added bitterly, “If there could be a bigger wedge.”
“She’s very angry,” Shaunna said, knowing that was an understatement.
“Tell me about it. She acts as if it’s my fault that her mother and stepfather are dead. I don’t know what to do. Her doctor says she just needs time, but that’s what I’ve been hearing for almost six months, and things haven’t been getting any better.” Again, he sighed. “I’d better go after her.”
“What have you gotten yourself into?” Shaunna muttered to herself as she watched Tyler follow his daughter out of the barn. Then she looked back into the horse’s stall.
Magic had returned to the far wall and was watching her, a wary look in his eyes. Given time, she could probably help the horse. She wasn’t sure about Tyler and Lanie.
Before they left, Tyler set up an arrangement with Shaunna. Since it was summer vacation and they didn’t have to worry about school, every day for the next two weeks Lanie would spend some time at the stable working on reestablishing a relationship with Magic. Someone would bring her, and he would pick her up at night after he got off work. Not only would she spend time with her horse, she would do any chores Shaunna assigned her and take some riding lessons.
Shaunna felt it was the best way for her to see what Lanie could do and how she acted with other horses. The girl was angry, and Shaunna had seen too many people take out their anger on animals. She wasn’t about to ask Magic to trust them if Lanie was going to turn around and destroy that trust.
On Monday, Lanie arrived around one o’clock. Shaunna expected the girl to be excited. Instead, she was met with sullen resistance. Even seeing her horse out in the paddock didn’t help Lanie’s attitude. When the horse didn’t come when Lanie called him, it was Shaunna who got the blame. She tried to explain Magic’s thinking to the girl, but Lanie wasn’t ready to listen.
Shaunna found herself trying to puzzle out the girl as much as the horse, but by Friday, she was ready to give up. The horse was settling in nicely, though it was clear that Magic didn’t trust any of them and could still be quite dangerous. Lanie, however, wasn’t settling in nicely at all. No matter what Shaunna said or did, Lanie got angry. Shaunna knew she had a thick hide and could take it—after all, she’d grown up being called incompetent by her father and berated by her mother, but when Lanie started swearing, then decided to take out her anger on one of the other young riders at the stable, Shaunna decided matters had gone far enough. Putting her stable manager in charge, she drove Lanie to her father’s place of business.
Tyler was working at his desk, reading over the new tax laws and trying to decide how to summarize them for the benefit of his clients. When his telephone rang, he automatically picked it up.
“There’s a woman here who wants to see you,” Eve, the firm’s receptionist, said. “She has your daughter with her, and they—”
Before Eve finished, his door banged open and Lanie stormed into his office. “She says I can’t be around Magic,” Lanie shouted. “That I can’t even set foot on her property again. Well, I want you to know, I don’t care. She’s a slave driver, that’s what she is!”