Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer

by Becky Wicks

  If he hadn’t teased her about her jealousy over Diyana, she might not have been as flustered as to admit that she and Ethan had conceived Emmie by accident. She already regretted letting that slip.

  OK, so she hadn’t told him anything about how she and Ethan had basically been forced to marry or risk having to drop out of their degrees. And there was no way in hell she was admitting she’d been so weak at the time, so lost without Cole that she’d waded through most of that year not caring at all what went on around her, but, still, Cole had no business pushing her for details when he’d been the one to break things off in the first place. And he was still keeping secrets from her. She knew it.

  I never said I didn’t love you. She couldn’t forget the way he’d just said that.

  Emmie squealed with laughter as the puppy wagged its tail against her glass of juice and sent it sliding along the counter so fast that Cole had to grab it before it toppled over the edge. Jodie went for it at the same time and her fingers landed over his.

  ‘Be careful,’ they said at the same time, catching eyes, just as a lightning bolt lit the room from outside.

  Toby clapped his hands. ‘I love storms.’

  ‘You can feel the energy in the air,’ Emmie said, looking between her and Cole. Jodie pulled her hand away as though she’d been stung.

  Cole scooped up the puppy in one swoop and deposited it back on the floor before Evie could see and reprimand them. The bustling housekeeper was busy adding more coals to the hearth in the corner, which was already blazing with a fire.

  ‘So, have you guys been studying marketing up in your rooms when most kids are watching cartoons?’ Cole teased, stepping over the skittish puppy and crossing with his bowl to the wide copper sink.

  ‘I never watch cartoons,’ Emmie said. She was twirling her ponytail around her fingers at the back of her baseball hat. ‘And it’s not really marketing, Cole, it’s just using common sense.’

  ‘It’s all about common sense,’ Toby reiterated.

  Jodie couldn’t help smirking a little at the way they were putting him in his place when it came to modern technology. Emmie was pretty good at reaching her father on social media already. She’d been given a phone on her eleventh birthday for that purpose alone, but she’d never seen her daughter try to put her skills to use in this way before.

  Cole was watching her now from over by the sink, drying his bowl diligently with a dishcloth. His leather jacket was undone, his jeans were smudged up one side with mud from the manège. His stetson was almost skimming a copper cooking pan that hung from the beams. She realised she’d barely touched her lunch either.

  ‘Don’t you want that soup, Mum?’ Emmie asked.

  ‘I might have some later instead,’ she said, flustered. Cole was still staring at her.

  ‘So, Cole, it looks like you’ve found yourself some new social media managers,’ Evie said now. Had she picked up on the stormy atmosphere between them? ‘Did Casper not have any social media set up for this place at all?’

  ‘None,’ Emmie answered for him, pattering over to the sink in thick pink woollen socks, with both of their bowls. ‘But don’t worry, Cole, Toby and I can handle it for you guys. I’m sure you and Mum have better things to do together.’

  Emmie ran the hot tap, then started pulling on a pair of rubber gloves. Jodie watched in amazement. Emmie never volunteered to do her own washing-up at home, gloves or no gloves. She never even unloaded the dishwasher unless she was asked to.

  She was so taken aback that it took a moment for Emmie’s words and tone to sink in. Had she really just said, I’m sure you have better things to do together?

  ‘We’ll find the next litter of puppies homes, too. Then we can move on to any horses you bring in. There will be more after Blaze, right? Can we ride him soon? Oh, can we go to Green Vale with Dacey and Vinny tomorrow for the animal show?’

  Emmie was looking expectantly at Cole now.

  Cole hung the dishcloth on its hook on the wall and flicked the rim of her hat affectionately with a thumb. ‘So many questions,’ he said. ‘You’re just like your mother.’

  ‘I tend to stop, when I don’t get any answers,’ Jodie shot back. She regretted it when Emmie raised an eyebrow at her, then Evie. ‘What’s Green Vale?’

  ‘It’s my school,’ Toby replied.

  ‘I guess you could call it alternative.’ Cole shrugged. ‘They have some pretty interesting activities during half-term too. I’m a big fan of the woodland yoga classes.’

  Jodie scoffed. She knew he was joking. At least, she thought he was.

  ‘Uncle Cole helped me get a place at the new school, Ms Everleigh,’ Toby explained. ‘This one’s way better, we have maths and geography lessons in 3D! There’s no headteacher and no hierarchy, the school is jointly managed by students and staff. And we have pigs and donkeys, and we make organic lunches. Before half-term we had to learn to build a fence to keep the pigs off the vegetable patch.’

  ‘They have a yoga studio and a photography lab,’ Emmie added. She had clearly been told all about it already.

  ‘And they teach them useful stuff, like debating and cooking,’ Cole said. ‘Not that you couldn’t have learned all that at Everleigh too, right, Toby?’

  Toby pulled a face. ‘Maybe not cooking, not from you, Cole.’

  Cole nodded sagely. ‘That’s fair.’ Jodie stifled a snigger.

  The wooden door to the practice creaked open and Dacey, one of the vets, walked in, followed by a tiny, wobbly white lamb.

  Emmie and Toby both sprang from the sink and started fussing over it. ‘Want to help with feeding?’ Dacey said, holding up a baby bottle filled with milk. ‘She was brought in this morning for a check-up after her mother died, poor sweet thing. What should we call her?’

  ‘We’ll call her Annie,’ Emmie announced, before anyone else could make a suggestion. ‘Like the orphan. Toby, get the iPad, can you, and take a photo of me and Annie for the new social media account. Should I wear these rubber gloves in it?’

  ‘Yeah, that would be funny!’

  All of a sudden there was a ruckus of paws and giggles and soap suds and hooves across the floor tiles, a spilled bottle of milk, the clicking iPad camera, the lamb bleating, dogs barking and rain lashing at the windows.

  There was never a quiet or dull moment in the Everleigh kitchen, Jodie mused nostalgically. There had always been so many people, so many opinions flying around, so much to do. She was deeply touched that Cole cared enough about Toby to help get him into a new school, too.

  They needed to talk more, clear the air. It was ridiculous, carrying all this ancient resentment and tension around—she was here for Everleigh, not Cole. They had to put all that behind them and move forward, for Emmie’s sake more than hers. Emmie would only get caught in the middle if this bitterness continued.

  Then...the door to the porch swung open again. The stablehand Russell stumbled in, along with a gust of wind and rain. ‘C-Cole,’ he stuttered, clutching his leg and wincing in pain. ‘Cole, man, we have a problem.’

  Evie sprang for the old-fashioned telephone on the wall. ‘I’ll call an ambulance.’

  Dacey and Emmie both grappled to stop the lamb from fleeing out the door as Cole hurried to Russell’s side. The bottom of the poor guy’s jeans was soaked in mud, rain and blood.

  ‘Blaze is gone,’ Russell said, grimacing at the sight of his own leg. ‘He freaked out at the lightning. I couldn’t stop him.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  ‘WHY CAN’T YOU take the Land Rover? It’s pouring with rain!’ Jodie’s blue eyes were imploring as Cole heaved the saddle over the back of one of their thoroughbred hotblood mares, Aphrodite.

  ‘Ziggy needs to follow Blaze’s scent,’ he explained, yanking the straps tight on the left stirrup.

  ‘Blaze won’t have gone far because of the rain,’ he told her. ‘B
ut he doesn’t know the area so he could be anywhere.’

  ‘I’ll come with you.’ Jodie was hot on their heels. She was already wearing a riding helmet she’d plucked from the wall and wielding a bridle, awaiting instructions. ‘Which horse can I take?’

  ‘You’re not coming with me, Jodie,’ he told her, hurrying down the aisle with Aphrodite. ‘It’s too dangerous. I need you alive.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

  He knew she was concerned for his safety, but he was more concerned for hers. Cole was kicking himself for not checking in when the storm started. He’d been distracted by Jodie, and the cozy mayhem in the kitchen. What had happened to Russell was his fault.

  At the door he prepared to mount, but Jodie’s willowy frame blocked him.

  ‘Tell me which horse or I’ll take Mustang.’

  ‘Mustang couldn’t keep up.’

  ‘Then give me another one. Stop trying to protect me, you’re acting like I’ve never ridden before when you know damn well I’m as capable as you are. What if you need my help when you find him?’

  ‘Fine.’ She wouldn’t back down, he knew it. Admittedly he was treating her unfairly. ‘If you insist. Grab the saddle.’ He took the bridle from her and clasped his hands around her waist. He heard her gasp as he put a hand to her pert backside and hoisted her onto Aphrodite’s back with one swift movement.

  ‘Do your helmet up,’ he ordered as she landed astride the horse. He threw her up the reins. ‘I’ll saddle up Pirate.’

  They took to the road and Ziggy set off ahead, nose to the ground around the rain-crushed daffodils.

  Blaze had kicked Russell in the shins, charged past him on the way out of the manège and leapt over the gate to the property like it was nothing but an oxer in a lower showjumping division. A wounded, frightened stallion like him on the loose yet again was a serious liability.

  ‘Has Ziggy done this before?’ Jodie called out from behind him.

  ‘He can find anything,’ he shouted back against the wind.

  They’d only been out on short, fun rides with Emmie and Toby so far, but this was something different. Secretly he thrived on the adrenaline, especially with Jodie at his side...but she was a mother now. Things were not the same as they had been before, so he had even more reasons to be careful with her.

  Near The Ship Inn, Ziggy suddenly let out three sharp barks at the crossroads by the old red phone box.

  ‘He’s got something!’ Jodie yelled.

  ‘Get closer to me,’ he called to her. He trusted the mare in all weather conditions, but he needed to be able to grab Jodie’s reins if anything did go wrong.

  * * *

  The mud and dirt splattered Aphrodite’s pristine grey legs as they broke into a gallop. Ziggy led them down side roads, across a field of cows. Jodie’s helmet did nothing to stop the rain drenching the ends of her hair.

  Cole ran over their previous conversation as his horse pounded a new gravel track beneath him and the cold wind whipped his face. He was surprised he’d managed to hold a conversation with the kids at lunch, knowing that Jodie had probably only got married to save face after getting pregnant. She hadn’t admitted it, she was likely too embarrassed, but why else would she have married a friend?

  Shifting his weight to his outside hip, he nudged his heel into Pirate’s right side, and Pirate picked up the pace in perfect rhythm. He could almost see Casper on the horizon, as he always had been before, riding up ahead of him.

  This had been their place, where they’d made all their troubles disappear. Just listening to the steady pounding of hooves, the tail-swishes, it had always put his mind at ease, but so had their conversations. Except one, he thought now, back when Casper had told him Jodie was pregnant and getting married. He thought back to writing the letter that same night. He hadn’t thought about it in a long time. He had told Jodie everything in that letter. Would it have made a difference for them if he’d sent it?

  He considered giving it to her now.

  No, he couldn’t. If she found out this late how he’d broken it off to try and save her like some storybook hero... God, she would never forgive him. She might not regret having the amazing Emmie, but he’d sent her off into some other guy’s arms, who’d got her pregnant by mistake. All that, just because he’d never had the guts to face up to his father and call his bluff.

  ‘Do you see anything yet?’ Jodie was breathless and flushed and her jeans were drenched as she came up alongside him on her horse.

  ‘Nothing, but I trust that dog.’

  * * *

  Some way up the path, Ziggy upped his barking, urging them down an even narrower path at the side of some old storage barns. ‘The river’s down there,’ he yelled to Jodie. ‘It runs through the woods. Follow me, it could be dangerous in this wind.’

  Cole had been bucked off, bitten, kicked and bowled over himself over the years...but he’d also never, ever blamed a horse for its hostility. Horses were aggressive for two reasons only: if they felt threatened, or if they’d been taught to dominate humans. There was every chance Blaze would feel threatened if they cornered him in the woodland. He’d have to take the chance.

  ‘Go slowly, please,’ Jodie urged him, close behind him on the narrow trail. ‘You don’t know what he’s capable of.’

  ‘I won’t let anything happen to you,’ he told her. He would protect her at all costs. Maybe it was in his biological make-up, or maybe it came from sheltering her for all those years. Maybe it would always be in his wiring, he didn’t know, but he felt it like a duty. To this day, he would put Jodie’s safety and well-being over his own, in any situation.

  * * *

  The storm seemed to be subsiding, and the rain was finally easing off. Jodie remembered the gushing river to her left. Casper had warned them about the fierce undercurrents when they were kids, especially after heavy rain. It was bulging now, after all the snowmelt they’d had.

  Casper’s words came to Jodie’s mind as Cole crouched down in the sodden moss and leaves, two metres from an anxious-looking Blaze. ‘The most dangerous part of a horse is its feet, Jodie.’

  In a heartbeat, Blaze bucked beneath a giant oak, sending the birds scattering. With a gut-wrenching whinny he charged at Cole, kicking up the leaves in a power play.

  ‘Jodie, don’t move an inch,’ Cole warned. He didn’t even make a move himself, but the horse swerved at the last second and made for the rushing river.

  ‘There’s nowhere to go, bud,’ she heard him say calmly. He inched towards him again, swiping at low-hanging branches.

  Blaze trotted manically up and down what exposed bit of riverbank he could get a footing on. The stallion’s neck was lathered in a thick sweat, more from his nerves than from the warmth of the sun, she could tell. His wounds and scars, lit up in a shaft of sudden sunlight, were almost unbearable to see.

  The meds had brought him a long way, and his ribs weren’t as prominent. But she knew the scars on the inside must be painful for him to act like this, especially when Cole had already worked so hard on gaining his trust.

  ‘Cole, please be careful,’ she heard herself say. He wasn’t even wearing a hard hat. She almost threw him hers but he put a hand up to stop her, to keep her still.

  She was sweating now as she stood there, clutching their horses’ reins. One kick from Blaze to Cole’s head, and his face would look worse than Russell’s shin, if he even survived at all, but she trusted he knew what he was doing.

  Blaze was eyeing Cole suspiciously, creating showers of wet chestnut leaves, mud and torn-up daffodils. His scorched nose snorted air. His ears were pinned back and his head jerked this way and that as Cole crept ever closer to the riverbank.

  Jodie felt like she’d gone at least ten minutes without taking a breath. But thankfully it wasn’t long before Blaze’s ears returned to normal, and she watched in wonder as the horse lowere
d his head in apparent surrender.

  ‘Good man, you know you can trust us.’ Cole got close enough to fix the bridle over Blaze’s head. Jodie drew a sigh of relief when she saw the reins in his hands. Finally, he was back in control.

  She turned to mount Aphrodite...but a sudden commotion behind her made her spin back.

  Cole yelled something to her about a rabbit, right before Blaze reared up in fright. The next part seemed to happen in slow motion. Before she could get a mental grip on the situation, Cole was forced backwards into the river.

  ‘Cole!’ Jodie raced to the edge and made a futile grab for his billowing shirt. The river was freezing. To her horror, in a nanosecond she couldn’t see him at all.

  She tore off her jacket, ready to jump in and swim after him...where to, she had no idea. Ziggy was barking hysterically. She saw the dog crouch before she could stop him. ‘Ziggy, no!’

  With a giant leap Ziggy dived in and started paddling furiously. She flailed for his tail but he drifted out of reach. The world went white and then back to colour.

  She couldn’t see Cole, still. Maybe he’d hit his head. The thought filled her with sheer terror. A thousand possible scenarios made her feel sick to her stomach as she scanned the river surface up ahead. Where was Cole?

  A thud in her side almost knocked her fully into the water. Blaze’s reins. Grabbing them in one fist, she held on so tight that her hands blistered instantly beneath the leather. With her other hand, she fisted tufts of grass to steady herself, and realised what the horse was doing.

  Blaze was trotting in a strange dance, backwards from the riverbank, stomping over shrubs and flowers, biting and yanking on the reins, which were attached to...

  Cole. Cole still had hold of the reins.

  ‘Jodie! Don’t move. It’s OK.’ She heard his voice before she saw him. Thank God, he was conscious.

  He was getting closer to her now, bobbing back towards her on the white lip of the current. He almost collided with Ziggy but somehow he scooped the struggling dog up in one arm and held him protectively.