Unbridled

by Fox Brison

  It wasn’t only mulish obstinacy that ran strong through the women in our family, unlucky in love could be added to our genetic makeup too.

  ***

  “Do you know I missed a lot of things about Wyoming whilst I was studying at Cornell… the bison roaming Heydon Valley, Old Faithful erupting, the snow capped peaks of the Teton Mountains… but the view I missed most of all was Ms Danielle Robbins bent over in her Wrangler’s.”

  I chuckled when I heard the voice and felt the tickle of a whisper in my ear. “A veterinarian license wasn’t the only thing you got at Cornell. You picked up some of that New York sass too.”

  “That’s not the only thing I picked up. I learned things that would make your toes curl. I’d be more than happy to give you a demonstration of my new skills.”

  “My toes are permanently curled; arthritis and lesbian drama only makes it worse I’m afraid. The next flare up and I won’t be able to pull on my boots.” I didn’t want to come across as bitter, but I couldn’t help it. “Amy, it’s good to see you,” I said hugging the smaller woman. “Where’s your Grandpa?”

  “It’s good to see you too, Dani.” Amy pulled on a pair of coveralls over her clothes. “Gramps is jawing with Colin. He’s supervising my visits for the first few weeks until I get settled. You know how folk can be.”

  “I do. So you’re home for good?” We began walking towards the large barn housing my modest sized herd of brood mares. They were my future, or rather, the future of my ranch. Dudettes were okay, but breeding horses was going to put this place on the map.

  “Yup, no choice,” Amy said. Her step faltered for a minute. “Grandpa’s not getting any younger, but I don’t know if I have enough experience to handle things on my own. I’m thinking of proposing we take on a partner.”

  “Would there be enough work?”

  “More than enough. We’re having to turn people away. I have a buddy from school interested but he’s as green as I am. And even worse he’s an actual Greenie.” We both shivered at that implication. No one round these parts would thank Amy for hiring a Coloradan. “I think we need someone with more experience.”

  “I’ll put the feelers out if you like?”

  “That’d be great, Dani. It’s important I take on someone I trust.”

  “Not a problem. Hey do you fancy going for a beer Friday? It’s ladies’ night at Joe’s and it’s my turn to cook supper. We both know the only dishes I’m capable of serving are ones that end with a ping.” Smackwater Joe’s was a bar and grill on the edge of town whose ribs were famous state wide, and once a month they held a ladies’ night. Try as I might I still couldn’t get Jennifer out of my head, and although I wasn’t really feeling it, maybe a distraction would do the trick.

  “Sure,” Amy grinned. “You know I’m always up for a bit of fun.”

  We slowed as our eyes adjusted to the shadowy sunlight filtering in through the open doorway of the barn. Stopping at the second stall, Amy stroked the soft velvety nose of Jezebel. “I heard Jack got hitched,” she began pulling on rubber gloves. “To an English girl no less.”

  “News travels fast.”

  “Your Mom told Alice so I’m guessing the whole town knows by now.”

  “He’s bringing her home next week sometime. No doubt he’ll be showing her off at Joe’s come the weekend.”

  Amy began examining Jezzie. “Won’t be long. It’s gonna be another four…” she furrowed her brow, “maybe six hours I reckon.”

  “Are you sure?” I was surprised. Horses normally went into labour during the night. Then I snorted. Not only did Jezzie leave getting pregnant until the last minute, but she’d clearly held onto her foal until it got so big she had little choice in the matter. Talk about a smother! Maybe I should change her name to Beverly Goldberg.

  “Yup. Want me to get Grandpa to check?” Amy removed her gloves and dropped them in the trash.

  She appeared a little hurt by my query so I hurried to appease her. “No of course not, I trust your judgement.” I figured she was getting it from all sides and I knew exactly how that felt. My Grandpa had also held onto the baton with a grip as tight as a corpse in rigor mortis. I’d been pushing the dude ranch idea for years but he wouldn’t have any of it. It felt lousy, truth be told, not having the trust of the person you respected most in life. It had caused several arguments between me and my Mom because I’d been champing at the bit to take over and Gramps kept pulling on the reins. That was why the rodeo was so important to me. It was my escape, a place where I was in control.

  “Don’t worry Dani, Jez’ll be fine.” She patted my shoulder and I smiled, even though inside I was a mass of nervous tension. We headed over to the other side of the barn to check on the love of my life. Stormy was the granddaughter of the last mare my grandfather bought me as a graduation present when I was eighteen and she owned my heart. From the first moment I sat atop her, I knew our futures were indelibly linked. There was something in my soul that was healed, something I hadn’t even realised was broken.

  I trained her for barrel racing, spent hours nurturing her talent. We’d only just officially left the circuit and looking at her in the stall, I don’t think either of us were missing life on the road. The money and the women were no replacement for the sunset over the mountains and the cutthroat trout in the creek.

  I rotated my shoulder feeling a tightness and burn.

  Besides, I couldn’t have lasted any longer on the circuit without ending up as a cripple.

  “Stormy’s looking good,” Amy said. “Aren’t you girl?” Stormy answered with a soft whicker.

  I gently patted her nose. “She’s going to be such a good Mom, aren’t you, sweetie?”

  “You want me to give her the once over since I’m here?” Amy asked.

  I was about to say yes please, but Doc Rogers interrupted. “No need for that young ‘un. That mare has another week, maybe ten days yet.” I trusted Doc Rogers, he’d never let me down.

  “Grandpa-”

  “Amy, I said it’s not necessary. Now shush and let these good folks go about their business. We have to call on the Harrington’s yet and at this rate we won’t get there before sundown. I’ll speak to you later, Dani, Colin.” He tipped his hat and left the barn with Amy trailing in his wake. Her shoulders were slumped and I felt a momentary twinge of sorrow for her. It was going to be hard easing Doc Rogers out, no matter how the locals reacted to her presence; it seemed the good ole Doc wasn’t ready to hang up his stethoscope yet.

  Maybe it was what had happened in San Francisco, or maybe it was purely first time parent nerves… Jezzie was fine, Stormy was fine, still, I couldn’t shake this feeling in my gut, telling me, no shouting at me, not to ignore my instincts.

  Right then I heard a car pull up outside and my instincts were about to get hit in the proverbial.

  Chapter 16

  Haley

  I climbed into the driver’s seat of my hire car outside Yellowstone International Airport and blew a long stream of relieved air from between my lips. It was good to be back on terra firma and in a mode of transport I had some control over.

  I hate flying. Correction, I don’t hate it so much as I’m absolutely terrified of flying. I blame my Dad. He was an avid watcher of a series called Air Crash Investigation and whenever I was home from university, everyday around tea time he would turn the channel over to National Geographic for his favourite show. I didn’t want to watch but I had no choice; once it started I couldn’t turn away - it was, quite literally, plane crash television. This coupled with instances of accidents, or non-accidents in the case of rockets taking out aeroplanes over war zones, and my fear was complete. And yes, I know the statistics; more people are killed on our roads every year than in plane crashes but car accidents don’t happen 40,000 feet in the air over shark infested oceans.

  So I’m not sure the bit about the sharks is necessarily true, but it’s how I felt.

  Dawn suggested hypnotherapy, Jen suggested a mix of alcoho
l and sedatives. Mum proposed flying lessons. That last proposal was the one that made me laugh the hardest and longest. Could you imagine? I found it difficult enough to step foot on an aircraft that at least felt sturdy, so I wasn’t about to get into one that looked like it was made from pieces you collected from a subscription magazine every two weeks.

  My instructor would have been the one who required alcohol and tranquilisers once the wheels touched down.

  And for a person who had a fear of flying, or rather a fear of dying, I was doing an awful lot of it recently.

  The flight from San Francisco to Cody was… interesting. I lie, of course. It was downright petrifying. The plane was tiny and wouldn’t have looked out of place in the era of Howard Hughes. Or the Wright brothers. The fact I even stepped foot on the obvious potential death trap proved how much making amends with Dani meant to me. I shuddered as I remembered gripping the arm rest as we came gracefully into land. In truth, gracefully was a misnomer of epic proportions.

  A pregnant walrus would have had more grace.

  The wind buffeted the plane from side to side and my breakfast burrito was inches away from being reintroduced to the world; it truly was one of the worst landings I’ve ever experienced and I’d flown into Knock airport on Ireland’s west coast a few times.

  At least the flight at over three hours was long enough for me to recover from the slight hangover that lingered after the gin induced confession-a-thon Kelly, Jen and I had descended into after Jack departed the night before. My recent escapade with Dani proved the catalyst for some serious one-upmanship. I thought the whole twin debacle would win hands down; however, that only turned out to be the chocolate icing, because the sprinkle and buttons which decorated the confessional chocolate fudge cake belonged to Kelly and her story of waking up in bed next to her girlfriend’s mother.

  Both naked.

  Except for the strap on Kelly was wearing.

  I smiled as the playlist of embarrassing moments from the night before replayed in my mind whilst I drove. Not that sleeping with Dani was embarrassing, not in the slightest. Well, okay, a little in the slightest, but only because I’d done something as moronic as using my sister’s name - even though Kelly found it particularly hilarious. She owned quite a sadistic sense of humour.

  I didn’t hold out much hope that Dani would find it quite so amusing.

  ***

  I was confident driving on the wrong side of the road. Dawn’s parents owned a house in central France and because of my aversion to flying we drove on the rare occasions we visited.

  The main motorway from the airport was quite heavy with traffic, but once I left that and joined the smaller local road I practically had it to myself. Admiring the view I listened to the electronic voice of the GPS telling me I was two miles from my next turn off when a horn honked good, long and with some feeling. I quickly pulled the steering wheel sharply to the right and skidded onto the grassy verge as a large blue pickup barrelled towards me.

  Perhaps I wasn’t such an expert at driving on the left after all.

  I shook my head to clear the near death image from it. And so instead of concentrating on my memories of the night before, the view and my satellite navigation companion, I concentrated on the road.

  I turned onto a hard yellowing dirt road as directed and there was nothing but me and a cloud of dust for the first few minutes. I wondered if the GPS was malfunctioning and I was about to do a Thelma and Louise and drive straight off the top of a cliff. But the dust soon cleared and I slowed the car to a stop as I took in the sheer majestic beauty that lay before me. In the background were mountains, not snow capped, but I could imagine they would be in the winter, maybe even the autumn. I could also see, just about, the ranch buildings in the distance, little pinpricks of brown that were practically camouflaged against the pines. There were a couple of fields bracketing the road, grass as green as any in England, a verdant carpet sprinkled with the hint of wildflowers. I couldn’t name most of them but I did recognise sagebrush and chamomile.

  And the horses. Oh my, the horses. They were truly bloody magnificent. I was instantly envious of Jen and her new home. I couldn’t wait to get on one of those glorious creatures and ride the trails Jack had told me about. I must have stood there for a full ten minutes drinking it all in, before I remembered the reason I was there which took the shine off the silver lining I was polishing. I got back into the car and sat for a few seconds, simply catching my breath. Taking one more deep inhalation of pure air I closed my eyes and then nodded to myself. I started the engine and drove.

  Minutes later, just after two in the afternoon, I finally drew up outside the large farmhouse I instantly recognised from Jack’s photos. He’d proudly shown me them the night before, clearly excited when I displayed an interest in what he did and where he lived.

  He didn’t know that I had an ulterior motive.

  The house looked more far impressive in the afternoon sun than it did on Jack’s iPhone. The two storey dark wood log cabin melded with ease into its surroundings. It had a wide wrap around porch with a couple of rocking chairs waiting patiently on it, and the small windows reflected the trees and fluffy white clouds in their panes. A couple of chimneys poked out of the top and seeing the mountains behind, I could imagine curling up on the sofa with a glass of wine, or mug of hot chocolate, whilst idly dreaming the winter months away.

  I steadied myself. The feelings that had been raging inside of me from the moment I clapped eyes on Dani seemed to be even more insistent here on her home turf. I continued to linger for a few seconds longer whilst I ran over my prepared speech for a third time.

  Since leaving the airport.

  The door to the house opened and a small, squat woman appeared. Her curly hair was messy but from her age I assumed it was Jack’s aunt, and Dani’s Mum, who was standing on the porch staring at me, rather suspiciously. I waved.

  “Hi, sorry to bother you, but I wonder if you could help me. I’m looking for Dani.”

  Chapter 17

  Haley

  “And who might you be?” the woman asked bluntly.

  “My name is-” A rather large dog bundled over and sat at my feet. I bent down and clapped his ears. He was a Heinz 57 – several varieties melded into one mutt. He was gorgeous and I assumed he was Brody. He rolled over and gave me his tummy, and when I stopped he whined and put his head pathetically on my toes. I chuckled at his antics. “Sorry, I was distracted by this handsome fella. My name is-” I began for a second time.

  “It’s okay, Mom,” the husky voice I recognised from my dreams spoke from behind me and I jumped into next week. “Go inside and put on a pot of coffee, I’ll see Doc Rogers and Amy off, then we’ll be in.”

  I turned and the scenery on the drive paled in comparison when I set eyes upon Dani again. In San Francisco the cowgirl get up was something to behold but here… suddenly all I could think of was the barn in the background, a bed of hay, and the two of us rolling around in it. My mouth dried right up and I gulped a couple of times trying to produce enough saliva to at least be able to speak. Everything about her was brimming with vitality. Even her eyes, currently the colour of obsidian fresh from a volcano, were flashing with anger and drawing me in. I was a moth and she was the flaming beacon calling me.

  “Brody, here boy!” The dog immediately obeyed her command.

  She walked back over to a grey haired older man and a petite woman who looked about twelve. However, I recognised the veterinarian case she was carrying, so she must have been at least twenty six. They shared a hug, and as Dani began to make her way back towards me the woman shouted through the open window of her truck, “Pick me up around seven on Friday?”

  “Will do and wear something sexy!” Dani called back. Then she winked and I felt a stab of jealousy. “Where’s Jack?” she asked when she eventually reached me. I could tell by the set of her shoulders she wasn’t exactly happy to see me. And as a result of the exchange I’d just witnessed, I wasn’t
best pleased either. Blatantly any woman would have done in San Francisco and I wondered if she chose me because I looked the most desperate.

  Self-esteem at subterranean level five and going down.

  “You can stop acting so hard done by,” I said snarkily, my eyes following the truck down the drive. I was willing them not to focus on the deep v of Dani’s cleavage. Her top buttons were open and my mind immediately raced to remembering her soft olive skin and her perfect br-

  “What? Oh, right Amy.” She smirked as she interrupted my heated thoughts. “I’d be careful if I were you, Jennifer, it’s a long way down from that there high horse you’re sitting on.”

  I inhaled deeply. Bad move. All it did was reinforce the olfactory memory of the night we spent together and immediately all the blood rushed south. “Dani, I must talk to you. I don’t know quite… It’s a little embarrassing…” I began.

  “So is herpes.”

  Seems she wasn’t going to make it easy for me. Fair enough. “My name isn’t Jennifer, it’s Haley.”

  “Haley?”

  Now that was a perplexed frown and a half. “Yes,” I answered quickly.

  “I don’t get…” she took off her Stetson and hit it against her thigh. A dust cloud billowed around us and I scowled at her as a coughing fit overtook me.

  When I managed to catch my breath I said, “My name is Haley. Jen, who’s married to your cousin Jack, is my identical twin sister.”

  “Identical twin-”

  “Sister. Ta da!” I did a jazz hands thing which I hoped she would find adorable and might help lighten the mood. But it ended up being as effective as one of President Trump’s executive orders.