Read Online All the King's Horses by Lauren Gallagher - Free Book Online Page A

showed up here with all his quirks, but no one ever told you what he’d been through, what would you think?”
    I shifted my gaze to the gelding. “Obviously something happened to him. Horses aren’t born scared of people.”
    “No.” She gave me a knowing look. “They certainly aren’t.”
    I eyed her. “What exactly are you getting at?”
    Mom inclined her head, and her face took on that expression that demanded I read between every line she spoke. “I’m saying that I know you, and I know that no matter why an animal is difficult to work with or has trouble adjusting, you don’t treat it any differently than if you had his entire background like you do Blue’s.”
    “Right…”
    She pushed herself off the door and touched my arm. “Think about it, son.”
    I swallowed. “She’s just here to work for me. Nothing more.”
    “Mm-hmm. And why would she have taken a farmhand job in the middle of nowhere? Look at her. A place like this isn’t a destination for a girl like her, Dustin.” She glanced down the aisle, then looked at me again. “Girl like her comes to a place like this and stays a million miles away in her mind? I have a feeling she came here to get away from something.”
    Alarm tightened my chest. “Like what?”
    Mom shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe she just needed to find herself.”
    I avoided her eyes as I let the words digest for a moment. I hadn’t considered that angle, and now guilt gnawed at me for thinking the worst about Amy.
    “Dustin.” Mom drew my attention to the pointed look she was giving me, “That girl is not a rescue horse.”
    “What?” I laughed. “Of course she isn’t. I know that.”
    She raised an eyebrow.
    I shifted my weight. “What?”
    “Remember when you were young and you wanted to bring home that bird that broke its wing?”
    “Which one?”
    Mom pursed her lips. “Well, that’s kind of my point. First it was the birds. Now it’s the horses. And sometimes…”
    It took me a second to figure out where she was going with this, and when I did, I had to bite back my frustration. “Mom, this is—”
    “Dustin, what happened when the bird’s wings were healed?” She turned toward Blue, then looked at me again, and her voice was soft when she asked, “What happened every time?”
    I released my breath. Hadn’t we had this conversation a million times before too? “I know, Mom. They flew away.”
    “Every last one of them.” She gestured at the other end of the barn. “And don’t you think for a second this one won’t do the very same thing.” She wagged a finger at me in that playfully stern way she often did. “I know you, son. You see someone who’s been hurt, and you want to help them just like you help the horses and the birds.”
    Gaze fixed on Blue, I said, “I don’t rescue people.”
    “Maybe not,” she said, and I knew damn well she didn’t believe me. “You have a good heart, but be careful. Or else you’re the one who gets hurt, just like you always do.”
    I didn’t argue with her. She’d never buy it if I told her I was curious about Amy, but not in the way she was convinced I was. So I just kept my mouth shut.
    Mom watched Blue for a moment. Then she asked, “Why did you take these two if they’re not ready, anyway? You barely have time for the horses you’re being paid to work with, and even when you sell them, these rescues never pay for themselves. It would have been a wasted trip, but that’s cheaper than making the trip and bringing back two horses you can’t sell.”
    “You know McBride,” I said without looking away from the horse. “If he’s stuck with them longer than he wants to be, he’ll sell them to the first open checkbook that comes along.”
    “Because he’s running a business, son,” Mom said. “Just like you are.”
    I glared at her again. We went through this—I went through it with both my parents—every time I brought a rescue home, regardless of how ready the horse was to be