Irene and Katie followed.
The driver approached, clipboard in hand. “I’ve got a delivery here for a…Miss Katie Atkinson.”
“For me?” Katie skipped toward the back of the horse trailer. “What is it? A shiny yellow unicorn?”
“I’ll need a signature.” The man handed Eve the clipboard with the delivery paperwork.
Eve signed, noticing a familiar name at the top of the page. “It’s from Hayden.” That was surprising, given his financial worries.
Katie hopped up and down excitedly, waiting for the trailer to be opened. “I bet it’s Sparkles. Sparkles won’t run away with me. Not ever.”
The delivery driver opened the back door. “This is Sunny. He’s four.”
“I’m four!” Katie cried, rushing forward for a look. “But that’s… That’s not a shiny yellow unicorn.” She slumped, looking back at Eve, a worried expression in her eyes. “And it looks too big to be a pony.”
“Sunny is a mustang.” The man backed the compact, rich brown horse out of the trailer.
“He’s got white socks,” Irene said in a disapproving voice. “We don’t cotton to horses with white socks.”
“Why is that?” Eve wondered aloud.
“White socks mean soft hooves.” Irene ran her hand over the small horse’s back. “The rest of him looks fine. Reminds me of a horse Clyde and I used to ride to Homestead Hollow. Those were the days.”
“Hayden got a good deal in trade for some extra cattle.” The delivery driver came to stand next to Eve, lowering his voice. “That white sock bit is a myth. We test all our stock for genetic defects. Sunny is a good horse. Your daughter will have a good mount for at least a decade.”
“Thank you for telling me that.” But it seemed the least of Eve’s worries.
The delivery man drove away.
They put Sunny in an empty paddock. Irene filled the water trough. Katie fed her new best friend a handful of oats she’d put into a bucket. Sunny seemed very sweet.
After thirty minutes and a promise from Irene that they’d stay in the paddock, Eve returned to the house to take her online quiz.
*
After submitting her quiz and receiving a score Eve was proud of, she got up from the dining room chair to stretch.
But as she transitioned from medical terms to thinking about what to make for dinner, something nagged at Eve. It was too quiet, reminding her of the last time she’d lost track of her two charges. She went to the barn to check on them, nerves buzzing.
They weren’t in the paddock, and neither was Sunny.
Nothing to panic about.
They probably took Sunny to meet Nugget. But when Eve reached the barn, they weren’t inside. And neither was Nugget.
The low-key buzzing of nerves became turbocharged, roaring in her ears.
Don’t panic.
Eve ignored her inner voice and ran out the back of the barn shouting, “Katie! Gran! Where are you?”
The back gate was open, the one leading to the large pasture they’d ridden through a few days ago.
Eve raced through the gate, still shouting. But no one answered.
*
When Hayden arrived home with Roddy at suppertime, he sat on the bench at the front door and removed his cowboy boots. Only then did it dawn on him that the house was quiet.