Walker: Secrets

Chapter 6

Maddie was ready and waiting out on the front porch when a silver truck came up the drive. Placing her hat onto her head, she picked her bag and started over to it as it stopped. ‘Hey Colton, thanks so much for this.’

‘No problem.’ He smiled as she climbed into the passenger seat. ‘It’ll be great if we have found his owner.’

‘How has Rocky been doing?’ She asked, closing the door before putting on her seat belt.

‘Seems like he’s settling in but then again, I don’t know much about horses.’ He replied as he turned the truck around and started back down the drive. ‘My Grandma has been the one doing the majority of his care, they seem to get along well.’

‘Good, that’s great to hear.’

‘I um… I kinda expected you’d come drop by to see him.’

‘I was going to but…’ She paused. ‘I didn’t want to after you know, what happened with my mare and you almost running us over.’

‘I told you to forget it, didn’t I? No harm done.’ He glanced over at her. ‘So, how is training with your new mustang going?’

‘We’re taking it slow, yesterday I put a halter on her for the first time.’

‘Wow. You’ve only had her what, four days?’

‘Yeah. You know, if you want to see what I’ve been doing with her, I started a facebook page for her to document her training. It’s called Bel’s Second Chance, cringy I know but it seemed to fit.’

‘I’ll check it out.’ 

‘I only started it on Monday but I’ve already got a few followers. I just want to show people that you don’t need to use force to train horses, that there’s a better way of doing it.’ She glanced at the time. ‘If it's not too late when you drop me back home, maybe you can watch us work for a little bit? Until she’s had more training, I’m only allowed in the yard with Bel if there’s someone there to watch me.’

‘Yeah sure, I’d like that.’

‘Great.’ Maddie leaned back in her chair, resting her head back against the headrest. ‘So, you’ve been in Austin for a week so far. Liking it yet?’

‘It’s okay I guess.’ He shrugged. ‘Still wish we didn’t have to move from our old home but it is what it is.’

‘I hear you there. When I was living with my father, it took me a while to adjust to our new home too. Well, I guess you couldn’t really call it a home cause it was just wherever he could find a place to rent out. We moved through fifteen states in four years.’

‘So what happened with your dad? You said before the Walkers took you in when he couldn’t look after you anymore. Is he away or something?’

She shook her head. ‘No… My father passed about six months ago now.’

‘Oh, sorry to hear that. What about your mom?’

‘She passed when I was eleven.’ Maddie replied. ‘What about your birth parents? You mentioned you were adopted?’

‘I never knew my birth parents, my birth mother put me up for adoption when I was born and the Davidsons adopted me.’

‘You were lucky you got adopted into a good family.’

‘Yeah well things aren’t always what they appear to be…’ He brought the truck to a stop at an intersection and looked both ways before continuing on. ‘My parents are talking about getting divorced so… With the move and then that…’

‘If you want to talk about things,’ Maddie started sympathetically after he had been silent for a time. ‘I’ve been told I’m a good listener.’