A few weeks passed since Therese had identified the man she saw the day of the shooting, and, after mostly lying around in bed and spending time with her pets, she finally returned to the woods with Clifford. She didn't go as far as usual, but she went a little ways, and Carol stood on the back deck watching her in full view. The police were no longer standing guard at the house, and Therese could finally take Clifford out to do his business without a leash and without him barking and growling and driving her mad. The wild animals, which had not come around while the officers were here, returned to eat the sunflower seeds Therese sprinkled across the deck and railing.
Jen had called several days ago and had begged Therese to come and groom the horses with her, and Therese decided today she felt like going.
Carol turned on to the gravelly drive leading up to Jen's house. Clifford leaned his head out of Therese's open window, his tongue hanging happily from his mouth, his stubby tail wagging. Clifford loved to come to Jen's and run around the ranch, though he wasn't allowed in the pen. He knew Jen's family and their horses, and they knew him, and so everyone got along just fine. Therese loved to come too. She looked at the big log cabin, similar to her own, on the right of the property, and the barn and pen to the left. On the opposite side of the pen from the house, two pastures spread out to the north at the base of the mountains. A stream cut across the entire property behind the house and pen, and through the center of the pastures. Tied to the base of the front wooden steps of the house was a lone goat, which bleated as Jen opened the front door and skipped down the five steps to the ground.
Jen's blonde hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, and she wore a white tank top and old blue jeans and boots. Therese felt a wave of jealousy at Jen's beauty but shrugged it off as soon as Jen called to her in her friendly voice, "Hey there! You're finally here!"
When Therese opened her car door, Clifford sprang out to meet Jen. The goat bleated its objections, and Clifford cowered away from it.
"Hey there, boy!" Jen pet Clifford when he greeted her with his front paws on her legs. Then Clifford ambled down to his favorite hangout: the stream at the back of the property, which was full of trout.
Therese turned to Carol. "Thanks for the ride."
"Sure. Call me if you want a ride home. First I'm running into Durango to get a few more groceries, but I'll be back in a couple of hours."
Therese stepped out of the car, but before she closed the door, Carol asked, "You sure you don't want me to run you by the cemetery later? You still haven't visited your parents' graves. It's been over a month since we buried them."
"I'm sure. I'm not ready to do that yet." She wished her aunt wouldn't have brought this up now. She'd been close to happy and excited, but now she was filled with dread.
"Okay. Bye, sweetheart."
Therese closed the car door and turned to her friend. "It's nice to be out of the house. Thanks for inviting me."
"Hey, listen. My mom was wondering if you want a job. The two brothers she hired this spring had a death in the family. She hired a new temp a week ago, but she still needs one more hand, just until she can find someone more permanent. Up to it?"
Therese shrugged. It would be a lot of hard work, which could be both good and bad. "Would she need me every day?"
"Pretty much. She pays ten an hour." Jen led her across the gravel drive past the barn toward the partially sheltered pen where the dozen horses hung out.
"I don't know. If she can't find anyone else, maybe." Then to Clifford, who had come back to check on her, she said, "No boy, not in the pen. You know better."
"Please say yes. We could hang out."
"How early in the morning?"
"Okay, you wouldn't have to do the early morning stuff."
They reached the pen and the General greeted her with a sniff. He stretched his long gray neck over the fence for what he knew would be a soft stroke. He was the biggest of the horses, a huge gray gelding. Jen and her brothers sometimes called him the elephant. "Hey, General," Therese said, rubbing the side of his face.
"We bring the horses in at nine for grooming before they start their first trail ride of the day. My brothers and the new handler are in there finishing up now. We'll need help with the grooming and tack so they're ready to go by eleven. You could leave after that."
"So nine to eleven? That's not bad. Let me think about it." She could use some of her own mad money, and twenty dollars a day for just a couple of hours of her time seemed like a good deal, and a good distraction. She loved grooming the horses.
Jen added, "After my mom's trail rides, we exercise them hard before dinner, when we turn them out to pasture again till dark. We could use another rider then, too, from like four to five. Not necessarily every day. Just when you can."
One of Jen's two brothers appeared in the middle of the pen from behind the shelter. He was the tallest and oldest of the Holt kids and had blond hair like his sister, which he kept short around his face like a bowl. He graduated last May and would be attending college in the fall. "Hey, Therese."
"Hi Pete."
"Oh, hey, Therese!" the other brother, who would be a freshman this year, called as he popped up from behind a horse. He wore the same blond bowl on his head as his brother, but the freckles that peppered his cheeks were more prominent.
"Hi Bobby."
"Sorry about your parents," Pete, the older one, said.
"Yeah. Thanks." She bit the inside of her bottom lip.
Then Bobby asked, "Hey, have you met Than?"
Another boy, slightly taller than Pete with dark wavy hair and a bigger build, stepped out of the shelter and into the middle of the pen and the horses.
It was the Than from her dreams.
Jen must have noticed the look on her friend's face, because she asked, "Do you guys know each other?"
"You look familiar." Than strolled up to the fence in his blue jeans and tight white t-shirt.
"No, I don't think we've met," Therese said. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be him. But how many people had she known named Than? Her knees felt like they might buckle.
Than extended his hand. "Well, then, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Therese. I've heard a lot about you, thanks to Bobby here."
Bobby's face turned crimson as she gave the new guy her hand, and she couldn't pull it away fast enough. Than seemed to be laughing at her behind his smile, enjoying her pain and confusion and Bobby's embarrassment. She decided she did not like him.
"It's nice to meet you, too," she lied.
Jen opened the gate of the pen. "We're half way done with the grooming."
"Can I groom Sugar?" Therese asked.
"Than's finishing her up now," Pete said. "Can you take Hershey?"
Without warning, Clifford ran through the gate and leapt into Than's arms. He licked Than all over his face. The General spooked back, causing a domino effect as two other horses, Ace and Chestnut, reared and snorted. Fear gripped Therese as she recognized the danger. But Than tossed Clifford to Therese, grabbed the General's mane, and whispered something in his ear. The General settled, which calmed the other horses, and Therese finally released her breath.
"Bad boy! Go back to the stream! Go catch a fish!" she scolded Clifford, turning him out of the pen. She said to Jen, "I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over him. He should know better than that." Then she looked up at Than with suspicion and awe. Why had Clifford run to him? And how had he settled the horses so quickly?
"Wow, Than," Jen said. "How did you do that?"
Than shrugged and said he had a way with horses, but Therese still felt as though he were laughing at her, as though the threat of danger had been her fault because she couldn't control her dog, and she had needed Than to save the day. She took up a brush and went over to Hershey, a mare whose coat, as the name implied, was like chocolaty brown silk.
"Hey girl," Therese said in a soothing voice. "Did you miss me?" Therese could feel Than's eyes on her, but she tried her best to ignore him. He was too sexy for her, anyway, and much too arrogant and self-assured. Jen had probably already staked her claim on him, and she was probably more his type, so naturally beautiful. As Therese brushed through Hershey's coat, she wondered if it had been a mere coincidence that Than looked like the Than in her dreams. Or, maybe he didn't, and somehow she was now imposing the image of him on her memory.
Therese bent over to brush Hershey's belly, and her rear-end bumped against Than, who was passing behind her. She popped upright, the blood rushing to her face, and muttered, "Excuse me." He said nothing, but when she snatched a glance his way, she could see he looked pleased with himself.
Had her subconscious somehow sensed she would be meeting him? Had it been a prophetic vision? And if so, what had it meant?
After they finished grooming and saddling the horses, Jen's mom came out of the barn where she had been working to formally offer Therese the job and to thank her for accepting it. She was surprised to hear Therese wouldn't be coming at dawn to help with the barn and pen cleaning, but Jen quickly explained that she planned to work every morning instead of splitting the chores with her brothers. Jen's surreptitious glance toward Than confirmed Therese's suspicion that Jen was interested in him, and this explained Jen's sudden eagerness to work more. Mrs. Holt seemed pleased with the arrangement, since she paid Jen less than ten an hour.
Jen invited Therese to stay for lunch when her mom and Pete took the first riders on the trail. "We're just having frozen pizzas," Jen explained, "but it would be fun to chat."
Clifford was splashing around in the stream behind Jen's house chasing trout he would never catch, but perfectly entertained, nevertheless. Luckily, he was too preoccupied to bother the riders walking up the drive toward the pen. "Sure," Therese said.
Jen surprised Therese by asking Than if he wanted to stay, too.
"Maybe next time," he said. "I promised my sisters I'd eat with them today."
He waved goodbye as he left, on foot, down the gravel drive, where cars were now parked in a line, and south up the dirt road toward Therese's house. Therese and Jen both watched him until he was out of sight. Even a few of the trail riders waiting to mount stole glances at him.
Then Jen said, "Is he drop-dead gorgeous, or what?"
Therese shrugged.
"How can you take such a casual attitude toward his splendid good looks? Does this mean I don't have to fight you for him?"
"What about Matthew?" Therese referred to the boy Jen had been with most of their freshman year.
"He hasn't called much this summer. I think he's lost interest."
"Maybe he's just busy or on vacation."
Jen asked again, "So you're not interested?"
They walked up the steps toward the front door, Bobby close behind. "He's all yours," Therese said, though, as soon as the words came out, she felt nauseous.
"Well, I won't hold my breath," Jen said. "He was checking you out the whole time we were grooming in the pen. I think he prefers you."
Bobby squeezed by Jen and went down the hall. "I'm outta here."
Jen laughed at her brother.
"That's impossible," Therese said when they were alone. "I mean, God, look at you."
"Oh, shut up. You always talk yourself down. I would kill for your curly hair and pouty lips."
"You can get a perm and botox—not that you need it. I wish I had your boobs."
"You've got boobs!"
"Nubs." She cupped her hands around her half-lemons and looked enviously at Jen's full oranges.
"Cute nubs. And some people develop later than others. Plus, there's always implants," Jen laughed.
"Yeah, right." Therese rolled her eyes and took a seat at the kitchen table. "So, where's Than going? Did he really walk here?" Just saying the name sent a shiver down her spine.
Jen grabbed some paper plates from the pantry and put three around the table, though just now Bobby was watching television in the other room. "He and his sisters are renting the Melner cabin for the summer."
"The Melner cabin?" It was about a half-mile south up the road from Therese's house, the third of the five houses across from the reservoir. The Melner's had turned their home into a vacation getaway, and although Therese was used to different people staying there throughout the year, she found it upsetting that Than was one of them. She recalled the image of the Grim Reaper on her computer screen and shuddered. It was just a coincidence, she reminded herself.
"Yeah, you guys are neighbors," Jen giggled.
"If his family can afford the cabin, why's he working for your mom this week?"
"For the same reasons you are, I guess." The oven started beeping—it was hot now—so Jen put the frozen pizza directly on the center rack. "He said that he enjoyed working with horses and that he wanted to get in touch with nature." She laughed. "I'm part of nature. He can get in touch with me."
Therese laughed with her. It felt good being with her friend like this. Jen could be bossy and stubborn, but she was so worth it.
Jen closed the oven door and asked, "Diet Coke?"
"Sounds great." She took the ice-cold can from her friend and popped open the tab. The cold pop felt good going down her throat. The grooming had worked up a thirst. "So where's he from?"
"He said he's from down south. At first he said 'down under,' and we thought he meant Australia, even though he doesn't have the accent. But he said he meant down south, from Texas. From what we gathered, he used to work on a ferry."
Therese choked on the Diet Coke and broke into a fit of coughing.
"You okay?" Jen asked, patting Therese on the back.
Therese eventually nodded. "Wrong pipe," she explained when she could.
,UZ