My eyes fluttered open and the sunlight caused an immediate blinding as it streamed in through the blinds. A moan naturally worked its way past my lips as my eyes adjusted to the new lighting situation. When I was finally able to make sense of shapes, I saw Dustin standing only in a pair of navy blue boxers in front of one of the curtains; his left hand on his hip as his right one held a coffee mug filled to the brim.
"Mmm, you look better than a photograph." I said, watching as his shoulders relaxed the slightest bit, his head whipping around with a wide grin sprawled across his lips.
"I was wondering when you were gonna get up," he placed the mug to his lips and took a sip of the dark liquid, "we got a full day ahead of us now." He came to the edge of the bed and sat down, offering the mug to me to which I graciously cupped it into my hands.
After forcing myself to drink the coffee, that Dustin hadn't added a drop of cream or sugar too, I looked at him, cocking my head to the side as I did so. "Full day?"
"Yeah, the animals aren't gonna feed themselves." My ears perked up as he said this, for as long as I can remember I have wanted to live on a farm, mending to the animals- especially horses.
"Will there be horses?" You could sense the excitement in my tone and I wasn't going to mask it.
He let out a mix between a 'tsk' and laugh before answering, "yes, theyr'll be horses." With this new information I all but leaped from the bed, after shoving the mug into Dustin chest careful not to drop any of the hot beverage, and began rummaging through my bags prepare for the task ahead.
We sat down at the kitchen table for a quick breakfast, Aunt Sue had prepared pancakes and eggs galore.
"Thank you very much, it was delicious." A slight tinge of red fell onto her cheeks as she sat, fixing a plate for herself.
"Oh, it was nothing." She merely brushed it off, although, there was a note of happiness working its way through her words.
Dustin and I set out towards the door and I peeked in the living room to see Mabel fast asleep on one of the burgundy colored couches, her hair covered a majority of her face as she mouth hung open asking for the slobber to dribble it's way out. I smiled at her, although she was obviously not of mind and body in that moment, I imagined she smiled back because the thought of her hating me caused great ache to my heart.
"So where's the barn?" We were rounding our way around the outside of the house as the dirt and gravel crushed underneath Dustin's cowboy boots, which I practically got onto my knees and begged for him to wear. The winter air was harsh, but luckily I was prepared and dressed in a winter coat.
"Are you kidding?" He pointed straight ahead and suddenly my head snapped in that direction, about a half a mile ahead of us sat a large red building that was near impossible to miss and I immediately felt the what rushing to my face at asking such a question.
My mouth must have been gaping because I felt Dustin's large hand reach over and cup my chin a loud laugh clashing through the air as he pushed up.
"It's nothing too ordinary but the land from all the way from the dirt drive to about all the way, well," he stopped mid sentence as we closed in on the barn. "Let's just say we own about three hundred acres of land, give or take." He shrugged as if the number were minimal.
"Woah and you take care of it all?"
"Well, I don't anymore, right now it's mainly Uncle Earl and Randy, but we have other family that stops by here and there." There was a hint of guilt that laced through his words as he mentioned that he hadn't been much help.
Walking into the barn it was clear that it had seen it's fair share of Mother Nature's outburst, the floor was covered in a thin layer of straw and stables lined the wall except, only five had any occupants. To my left there was a sneeze. "Bless you." I said automatically, turning I saw that it was a horse with a full white coat that then was covered in brown spots. His mane a dark brown color and his large eyes blacker than the cup of coffee Dustin was nursing this morning.
"That's Freckle," the horse's head nodded as if acknowledging its name, "she's an old girl, used to be my Dad's horse."
"Do you have a horse?" I asked, he nodded and we walked farther back into the barn, in the last stall was a horse who was completely black and his eyes were the most striking blue color I have ever seen, they nearly made me gasp at the sight of them. "Oh, he is a beaut."
"She." Dustin corrected. "My momma saw him when she was driving down one of the side roads one day and stopped the car on natural instinct, she loved animals and brought at least one home every day it seemed." He laughed at the memory. The horse wore a black mane that came down as if she was sporting bangs. "Her name's Sunshine." His brought his hand forward and the horse rubbed it's cheek against it.
"Sunshine?" I repeated the name although it came out as more of a question.
He reached his arm back and scratched at the back of his neck, something he did numerous times when he felt nervous or awkward, nearly knocking off his cowboy hat, "yeah, I was ten, I thought I was being funny." He admitted to which I offered him a giggle.
"Aw, it is funny." The horse released a loud neigh, causing me to take a step back out of fear. "What do we feed 'em?"
"Apples and carrots, Sunshine here is pretty picky and will only eat and apples with the skin taken off." He revealed to which Sunshine let out a snort as if blowing him off. "Oh, come on now girl. She was real good practice for a real girlfriend, very emotional." He joked to which I landed a hit right on his bicep. "Oh, I'm only pulling your leg." He bent over and I admired the way his jeans seemed painted on, they were not skinny jeans but he just filled them out in all the right places. He held a sack in his hand and reached in pulling out full-grown carrots to which he offered a bundle to Sunshine and she took them in a hurry.
"I wanna try!" Seeing the excitement the horses showed towards food being offered, I wanted to help. He handed me a bundle of carrots and I maneuvered over to the next occupied stall and offered the treat to a brown horse with little white socks around it's feet and a white splotch on its face, it's wet nose grazing the palm of my hand as he bent his neck to take the offering.
"Why don't you say we saddle two of them up and I'll show you some more of the land?" Dustin asked, throwing the sack into the corner after we fed the last horse.
"I say that makes for a mighty fine afternoon." I smiled.
"Plus, it'll be easier to get to the cattle and hogs on horseback rather than walking." He told me while moving to open Sunshine's stall. "Say which one do you wanna take?" He called while preparing Sunshine for a walk that would help stretch her legs.
"This brown one here, third stall over from you." The shuffling noise had come to a halt and I walked over to where he was, "Is that okay?" I watched as he stood frozen for a second and then shook his head, readying his horse.
"Yeah yeah, no, it's just funny you picked him."
"Why's that?"
"He was my Momma's horse."
We saddled up both the horses, finding out the one I was riding was named Brown Sugar.
"For someone who has never rode before you sure are good." He told me as he watched me balance myself. After a quick introductory lesson to horse riding back in the barn, he stood by as I mounted the horse and me practiced a couple of laps before venturing out any farther. I learned everything from a trot to a canter to what tug Brown Sugar best responded too.
"Now I told you I've ridden a couple at the fair's when I was younger." I defended myself. The cold wind nipped at my face as it whipped against my exposed cheeks.
"Yeah, carousel's don't count." I rolled my eyes at his comment but a smile remained on my lips the entire time.
We came across the pig pen and dismounted the horses so Dustin was able to pour slop into their trowels; watching as they hungrily chowed down, nose deep. We moved closer to the cattle and watched as Randy was driving a truck, their feed cascading out the sides.
"Well, seems like he's got the bulk of it." Dustin shrugged and we made our way back to the barn.
As we came in closer I saw Mabel out of the corner of my eye, she was bundled in her winter coat and sweatpants. Her arms were crossed over her chest and the expression on her face read: 'I'm more than mad.'.
"You let her ride Momma's horse?" Her voice was loud in the otherwise quiet air.
"Mabel come on now." He said, getting off of Sunshine and holding her by the reins. "You know Momma wouldn't have minded."
"I don't care if she wouldn't have minded, I mind!" She pressed her hand to her chest and loudly shouted while tears seemed to stream out of her face, they could have froze to her face due to the chilliness.
"I'm so sorry." My voice was hardly able to come out into a whisper and it was in that moment that i realized I had tears of my own.
"She'll calm down, give'er time." Dustin attempted to soothe me, but as he grasped onto Brown Sugar's reins and pulled us into the barn, I couldn't yank my eyes off of Mabel's retreating figure.