Promise Canyon by Robyn Carr Read Free Book Online Page B

were flanking him. With all eyes on Streak, Nathaniel said, “Some days are better than others with this horse, Will says, but even brushing him is dangerous. When Will can get a harness on him, he’s fitful. When Ginny attempts to touch him, he shies. She’s afraid that even if they eventually saddle him, she’ll be thrown.”
    “She should be afraid,” Clay said. “Look at him. He has some serious trust issues.” Clay turned to Nate. “I’ll try to catch him, put him in the stallion stall and feed him.”
    “Want help?”
    “Nah,” Clay said, smiling. “But I’m going to let him get good and tired before I try to catch him.”
    Nate gave him a slap on the back and went back to his office.
    By the time Clay got around to the horse, he wasstill skittish, but Clay had seen far worse. Streak had worked up a lather, but Clay wasn’t going to attempt any grooming; getting him acclimated was enough for today. Besides, just catching him was a huge accomplishment. They communed in silence, but all Clay was picking up was a nervous colt. He decided to work with him in the morning.
    Once Streak was fed, settled in his stall and alone for the night, Clay’s mind moved on to other things. He hadn’t yet had a chance to get acquainted with Nate’s computerized records and if he was going to contribute to animal care and stable management, he’d have to be up to speed on that. Annie had offered him dinner again but Clay declined. He didn’t want to set a precedent of spending all his time off with them. Although he considered Nathaniel a friend, he was also a boss. So Clay made himself a couple of sandwiches in his room and worked on a list of things he’d like to accomplish his first week.
    He eventually pulled a book out of his duffel. Clay liked to read about earth sciences—geography, geology, meteorology, ecology. He also liked astronomy and still packed in that horse trailer, due to the lack of room afforded by his current living quarters, was a state-of-the-art telescope. But when the book dropped into his lap and he lay reclined on his bed, his sleepy thoughts drifted toward the long-legged blonde he had been married to and he wondered if she was all right, if her loneliness and anxiety plagued her now that he was no longer there for her.
    And then, inexplicably, he began to think about that little Hopi girl who was certainly in love with a horse….
    He hadn’t been asleep long when his pleasant man-dreams shifted to oppressive darkness. He didn’t know whether he moved in his sleep, but in the dream he was thrashing around. He was looking up at a black, starless sky from a deep hole and his entire being was suffused with panic, his heart racing with fear. There was no way out; he used his hands to claw at the sides of the hole, but without success. He tried to yell for help, but no sound came out. And it seemed to go on for an intolerably long time.
    When Clay’s eyes finally burst open, he was panting and drenched in sweat. His reading lamp was still on, of course. The darkness was all contained in the dream, not his surroundings. He had to work to slow his pulse and control his breathing. His immediate thought was, What the hell was that? He hadn’t had a nightmare in so long, he couldn’t remember the last time. He thought it might’ve been more than a dozen years ago, in his early twenties, when his life had been very unstable and his future impossible to envision.
    Clay meditated briefly. It took only moments for him to calm his body and mind. He took a deep, cleansing breath. And then he heard a thump from the stable.
    He rose from his bed, pulled on his boots and went to check things out. He walked down the aisle between the stalls and all seemed under control. Then he heard another thump, this time accompanied by a soft whinny.
    Streak. Anxious in his new surroundings? He went to the stall and looked in. Streak was facing a corner, whinnying in his sleep and pawing the wall of the stall with