Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse (15 page)

Dan’s eyebrows go up. “You’re in a good mood. Or are you just this much of a morning person?”
“No, I’m in a
great
mood.” Jeff turns to Evan, who looks confused and then excited.

“You got the show? Seriously?”

Jeff nods. “Two weeks in the Nachfelt Gallery, my paintings on the walls.” He grins. “The message was on my machine when I got home last night.”

Everyone’s very excited, but Dan is reminded again that he’s an outsider here. He hadn’t even known that Jeff was an artist. And he doesn’t know enough about the art world to understand the significance of getting a show, although he can tell that it’s a big deal. When the commotion dies down, Jeff’s eyes turn to Dan, who offers up a simple, “Congratulations.”

“Thanks, man. Sorry for the fuss, it’s just… I’ve been working for this for a while.” Jeff smiles happily.

The meal resumes, with Tia bringing a plate for Jeff.
There’s some talk about the show, about which of Jeff’s paintings should be included, but eventually they get back to the day’s business. Evan checks his watch before he mops up the last of the blueberry sauce with a piece of waffle. “So, the first interview is scheduled for an hour

from now. If we go down to the barn and have a quick tour, we can interview until lunch, then interview some more, and then go up and check out the cross-country course before dinner?”

This is almost exactly the schedule that Linda had laid out on Dan’s papers. He wonders if she’d passed the information along to Evan, or if she’s just good enough to have read his mind in advance. He nods his acquiescence, and gulps the last of his coffee as he sees the others standing to go. Everyone leaves their dishes on the table, and Dan remembers that the same thing had been done last night. He wonders if the dinner remains are still out by the pool or if Tia started work early enough to tidy that up as well as prepare breakfast.

They walk down to the barn, and Evan and Tatiana show off all the features to Dan, while Jeff stands back and watches with amusement. There is potential mayhem when the siblings want to show off the shower stall, each trying to spray the other with one of the long hoses, but cooler minds prevail and no one gets worse than a soaked shoe. Most of the improvements have gone into the outdoor riding rings. Dan looks at the surface of the dressage ring and the round pen, and then they head over to the grass jumping ring. There’s no sod laid yet, but the ground has been prepared with lots of sand and light loam, and there’s good drainage in all the rings. It all looks great to Dan, and he tells the Kaminskis so.

The interviews are scheduled to take place at the barn, so once they’re done with the tour they just poke around the tack room and the loft, while Jeff is a little more responsible and makes sure that there are some chairs and a table set up in the empty feed room. Evan lays out the game plan. He will start by asking the candidates basic background information. Dan will ask about their experience and try to get an idea of their general knowledge. Jeff will determine their familiarity with the local equestrian community. And Tatiana will ask if the candidates have any questions or would like to add anything. Dan mentions that Robyn is interested in moving out.

Evan beams. “Yeah, Linda told us about that! That’d be great. It’d be good to have someone you already know you can work with.”

Dan doesn’t really want to say it, but he wants to be sure he’s being fair to these people. “It’ll be good even if I don’t come out. She’s been working with the horses for years, so she’d be a really valuable resource for whoever your trainer might be.”

Evan looks like he might want to argue a little, but Jeff quiets him with a nod, and then the first interviewee is there. Dan and Tatiana are both a little nervous, but they make it through the first one, and everything after that is easy. There’s one great candidate, three that would probably be fine, and two that are disastrous. Dan feels a little bad for recommending them, but Evan points out that it’s easy to look good on paper, and weeding people out is the whole point of interviews.

They troop back up to the house for a lunch of homemade soup and sandwiches, and then it’s back to the barn for more interviews. The afternoon candidates are worse than the morning ones, with no one that’s really great, two that might be okay, and three that are out of the question. One doesn’t even show up.

At the end, Evan sums it all up. “Okay, so we’ve got the head trainer position hopefully filled, then there’s two assistant trainers, we were thinking? So if one’s Robyn, and one’s Michelle from this morning? Then we want two barn staff… I say Devin and Sara from this morning.”

“I’d like to see Michelle on a horse, if we’re hiring her to ride, but otherwise that sounds good.” Evan nods at Dan’s comment.
Once they’ve decided on who they want to hire, Evan calls Linda and asks her to take care of contacting them, and then the four head up the hill to the cross-country course. Dan likes what he sees but wants to come back when he gets the opportunity, to double check some of the spacing and the landing surfaces. He has to admit, though, that everything looks really good. Evan has obviously spared no expense, but he’s also hired someone who knows the demands of horses.

They’re walking down from the cross-country course when Dan’s cell rings. He’s a little surprised they get service out so far, but then thinks the Kaminskis could probably have bought their own tower if they had to. He checks the caller display and his mouth goes dry. He reminds himself that there are lots of reasons for a call from the Archer house. There could be a problem with one of the horses, or a question about ordering supplies. But his mind goes immediately to the call he’s been dreading for over a year.

He’s stopped walking and the others have moved a little away to wait for him, but when he doesn’t answer the phone, they look back curiously. Jeff starts back toward him, concern on his face, and Dan kicks into gear and flips the phone open.

“Hello.”
“Dan? It’s Chris.” Chris sounds shaky, and there’s no other reason for him to be calling Dan, especially not from the Archer house. Dan turns his face away from the others. He sees a boulder a few steps away, and moves over to lean against it.
“Yeah, Chris, I’m here.” Dan is almost whispering.

“Danny….” Chris’s voice breaks on the second syllable, and Dan can hear him taking a deep breath over the phone. When he starts again, his voice is stronger. “Justin had a heart attack this afternoon. They say he had an infection, it came on really fast, and it just put too much stress on his body.” Dan knows what’s coming, but he finds that he needs to hear the words. He waits, and finally Chris continues. “He’s gone, Dan. It was really fast, there was no suffering.” Dan nods, and then realizes that Chris can’t see him. It doesn’t seem to matter, as Chris continues anyway. “His parents are with him. They were gonna call you, but they’re pretty wrecked. They said to say that they’ll call later tonight.” Dan nods again. “Dan, are you still there? Danny?”

Dan pulls himself together, at least a little. “Yeah, I’m here.” “Okay, so we need to get you home. Right? I mean, there’s no rush, in terms of… you know, services or anything. But….”

“Yeah.” Dan realizes that he’s crying, but it’s weird, his voice doesn’t seem to be affected. His brain feels numb, feels like everything is happening far, far away. Dan went away for a day and a half, and Justin died alone.

“Dan, is anybody there with you? Maybe I could talk to someone about travel plans?” Dan doesn’t really understand that. What does Chris have to do with travel plans? But he doesn’t really want to talk to Chris anymore anyway, so he turns around and sees Jeff hovering a few feet away. Evan has his arm around Tatiana’s shoulders, and they’re both pretending to look down toward the house. Dan leans out toward Jeff, phone in hand, and Jeff steps forward and takes it. He holds the phone in one hand and reaches out with the other to grip Dan’s shoulder.

“Hello, Jeff Stevens here. Yeah…. Yeah.” Jeff moves closer to Dan. “Yeah, we’ll take care of it…. Okay…. Yeah, we’ll give you a call when it’s sorted out…. Okay, bye.”

Jeff folds the phone and puts it in his pocket, and then turns so he’s standing in front of Dan. “I’m sorry,” he says in his low voice, and Dan knows that he is, but he also knows that it doesn’t really matter, doesn’t change anything. The whole world could be sorry, and Justin would still be dead.

Dan isn’t sure what he’s supposed to say or feel. He looks up for a moment, sees the beautiful rolling hills, the distant mountains and the warm afternoon sun, and he hates all of it, hates to think that Justin will never see anything so beautiful, will never see anything again. He’d thought maybe he was used to the idea of Justin’s death, thought that his plan to start saying goodbye would make things easier, but he can’t imagine anything harder than this. He starts to slide forward, as if his legs no longer want to hold him up, but Jeff is there, his strong arms catching Dan’s shoulders, and he leans forward and braces the top of his head against Jeff’s chest. One of Jeff’s hands comes up and runs through Dan’s hair, and they just stay like that for what seems like a long while. At some point, Evan is there, and Jeff is talking to him in low tones, but then Evan is gone, and it’s just Jeff again.

Eventually, Dan lifts his head up. He wipes his face with his sleeve. It’s gross, but he doesn’t have a Kleenex. He looks at Jeff. “I should go.”

Jeff nods slowly, and his touch is gentle as he smoothes Dan’s hair back from his face. “Evan’s gone down to get Linda to change your flight. If you’re ready, we should go down and get you packed up.”

Dan doesn’t know if he’s ready, doesn’t know if he’ll ever be ready. But Jeff seems to think it’s a good idea, so Dan straightens up. Jeff moves around beside him and slings an arm across his shoulder. The ground is really too rough for walking like that, but Dan doesn’t think to object, and Jeff doesn’t let go.

It’s strange to walk down the same hill that they’d just walked up. When they’d been coming up it, Justin had still been alive. But that isn’t true… Justin had been dead, and Dan hadn’t known, had been walking around talking like the distance between two elements in a show jumping ring actually mattered. Dan wonders what he’d actually been doing when Justin died. Had he been interviewing some hopeless barn rat, or had he been choking on his soup as he laughed at Evan’s impersonation of Tatiana? Or had it happened even earlier, when Dan had been sitting on the porch, looking at the mountains and imagining another man in his bed?

They take a shortcut to the guest house, and when they get there Jeff leaves Dan staring at the mountains as he calls the main house. He grunts a few times and then puts his phone away. “Okay, they’ve got you on a flight that leaves in two and a half hours. It’s about forty five minutes to the airport, so we don’t have a lot of time, but why don’t you grab a quick shower, and I’ll throw your stuff together.” Dan hears him, but is again having trouble understanding why he should care. “Dan.” Jeff’s hand is on his shoulder, and he’s being guided into the house. “Come on, kid, you’re gonna be all right. Do you want to skip the shower? Let’s change your shirt, at least.” Jeff guides Dan up the stairs and into the master bedroom. They go into the en suite bathroom, and Jeff turns the cold water on in the sink, lets it run for a second, and then puts the plug down.

“Okay, kid, shirt off, please.” Dan doesn’t see the point of this, doesn’t see the point of anything. Everything is so far away. He feels Jeff’s fingers undoing the buttons on his shirt and wonders vaguely what’s going on, but he doesn’t really seem to care. Jeff eases the shirt off Dan’s shoulders and lets it fall to the floor. By the time the shirt is off, the sink is filled with water, and Jeff moves Dan over to stand in front of it. “Okay, I know it’s weird, but I think you’re gonna feel a lot better if you cool down. So let’s go.” Jeff holds Dan’s waist and pushed gently on his shoulders, and Dan’s face is lowered over the sink. “Okay, kid, I’m just gonna splash you a little.” Jeff cups the cold water in his hands and brings it up to Dan’s face, runs the coolness over Dan’s forehead and down his cheek. Jeff dips some more water up and catches Dan’s other cheek, then down his jaw.

The chill is welcome. Dan’s whole face feels hot and swollen, and the next time Jeff’s hand goes back to the sink Dan follows it with his face, pushing as much of his head as he can into the icy water. It’s so cold it hurts, but it brings Dan back to himself, cools his brain and lets him think. He stays in as long as he can, and when he comes up for air he brings his own hands forward and uses them to splash water over the back of his neck and his upper shoulders. Jeff laughs gently. “See, I really think a shower would have been tidier, but, go to it.” Jeff waits until he sees that Dan is functioning and then goes into the bedroom and starts rooting through Dan’s backpack. Dan takes a washcloth off the rack and turns the cold water back on. He soaks the cloth and uses it to cool down his chest and his back.

When Jeff comes back in the room, Dan pulls himself up and looks in the mirror. His whole face is swollen, but it’s not red anymore, and Dan feels like he might be able to function, as long as he doesn’t let himself think. Jeff hands him a shirt, and as Dan is doing up the buttons, Jeff’s hand goes to the back of Dan’s neck and shakes him a little. “You’re gonna be okay, kid. We’ll make sure you’re okay.”

Chapter 13

E
VAN
drives him to the airport, while Jeff sits with Dan in the backseat. Dan hasn’t started crying again, but he’s still not really functioning too well. Nobody’s talking much, but when they do say things he has trouble making sense of them.

They get to the airport and Evan parks the car, and he carries Dan’s backpack as Jeff walks beside Dan. Evan goes to the ticket counter, and then they get to the security gate and Jeff walks through with Dan, while Evan stays behind. Dan doesn’t really understand that, but he doesn’t worry about it much. He’s trying to focus on the little details as he goes, trying to keep his mind off anything important, trying to keep his mind off Justin. He does math for a while, counting by threes and then by fours until he loses track and has to start again. He knows it makes him seem odd, unaware, but if he doesn’t distract himself he’ll break down again, and that was bad enough in an empty field with only Jeff. He really doesn’t think it would be appreciated in a crowded airport.