Nova (23 page)

He took a moment to think about that, and then led me to the bed to sit down. He was still bothered, it was plain as day, and even though he took a deep
breath to relax,
it
was a while
before he actually spoke.

“I grew up with Ben,” he began, running a hand through my hair. He softly gathered it into a ponytail, and after a few seconds, let it fall. “He does stupid stuff. I just… I don’t trust him.”

He seemed to be content with his explanation, but I wasn’t. However, I wanted him to feel like he was able to protect me somehow—from whatever he felt I needed
protection
from—so I stood up from the bed and grabbed a few things out of the dresser.

“You’re going to be the one explaining this to your parents,” I told him.

“They’ll understand completely, so don’t worry about it.”

“So what happens after tonight, then? I’m not going to live at your parents’ house, Austin. I’m sure Ben is going to be here for a while.”

“I know, but… Just for tonight, okay? Until I h
ave a chance to think about it.”

“You mean until you have a chance to have a talk with Ben, huh?”

He didn’t reply, so I continued on with my clothing selection.

“Sexy plaid pajama
bottoms
okay with you
?” I smiled, holding them up. I was trying to lighten the mood
, so I was glad when he smiled.

“Perfectly sexy because they’ll be on
you
.”

I tossed them onto the bed with a t-shirt, and then grabbed some clothes for the next day. After sticking everything I needed into a
bag
I said, “Okay, all ready for my slumber party.”

He stood, and I could tell that he truly was relieved that I was going back to his house with him. Whatever his past was with Ben made him anxious, and sooner or later I would get to the bottom of it, but
for
now, because of my
love and
respect for Austin, I decided it wasn’t the right time to get into it.

Chapter Twelve

“I’ve never seen you look so gross and sweaty, Nova,” Jack said with a smile. He snipped the thread that he’d just stitched into Born To Be Wild as his own sweat dripped down his face.

“Well, add one-hundred degree weather to our adventures and you’ve got two sweaty vets trying to save a horse.”

He chuckled as he wrapped a bandage around the horse’s leg
to cover the wound
, and then he lent
me
a hand to hold together the
section of
flesh that I was currently sewing together.

“Go ahead a
nd
put a few that are a little wider over that middle section,” Jack instructed. “Just in case.”

We were currently at the bottom of a
steep slope
that the horse had taken a tumble down
from the trail fifty feet above us
. Thankfully the rider got off with just a few minor injuries, but the horse
was a pretty sorry sight. Jack had been called to put him down for good, but once we’d climbed
all the way
down the
wooded
hillside to get to the horse, we were both in agreement that the animal could recover with the proper care. The owner didn’t agree, mainly because he didn’t want to spend the money to care for him, but Jack convinced him to let us save Born To Be Wild.

“Whatever,”
Greg
had
waved, clearly unimpressed. “Keep him then; he’s yours.”

So th
ere we were, fifty feet
below
the road
in scorching heat, trying to fix what we could on the horse before we tried to haul him up. He
had been tranquilized so his injuries that needed immediate attention could be taken care of, but there was still a matter of getting him out of the mess he’d fallen into.
The only way we could do it was to get a big sling around him, and pull him up towards the trail
and then up to the road
.

His rear leg was broken and we had temporarily stabilized it. He had tried to get himself out of the mess several times, which is why we had to administer something to calm him down. That feistiness in him alone clearly showed us that he had a fighting spirit
to
him. Besides the open gashes that were most likely from hitting some of the sticks and branches on the way down, the broken leg was the only thing holding him back.

Well, that and the
horrendous
climb
upward
.

“I hear Dave,” Jack said.

I could hear the truck approaching as well and nodded my head.

Jack stood and looked up the hill, waiting for Dave to appear at the edge of the road. When he did, Jack said, “
Whatcha
got for us?”

“If you can manage to sling h
im, we’ll take care of the rest!
”

“We’ve got a
harry mess down here to work in!
” Jack
shouted back
, turning toward me.

Half of me was immersed in
shrubbery
at the moment, even though we’d cut back as much as we could to get at Born To Be Wild. But he seemed to have gradually slid a few more feet down the hill since we first started working on him
, and that had pushed me even deeper into the underbrush
.

I glanced up at Dave and saw that he not only had Heath with him, but he also had Ben. I wasn’
t sure what to think about that
and Austin’s advice
to stay away from him
seemed to echo in my head.

However, we had a job to do
, and even though Dave and Heath were probably both capable of helping us out, I decided to go for the younger brawn
.

“Can you send Ben down here
to
help us sling him?” I hollered up at them.

They all looked at each other and agreed, so while Ben carefu
lly made his way down the hill—n
ot even
sliding on his butt and grabbing what he c
ould like Jack and I had done—I
finished up the last few stitches in the horse’s side and tried to bandage it the best I could. I
wasn’t able to
wrap him at the time since we couldn’t even get under the horse, so I hoped it would do for the time being.

I was sweating profusely, as was Jack. His face
and arms were
also dirty, and I could only imagine that
I
looked the same. Thankfully we were in a lot of shade, but the heat seemed to be stagnant within the woods we were in and I was dying for some moving air. We’d both already guzzled down a few bottles of water during the hour we’d been down there, but I was about ready for another one, just to dump over my head.

“What do you want me to do?” Ben asked me while Jack was waiting for Dave to toss down the equipment.

“Well, you’re
gonna
have to lift a horse
a bit
off the ground,” I told him. “You feeling
manly
today?”

He smiled with a shrug. “Sure, why not.” Then he seemed to recognize me from a couple of nights ago. “Hey, you’re Austin’s girlfriend, right?”

Jack joined me with the sling so I just replied, “Yep,” and focused on what we were about to do.

“Here, start at the shoulders,” Jack instructed me. “Ben, help me with the rest
on this end
.”

So the three of us worked at getting the sling around the horse’s mid-section. It was a struggle try
ing to inch it under the twelve
hundred pound animal, especially while we still seemed to be getting deeper into all the wooded undergrowth. I found myself almost trapped against some of it halfway through our progress, and Ben offered me his hand s
o I could be pulled out of it. He pulled me forward so I could step over the horse, and t
he first thing I thought about was Austin grabbing my hand before I could shake Ben’s the other night.
But
I guess Austin’s wishes for me to stay away from Ben were no longer relevant at the moment, and there was nothing I could do about that.

“Give it a try so we can test it out!” Jack yelled to Dave. “Very slow, though!”

A few seconds later the truck’s engine roared to life, and then a few seconds after that, the ropes and the sling began to slowly tighten. Born To Be Wild inched up the hill just a little, and after h
e’d traveled another foot
, Jack hollered, “Okay, hang on!”

Heath made a motio
n to Dave and the truck stopped. “We’re gonna hook it up to the tractor now, okay?” Heath said. “We got a few more guys on the way to take care of the rest, so you guys can come up now!”

The owner of the horse,
Greg
, and two other people were still up on the road observing.
Greg
barely offered to help with much, but I
was surprised
he had
n’t
just left us there on our own. Jack didn’t have anything good to say about the man. He’d done work for him before and Jack didn’t really care for the guy.
While we were stitching up Born To Be Wi
ld, Jack joked about making Greg
sign a contract to keep the horse before we actually got him up in one piece
, a
nd when Dave arrived, he actually had him write one up really quick for
Greg
to sign.

“Okay,”
Jack said with a deep breath
, looking at me
. “Now we just gotta figure out how to
get back up
, huh?”

“Oh, where’s your sense of adventure, Jack?” I asked
, starting to pack up the rest of our medical equipment
. “You want a piggy-back ride?”

He laughed
. “Maybe.”

“Heads up,” Dave said, tossing a rope down.

“See?” I smiled at Jack
, slinging one of the packs over my shoulder
and handing him the other one
. “They know how to take
care
of you.”

“Ladies first,” he motioned. “I’ll stand down here to catch you if
you fall
.”

“Ha, i
f I fall, you fall,” I
said
, grabbing the rope. “There’s no way my momentum wouldn’t knock you down, too.”

He shrugged casually. “I have to take risks everyday.”

“Right,” I smirked.

“Here, grip it like this,” Ben said
next to me
out of the blue. He put his hands on the rope to show me and added, “Your feet might slide, but your hands won’t let go.”

I briefly glanced at him and nodded my head, changing the grip on the rope. He was standing up like he was ready to just walk up the
hill
on
his own, and it kind of made me feel like I was able to do that
,
too.
But I could tell that Ben probably had a lot more experience with this type of thing than I did, so I decided to just stick with the easiest way out.

I was about to start my trek up the hill when I heard Jack swear. I turned back to see
what was the matter and he was quickly
scurrying
to our right while he braced himself against the
steep
ground with his hands. The horse was coming to, and I could tell it might start freaking out any second.
We had been worried about that, especially with how long it had taken to get the help we needed.

I think I swore too, and I dropped the rope to move along the hill like Jack
had
. He was rummaging through his med pack so he could settle the horse before he completely flipped out and hindered our efforts (or killed us all).

“I don’t have it!” he
yelled to me
.

I was already taking off my pack and I almost fell backwards in my hurry, but thankfully Ben was right behind me and kept me up. He slid to his knees in the process but as he stood he said, “What do you want me to do?”

“Jack!
” Dave yelled from above.
“We don’t have it ready!”

“Just a minute!”

“Here, get this to Jack,” I told Ben, handing him the medical bag.

He took it right away and swiftly
made it the
fifteen
feet across to him
. I didn’t have time to be impressed by his agility because I still needed to climb sideways to help Jack. I slid to my knees just before I got there, and Ben reached his hand down to pull me up.

“Here,” I said to Jack, holding out my hand
to take
the syringe
.