Page 15 of The Only Seconds that Matter
Victor did a tour of the house first, but there wasn’t much to see.His aunt never had children, so the modular she and her husband had selected to put on the property was one floor with three bedrooms, none of which had ever seen a child.One of the rooms had been his aunt’s office, but Victor did most of his work in the office in the barn, so the desk in that room just held a TV and his laptop.The other room was set up for guests, but Victor doubted anyone had slept in it since his uncle had died.
After a quick tour of the house, they headed outside toward the barn.There were three barns, in fact—one was the main facility that contained the indoor arena and most of the stalls, along with the office, tack room, and wash stalls.One of the outlying barns was for equipment, like the tractor, the manure spreader, arena drag, and other miscellaneous machinery that kept the place in shape.The last barn was for any hay that couldn’t be stored in the upper level of the main barn.This barn also had three large stalls that Victor used for quarantining horses from the auction, separating feral horses for training, or providing a quiet place for mares about to give birth
There was a small pasture set aside for eight head of young steers that he used for training purposes, because he liked to round horses out as well as he could, and cow work was fun and interesting for horses bored with doing circles in the arena.
Johnny hadn’t asked for an introduction to all the horses, but Victor felt compelled.Many of the horses he didn’t have much to say about, but there were a few around with their own interesting backstories, including his seal bay Mustang mare Saturn, who came to greet them the moment they moved in front of her stall.She’d come inFeralwith a capitalF; she’d tried jumping the 6-foot corral the first day he worked with her.She was highly sensitive and she needed to trust her handler, but with time and patience, she came around to be one of his best horses in the past eight years.
“The two horses I have coming in today for training are mustangs,” Victor said, reaching out without thinking to run a hand over Saturn’s forelock to form it into a long point down her forehead.“They’re from the same Herd Management Area in Wyoming as this girl here, so I’m hoping they’ll be similar in temperament.”
“You ever train one that’s too crazy to bother with?”
“Occasionally you’ll meet one that makes it very clear they want nothing to do with you or domesticity, and those horses are better off at sanctuaries enjoying their lives in the way they like them.”He decided he was starting to ramble, so he switched gears.“Anyway, you’ve seen most of the place.”
“Decent sized property then.”
“There’s a path around the edge of it that makes for a nice trail ride.I actually may be due for a ride around to check all the fences.”Victor paused, wondering how much he could ask for without being seen as too forward.“You wanna go for a ride?”
“Right now?”
“As long as I’m back by noon then yeah.”
“Well, sure!”Johnny said with a smile, which provided Victor some relief.He was still a bit unsure of what was “normal” when it came to men asking other men for company.Johnny was more talkative and friendly than your average Oklahoman red-blooded male, so he felt safer to test the waters with.Victor’s other option was to ask women for company instead, but they perceived that sort of thing far more differently than they used to.He’d moved into “potential predator” status, and that never stopped bumming him out.
“You can ride either Saturn or Blitz, either is fine with me.”
“I’ll take Blitz.Ain’t every day you get to ride a stallion.”
Victor waved down the aisle.“Feel free to grab him and tack him up then.”
When Johnny headed off to do that, Victor grabbed Saturn.In ten minutes both Blitz and Saturn were tacked up and ready to go.Johnny was six-foot-three on a 14.2 hand horse, so he looked big on him.Blitz was stocky for a Quarter Horse, so Victor knew he could manage the trip.Together they mounted and headed out on a meandering walk along the fence border.
The fence by the road was made of posts and planks, but the rest was electric wire, which made it important to check once a month to ensure no trees had fallen on it or that a horse had leaned too heavily on a post and damaged it.Still, when they came to a very long, wide aisle between two fields, Victor looked to Johnny with a smirk.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?”Victor asked.
Johnny shifted in his saddle, the leather creaking under his weight.“What?”
Victor pushed Saturn forward, trotting a few steps before breaking into a canter.He heard Johnny let out a whoop behind him, and in the next two seconds, Johnny was racing past him on Blitz in a full gallop.
“Fuck!”Victor blurted, kicking Saturn again.The race was on.
Whenever Victor rode at full speed on a horse, it was about two seconds of sheer terror followed by an exhilaration he imagined sky divers and bungee jumpers also experienced at the moment they realized they’d live through it.Saturn snorted with each stride, head bobbing as she sprinted to catch up with Blitz.Blitz was fast, but he wasn’t a trained racehorse, so within ten seconds, Victor and Johnny were neck and neck.The wind and the pounding of Saturn’s hooves roared in Victor’s ears.When their eyes met, Johnny pumped a fist in the air and yelledyeehaw, which made Victor laugh.
The aisle between the fields eventually ended, so their race came to its conclusion before they spilled onto the driveway.Saturn yanked at Victor’s hands when he tried coaxing her back to a trot.She still wanted to run.She may have enjoyed herself as much as Victor had.Blitz was more polite about it, and he quieted quickly as Johnny laughed through heavy breathing.
“Shoulda warned me you were gonna do that,” Johnny chuckled as he pulled up beside Saturn.“Woulda had a better start.”
Victor swallowed a few times to rewet his mouth, which must have been open the whole time.“Damn, it’s been a while since I did that.”
“Me, too.”Johnny leaned down to give Blitz a few firm pats.Both horses were breathing hard and sweating.“Feels good, don’t it?”
“Yeah.”Victor grinned, thinking back to his days as a child racing his pony through the pasture.“Feels like being a kid again.”
Johnny nodded, a bit red in the face but happy.He was more handsome when he smiled, even if his teeth were a bit crooked.
Victor swallowed one more time before he returned Saturn to a sensible walk.“Anyway, let’s finish our loop.”
CHAPTER 5
