Page 1 of The Only Seconds that Matter
CHAPTER 1
It had been a while since Victor had literally eaten dirt, but now he was facedown in it doing a mental checklist of each limb to see if anything was broken.Behind him someone called his name, but by the time Jade’s boots came into view, he had pushed himself to a sit, happy to report that he was in minimal pain.
“Oh my God, are you alright?”Jade asked frantically, bending over him.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Victor huffed, brushing dirt off his T-shirt.“Where’s the horse?”
“Over there.”Jade pointed a finger toward the gate connecting the indoor ring to the stalls beyond it.The bay mare was standing quietly and watching them with ears pricked, as if she hadn’t tried her damnedest to break his spine in half ten seconds ago.
Victor hoisted himself to a stand with a wince, feeling sore on the left side where he’d landed.He limped for a moment, but when Jade whined in sympathy, he held up a hand.
“Nah, I’ll be fine.I’ve suffered worse.”He had, but when he was in California, he felt far more comfortable going to the doctor for a broken bone.In Oklahoma, the story was different.If this stupid horse had put him in the hospital, he might be tempted to sell her to a local trader and wish her well on whatever journey awaited.
“Well.”Jade put her hand on her hips, and they stood in the ring a moment observing the mare together.“You wanna keep working on her?”
At eighteen, he might have said yes.He could be a really stubborn son-of-a-bitch when he wanted to be.Now he was past thirty and trying to run a training facility to pay the bills.He didn’t have the time to waste on a seven-hundred-dollar auction purchase.This mare had bucked him off the day after he bought her, and he’d spent two weeks on groundwork and desensitization, hoping that she just needed a tune-up.He’d also spent a hefty vet bill getting her x-rayed and checked over.It felt like two weeks wasted when she’d bucked him off even harder the second time around.
“I can reach out to my contacts, see if there’s some old cowboy willing to buy a project.”
“Alright, maybe do that,” Victor replied.
Jade nodded.She was only nineteen, but she’d been a real asset since she’d shown up for her interview as assistant trainer.The moment Victor had spotted her nails painted in the colors of the bisexual flag, he felt like he could trust her.
Victor walked off to catch his horse.She stayed put to be caught, and when he opened the gate, she walked behind him like an obedient pup.After untacking her and putting her back in her paddock, he returned to the barn.Jade was there, her flannel shirt rolled up to her elbows and a phone in her hands.
“I just called a family friend who’s kind of like the human Facebook of horse people contacts.She knows everyone.”
“What’d she say?”
“She knows a guy who might be interested in the mare.He’s bought a few of her rejects before to work on the feedlot, and he used to ride the rodeos professionally until a nasty injury made him retire.She said feedlot work is a good job for a sour horse.”
“Sounds perfect.She give you his number and name?”
“Yup.”Jade pulled a note from her pocket and handed it over.On it was her barely legible scribble with a name and number:Johnny Stearns, 405-555-7821.“You want me to call or would you prefer?”
“I can call,” Victor told her.“It was my decision to buy the stupid horse.”
Victor went to the small office built beside the tack room, which wasn’t much, just a desk and his tablet which he used to accept and make payments.The office chair was probably older than Victor was, and the fake leather had worn away a decade ago, revealing a white fabric beneath.It creaked in protest as Victor tossed himself into it and grabbed his phone to call.
“Yullo?”came a voice after the third ring.
“Is this Johnny Stearns?”
“Yeah, what you need?”Johnny asked in such a thick Oklahoma drawl that it sounded like a parody.
“This is Victor Ortiz-Bennet.I’m a horse trainer in the area, and I was given your name as someone who might possibly be interested in a, uh,challengingprospect.”
“Well, tell me what you got and I’ll let you know what I think.”
“She’s a five-year-old registered Quarter Horse mare I picked up at auction.Got some Poco on her dam’s side.She has a clean bill of health, easy to catch, fine to work with on the ground, vet check was clean.But she’s got a bit of a bucking issue, and while I can work with problem horses, I honestly don’t have the time to do that with all the other paying clients I’ve got.I was told you used to do the rodeo circuit?”
“Oh yeah, back when the doctor let me, ha!Made good money for a bit, rode at the National Finals for five or six years, before I got kicked in the head.Maybe that’s why I don’t know if it was five or six years, Coulda been seven, ha!”
“I’m sorry to hear you about your injury.”
“Ain’t nothin’, really.That comes with the job.But it did put a stop to all that money and glory, and now I’m workin’ down at the Millers’ feedlot.You know what that is?”
“No.”
