Always Mine (Love in Eden 1)

Just the way I liked it.

I was greeted by a symphony of neighs when I entered the barn, and the sounds immediately helped relax me. I'd worked around horses my entire life and had always enjoyed their company more than that of any two-legged creature. I wasn't sure what I’d done right in my life to finally get lucky enough to have Curtis Sterling hire me after I’d gotten out of prison, but I knew better than to question it. Going somewhere besides Eden after being granted parole had never really been an option, even though life would've been a lot easier if I’d gone to a completely new town and just been another drifter looking for work who also happened to be good with horses. But Eden was home and there was nothing I could do about that. At least, not anytime soon.

One of my favorite things about the main barn on the Black Hills Ranch property was how light it was on the inside. Prison had taught me to hate any darkness that was enclosed within four walls. Many of the barns I'd been in had always failed to appreciate the power of sunlight both for man and horse. Neither belonged stuck in dark spaces closing them in. But if they had to be there, the least one could do was offer them fresh air and an endless supply of light.

Most of the horses that were currently in the barn were there only because they were on stall rest for injuries or, in the case of a couple of the mares, had only recently given birth and were on limited turnout with their new foals. Even then, they'd only be confined for a few days at most—enough time to bond with their babies—before they rejoined the herd.

I made my way to the last stall and glanced through the bars to see if I was disturbing Millie and her new son. I loved all the horses as if they were my own, but Millie and her new baby had a special place in my heart. I'd actually bought Millie the summer I'd turned sixteen. I'd saved up for nearly two years to buy myself the horse but had been forced to sell her when I’d gotten into trouble with the law.

I'd assumed the mare had been lost to me forever, so I'd been beyond surprised when I’d shown up on the Sterling ranch for my first day of work only to find a pregnant Millie waiting for me. It was as close to tears as I’d come since the last time I'd cried, which, uncoincidentally, had also been my first night in prison. Curtis had explained to me that he'd tracked down the mare shortly after I'd sold her and that he'd bred her to the ranch's best stallion, Whiskey Jack.

I’d had no idea what had prompted the man to buy my horse, but he'd explained that he'd bred her shortly after he'd hired me to work for him. I'd been stunned when he'd told me that the foal was mine. Millie too. He and I had been arguing for the last several months about his refusal to take money from me or for me to work off the cost of the mare and her baby. I knew Curtis thought he'd won that particular argument, but I was making sure to put aside a little bit of money every month in the hopes that someday I'd be able to pay him back. I wasn't someone who even understood the concept of charity and that was never going to change. So I owed Curtis much more than just my job. He had given me back a piece of my past that had always brought me an undeniable amount of pride and joy.

"How are you doing, my girl?" I crooned to Millie when I saw that she was standing over her sleeping son. The foal had his gangly legs stretched out and his head was resting on one of his mother's hooves. Unlike Millie, who was a deep chestnut color, the baby resembled his father. His coat was a mixture of large patches of black and white. Deep down, I was already thinking of him as mine and was planning the day I’d be able to get on his back for the first time. But I needed to give Curtis something for the generous gift he’d given me and even though it would take a while to give him the cash, that didn't mean I couldn't pay him back in other ways.

I suspected the ranch was struggling to make ends meet and had been since I'd arrived ten months earlier. Curtis had been trying to find the right foreman to help him run the ranch since the previous one, Del, had died several years earlier. I’d never met Del, but from the way Curtis spoke about him, I knew the two men had been very close. After Del's death five years earlier, Curtis had been through a string of men he’d thought could handle the position, but none had worked out.