A deep sigh escaped me as I looked at him.
My poor boy would never make a sound again, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I'd never replaced him, though.
I promised him that the day Posy ran—I told him that he'd stay with me on the farm and help me with chores by keeping an eye on any scavengers that might try to sneak onto the land and hurt my other animals.
So far, Scout has done the same fantastic job at scaring them off as he always had.
I knew that eventually I would have to do something about what he looked like on the outside, though I also knew that I wouldn't move on that anytime soon.
As the crickets began to chirp, and the fireflies started to blink in the cool, Oklahoma night, I found myself smiling.
Maybe working on the farm alone wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I'd done a damn fine job of maintaining my property by myself for the past three years, and I knew I would be able to keep doing it.
As for my flowers, the time would be coming soon to plant them into the ground and give them a chance to start over again.
Even though seeing them do their part when I would move that particular irrigation system into the fields made me feel proud, most of them were more withered than the others, and soon, they'd fall to pieces.
There would be nothing I could do to stop that and I had to stop pretending that I could fix them when I knew I couldn’t.
So, in the ground they would have to go to give my crops something special to feed on when they would start to grow in the Spring.
As I got to my feet and set my bottle down, I looked up at the sky again and smiled.
A man can always take great pride in his work regardless of whether he can see it or not, as long as the job had always been done to the best of his ability.
And when Spring comes and my crops bloom, I'll go back to the corral and purchase someone new to help me take care of the land.
Because practice makes perfect, after all.
About Yolanda Olson
Yolanda Olson is a USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author. Born and raised in Bridgeport, CT where she currently resides, she usually spends her time watching her favorite channel, Investigation Discovery. Occasionally, she takes a break to write books and test the limits of her mind. Also an avid horror movie fan, she likes to incorporate dark elements into the majority of her books.
You can keep in touch with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Sign up for her newsletter here.
More books by Yolanda
The Inferno Series:
Inferno
Cinere
Sparks
Embers
The Complete Inferno Series Boxed Set
The Malediction Saga:
Scavengers
Vultures
Carrion
Malediction Codex
Dark M/M:
Death Blooms
A Brush with the Devil
Barren (Carnaval des Ténèbres Book 1)
Deprivation
Where Sleeping Gods Lie
Dark Horror:
BONES
Nefarious
Hunger
Moments in Oblivion
Erotic Horror:
Strangers
Ghost Flowers
The Beast of Bondi Beach Duet
Creep
Deep Blue
Stark White
8 Days for Salvation
Wrong Side of Heaven
anatomy
Milk and Honey
Delicate Things
One Hundred Saints
agony
Hollow
Gothic Romance:
The Lies Between Us
A Serenade of Fireflies
Martyris
Co-Writes:
Otter's Toy Box
Abattoir
Invictus
Scorched
Dark Holiday Themed:
Bastards and Baubles: A Very Villainous Christmas
Press Play