Fuck.
She rotated her neck to work out the knots and began to scream her favorite word in her head. Normally, she had no problem yelling obscenities but tried not to lose her temper around the animals. They were too skittish and had dealt with enough crap in their short lifetimes. They didn’t need their only source of stability to lose it in an old-fashioned temper tantrum.
She dragged in a breath, opened her mouth wide, and quietly shouted the word to the rafters. “Fuck!”
“Uh-oh. Bad day, huh?” Her brother, Ethan, stood before her. Damn, he was always able to sneak up on her with a stealthy grace that had served him well in the military. He had ginger hair like their sister, Ophelia, and seemed to be jealous Harper had escaped the Irish curse. Only Harper knew how hard she’d wished for glorious red locks instead of her boring dark-brown ones.
She rubbed her forehead, ignoring his knowing grin. Ethan was able to peg her mood in seconds, as if he were highly sensitized to subtle shifts of energy. He had the same talent with horses. Another reason the family had dubbed him “the horse whisperer” early on. “I want to fire Owen. He didn’t check the messages, so I lost a horse deal. He never cleans the barn properly, and he’s attached to his phone.” Her finger jabbed in the air, pointing out the large pile of poop. “Plus, I stepped in shit.”
Ethan quirked a brow. “He’s nineteen years old—they’re all attached to their phones. Besides, I can’t send back Judge Bennett’s own grandson.”
She groaned. “We should have never taken on a kid who gets so drunk he vandalizes his own dorm instead of his rival’s.”
“You know the judge likes to give us a challenge. We took Chloe on last year, and look how she blossomed,” he said, affection warming his voice.
Chloe was a twenty-year-old assigned to the horse farm last summer by Judge Bennett for a vandalism crime she never committed. She’d worked the stables and ended up becoming close with the family, including Ethan’s fiancée, Mia. Now she visited regularly and had her own horse.
Harper gave a long sigh. “Chloe was different. She’s smart. Not a dumbass.”
Ethan chuckled, moving down the stall line to say hello to each of the horses. “He’s just a kid trying to figure stuff out. I’ll talk to him. Tell him no phone and to clean it all up.”
She rolled her shoulders to shake off the lingering tension. “Thanks.”
Her brother shot her a look. “You okay, Harp?”
She hesitated, not because she was averse to talking to Ethan, but because she couldn’t seem to explain the real problem. The tension in her belly had only tightened over the week. The word to describe her state of mind was one she despised.
Unsettled.
She waved her hand in the air to dismiss his question and her odd thoughts. “Yeah, sorry, I got a lot on my mind. With John out for the next few weeks, there’s tons to do.” John was her full-time assistant and had been working the horse farm for years. He’d sprained his back and was under strict bed rest for a while. Thank God his wife loved to spoil him; Harper knew he was in good hands. “Seems like the work has been tripling, expenses are up, and good help is hard to find. There’s a horse auction next week, and I wanted to be able to save a couple, but there’s no room until I get some of our current stable sold.”
The horse-rescue portion of the property was Harper’s heart and soul, but not as profitable as the inn. Her dreams of expansion were still far from reality, but she believed one day she’d get the money. Besides rescuing horses from various auctions, rehabilitating, then selling them, she took on boarding and horseback-riding lessons. But with her dependence on volunteers and John unavailable, there was too much work with too few hands on deck.
“I know I’ve been spending a chunk of time away from the farm,” he said. “With Mia’s business trips, the bungalow remodeling, and the upcoming-wedding plans, I may not be pulling my weight. You shouldn’t be stressed out.”
Harper rolled her eyes and shot him a disgusted look. “That’s just stupid. You have a partner now and you should be a team. And I’m not stressed out, I’m just indulging in some good old-fashioned whining. Don’t you remember how Mom used to tell us it was a healthy way to blow off steam?”
Ethan grinned. “How could I forget? My problem is you’ve never been a whiner. If you weren’t so damn stubborn about new hires, I’d get someone in here to help.”
“I’m not stubborn. I just insist on quality.”
He snorted and braced his hands on his hips. “Seriously? You nixed the last few I wanted to hire and gave me ridiculous excuses.”
“One had never owned an animal! How could she possibly help on a farm with no previous ownership experience?”
“She had fish and parrots. Last time I checked, those were animals.”
“And that weird guy with the unibrow?” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken. “He didn’t like Flower. Everybody likes Flower.”
Ethan gave a suffering sigh. “He only mentioned the mare seemed a bit high spirited and undisciplined. Which she is.”
“He said it with an attitude, and I don’t want anyone here trying to break her spirit.”
“I give up. Since I’m the only one left you do trust, I certainly don’t want to piss you off. But you’ll need a chunk of free time if you want to begin training Phoenix for racing. It’s a big undertaking.”
“You’ve never cared before about pissing me or Ophelia off,” she said with a smile. “Mia must be training you well.” He rolled his eyes and she laughed. “I’ve been wanting to work with a racehorse for a while. Been researching training methods and possible riders. I should have enough money to enter him in a few races and see how he does.” She’d deliberately been taking on more work and avoiding hiring another full-timer in order to pad her savings account for the investment.
Ethan rubbed his head. “Phoenix has come a long way, but I’m still not sure how he’ll do on a track with other horses. He’s sensitive. It took me a long time to get him to take to a saddle. Those bastards did some real damage.”
Anger rushed through her. She’d rescued Phoenix when she visited a farm in Pennsylvania and knew immediately he needed help. He’d been tied to a tree, covered in filth, and obviously malnourished. His previous owner had purchased the Thoroughbred to make some money on the track, but when it didn’t work out, Phoenix had been left alone to suffer, then readied to be sold for slaughter. Harper had paid the same amount to the asshole, reported him to the authorities for animal abuse, and taken Phoenix home.
The horse’s fiery spirit had saved him, and after multiple sessions with Ethan, he was finally able to accept a rider. He was wicked fast, with an epic temper. Harper knew the moment she laid eyes on him he was destined to run.
“He’s a fighter.” Pride filled her. “He won’t let anyone break him, and that’s what he’ll bring to the track. I just need to get the right team.”
“You know I’ll help with whatever I can. Phoenix deserves only the best.” Harper knew her brother loved the horse as much as she did. After Ethan had returned from active duty with a blown-out knee, his own journey toward healing essentially mixed with Phoenix’s as he taught him to trust again.