Morning Star Read Online Free PDF Page B

sorry. I thought you had already told her."
    He had told her, first thing that morning. It was Dannie's idea to play dumb about it. "Did she seem happy with the news?"
    "She did, Nate. Thank God because I thought she might resent me for trying to take the place of her mother."
    "She knows I love you. She loves you too. She's happy for the both of us."
    They sat on the front porch of the ranch. Each held a glass of cold iced tea. The pitcher stood on a small table between the two. In front of them the horses socialized in the corral. Morning Star and a few others gathered around the trough. 
    "It looks like Morning Star is waiting for you. Maybe you should grab a bar of soap and head down there." Cindy said between sips.
    "I'm fine. I showered this morning. I seem to recollect I had company."
    "Oops. Forgot. Sorry."
    "And here I thought I left an impression."
    "Oh you did, the night before."
    They had been living together a short while. Cindy moved in not long after Dannie became sick. He wanted her near, needed her near. Cindy was twenty six years old, back from four years at Washington State University with a degree in Veterinary Medicine in her back pocket. She set up shop downtown, taking over the Hillsborough Pet Clinic from a retiring Burt Callahan who had the distinction of being the only animal doctor in Franklin County. 
    Later, when the cattle industry boom became too much for her to handle by herself, she hired Peggy Denton, a vet from two counties over. Cindy's mother helped out as a part-time receptionist.
    Several months after Katy died, she was summoned to The Rising Sun to help deliver a foal. She remembered Nate being in a panic. The baby had twisted inside the mare and it needed to be brought out by hand.
    She was able to save the baby and its mother while both Nate and Dannie stood nearby. Nate spoke softly to Dannie, who had her eyes shut and cried softly. Afterwards, both were all smiles, and she had become the evening's hero.
    Nate asked her to stay for a cup of coffee but she politely turned down the offer choosing to go home and take a shower instead. A vase of flowers greeted her when she arrived at the Hillsborough Animal Hospital the next morning. A one word note came with it. The note read COFFEE?  
    This time she took him up on the offer and one thing led to another. They dated each other in a tentative manner. She knew it would be awkward at first. She and Katy had become friends in the months before she died. Katy would come by the clinic just to  talk. She found that they not only shared a love for animals but also shared a peculiar sense of humor, laughing at things others might find grim.
    After Katy became sick, Cindy popped in on her from time to time at The Rising Sun. Katy, so weak and frail near the end, still laughing, still so alive .
    "You take care of him," Katy said to her on the last visit. "He'll need someone, and I want it to be you."
    There was so much to say. Don't talk like that. You're not going anywhere. You and Nate have years, many years to go. But in the end, she knew the right answer. She saw it in Katy's eyes.
    "I will," she said.   
    "You're a good friend Cindy," Katy said in a voice barely above a whisper but she smiled. Cindy remembered Katy smiling and it warmed her heart. 
    She waited for Nate to make the first move, and eventually he did. Initially she tried her best not to be overprotective while he walked the tightrope of acknowledging his feelings for another woman and the guilt that came with having them.
    Their relationship fast tracked when Dannie became sick. She had grown to love that girl as much as she loved Nate. She moved in with them not just to comfort Nate but to be comforted in return. Then, as now, she never needed anyone as much.

    Cindy watched Morning Star in the corral. He pranced about as some of the other horses followed him. The horse once again held court.
    "Have you wondered where he came from? How he came to be here?"
    Nate put down