Claiming Christmas: A Horse Racing Novella (Alex and Alexander Book 4) by Natalie Keller Reinert

Author:Natalie Keller Reinert [Reinert, Natalie Keller]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Natalie Keller Reinert Books
Published: 2013-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“We can still turn back,” Kerri suggested, her voice tight. “I don’t know if this is your best idea.”

“Oh, it’s definitely in my top ten bad ideas. It’s right up there with running away to Ocala to ride racehorses. But we’re not turning back.”

The dirt road we had been driving down for the past five minutes had given way to what was little more than two sandy tracks with thick weeds bursting up between them, brushing the undercarriage of the truck with rather alarming hissing and thunks. We were way out in the wilds of Levy County, not too far from the Goethe. It was a rural area bordering on wilderness, and its tumbledown wire fences and scrubland hills were a world away from the even fences and manicured pastures we’d left behind in Ocala. This was a scrappier, more wild version of Florida, and its residents had been living on the peninsula much longer than my family, or anyone that I knew.

We were deep in Cracker Country.

“What if this driveway just peters out?” Kerri asked helpfully. “There hasn’t been any room to turn around for at least a mile.”

“It’s not going to peter out. Judd said this was the way, and Judd should know.”

Of course, I had to hope and pray Judd had given me perfectly clear, perfectly precise instructions, and there was definitely a possibility that he’d misremembered which rusty white mailbox I should turn left at once I’d been driving on County Road 493 for eight miles “or so.” Judd was a decent farrier and a nice man, but he’d had his run-ins with drugs and booze, like a few other guys I’d known who made their living underneath horses, and I’d seen him forget which horses were kept where and wait patiently for me at the broodmare barn, while I tapped my feet with impatience down at the training barn, with a shed-row full of racehorses who needed new kicks. His memory had definitely taken a hit from some of his recreational hobbies. And he’d probably been kicked in the head more than once, too.

But he’d seemed pretty certain when I’d asked him where the nearest bush track was. “You want the one up at Salt Springs or the one out in Gilchrist or the one down near Otter Creek?”

“Oh, Judd,” I’d said disapprovingly—even though I’d asked because I knew he’d have the answer. “Do you really go to those places?”

“Their horses get shoes, too, you know,” he’d said cheerfully, and transferred a few nails from the open carton on his tool-box to his cheek. Nails bristling from the corner of his mouth, he bent back over the hoof of the two-year-old he’d been shoeing. “Aren’t you glad they’re getting such tender loving care from me?” he’d chuckled around his mouthful.

“Of course I am,” I’d said apologetically. “And it’s the one near Otter Creek, I guess. This horse was down along the Goethe.”

“Tons of horses getting trained in the Goethe,” Judd announced through his mouthful of horseshoe nails.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.