By Chance by Sasha Kay Riley

“I didn’t want it then. I’m going to go make some now. Either of you want some?”
    Mandy looked at him curiously. “Have a rough night?”
    Vince snorted. “Yeah, something like that. I’m sure Dad will tell you all about it. Or you can ask Dustin.”
    Dustin shrugged when Mandy looked at him. “He’s hungover. Your dad asked me to stay with him for a little while last night.”
    Mandy looked at her brother skeptically, and he shrugged. “It’s been a rough two weeks.”
    She nodded. “I’ll come with you.”
    He sighed and started to turn away before stopping to ask Dustin, “Do you want anything? I owe you.”
    “No, I still owe you,” he argued. “I’m fine.”
    So Vince and Mandy walked toward his house. Once inside, Mandy followed him to the kitchen.
    “So,” she asked immediately, “who knows?”
    Vince practically slammed the tin of coffee grounds on the counter. “Man, can you just leave it alone?”
    She sighed and put her arm around his shoulders. “We don’t have to talk about it. I’m just curious who knows.”
    He hung his head in resignation. “Apparently, you do. And Jane, obviously. And I guess I told Dustin when I was drunk last night.”
    “He didn’t seem bothered by it,” she commented.
    He shook his head. “He’s fine. Can we drop this now? I’m not ready for this.”
    She rubbed his shoulder. “Sure.”
     
     
    V INCE QUICKLY learned that if he needed to find Dustin, he could almost certainly be found with Justin. They reminded Vince of himself and Xander; the kid was always grooming him, petting him, giving him treats, even hugging him. And Justin seemed to be responding very well to all the love and attention. The horse had calmed down significantly and listened to every command Dustin gave, both on the ground and in the saddle. Vince hadn’t seen him spook or put up any sort of fight since the first week he was at the farm. Vince continued giving Dustin riding lessons but had moved him onto Justin within a week of his first ride on Zeus.
    Whenever Vince saw them together, he felt saddened by the knowledge that his dad would eventually be selling Justin, once his training was done, and that it would break Dustin’s heart. He himself didn’t have the heart to remind him of this and damage the bond between horse and human.
    Dustin had taken to the other horses, too, just not as deeply as Justin. Vince found him in one of the pastures one day, just socializing with the four horses out there, despite the fact that it was raining a fine mist across the fields. He had already bonded with the horses more than any of the other hands ever had. Vince was glad he’d insisted on taking him on.
    “How about taking Justin for a trail ride?” Vince suggested one afternoon when he found Dustin in the pasture yet again.
    “Trail ride?” Dustin asked in response, walking up to the fence with two horses following him.
    Vince nodded and pointed toward the far side of the property. “Dad wants me to check out the trails, see what they’re like now that winter is over.”
    “So we ride out and check how the trails held up?” Dustin questioned, idly rubbing one of the horses’ noses.
    “Basically,” Vince replied, rubbing the same horse’s forehead. “And we fix what we can. Drag tree branches out of the way and that sort of stuff. It’s a two-man job. Want to help me out?”
    Dustin smiled. “Sure. It’ll be good training for Justin.”
    Vince moved aside to let Dustin climb over the fence. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
    A short time later, they were riding out toward the start of the trail. Dustin was riding Justin, and Vince had chosen to take Zeus, mainly because he didn’t want to put a western saddle on Xander and he wasn’t about to hop on and off a horse with an English saddle.
    “So did your dad buy this whole place?” Dustin asked as they rode.
    “Nah,” Vince answered. “He grew up here. My grandparents used to have a dairy farm here. They passed