Heart's Desire by T. J. Kline Page A

anxiety bunching in his muscles like a current with no release, he watched the pair as the truck pulled up to the pasture and came to a slow, easy stop.
    A woman leaned out the window toward Jessie. “You want them in here?”
    Jessie took a few steps toward the truck. “Are they okay together?”
    The woman nodded and Justin move toward the gate, opening it as the woman backed her aluminum stock trailer inside. The near silence from Jessie and Justin had him curious. He could feel the tension coursing through them, but with nothing to base it on, it seemed odd. He felt out of place, like he was missing some crucial clue, and he gripped the fence hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.
    Justin stood by the gate, while the woman parked the truck and moved to the back of the trailer. Unlatching the back door and swinging it wide, she blocked Nathan’s view of the animals inside, but he didn’t miss the look of horror on Jessie’s face. Her eyes immediately widened before welling with tears, as she pinched her lips together, trying not to cry. He recognized pain and anger waging war within her and felt the desire to pull her close, to protect her from the emotions he could see written clearly in her face.
    Jessie stepped into the trailer and he heard her murmuring quiet words and nonsense phrases. Slow thumps of what he assumed were hooves came from inside. While he watched in silence from the fence, Jessie led the first animal to Justin for inspection.
    What little he was able to see was gut-wrenching.
    The animal was nothing but skin stretched tightly over large bones, sunken in unnatural places. Ribs were plainly visible, and he could see each and every bump and ridge of the animal’s hip bones. It looked as if the miserable creature was wasting away from disease with open, festering sores dotting the mangy coat, oozing sickeningly. Its hooves were so unkempt they curled up from the ground, and the weak animal could barely lift its head.
    Jessie ran a careful hand over the animal’s neck, speaking quietly in a soothing tone, almost a purr, and he watched in amazement as the neglected animal buried its head against her chest, seeking comfort.
    â€œOkay, Justin, this girl’s going to need your help more than mine.”
    Nathan heard the hitch in her voice, as if she was choking back tears, and he tried to swallow the lump lodged in his own throat at the sight of the defeated animal. Justin ran his hands over the horse’s shoulders, inspecting the festering sores. His friend had always had a soft spot for animals in need. It didn’t surprise him that, for all his talk of Jessie making them horse-poor, Justin couldn’t turn the abused animals away without helping them, any more than Jessie could.
    â€œShe needs to be in a stall, Jess.” Justin’s voice was thick, as if he was having difficulty speaking as well. “She’s going to need antibiotics, and these sores need to be cleaned several times a day, but I think they will heal up, although they might leave some discoloration on her hide. We should give her a dose of wormer and her shot series. I doubt she’s had them. Let’s get her some food and water first.”
    A loud, shrill whinny came from inside the trailer where two other horses waited. There was a crash, and Jessie’s head snapped back to the trailer.
    â€œDeb,” she called to the woman who’d delivered the animals, “why don’t you take her into the first stall on the left so we can get these other two out?”
    â€œYou might want to be careful of the next one, Jess,” the other woman said. “He’s pretty attached to the other two, and we had a tough time getting him haltered. I had to tranquilize him and put him between the mares just to get him into the trailer. He’s pretty rank.”
    â€œSounds like it’s worn off.” Jessie gave Deb a wary glance before looking back at Justin,