Lois Greiman - [Hope Springs 02] by Home Fires Page B

agony escaped at irregular intervals.
    “Get a halter on her,” Casie said.
    Ty was quick to do so. In a second he had crouched down to slip the nylon behind the mare’s long ears, but she was already rolling miserably onto her side.
    “Get her up!” Sophie ordered.
    “I’m trying.” Ty’s voice was raspy as he jerked on the lead line. But the old mare didn’t notice. Groaning, she rolled onto her back, legs flailing.
    “Quit trying and do it! ” Sophie yelled.
    Casie stepped inside the stall, adding her strength to the lead. But suddenly, there was a crack of noise. Angel jolted to her feet, nearly trampling them in her haste to rise.
    Sophie stood behind her, whip in hand.
    “What the hell are you doing?” Ty rasped.
    “Saving her life!”
    “Well, you don’t have to hit her.”
    “You want her to die? Is that what you want? Cuz if you don’t, you shouldn’t work her so hard.”
    “I didn’t work—”
    “Showing off for the buckle bunnies was what you were doing. It would serve you right if—”
    “Sophie!” Casie barked the girl’s name.
    The barn went quiet. Angel pawed frantically.
    “That’s enough,” Casie added and caught Sophie’s gaze in a hard stare. The girl turned back to the horse. All eyes shifted in that direction.
    There was hay scattered in the old mare’s scraggly mane, white rimmed her terrified eyes, and her coat was dark with sweat behind her ears and along her neck and flanks. She ground her teeth in hopeless agony.
    “What now?” Ty’s voice was little more than a whisper. In the past, he had proven to be a quick thinker in an emergency, but his wits seemed dim now, his reactions jerky.
    “Better get her walking,” Casie said.
    “Not if she twisted something,” Sophie said.
    Ty turned toward her. “What do we do then?” Perhaps it was a testament to his worry that he voiced the question to the girl he despised.
    “Surgery’s the only option.”
    Casie felt her stomach knot. She knew it was true. A twisted intestine was rarely, if ever, corrected without extremely invasive surgery. Extremely expensive surgery. She could feel Ty’s attention shift to her.
    She shook her head, only vaguely aware that she was doing so. “I can’t, Ty. I just . . . The Lazy . . .” The truth was, the Lazy was barely clearing expenses, and if she was going to fight a lawsuit . . . going to fight for the privilege of continuing to see the battered boy who had captured her heart, she would need every penny. But if she let him down now, would he even want to see her?
    “You don’t got the money?” His voice was low.
    Her own was barely audible. “I don’t.”
    “How about paying on credit?” Emily spoke for the first time. Her face was pale, her mocha eyes wide in the barn’s dim interior. She and Ty had shared a bond since before she’d ever set foot on the Lazy. “Or a loan.”
    “Dad didn’t . . . The Lazy doesn’t have a very good rapport with Dakota Equine.”
    Emily shifted her gaze to Ty’s face and winced. “There must be other places we could take her.”
    “Not that can handle this kind of surgery,” Casie said. “Not within a hundred miles.”
    “Then I guess we’d better get her to that one,” Sophie said.
    The three of them stared at her in uncertain silence.
    “Unless you just want to shoot her between the eyes,” Sophie snapped.
    No one breathed. Casie shifted her gaze to Ty. He stood absolutely still, watching her with dread and painful hopefulness.
    “I’ll hook up the trailer,” she said.

C HAPTER 6
    T he trailer door moaned like a ghost as Casie pulled it open. Her expression was taut with worry, pale with uncertainty. Ty couldn’t bear to look at her. She didn’t have the funds necessary to pay for major surgery. He knew that just like he knew he didn’t have a pot to pee in. But Angel . . . She shifted her dark eyes toward him. They were wide with the kind of fear he understood all too well. He put a hand on her neck and urged her