Redemption

“I’m Dove Donoghue. The new owner of this property.”

Burley knew that name. Old Man Bennett had mentioned he had a granddaughter named Dove. Apparently she lived in New York City, and the old man hadn’t seen her in years. Burley had seen pictures of her, but the pictures were when she was a child. A scrawny blonde girl with messy hair and a gap in her teeth, where she had lost a tooth just prior to having the picture taken. He never would have guessed that little girl would have grown into such an attractive woman.

“Bennett mentioned you once or twice,” he replied.

“You knew my grandpa?”

“Sure did. I worked for him. Takin’ care of the horses.” He gave a gesture of his hand towards one of the stalls. Just then a black Lab looking dog appeared from behind Dove. The dog approached her, tail wagging, as friendly as could be. Dove let out a shriek and quickly stepped away from it.

“He’s friendly. That’s BD,” he reassured her.

“He’s… yours?” she asked with hesitation. Her hands were held up in front of herself in a defensive manner, as if the dog was going to lunge at her at any minute.

“Yeah, he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He just wants to say hello. We don’t get a lot of visitors up here.” Dove stared down at the dog with wide eyes as he was sniffing at her leg. It was as if the woman had never seen a dog before. How was that possible? Didn’t they have dogs in New York City?

“Oh… Well could you call him away? Please? I don’t want him to like… jump on me or something.”

“Yeah, sure. BD, com’ere.” BD perked up and came to his master. Dove seemed relieved. She let out a slow breath and dropped her hands to sweep off her clothes, even though BD hadn’t touched her.

“Thanks. So you worked for my grandpa? I was wondering who was taking care of the horses. I felt worried they were left to starve to death,” she explained.

Burley couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. He hadn’t found himself laughing much lately. Since the incident, there hadn’t been much for him to laugh about. It didn’t help that the only two people he had interacted with for going on a year now were Old Man Bennett and his friend, Luka, who worked at the Piggly Wiggly.

“Naw, I wasn’t about to let them starve. Figured I’d take care of ‘em until the new owner showed. Guess they’re yours now,” he said.

Dove looked around at the stalls. “I don’t know the first thing about taking care of horses…” Some of the horses were sticking their heads out over the wooden doors. Others you couldn’t see unless you walked up to the stall. There were a total of twelve horses. One of them was pregnant. She was due any day now.

“I can take care of them for ya. This is the only job I got going for me right now,” he said.

“Oh, thank you!” she replied, with a big sigh of relief. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to clean up this place. It’s such a mess!”

“It ain’t bad. Whattaya plan to do with it? If you don’t mind my askin’.”

“I’m gonna sell it. All of it. I live in New York. I want to get back as soon as possible.” Hearing that brought a frown to Burley’s face. If she sold the house, and the horses along with it, what was he going to do for a job? No one in town was going to hire him. Most of the townsfolk wouldn’t even speak to him, unless they were calling him names. He needed this job. More than this little city girl even knew.

“Listen, ma’am, I need this job. And sellin’ horses is good money. You don’t think maybe you could consider keeping it? I can teach ya everything you need to know about horses.”

“What? No. No way. I’m really sorry about your job, but I’m sure someone else would be willing to hire you.” She didn’t know how wrong she was with that statement. Burley felt irritation over how easy it was for her to dismiss what he said. She didn’t seem to care at all that in selling the horses, she would essentially be firing him.

“Yeah…” he muttered, as he moved to lean the broom up against one of the stalls. “Well if you change your mind, I live next door.”

“Okay…” Dove replied. She seemed to realize she had said something wrong. She bit her lip, watching him. “Are you leaving?”

“Uh-huh. I’ll be back later to check on the horses. Figure you wanna get a look at your new place. Not that you’re gonna hang onto it or anything.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped, in an accusing tone of voice. Her hands went instantly to her hips. Burley didn’t know if she was trying to be intimidating, but it wasn’t working. Actually, he thought she looked kind of cute like that. He didn’t let that show on the outside.

“Just think it’s kinda selfish to sell everything your grandpa worked hard for. Just ‘cause you can’t be bothered to learn how to take care of it all.”

Dove’s mouth dropped open and anger flashed in her eyes. She looked completely shocked that he would say something like that to her. As if no one had ever stood up to her before. She seemed like the high maintenance kind of girl that got everything she wanted. Spoiled rotten to the core. Not the type Burley would usually go for.

“You don’t know a thing about me, Mr. Johnson! I’m not going to drop everything in my life and come live out here in the boonies like some hick! I didn’t ask for Grandpa to leave me his house. I didn’t ask for any of this!”

“No, you’re right. Bennett hadn’t seen his granddaughter in years. ‘Cause she was too busy living it up in good old New York City. Why should you care at all about this place? You never cared before,” he replied.

“What?! You have some nerve! Who do you think you are?!” she retorted, her cheeks burning.

“Just some hick, I guess. Have a good day, Miss Donoghue.” He continued out the door. With a click of his tongue, BD started trotting alongside him. He could hear what sounded like a very irritated huff coming from behind him, and it wasn’t coming from one of the horses.