Cowgirls Don't Cry

Ch 4

Chapter 4

Lynn.

Kip leads me to poppa's room. I pause outside his door scared to go in. I still see daddy as a big strong man who never needed help from anyone. I didn't want to see him any other way.

"Lynn? Ya comin'?" Kip asks, standing in the doorway looking back at me. I take a deep breath and slowly walk through the door.

"You son of a bitch!" my dad says when he sees me, although he's not talking to me. "I told you not to tell her" my dad tosses an empty plastic cup, hitting Kip on the head. I smile to myself, happy that, even though he looks frail and weak, he still hasn't lost his fight.

"I'm glad he told me, poppa," I move over to the side of his bed. "I want to be here, and I'm mad at you for not telling me!" I say lightly slapping his head.

"I'm sick," he says moving away from me, faking a cough. "Don't lecture me."

I smile, happy that he overall looks good. Yes, he's thinner, paler, and balder than I remember him but he's still my poppa.

The rest of the day is spent talking to doctors, spending time with poppa, and making a plan. Poppa has to stay in the hospital at least a week. He has some kind of bacterial infection their trying to get under control. They say he's fine, but the treatment has damaged his immune system and they have to keep him, just in case. Kip picks me up at 7:30 that night. Poppa fell asleep around 5. The doctors said that the medicine will make him drowsy. I used this time to finish my econ test. Professor Heart had uploaded the test online, a program that makes it impossible to cheat allowing only a minute for each problem.

Now I'm sitting in Kip's truck, my head against the window. The drive to the farm was so familiar it made the 45 minute drive go by quickly. I spent most of the time listening to Kip sing softly to the radio.

"You get all the horses in alright?" I ask knowing he did.

"Yep, just gotta exercise Snow when I get back,"

"Snow's still alive?" I ask honestly surprised. She had seemed to be on her last leg when I left. I figured she would have had to be put down awhile back.

"Yea, she's a fighter." He laughs softly, "She's just as stubborn as your father."

"I thought Doc. Stevens would have recommended putting her down,"

"Oh, he did," Kip laughs, "she got real sick, and doc recommended it, but your dad, being as stubborn as he is, said to give her a week. See how she does. And guess what?"

"What?" I ask, feeling like I already know the answer.

"That stubborn mare got better!" he laughs, slapping his knee, a gesture I'd seen daddy do countless times.

"Does Doc. Stevens come check on her at all?" I ask, biting my nail. Doc. Stevens was a good friend of my mommas and had taken special interest of Snow after momma passed.

"Stevens retired, sold his practice."

"What?!" I say honestly surprised. He wasn't that old, younger than poppa if anything. People round here don't retire till they were falling apart.

""Yea His daughter had a baby, so he and his wife moved down south to do the grandparent thing"

"Who's the new vet?" I ask, "don't tell me it's that Jenkins character from Red Bend. I swear he doesn't know a hoof from his back end."

Kip burst out laughing, "Good to know you still have that twang deep down" he jokes, nudging my knee with his, "Nah, it's the guy who bought the Barnette place"

"Didn't you say he was a child?" I ask, a little steamed up.

"He's my age, Lynn" kip gives me a sideways glance. "Why you so worked up 'bout this?"

"Well sorry if I wanna know who's taking care of my horses!"

Kip laughs as we pull into the drive. I roll down the window, sticking my head out. I take a deep breath, loving the smell. It smelt like fresh cut grass and due. It smelt like home.

I jump out of the truck before it came to a full stop and stood there looking at the house. It was a little banged up, paint peeling in spots, broken railing on the side porch that poppa had never gotten around to fixing, but it was home.

Kip gives a low whistle and this chocolate lab puppy on the porch shoots his head up. He sees kip and I and jumps up, running to us so fast he trips over his own legs. He runs around Kip a couple times before Kip gives a loud pitch whistle and the dog imedietly sits, his but still wiggling with excitement.

"Who's this?" I ask bending to pet the dogs head. As soon as my hand touches him, he leaps up, jumping up and licking my face, moving so fast I can barely pet him.

"Bear!" Kip exclaims, followed by the high pitch whistle again. Bear imedietly sits again, butt wiggling so fast it looks like it might fall off. "I'm still training him."

"He is just the cutest thing!" I wanna pet him again, but I know if I do kips command will be broken again. I stand up and dust off my hands on my jeans.

"Yea, and he knows it." Kip looks down at Bear who keeps looking between me and Kip, fighting the urge to jump up on me again. "Any time he does wrong he always comes and licks my face, thinking that will fix what he did."

"And how often does that work?" I tease, knowing Kip has a soft side for dogs.

"More often than I'd like to admit" he laughs, "Ya wanna see the horses?"

I nod and start walking towards the barn. Kip fallows, whistling for bear who takes off running after me. He falls into step beside me, jumping up, head-butting my hand trying to get me to pet him.

Kip pulls the barn door open and I run in straight for hazelnuts stall. She sees me and starts stomping he hooves and tossing her head.

"Hey girl!" I open the door, slipping it in quickly not wanting to let Bear in. I reach up and put her neck and she immediately starts nuzzling my neck with her head. I laugh softly hugging her neck, "I missed you too, girl."

Kip stands outside the door watching me. Bear whining at his feet.

"Were gonna go for a long ride tomorrow, ok?" I say to Hazelnut, petting her neck one last time. I slip out of her stall, tripping over bear, who obviously got jealous of my two minute absence and starts jumping up on me again.

"Bear! Outside!" Kip commands, pointing out the door. Bear tries to hide behind my legs, but Kip snaps his fingers and Bear slowly sulks out the door tail between his legs. "See what he does?" Kip asks me looking back at bear. "Him looking like that makes me feel like an ass!"

"If you get this bent up over a dog, you're in for it when you have kids." I laugh and kip groans