She hadn’t been surprised when her father-in-law had been drawn to the small boy. Though Jack rarely showed his grief of losing his only son and the only grandchild he would ever have, she knew that working with the kids from the hospital helped him as much as it did her and the kids. And though smaller than Cody would have been at Davey’s age, the boy’s excited nature around the horses couldn’t help but remind them both of how excited three-year-old Cody had always been when his grandfather had walked him around the stable telling him about all of the horses he would be able to ride once he got bigger. Only Cody had never had the chance to get big enough to ride one of the horses.
“Thanks again, for letting us come,” David said. “Davey will be talking about this for a long time.”
“I’m glad he’s enjoying it. He and Jack seem to be having fun. Let’s give them a little more time,” she said as she climbed the wood fence that circled the paddock so that she could see the little boy better.
As she had worked with the rest of the kids, she’d given a lot of thought about what she was going to say to David. A part of her desperately wanted to know if there was a possibility that her son’s donated heart had been given to his son while another part just wanted to enjoy the day sitting beside David as they watched his son taking his ride. Once the rest of the children had left, she’d decided that taking small steps to see what she could learn would be the best course for now. She knew she was being a coward in not telling David just yet about the chance that Davey had received her son’s heart, but she also knew that David was a private man and she couldn’t just hit him with that information until she had an idea about how he would take it. She didn’t want things to become strange between the two of them. They would still have to work together no matter what she learned about Davey’s heart.
And she’d have to tell him about losing Cody and right now watching the healthy little boy that Davey had grown up to be, she didn’t want to face the pain of the past. But she could use this opportunity to learn more about Davey.
“I saw Massey in the office with Dr. Benton for her checkup last week. She told me that you were giving her private lessons here?” he asked. She watched as he climbed the fence then slung his own legs across the top board.
“I offer to give all our patients private lessons when they’re well enough to take them. She was cleared to start lessons six months after her transplant last year. She’s doing really well. Are you thinking about letting Davey take lessons?” she asked. She watched as Davey broke out in laughter again. It was amazing how after everything the little boy had been through, he was still such a happy child. From things David had said she knew that he had worked hard to let Davey live as much of a normal life as possible. She couldn’t help but wonder where Davey’s mother fit into their life.
“Maybe, someday, but I was thinking maybe it would be good for me to take them first. That way I would know the risks,” he said as he joined her in watching his laughing son.
“That would probably be good for you. It might make you feel better to know how I teach, that is if you want me to teach him.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just...” David looked over at her as he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand as he held on to the fence with the other. “Okay, maybe I’m a little protective, but it’s not personal. Besides, I can’t have my son outdoing me.”
“I understand, David,” she said. She couldn’t help but think of how Kolton had made fun of how protective she had been of Cody around the horses. “I’d be glad to give you some lessons, but I have to tell you that I’m used to teaching kids, not adults.”
“The children you teach probably know a lot more than I do about horses. It would probably be good if we just start off with the basics like you would with them,” David said.
The two of them sat and watched as Jack explained the parts of the saddle to Davey. He had always liked to start with the basics of horsemanship too.
“Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Sarah said. Now that the two of them knew each other better she was hoping that she wouldn’t offend him with one of the questions that had nagged at her from the time she’d learned that David was a single parent.
“Let me guess, you’re wondering about Davey’s mother.” While he didn’t seem upset by his comment, she could still tell that it wasn’t something he liked to talk about.
“I’m sorry if...”
“It’s okay. It’s not the first time I’ve been asked about Lisa. There’s not that many single dads raising a child who’s had a heart transplant. Questions about my ex are kind of natural. Lisa... She didn’t really understand what we were up against at first. I tried to explain it to her, but she...she seemed to think I was making too much of Davey’s heart defect. She had this idea that there would be a surgery and then we’d get back to our lives,” David said.
“A lot of times that’s as far as a parent can
