He knew all the numbers, the percentages and the years that he could expect for his son to live with his new heart, and he wasn’t going to let the two of them miss out on any of the time they had together. Not that he was taking any chances with Davey. He’d already bought a helmet to wear when he was on one of the horses, something that had not made Davey happy as he had insisted that cowboys wore cowboy hats, not helmets. He knew he had made a mistake when he had pulled up a video of a bull rider with a helmet on to show Davey which had set his son into wanting to ride “cows” too.
By the time they had arrived at the horse stables, though, David was sure he had made the right decision. He was taking what was surely just Davey’s safety too seriously. Being around the horses had brought more pleasure in his son’s life than he’d had in a long time and just watching his son’s eyes light up was worth falling off a horse a dozen times. At least that was what he had thought before Sarah had led out a horse much bigger than the one he’d seen the kids riding the last time he had been there.
“It’s okay, Daddy, Mr. Jack says Sarah teaches kids all the time.”
David looked down to where his son was gently patting his hand, something David had done to him countless times when Davey had been nervous about a procedure, and he smiled down at his son. How had he gotten so lucky to have been given this little boy?
“Come on, Davey. Let’s go find someplace where we can watch your daddy,” Jack said as he took the boy’s hand and they walked out of the stable.
“You do what Mr. Jack tells you, Davey. No running off,” David said as he watched them walk away.
“He’ll be okay,” Sarah said, then turned back to the horse she had brought out for him.
“This is Fancy,” Sarah said as she ran her hands over the horse, a movement that seemed to calm the horse. “She’s the queen of the farm right now, or at least she thinks so.”
“I don’t know what makes her a queen, but she is certainly a beautiful horse,” David said as he walked up to where Sarah was standing and reached his hand out to touch the stately animal whose coat was solid brown except for her two front feet that were snowy white. Was she what they called a painted horse? He didn’t know anything about the different types of horses, something he planned to change by stopping at a bookstore on the way home.
As his hand replaced Sarah’s on the horse’s neck, Fancy turned her head and looked down at him with a haughty glare that was surely meant to put him in his place.
“I’m not sure she likes me,” David said as he slowly removed his hand.
“She’s just trying to intimidate you,” Sarah said with a laugh. Looking over at her he was once more reminded of how comfortable she appeared here on the farm. It was like she shed her no-nonsense air along with the starched white medical coat she wore at work. Not that she was some stuffed shirt at work. He had been amazed by the way she interacted with the children at the hospital, but here, with the horses, it was like her whole body relaxed. She seemed to have an intimate relationship with each one and he found himself wondering more about her—how she got to be here. Had she always had a love of horses? Or had she married into this family and the horse life?
“Fancy, this is David. He just wants to be your friend,” Sarah said as she moved back to the horse and started making some nonsense sounds that seemed to comfort the horse so that the horse stopped giving him the evil eye.
Sarah took David by the hand and then dropped it quickly.
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said, a sheepish smile tugged at her lips. “I’m just so used to working with kids.”
“Don’t apologize,” David said. “Please, teach me just the way you would one of your kids. They probably know more about horses than I do right now.”
“Okay, then,” she said as she took David’s hand and placed it under hers. “Every horse has their own way of wanting to be patted. Your job is to watch how the horse responds.
“Fancy here thinks she’s above all that patting and scratching. She likes a smooth rub from here—” she placed his hand on the top of the horse’s neck “—to here,” she said as she brought both of their hands down the horse’s neck to where the saddle sat then moved it back up slowly, then down again. They stood there, close together, for what could have been only a minute with their hands joined together, neither talking as they comforted the horse, the only sound their breathing.
As Sarah removed her hand from his, David took a deep breath he hadn’t known he needed. His body stirred with an arousal that surprised him. He hadn’t responded to the touch of a woman’s hand in he didn’t know how long.
Okay, this was stupid. He’d asked Sarah to teach him as she would any of her other students, but that didn’t mean he had to act like some teenage boy with a crush on his pretty teacher. He wasn’t an inexperienced kid. He’d learned the hard way that you couldn’t let attraction override your brain. His whole relationship with Lisa had been built on physical attraction and look how that had ended. And he had even more to consider now. He had Davey.
“Well, I think you’ll be okay with her now,” said Sarah as she stepped back away from him. What exactly had just happened between the two of them? Or had it just been him that had felt that spark of attraction?
She
