“I think we are,” he answered his son.
He eased his car down the clay dirt road until he saw the large stables surrounded by a high white livestock fence. He parked the car beside an old gray pickup truck covered in red dust and a new SUV that along with his car looked totally out of place.
After opening the back door to get his son out, he fought with the seat buckle as his son tried to help.
“Hurry, Daddy, I want to see the horses,” Davey said as he pulled against the buckled strap.
“I know, son, but we’re not going to get there any sooner if you don’t let me get this buckle undone,” David said. Somehow he could perform surgery on the smallest of hearts, but the talent for unbuckling the car seat was something he had never been able to achieve. Finally, he freed his son and he watched as Davey ran toward the open door of the stable.
“Woe, slow down partner,” David said as he grabbed his son’s hand, “we talked about this. We don’t run where there are big horses around, do we?”
By the time they had entered the door, Davey had stopped trying to pull against his dad and slowed to a stop as soon as he saw the other children and adults in the building. As Sarah made her way over to them, his son had grabbed him behind his leg and was trying to hide behind him. Davey had a tendency to be shy when he first met new people, but he was too inquisitive for it to last very long.
“Davey, this is Mrs. Henderson. She’s the one who invited us to come see the horses,” David said as he tried to pry his son from behind him. “Remember, I told you she had a horse named Maple.”
“That’s a funny name for a horse,” Davey said, peaking around his father’s leg at Sarah.
Unlike the always neatly dressed Sarah he was used to seeing, this Sarah wore a long-tailed chambray shirt that looked two sizes too big over jeans that had almost faded to white. Jeans that were tucked into a pair of scarred brown cowboy boots. Her hair, usually piled atop her head, was hanging down past her shoulders in thick brown waves and her warm brown eyes seemed to be captivated by his son who had finally come out from behind him, though he still hung onto David’s legs.
“Maybe she’s a funny horse. Do you want to go see her?” she asked as she bent down and held out her hand to his five-year-old son.
David followed the two of them over to where four other children and a short weathered man seemed to be studying a dark brown horse that stood in a rectangular stall.
“This is Davey,” Sarah said as she started to introduce his son to all the other children.
“Hi, I’m Jack Henderson,” the man said as he held out his hand. David put his age around sixty and figured this couldn’t be Sarah’s husband. He shook Jack’s hand and then the man turned toward Davey.
“Hi, Davey. I’m Miss Sarah’s father-in-law, Mr. Jack. Did I hear you say that our Maple is a funny horse?” the man asked as he bent down so that he could talk to Davey.
“I said it was a funny name. I didn’t know horses could be funny,” Davey said.
“Well, horses have all kinds of personalities, just like people. How about I introduce you to some of them?” Jack said as he held his hand to Davey. Davey stared up at him with eyes that pleaded for his dad to let him go explore the other stalls.
“You can go, but remember what I said about running and no leaving the stable without me,” David said, then watched as his son headed off with the older man toward the end of the stalls. He could tell by how the man had interacted with Davey that he had spent some time around children, but Davey could be a handful at times and he really didn’t like letting him go off with strangers. Hearing a loud snort, he turned to see Sarah opening a stall and leading out the large brown horse.
“Josh, you can take Maddie but stay in the north paddock where I can see you,” she said while handing the reins over to an older teenage boy, who took the horse and led him out of the stable.
He watched as she handed the reins of a smaller horse to a young nurse he had seen at the hospital, who took the horse and the other three children out another side door. As Sarah walked toward him, he was aware of how much she looked like she belonged here, while he felt totally out of his element. He forced his eyes away from Sarah and back to Davey.
“He’ll be fine,” Sarah said as she appeared at his side, “Jack will watch him.”
“I know,” he said, though he couldn’t help but check on the progress his son and the older man were making as they seemed to be stopping at each stall.
“I’m so glad you made it,” Sarah said as she looked around the stable. “What do you think?”
“It’s definitely not what I was expecting,” he said, “I was thinking you had a couple of horses in your backyard. This is amazing.”
“It is, isn’t it,” she said. Her eyes lit up with her smile and it was easy to see how much she loved the ranch. “It’s a lot of work, but Jack has a small staff that helps with the horses and keeps up the grounds.”
“Are all the horses yours?” David asked as he looked at the horses still in their stalls as they walked toward the door where the group of children had gone. He took
