Page 39 of In Full Bloom

Miss Hayes smiles. “We’ll see you again Monday. Bye, Sadie.”

“Bye, Miss Hayes,” Sadie calls. She doesn’t even pause for breath before she continues. “Daddy, can we get ice cream?”

I laugh. “Sure, Sadie girl. Let’s go.”

We eatour ice cream at the park and Sadie plays for a few minutes before we head back to the farm. Her eyes are already starting to droop by the time we park outside the main house.

Violet meets us on the porch, taking Sadie from my arms. “Come help me make dinner, sweetie,” she murmurs to Sadie, who I’m pretty sure is going to be doing more napping than helping.

I don’t really want her to sleep so close to bedtime, because she’ll want to be awake half the night, but I’m pretty exhausted myself and just appreciate Violet taking Sadie for a few hours while I finish some jobs. “Join us tonight, Dallas,” she says to me. “You look like you need a break too.”

I rub at my jaw and feel the rasp of stubble. She’s right. “That’d be good. Thanks Violet. I’ll just go finish up.”

I climb back into the ute and continue down the driveway, pulling up outside the storage shed on the opposite side of the yards to the barn and stable. I have a tray load of fencing supplies and native trees for planting, which I somehow have to fit into the schedule over the next week or so, before the plants all die.

“Hey, cowboy,” Katie calls from the yards. I hadn’t even noticed her as I drove down the driveway. She’s with the new horse, standing in the middle of the yard. The horse is wearing a halter, the rope held loosely in Katie’s hand as she runs a brush over the horse’s coat. Olivia and Flynn tell me she’s making good progress, but I haven’t witnessed any of it myself until now.

Katie wanders over to the railing, and the horse trails along behind her. Clearly she’s built some trust there.

“How was Sadie’s first week?”

“It was good. She’s probably asleep already.”

Katie laughs as she unclips the lead rope and climbs over the railing. She leans on it beside me. “It must be such a huge adjustment for a little person.”

“Massive,” I agree. “Also, her teacher, Leah Hayes, asked me to say hi and if you remember her she’d like to catch up sometime.”

“Leah is Sadie’s teacher?”

I nod and lean against the fence too. Immediately I feel the hot breath of the horse puffing against my neck.

“Stay still,” Katie says, her voice low. “She’s not been near anyone else yet.”

I freeze. I was about to push away, but Katie looks so excited to see the horse near another person. I shove down my own feelings about being this close to a horse. At least there’s a solid railing fence between us.

“That’s super cool that Leah is her teacher. I didn’t know she’d come back.”

“Yep,” I say, trying hard not to throw myself away from the horse.

“She was sweet.”

“Still is as far as I can tell. Sadie adores her already.”

Some emotion crosses Katie’s face, but it’s gone in a flash and I’m left wondering if I imagined it. I’m probably wishful thinking but it looked like jealousy.

“I’ll bet,” she says and I can tell she’s fighting to cover up the emotion, whatever it is.

“She adores you too, just so you know. She told Leah that she loves you.”

“I love her, too.” Her voice is so quiet I can barely make out the words over the huffing of the horse breathing down my neck. “I’m going to miss her. Probably more than anyone.”

“You’ll miss her?” My brain stops functioning. My heart freezes. The only way she’ll be able to miss Sadie is if one of them isn’t here, and Sadie isn’t going anywhere. “You’re leaving.” It’s not a question and we both know it.

“Eventually. Not yet. I need to save some money first.”

I finally step away from the horse, throwing a hand up to grip the back of my neck as my stomach plummets. The horse tosses her head at my sudden movement and skitters across the yard away from us. I don’t have it in me to care.

“What happened to you being so determined to prove yourself? To show you belonged here? That you wouldn’t let Olivia down?” I spin back to face Katie, my desperation turning to frustration. “What happened to all that, princess? Was it all just talk?”

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