Page 46 of The Cowboy's Christmas
“How so?”
“Are there any things that remind you of your husband to the point that they would be painful to do?”
Everything. He could read the answer in her eyes, but she forced the corners of her mouth upward.
“I think I’m okay with everything.” She lifted her chin. “As okay as I’m going to get anyway.”
“Time heals,” Quinn said. “It doesn’t erase.”
*
“Our first goal…”Quinn began, pausing as he put his foot in the stirrup of Pete’s saddle.
“Is to stay on your horse?” Savannah asked innocently.
He scowled good-naturedly at her. It was the first time he’d ridden since they’d brought the cattle down, and he had no intention of letting Pete get the better of him again.
“Our first goal is to head to that area where I saw all the good trees and flag three or four candidates.”
“Then the girls choose?”
“That’s the plan.”
“They’re going to love it,” Savannah said as he stepped into the stirrup and mounted.
“Did you have horses growing up?” she asked curiously as they headed toward the pasture gate, the horses’ hooves crunching through the brittle crust of snow.
“Always. Mom was a barrel racer in her younger days, and wherever we went, we had to find a place where we could keep the horses.” Which was why she liked to find work on ranches.
“No easy trick when you move eight times.”
“Actually, it was ten—I forgot a few. We also moved mid-preschool and once right after kindergarten.”
“You were just a little older than Sophie and Jessa then.”
“Right.” He lifted his reins and Pete moved forward. “Moving seemed normal. It was what we did. I simply accepted it.” While he’d been a little kid. As time passed, he began to resent it. And maybe he’d agreed yesterday to tell Savannah things like that, because it did relate to his feelings about his brothers, but he still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of pouring his guts out.
“As kids do.” She moved her horse so that they were riding closer. “Sophie and Jessa don’t really understand why they’re here with me and Deke, but they’ve come to accept it.” And they knew their mom and dad were coming to get them when they were done with their jobs.
“You’re right. My mom was open about my brothers and my dad, and I accepted it.” Then. Why was it harder to accept as an adult than as a child?
“Who reached out first when you found out about one another?”
“Ty did. My father made what was essentially a deathbed confession, so Ty contacted me. We had some stilted correspondence, and once the estate was settled, I suggested we meet when I drove through Montana on my way back from Miles City.”
“Did you inherit anything from your father?”
“Just brothers. I was not mentioned in the will.” He shook his head. “I have no idea why he confessed. I think it might have been an effect of the drugs he was on before he passed away.”
He cued Pete to move sideways so that he could open the pasture gate. Once Savannah rode through, he reversed the process, dropping the latch into place, then gathered the reins.
“Anyway, I thought we’d meet, and get that out of the way, then they’d go their way and I’d go mine. Closure.”
He studied the snowy ground ahead between the buckskin’s ears. “Again, it was so weird to sit in a bar with guys who looked like me. My mom was small, with dark hair and eyes.” He’d always been tall for his age, with light brown hair and green eyes. He gave a short laugh. “Someone once asked her if I was adopted.”
“That’s cold.”
“Mom took care of business. I think that lady thought twice before asking personal questions after that.”
