Page 60 of When the Storm Breaks
“That’s not how it works.” Arguing with a six-year-old took the patience of a saint. “And I’m not going to marry Shy.”
“If you want to, it’s okay with me. I like her. She’s real nice. And she’s pretty too. Not as pretty as Mommy because she’s the prettiest in the world. But Shy can be in second place.”
“I’m sure she’d be thrilled to know she’s runner-up in your beauty contest.” Noah nodded, missing the sarcasm. “I’m gonna draw her a picture. She said she likes cupcakes and tacos and music and cowboys.”
“She said she likes cowboys?”
“Yeah. She said she likes them even better than cupcakes and tacos.”
“Huh.”
“So that’s a lot a lot.” He gave me a sly look. “You’re a cowboy. So she must like you more than cupcakes. I think you should marry her and have a baby.”
I nearly choked. “I think you should stop thinking about marriage and babies.”
“Make me.” He dodged away and took off running, chantingDaddy’s getting married,Daddy’s getting married. Were other six-year-old boys as obsessed with marriage and kids as mine was? I caught up to him easily and tickled his ribs until he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. He’d inherited the ticklish part from me. Then I threw him over my shoulder and jogged to the house while he pounded on my back and Buster chased after us, barking like this was a game he wanted to take part in.
“Let me down.”
“Nah. I’m going to carry you around like this until you’re eighteen.”
That cracked him up and he slapped my back a few times. “You’re so funny.”
And you are the best thing that ever happened to me. My greatest gift.
Not something I’d ever say out loud, but it was the God’s honest truth. Noah would never fully appreciate how much he meant to me or how much I loved him. How there was nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for him. He’d never know that, in so many ways, he’d been the one to save me. To help me put my past behind me and truly believe there was good in the world. Kids were so innocent. So trusting. And it was my privilege to call him mine and to be given the responsibility to help raise him.
I never wanted to fail him. Never wanted to give him false hopes or lie to him. I never had before, and I wasn’t about to start now.
Chapter Nineteen
Shiloh
“I want to buy the filly,”I told Brody after we came back from our morning ride. Ever since he’d come back from Abilene, we’d gone riding when the sun was barely up. He’d been teaching me how to handle the horse on my own without just sitting like a lump in the saddle and letting my horse follow his.
Now he opened his mouth to protest but I silenced him by placing my fingers over his lips. “Just hear me out. I’ll pay however much you’d get for her and I’ll pay all her expenses. I’ll pay for her food and board and for your training costs. That way you can keep her. When she gets older, she can be Noah’s horse.”
“Nope.” He pulled the saddle off my horse and I followed him to the tack room.
“What do you mean, nope?” I stood in the doorway and planted my hands on my hips. He brushed past me and strode over to his horse to unsaddle it.
“Don’t come here and start flashing your money around, Shiloh. I’m not taking your money. So put that idea out of your head.”
Once again, I trailed after him to the tack room. This guy was so damn stubborn. How could he not see that this was a good plan? If I really wanted to flash my money around, I’d buy him all the acres of land he needed for his wild horses. I’d looked at the cost of land here and it wouldn’t even put a dent in my bank account, but I knew he was too proud to accept something like that, so I’d never suggest it. But this was something altogether different. “It would be like I’m adopting a horse.” I winced at the word adopt but forged on. “I want to call her Phoenix. She’s happy here, Brody. She can stay with her mom and—”
“No. Not happening.” He came out of the tack room with a caddy filled with brushes to groom the horses. “I already have an interested buyer and as soon as she’s weaned, I’m selling her.”
“Who is it?” I asked, using the rubber curry comb to get up the dirt from Hail Mary’s coat. “What will they do with her?”
“They’ll turn her into a barrel racer. If she’s not cut out for that, she’ll help to round up the cattle.”
“I just don’t understand how you can get attached to these horses and then sell them.”
“Horses are like people. They need a sense of purpose. I’m doing the best thing I can for her. I’d never sell any of my horses to bad owners. Trust me on that.”
I exchanged the curry comb for a soft brush that made Hail Mary’s coat shine. “I do trust you, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“No disrespect but you don’t know the first thing about horses.” I combed Hail Mary’s mane and tail and we didn’t say another word until the horses were groomed and we led them up the dirt path then turned them out in the pasture. I leaned against the fence and watched the horses join the others then walked back to the barn with Brody.
