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“Sam?” Delaney called.
It felt like Ace’s eyes were locked on Beth’s. She couldn’t look away and could no longer back away. She was stuck, unable to make a move unless he did.
The horse’s front hooves lifted off the ground as he let loose a sound that was anything but friendly.
Sam rubbed Ace’s nose and leaned over to whisper something into the gelding’s ear. Then in one swift motion, he hooked a boot into one of the stirrups and jumped onto the horse’s back.
Ace reared back, kicking his front legs into the air, and he and Sam took off across the field that separated the house from the Meadow Valley Ranch.
“Back soon!” Sam called over his shoulder. Then he tapped his heels against Ace’s sides and yelled, “Yah!” They galloped over a hill, and in mere seconds they were out of sight.
Beth stumbled backward, and her sister caught her by the elbow. Both women blew out a shaky breath.
“What was that?” Delaney asked. “I’ve never seen Ace behave that way before. I swear it, Bethy.” She turned her gaze on Beth. “I think he hated you.”
Beth’s mouth fell open, and Delaney burst into a fit of laughter.
“I mean—” Delaney cut herself off, unable to curb her giggles. “He thinks you’re the worst.”
Beth crossed her arms and scoffed. “How can you laugh when we were almost charged by that beast? You know, come to think of it, this is twice now that you’ve brought an animal into my presence and the animal has attacked or at least thought very strongly about trying to attack. I’ll have you know that every animal that comes into the clinic can’t get enough of me, and Midnight would one hundred percent let me ride her if Eli wasn’t such a stick-in-the-mud about it.”
Delaney’s smile fell, and Beth wanted to swallow the words back once she’d said them.
“Ugh,” Beth continued. “That sounds so petty and insensitive out loud, doesn’t it?”
Delaney grabbed her sister’s hand. The early evening breeze made both women shiver.
“Look, I’m sorry about Ace,” Delaney told her. “Eli might have mentioned something about you wanting to learn how to ride, so Sam and I just thought… Well, we clearly thought wrong.” She sighed. “Horses are always going to be a tough spot for Eli. You get that, right?”
Beth nodded. “But it’s better than it was, right? I mean, things have gotten better for him since…Tess?” She swallowed a knot in her throat, not prepared for how the name of Eli’s late wife would feel on her tongue after what happened last week.
“Yeah, of course.” Delaney forced a smile. “Everything gets easier with time. But some things stick with us for the long haul, you know? He’s a good man who has been through a lot. If it’s hard working with him sometimes, maybe give him a pass or two.”
Beth’s chest tightened. She didn’t want to think about the long haul, not for Eli and certainly not for herself. Those words made it sound as if one was living with a burden, with a weight that would always be tough to bear. Agreeing with her sister’s assessment felt like an admission, like Beth had to bear the weight of some sort of loss for the long haul. Like Eli would never get out from under his grief. But she wasn’t conceding to this injury, not before she gave her recovery everything she had. Even then, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to admit defeat.
What hit her stronger than she’d anticipated, though, was how much she didn’t want to imagine Eli as defeated either. He was a good man. She saw that in the way he took care of her the first day she arrived in town, from picking her up at the airport to making her pancakes to dressing her wound when a certain hen went on the attack.
And she saw it in the way he cared for the animals at his clinic and their humans. Watching Trudy lose Frederick wasn’t the only thing that brought Beth to tears that day. It was watching Eli—a man experiencing yet another loss—forcing himself to be strong for Trudy when he could have so easily fallen apart himself.
“I guess,” Beth finally replied. “But maybe that long haul with the horse thing is something I could help Eli get over if he’d be willing to give me a chance.”
Beth realized she meant every word. Riding Midnight would be as much for Eli as it would be for her.
“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Delaney replied with a mischievous glint in her eye.
“What?” Beth asked. “Why do I feel like you’re scheming again?”
Her sister scoffed. “Scheming? Bethy, I don’t scheme.”
Really? How about a plane ticket to Meadow Valley that came with a job she never applied for or a horse Beth never asked to ride showing up in the backyard? But before Beth could further articulate her thoughts, the breeze came again, this time bringing with it the sound of tires on gravel, a vehicle rolling down the quiet, lonely road.
“That must be Barbara Ann and Nolan!” Delaney announced.
“Saved by the toddler,” Beth mumbled.
Her sister continued without missing a beat. “They had some grandmother-granddaughter time this afternoon while I toiled away in the kitchen over baked macaroni and cheese.” Delaney winked. “Or maybe I enjoyed a glass of wine and a bubble bath because I bought the mac and cheese from Pearl over at the Meadow Valley Inn.”
“Phew!” Beth replied as the two women spun toward the house. At least whatever scheme her sister had cooked up didn’t include dinner. “Because your cooking might be something we all should avoid for the long haul.”
