Birds lift from the fence line.
Winter startles beneath my hand, then settles when I laugh.
I laugh so hard that tears blur my eyes.
Maverick swings down from Thor before the horse has fully stopped moving, which earns him a pinned-ear glare from the animal and a horrified gasp from one of the new barn hands.
He doesn’t notice.
Or doesn’t care.
Probably both.
He’s already moving toward me across the arena, boots kicking up sand, face transformed by joy so raw and bright it nearly brings me to my knees.
Olivia understands a second later.
I know because she makes a sound that’s not quite a scream and not quite a sob before she starts running too.
Sabrina follows because Sabrina follows Olivia into everything.
Workers laugh.
Someone cries…I think it’s me.
I stand there with one hand on Winter and one hand over the tiny secret that’s not secret anymore, watching my whole world run toward me.
There was a time when I thought life only gave second chances to the animals I rescued.
I was wrong.
Sometimes life gives one to a woman standing on the bones of an old burned-down barn.
Sometimes it gives one to a little girl overflowing with confidence and bravery.
Sometimes it gives one to a man who believed love ended in a graveyard, only to find it waiting for him in a sanctuary.
And sometimes, if grace is feeling especially generous, it gives all of them one more heartbeat to love.
Maverick reaches me first.
His hands come to my face, then my waist, then stop like he doesn’t know where he’s allowed to touch first.
His eyes are wet.
So are mine.
Olivia crashes into us a second later, wrapping herself around both our waists and crying into my shirt while laughing at the same time.
Maverick drops one hand to her hair and the other to my stomach.
Careful.
Reverent.
A man touching a miracle he never thought he would be trusted with again.
I look up at him and smile.
