She's got her hat pushed back slightly and there's a loose strand of auburn hair against her cheek. I am looking at the bridle I'm hanging up and absolutely not noticing any of that.
"You did good today," she says.
"I grabbed the saddle horn."
"For two seconds. Doesn't count."
"You told Remy it didn't count. That doesn't mean it actually didn't count."
She stops brushing for half a second. Starts again. "It means you stayed on when most people wouldn't have. The grabbing isn't the point. The staying is the point."
I look over at her. She's focused on Copper and her jaw has that set quality it gets when she's said something she wasn't planning to say and is now deciding how she feels about having said it.
"Laney."
"Mm."
"Did you just compliment me?"
"I gave you an instructional observation."
"You said I did good."
"As a rider. In a technical sense."
"You said it twice."
She brushes Copper with slightly more focus than the situation requires. "I say a lot of things. Don't read into it."
I lean against the pen rail and cross my arms, watching her with the patience of a man who has learned that waiting Laney Jenkins out is occasionally more effective than pushing.
She brushes. I wait.
She brushes more. I wait more.
"Fine," she says, without looking up. "You worked hard and you didn't quit and I'm..." She stops. Clears her throat. Starts again. "I'm proud of you. There. That's the thing I said. We're moving on."
The words land somewhere in my chest and stay there.
She is resolutely not looking at me, which is the only reason I let myself smile the way I do for about three full seconds before I put it away.
"Thank you," I say quietly.
"Don't make it weird."
"I'm not making it weird."
"You're smiling."
"You can't even see me."
"I can hear it," she says. "Stop."
Copper leans his big head against her shoulder like he's offering moral support and she pushes him gently away and goes back to brushing. I'm thinking that I would very much like to stay in this moment for considerably longer than is probably wise.
From the barn Maisie's voice carries across the yard. "Dad! Remy says I can name the new calf! Can I name the new calf?"
Laney finally looks at me.
