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“Dad!” Zeke came through the lambing barn with a broad, open grin. “I had so much fun today! My Lizzie is the best babysitter in the whole world and she was so excited about my tooth!” He grinned wide to show off the gap. “It was like the best day ever!”
There was no denying the naked joy on his son’s face. His grin. His excitement. “What did you guys do that tuckered you out so much?” he asked. “When I got home from the hospital, you were sacked out on the couch.”
“Rosie’s baby!” The little guy slapped a hand to his forehead in an almost comical move. “I almost forgot and we’ve been waiting so long!”
“The baby is beautiful, she’s little but not as little as you were when you were born, and her name is Johanna.”
“Jo-Jo.” He shortened the name immediately. “Miss Lizzie made a card with me, and we’re going to pick some flowers for Rosie-Posie and the baby. Just to make them smile when they come home.”
“That’s a great idea.” And nothing he’d have thought of personally. He’d already ordered a bouquet of flowers to be delivered later in the week. He hadn’t thought of personalizing it and making Zeke a part of the gift. But Lizzie had. “What else did you guys do?”
“Went on the best ride ever,” Zeke told him. “I wanted to ride one of the new horses, but Miss Lizzie said no…but then she got Honey’s Money all ready and we went up into the hills.”
The hills?
“We went so high we could see the skinny top on the church and the old silos.”
Which meant they’d gone beyond the soft green grasses and into the rockier outcropping to be able to see Shepherd’s Crossing.
“And then she rode so fast across the grass that it was like flying, Dad! Like a real cowboy! And Corrie made cookies and grilled cheese and we cleaned stables and I fell asleep.”
He zeroed in on one term. Flying.
Lizzie loved speed.
She was fearless around horses and just as courageous up top, but to run a horse with Zeke on board?
Anger thrummed along his spine until his ears rang. He bit it back. It wasn’t Zeke he needed to scold. It was Lizzie, and as soon as Zeke was tucked in for the night, he’d have a word with her. She could do what she liked on her own. Her skills made that a nonissue.
But when it came to Zeke, Heath’s word was law and Lizzie Fitzgerald needed to understand that.
* * *
Don’t dwell on the negatives in life. Focus on the positives, the good things, the blessings surrounding you. The past can be a good advisor but a bad ruler. Don’t let it pull you down.
Lizzie needed the mental reminder as she worked a mare in the far field bordering the hills. She’d disappointed herself as a teen, but faith had saved her midway through college. She’d moved on from the past and worked hard to adopt Paul’s message to the Philippians. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
She’d adopted this verse as her family and their business crumbled around her. She worked hard to keep a positive attitude. But facing Heath dredged up her old choices. Her loss. So when he strode her way looking way grumpier than any man should that evening, she squared her shoulders. He could be grumpy all he wanted. That was his right. But no way would he be allowed to take it out on her.
“We need to talk.” He stopped a few feet from her, as if preparing for battle, a battle she wasn’t about to have.
“About me needing a stable hand that’s accomplished at riding? Perfect. I’ll start looking first thing Monday.”
His brows drew down. “I got the text you sent about that, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Then…why?” She kept her voice cool and her face relaxed.
“You took Zeke into the hills today.”
His topic surprised her. “Yes. Of course. On Honey’s Money.”
“And you had her run with him on her back?”
And there it was, the sound of a hovering parent, micromanaging every tiny aspect of a kid’s life. She’d seen plenty of that among her millennial friends. She hadn’t expected to see it from Heath, a four-season cowboy with a strong work ethic. “Yet what other be so glorious to see? A horse, mane flying, running free.” She refused to flinch beneath his dark gaze. “Your words, cowboy.”
“I wrote that poem a long time ago, Liz.” Hands braced on his hips, he scowled down at her and she returned the favor by staying cool and calm.
