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Heath had a drunken father in a dirty stable apartment.
She wouldn’t argue with him. Or try and convince him. He needed to find his own path back to faith, on his own terms. But she could pray for him to find the peace and joy God wanted for him. The quiet contentment she wanted for him.
His phone buzzed a text. He read it and moved to the door. “Jace needs a hand.”
Would he go get Zeke and let the little fellow pal around in the sheep barn? Or was he expecting others to take charge and keep Zeke under lock and key for the duration?
“I’ll keep you apprised of what’s going on here.”
“I’d appreciate it.” And before she could make a face behind his back, he turned. “Not because I don’t trust you to do it, Liz. But so I don’t thoroughly mess up if I have to step up to the plate someday.”
“A good plan. See you later.”
He cut across the grass to the house to throw some work clothes on.
She stared up at the cloudless sky, wondering how anyone could live here and not see the beauty of God’s creation. Or believe in God Himself.
Could she help Heath? Or would drawing close to him again simply draw her into his work-first world?
She didn’t know, but when he came out of the house and headed to the sheep barn without Zeke, she was disappointed.
Sure, there was risk on a ranch. There was risk everywhere. But if Heath used all his time working solo instead of bringing his little boy with him whenever possible, he wasn’t just building a ranch. He was building a wall between father and son, a wall that didn’t need to exist except when fear grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go.
And that might be the worst wall of all.
CHAPTER TEN
Heath returned to the stables when she texted him in the late afternoon. “I got your message. How’s she doing?”
“We’ve got hooves showing.”
“That’s quick. And she’s handling it well?”
“This isn’t her first rodeo,” replied Lizzie as she jotted notes into the electronic notebook. She’d set up a small table around the corner from the foaling mare. It held a tall iced tea in a plastic bottle and a container of Corrie’s homemade cookies, the closest she’d come to food all day. “She’s had two other successful foals. And one stillbirth.”
Heath had been watching the monitor above him. He stopped watching and turned her way. “Sean bought a horse with a thirty-three percent failure rating?”
Lizzie’s heart went tight. So did her hands. And when she found the breath to address his statement she kept her voice soft on purpose. “I don’t think the horse considered it a failure. I think she saw it as a loss, Heath.”
Her reply flustered him. Good.
“I don’t mean she failed, that was a stupid way to put it. We have lamb losses. Their percentages get higher if the weather turns, or if we get an attack of scours. There are so many factors that affect newborns that we’re constantly watching during lambing season. But with a horse it’s one foal every two years and when you lose one out of three, that’s a higher percentage than Sean would have normally entertained.”
He made sense but that didn’t erase the sting of the word failure. “Let’s just say they might not have been forthcoming about the stillbirth. I found it accidentally when I was examining records. Maybe Uncle Sean only saw what they wanted him to see. Or maybe he wanted her to have another chance. A happier one.”
He seemed to miss the latter part of her statement and bore directly into the first half. “They falsified records?”
“It wasn’t in the paperwork so unless they told him verbally, then yes. By omission,” she added. “But right now let’s focus on them.”
A nose appeared between the two thick hooves, and within twenty minutes they had a blue roan colt on the ground, one of the most majestic colts she’d ever seen.
“Oh, he’s a stunner.” Lizzie breathed the words, watching. “A classic beauty. And with a lineage that puts him into a class all his own. So maybe Uncle Sean did know about the lost foal.” She leaned on the adjoining stall gate, watching the pair bond. “But he saw Josie’s potential and bought her anyway.”
“That’s a big chance to take on a whole lot of investment,” said Heath, but then his next words eased the sting. “And well worth every penny. Like I said before, you and Sean have an eye for horses. And an ear. I’m making a pledge right now that I won’t interfere with your decisions. Mostly.”
“And I’ll promise to ignore you as needed. Mostly.”
She tipped a smile up his way, then paused.
