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Her head snapped around to stare at him.
“For what you’re willing to do with Mathew. I’ve never seen him open up this fast. You’ve taken a lot of the guesswork out of whether we should stay or not. I’ll be making several calls in the morning to get him set up with the work he needs to do this semester.” He rubbed the back of his neck and gave her a wry smile. “Just—thanks.”
“We haven’t even gotten into the thick of it—” she started.
“Regardless. I wanted you to know that I appreciate it—you.”
She forced a smile. “You’re welcome.” This blatant appreciation from him felt strange and all she wanted was to move past the conversation.
They made it to her truck and he hovered as she unlocked it and opened the door. She climbed in and glanced at him once more. “Thank you for walking me to my truck.”
“Of course.” He still hovered, and for a second, she thought he might have something else he wanted to say. When he didn’t speak up, she pulled the door shut and drove away. He shrunk in her rear-view mirror as she headed toward the main road.
* * *
“That’s amazing,Matty! I didn’t know you were so good at riding!” Dianna peered up at Mathew from the side of the horse. She probably didn’t even need to walk beside him because he had a natural talent for riding, but it was policy for her to stay close by in case something went wrong and she needed to intervene.
Mathew sat tall in the saddle, a riding helmet on his head and the biggest smile she’d ever seen on his face. He held tightly to the reins just like she’d shown him. So far they’d only managed to walk around the perimeter of the indoor arena, but she had a feeling he’d be up for more by this time next week, if not within a few days.
She could feel Tristan’s focus on her from where he stood near the bleachers. It took everything in her willpower not to look in his direction and meet his gaze. Their meeting that morning couldn’t have gone better. Tristan was all business. When it came to Mathew, he knew what he wanted. He was a good dad. It was a good thing she wasn’t interested in starting any sort of relationship right now, because that was exactly the kind of guy she wanted to find. Someone who could take care of their kid the way Tristan cared for Mathew was one in a million.
Dianna swallowed hard and focused on Mathew again. “Let’s take another turn. What do you say?”
He nodded.
“You know, when you getreallycomfortable with being in the saddle, you’ll be able to get your horse to speed up just by pushing your heels into your horse’s flanks.”
Mathew nodded again, shifting in his seat.
Still no talking. That was fine. One of the first things they’d discussed was having him get used to her before urging him to do more than what he was comfortable with. She took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. According to Tristan, Mathew was very bright. He could retain a lot of information even if he had a harder time reading. He was great at math, so they didn’t need to focus on that as much.
Her purpose would be to help him become more verbal and tutor him on his reading. That was simple enough. Those were her two favorite subjects.
Dianna glanced up at Mathew. “Do you know that one of my favorite things to do is read?”
Mathew glanced down at her and grinned.
“I was thinking if you’d like, we could spend some time each day reading whatever book you want, and then we could draw pictures of what we read about. How does that sound?”
His smile widened further. Mathew was such a sweetheart. It was a shame that people didn’t see that part of him.
“Your father thought that you might want to start today. I figured I’d let you decide. You might be too tired after our riding lesson.” She peeked at him, finding him shaking his head vehemently. “Good. I’d like to start today too. After being out in the cold for so long, I’m ready to sit in front of a fire and read a good book.”
She let their ride continue for the allotted thirty minutes, then raised her hands to help Mathew down. But then Mathew’s whole body grew tense. He held on tight to the reins and shook his head when she offered to help him dismount.
Once again, Dianna felt the eyes of Mathew’s father drilling into her. This was what she’d trained for. She was supposed to help Mathew use his words and understand that there were moments he had to relinquish control. But there were also moments when negotiating was permitted.
“Hey, buddy. I only get to spend a short amount of time with you today. No one else is waiting to ride Molasses, so we could make one more trip around the arena. But I have to leave by dinner time. So I’m going to give you a couple of choices. You ready for ‘em?”
He stared at her with surprised eyes.
“One choice is that you go ahead and get down and we go do our reading and drawing and get plenty of time to do both.”
Mathew’s features pinched.
She let out a soft laugh. “The next choice is that you take one more trip around the arena and we get to read, but we might not have enough time to draw.”
Mathew frowned.
