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Mia shook her head. “I’m not just a pretty face, Uncle Lucas. I’m a ranch hand.” She slid out from behind the wheel and hopped up into the truck bed. She set one bag up on the end, pulled a pocketknife from her back pocket, and slit the top open. “There now, it’s ready for you to dump.”
Lucas carefully hefted the bag to the ground and pushed several cows back so he could get to the feeder. “You really are more than a pretty face.”
“That’s what I keep telling my boyfriend, Beau,” Mia said as she got another bag ready for him. “I can’t wait for you to meet him, Uncle Lucas. He’ll be here for Sunday dinner day after tomorrow. He missed last week because he had to take his grandpa to a rodeo. They invited me to go, but I wanted to be here with you on your first real day back at the ranch.”
“Well, thank you, darlin’.” Lucas took care of the last bag and tossed the empty in with the others in the back of the truck. “It sure was nice to sit down to Sunday dinner with the whole family. I can’t believe how much the twins have grown. They’re walking and trying to talk.”
“Oh, they’re talking,” Mia said with half a giggle as she jumped out of the truck’s bed and went back to the cab. “It’s just that they have a language of their own and only communicate with each other. I hope Beau and I have twins someday.”
“Oh, so you’re plannin’ babies before the wedding?” Lucas teased as he got back into the truck.
“No, sir!” Mia gasped. “We’re not plannin’ either for a while, but we know we love each other and all that’s on the calendar down the road. He’s a good man, Uncle Lucas, and he treats me right.”
“That’s what matters.” Lucas wondered if he’d ever find someone to share his life with—that would be on the calendar for a long-term relationship—as Mia said.
***
Vada packed jeans, sweatshirts, and casual clothing for the week. She thought about adding something for church but figured it would just take up space. She hadn’t been to Sunday services since her grandmother died. When her granny was alive, they had switched off attending Sunday services. One week, Vada went to morning worship, and Granny attended the evening service. The next week, they swapped. Common sense told Vada that she sure couldn’t leave Theron alone, especially in a new and strange place, and there was no way he would go with her.
She was only mildly surprised when she rolled her suitcase into the living room and found Theron sitting on the sofa. His feet were planted in front of him, and his hands were folded in his lap. His computer case and a smaller case that matched hers were beside the door with his coat, gloves, and the watch cap her mother had knitted for him lying on the top of it.
“I am ready.” Theron pulled up the hood of his gray jacket, and then pushed it back again. “I will put on my cap when we get there. I wonder if Buttercup’s ears get cold. I will have to research that tonight. I wouldn’t like for her to be cold just for me.”
Vada pulled her suitcase over to the door. “She might be in the barn in her stall since it’s so cold. Are you going to be comfortable spending time with her in the barn?”
“Yes, I am,” Theron answered as he stood up. “I will talk to Buttercup wherever she is. Do you think Tex comes into the bunkhouse to get warm? I read about ranch dogs when I did research. I hope he gets to come inside when it’s cold.”
“We can ask Lucas about that,” Vada answered.
When they reached the lane, he pulled out his fidget toy and played with it, but he didn’t pull the hood up on his jacket. She drove past the empty corral, and Theron straightened up in his seat.
“I guess she’s in the barn,” he said. “I can see her today, can’t I?”
“I’m sure Lucas will arrange it so that you can.” Vada parked in front of the long, low building that Stevie had described when she gave her directions to the bunkhouse. “Are you sure about this, Theron?”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No, I’m not sure about it, but I want to get better. I don’t like people looking at me like I’m weird.”
“Do you really think they do that?” Vada hoped that she wasn’t treading on thin ice.
“I can feel how people see me, Mama,” Theron answered. “Lucas and Buttercup don’t treat me like I’m different. They see me as a ten-year-old boy, not a genius.”
“Then I guess the next thing for us to do is go inside,” Vada said.
“First, we knock on the door and wait to be invited in,” Theron told her. “That is what my research says about going to another person’s home. It’s rude to just walk in. I don’t want to do something that will make Lucas think I’m weird.”
Vada felt a slight prick in her heart for not teaching Theron the proper etiquette about going to see other folks. In her defense, she hadn’t thought that Theron would ever leave the house or face a situation like this.
“That’s right,” Vada said. “Do you want to knock or shall I?”
“I should do it.” Theron opened the car door. “It will help me to get better if I learn this. It can’t be harder than analytical psychology.”
“Is that where you got the idea to come out here for a week? Is this one of your experiments?” Vada got out of the car and removed her suitcase from the back seat.
Theron got out of the car and took out his suitcase. “I’ve been studying the relationship between the consciousness, which is what I do when I sink back into myself and don’t let others inside to be a part of my life, and the subconsciousness that keeps me from being social.” He stopped to inhale deeply again. “I figure I have to balance those two things, so yes, I suppose it is a bit of an experiment. Buttercup understands me, and I can talk to her about the correlation between the two. Sometimes I don’t need an answer to my questions. I just need to ask them so I can figure them out in my head.”
Vada wasn’t sure she understood a word of what he had said other than something about not being social. If it helped him come out of his shell, she was all for whatever conscious or subconscious signs he got, and for a horse that listened to his intelligent one-sided conversations.
She knew by the way his hand trembled that it took a great deal of determination for him to raise his fist and knock. In just seconds, Lucas threw open the door and motioned them inside. “Come on in. Tex is waiting in the living room, and I’ve got a pot of tea ready with some of my mama’s sugar cookies on the table.”
