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“That will be up to you,” Vada answered.
Chapter Three
Lucas brought Buttercup out into the corral, brushed her coat until it was shiny, and then put the bridle and lead rope on her. “Theron Winters is coming to visit you today,” he told the horse. “You will need to be patient with him. I understand that he doesn’t talk much except to his mother, and that’s only occasionally.”
The horse nuzzled Lucas on the neck. He pulled an apple from his coat pocket and fed it to her. “I hear a vehicle coming now. I’ve never dealt with a child just like this, so maybe you could calm me down, too. And just between me and you, I haven’t seen Vada in many years, and I’m as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”
Lucas glanced over Buttercup’s back when the car came to a stop right outside the corral fence. A minute passed, and no one got out of the vehicle. His hands began to sweat inside his work gloves. Another minute went by, and he figured that maybe today Theron would just look at the ranch through the window, and he wouldn’t get to see Vada at all. The sun seemed to hang up there in the clear blue sky and not move at all for a while longer. Then the passenger door opened, and a small, thin boy got out and walked slowly over to the fence. Vada came out from the driver’s side and stood beside the car, as if she were waiting for Theron to bolt and run at any minute.
Her dark brown hair was pulled up in a ponytail that hung halfway down her back. She wore sunglasses, so Lucas couldn’t see her pretty, aqua-colored eyes, but she seemed slimmer than he remembered her being in high school.
That was almost two decades ago,the pesky voice in his head reminded him,and her living situation hasn’t exactly been wonderful.
He didn’t say anything at all to Theron but simply walked Buttercup over to the fence and stood to one side. The plan for that day was to let the horse and child get to know each other. Whether Theron wanted to say anything to Lucas was up to him.
“Buttercup or Winnie?” Theron whispered.
“This is Buttercup,” Lucas answered.
The horse hung her head over the top railing and waited.
“Can I touch her?” Theron asked.
Lucas nodded.
Theron put what looked like a small toy into his coat pocket and stroked Buttercup’s head very gently. “My name is Theron Winters. I want to be your friend so you can help me.”
Buttercup moved forward a few more inches until she could lay her head on Theron’s shoulder. He untied the string that had tightened up the hood of his jacket until just his nose and eyes were showing and flipped back the hood.
“I think maybe we can be friends. Can I come inside the fence?” he asked, but he kept his eyes on the ground.
“That would be fine,” Lucas said. “Would you like for me to stay, or would you rather I left you and Buttercup alone?”
Theron didn’t raise his eyes. “Just me and Buttercup.”
Lucas put one hand on the fence and hopped over it. Theron crawled between two rails and went into the corral with the horse and picked up the lead rope. Lucas didn’t realize that Vada had jogged over from her car to the fence until he caught a whiff of coconut that reminded him of riding on the beach in Florida.
“Please, tell me he won’t get hurt,” she whispered. “It’s so wonderful to see him trying something new. If he got hurt, he would revert back to where he was.”
“Buttercup is trained to do this,” Lucas assured her. His heart skipped a beat and then began to race. “From what you told me about him, I wasn’t expecting even this much progress in one day.”
“Neither was I,” Vada said. “He’s been researching horse therapy since he overhead Stevie and me talking, and then he eavesdropped on the conversation I had with you. You can’t begin to imagine how big of a step this is for him.”
“And for you?” Lucas wished she would remove her sunglasses so he could see her eyes. So much could be determined by a person’s expressions and whether their eyes twinkled or were sad.
“Even bigger for me,” Vada answered in a voice barely above a whisper. “It’s bordering on huge and unbelievable.” She pointed toward the corral. “Look at that. Buttercup is letting him lead her around the corral, and I can tell he’s saying a few words. Can you hear what he’s saying?”
“Nope, and we don’t need to.” Lucas could hear pain and fear in Vada’s voice and wanted so badly to comfort her with an arm around her shoulders. “That is between the two of them. Buttercup is a good listener.”
Vada finally removed the sunglasses and stared at her son. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
Her eyes were the same as he remembered. They had a few crow’s feet around them, and today they weren’t twinkling, but then they weren’t sad either—more like totally amazed.
“He must want to be helped to be willing to do this,” Lucas said. “That goes a long way in the process. Today he can stay as long as he wants, and anytime he asks to come back, give me a call. I’ll have things ready by the time you arrive, but I don’t take appointments. This is totally up to him.”
Vada looked up and locked gazes with Lucas. He could have dived right into her eyes like he would a pool of clear water and stayed there forever, but she blinked and turned back toward the corral.
“That’s so generous of you, Lucas.” Her voice hadn’t changed one bit. It still remined him of good whiskey mixed with honey—a little on the edgy side with a dose of pure southern sweetness added to it.
