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“Most likely he’ll have at least one doctorate before most kids graduate from high school. His intelligence level is off the charts. Lucas, I can’t tell you how much I want this to help him with his other issues, or how much today has meant to us.” Vada laid a hand on Lucas’s arm.
Heat shot through his body at her touch. “It meant as much to me to see him get this far in one session with Buttercup and Tex.” Lucas hoped his voice didn’t sound as hoarse to Vada as it did to his own ears. “I’m just glad to be able to help, but I’m not doing much. Buttercup is doing most of the work,” Lucas said. “I’ll be looking for your call later today.”
“Why today?” Vada asked and removed her hand.
“Theron is going to want to come back tomorrow,” Lucas said. “I can feel it in my bones.”
“I hope your bones are right.” Vada smiled brightly as she got into her vehicle.
“So do I,” Lucas whispered as he watched her drive away.
***
Vada thought she had already had her Christmas miracle when she slid in behind the steering wheel and started the engine—but she was wrong.
“Talking to Buttercup and to the dog made me hungry.” Theron removed the hood and glanced over at his mother. “Can we, please, get a hamburger and a chocolate shake, and go to the park?”
“Of course.” Vada could almost hear her heart humming.
“When can we go back?” Theron asked. “I forgot to tell Buttercup about my class schedule for next semester, and that I will finish my high school courses in three more semesters.”
“Lucas says you can come anytime, and the dog’s name is Tex,” Vada told him.
“Tomorrow at one o’clock. Tex sounds like a good name for a cowboy’s dog,” Theron said. “I will have my schoolwork done by then. I like Tex for a dog’s name.” He turned and looked out the side window.
“I’ll let Lucas know that we’ll be there about one o’clock. I’m glad you’ve had a good day with the horse. So, you think Buttercup is a better therapist than the ones you’ve seen in the past?” Vada drove into town and pulled in behind one other car in the line for the drive-up window.
“Yes, she just listens and doesn’t ask me how I feel about you or being so smart, or anything like that. I like her a lot, and Tex is a good dog. I talked to him some, too,” Theron answered. “I didn’t know that I liked dogs and horses, but I do. I’ll have to do some research on them when we get home.”
The place wasn’t too busy, so they got their order and were on their way to the park when Theron straightened up in his seat and asked, “Can we move out to that ranch so I can talk to Buttercup and Tex anytime I want?”
Vada opened her mouth to say something, but words wouldn’t come out. She remembered the day they had moved from Dallas to Honey Grove with a shiver. Theron hadn’t done well with the change. He liked his things neatly arranged in his room, and having to get used to a new house and a different bedroom took a while for him to adapt. All this progress in one day was more than she could take in, and all because of a horse? Surely, she had to be dreaming.
“Do you mean forever or just for a weekend?” Vada asked as she snagged a parking place at the park in front of the swings where several little kids were playing. Mothers, grandmothers, or maybe some of them were nannies, watched from the benches not far away. “You do know that there’s a big family that lives on that ranch, don’t you?”
Theron removed the paper from his burger, held the sandwich in one hand and his fidget toy in the other. “How many is a big family? Is it like infinity or all the stars in the sky? Or is it just like fifteen?”
“Not as many as the stars,” Vada answered. “Pearl and Sonny are the older folks. They’re about Granny’s age. Then there’s Jesse and his wife, Addy, their daughter, Mia, who is about twenty years old, and their twin boys, who would be a year old. Cody and Stevie, and now Lucas. I would imagine in the summertime that they would have extra hired hands.”
Theron nodded and kept eating. When he finished his burger, he wadded up the paper and put it back in the sack and picked up his chocolate shake. “Maybe just for one week, and maybe I wouldn’t have to be around anyone but Lucas.”
Vada ate her burger slowly and enjoyed being outside, even if it was in a warm car. “I would love to go to the ranch for a week, but since it’s your idea, you should ask Lucas about it.”
Theron set the shake in the cup holder on the console and began to work overtime on his fidget device. “Can’t I just ask Buttercup?”
“Buttercup lives in the barn.” Vada hoped she wasn’t pushing his or her limits too far, especially after such a phenomenal morning. “This is wintertime, and it’s cold outside. We would need to live in a house. I’ll ask Lucas to rent the bunkhouse to us for a week if you will ask him if we can have a few days out there.”
Theron kept his eyes on the device. “Will Lucas be in the bunkhouse?”
“I don’t know about that,” Vada said. “He lives there now, but he might go stay with his folks while we are there. That’s something we would have to work out with him.”
“Can we go home now?” Theron whispered. “I need to research bunkhouses before I ask Lucas.”
“Yes, we can.” Vada started the engine and backed out of the parking spot.
Theron put his toy away and pulled his hood up over his head, but he didn’t tie the strings under his chin. They had barely made it back to the house when Stevie pulled up beside them. Vada motioned for her to come inside and hurried to unlock the door for Theron to escape to his room.
“Come on in,” Vada said.
