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It put the burden on Mabel, which annoyed him a bit, because she already had enough on her plate, but he also knew that she didn’t mind. And she would do her best to help. He was almost positive if he would ask, she would say that she would rather they drop it off for her to take care of it than allow it to be neglected and die without care.
He had his hand on the door to open it for Mabel when the sound of a car motor had them both stopping and looking at the driveway.
“Looks like they’re here,” he said, his stomach churning now that the time was actually here. Would they like him? Would they accept him? They already liked Mabel. She’d spent time with them before. What about him? Would they resent the fact that there was a man in the picture now?
Maybe they should have waited to get married.
He tried not to second-guess too much, but so much was riding on everything, and it felt like a wrong decision could get everything started on the wrong foot.
But the decisions had been made, and he couldn’t change them, so he pointed his face forward, and opening the door, he waited for Mabel to set the bucket inside, then she straightened and came back and stood beside him.
Now was the moment of truth.
Chapter 18
Mabel stood besideJames, scared, nervous, and excited too.
She’d been thrilled about the filly that had shown up, although sad as well. And also, she was under no illusions about how much work it was going to be. Feeding every two hours didn’t sound like much, until one realized that it was going to take thirty to forty-five minutes to mix the formula, get the baby up, feed her, making sure she ate as much as possible, and then make sure when she lay back down she didn’t crumble into a heap that would hurt herself.
So it was like forty-five minutes of work every two hours, which she wasn’t quite sure how she was going to fit that in with her job and with the three girls. James would help, and he’d watched everything she’d done with an eagle eye. He had been such a huge help the day before, and now today was the same. She felt like it wouldn’t be just her, but even if they split the time, it was still a lot.
Still, it would be worth it if they could save the foal’s life.
And if the girls loved horses, it would be even better.
The car pulled to a stop, and Mabel couldn’t stand and wait for the kids to get out. She walked to the passenger side front door, where she could see a head through the windshield. It looked like Annabelle, the oldest. One of the neat things that the girls’ mother had done was when she named the girls, she had done it in alphabetical order, so Annabelle was the oldest at eleven, Bernice was second at nine, and Caren was third at seven.
Annabelle burst from the car and ran to Mabel, wrapping her arms around her and squeezing hard.
Her action eased Mabel’s anxiety considerably. The girls had seemed to love her when they had been there before, but it had been a long time, and she wasn’t sure how they would feel with this more permanent move.
“I missed you so much, Annabelle. Look at how you’ve grown!”
“Grandma says I’ve grown out of all my clothes, and since I can’t wear hand-me-downs, she is going to give me a gunnysack to put on. Whatever that is. But I don’t think our school dress code will let me wear that.”
“Well, if you have to wear gunnysacks, I’ll wear them too, so we’ll match,” Mabel said as she stood back, looking at Annabelle’s bright eyes and excited face.
