Page 2 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

Pete nodded like he understood. Maybe he did. Three Rivers Ranch spanned hundreds of acres and raised thousands of head of cattle. Pete’s best friend, Squire Ackerman, owned and ran the ranch, but Pete had built and expanded his equine therapy unit here on the same property.

Bowman’s Breeds, a rodeo horse training facility, also existed out on this ranch about forty-five minutes north of Three Rivers. They employed dozens of people, and everyone at Three Rivers went around and helped at other ranches during harvest, round-up, and branding. That was how Edith knew most of them; they’d come to help on her brother’s ranch at crucial times of the year.

Edith had no idea what their financial situation was, but she’d been honest. Pete could do what he needed or wanted to do now.

“We have grant money to cover the full experience for you,” he said just as quietly as she’d spoken. “In fact, I want you to go through these sessions the same as a client would, so we can see how working with a specific horse and a specific counselor go together. Sometimes different counselors do better with different horses.”

Edith thought about that for a beat. “I don’t get that, but I believe you.”

He chuckled, but he didn’t go on to explain what he meant. Edith had been avoiding her counseling sessions when she came out to Courage Reins, so she couldn’t argue with him there.

“All right,” she drawled out. “I’ll start seeing Margot.”

“Well, actually.” Pete darted his eyes to her now. “When you start working with Reagan, I’d like to pair him—and you—with....”

“Do not say Bull.”

“Bull,” Pete said almost on top of her last word. They looked at one another fully then, and with Cocoa plodding along beside them, they both laughed.

Edith let it cleanse her from the inside out, and as she quieted, a keen sense of peace and goodness filled her. She felt God watching over her and guiding her expertly in that moment, and she nodded.

“All right,” she said in a firm, agreeable voice. “I’ll work with Reagan and Bull.”

“Your pay won’t change.”

“I can schedule extra sessions with Cocoa?” She reached over and ran her hand along the bay’s side. “Would I have to see Margot if I do that?”

The cowboy sighed, which meant yes, but he said, “I’ll leave that up to you.”

She nodded, and the exit that led back to Cocoa’s stable, where Edith would unsaddle her and brush her down and put her away for the day loomed only several paces ahead. Pete slowed to a stop. “Thank you, Edith. I sure appreciate you and all you do here.”

“Thank you, Mister Marshall,” she said diplomatically. “I love coming out here.” She led Cocoa through the wide doorway and out of the arena. Fences stood guard on either side of the wide road, but they didn’t obstruct her view of the homestead on this property.

She couldn’t stop herself from glancing over to it and thinking about the boy she’d gone with in high school, albeit briefly.

Finley Ackerman. He’d been handsome and funny in high school, but their young love had been cut short when her family had moved to Florida. She’d seen him briefly over the summer after his first year of college too, but then he’d entered the Army, and Edith hadn’t seen or spoken to him in almost a decade now.

She’d gone off to live her own life as a nanny back East. She’d started writing books there, after taking an internship with a publisher in New York City. All of that felt like a different life, that had happened to a different person.

Because there was Edith Before Levi and Edith After Levi.

She looked up into the sky, imagining she could see all the way to heaven. “I miss you so much sometimes,” she whispered. “And other times, it’s like we never met.”

Edith didn’t understand the human mind and heart as well as she’d like. She wished a clear blue sky, without a single cloud in sight, didn’t make memories—good and bad—stream so readily through her mind.

She sometimes wished she didn’t see whole stories in her head. That she wasn’t so visual. That she didn’t romanticize everything. But all of those things made her a very good author, and the publication of her children’s books paid a lot of bills around the ranch.

She put Cocoa away properly, and in the shadows cast by the stable this afternoon, she leaned against the wood and checked her phone. She still had to fill out her paperwork for what she and Cocoa had done during their session, and she had a chapter to write in her current work-in-progress, but she just wanted a minute to catch up on the outside world.

She always put her phone in a locker when she trained, and all clients had to do the same. Cell phones and horses didn’t go together at Courage Reins, something that allowed Edith the escape she craved when she came here. But she liked catching up too.

Alex had texted a couple of times, reminding her of the prescription she’d promised to pick up for him. She had a couple of emails that needed answering, one about the chicken feed she’d been trying to secure, and one about a library event in Amarillo.

She smiled as she read the invite to be one of the signing and speaking authors at this library’s Summer Reading introduction event for patrons.

She’d love to do that, but she’d craft a professional acceptance email when she got home and got on her computer to handle her authoring business.

Everything else didn’t matter, and Edith closed her phone and stowed it in her jeans pocket. She looked up and over to the row of cabins that lined an immaculately kept gravel path. Stables and barns lined this side, with the administration building for the ranch down to her right, and the homestead to her left. She didn’t have any business with Three Rivers Ranch, but Courage Reins shared their stable facilities, so she came over here to get her horses.

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