Page 65 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

Now, she saw the world in color for what it was—and what it could be.

She saw an escape from the colorless life she’d been living, and it wouldn’t happen without Finn Ackerman at her side. He’d returned, and suddenly, she had a new life to live.

“Come on, now,” she said to Reagan, who didn’t seem too keen to leave his stable. At least not with her. Edith hadn’t been back to Courage Reins since the day she’d run into Finn again, about a month ago. The flooding, the sinkholes, the library event, they’d all stolen more time from her than she’d like.

Not to mention Finn himself. The man took so much of her time and attention, but he gave her so much in return. She smiled as she stood in the stables, thinking about him. He’d come with her here, but he’d gone into the homestead to talk to his momma while Edith worked with her new horse.

But, it seemed Reagan did not want to work with her. Pete had said he’d taken the horse out a few times, but their lives at Three Rivers had been interrupted by the flooding too, and Reagan had not been worked with as much as he probably should’ve been.

“Your mane is so pretty,” she said, deciding she didn’t have to get him to leave his stall for work to be done. “I’ve never seen a horse with so much hair.”

Edith glanced to the right and then the left, didn’t see anyone else, and she entered the stall. “A horse with hair like this should have all the bells and whistles.” She smiled softly at Reagan as she neared and held out her hand. He huffed, his nostrils flaring as he smelled her.

Then he settled and pressed his nose into her palm. “That’s right,” she whispered. “You and I are going to be great friends. But let’s get your hair done up right, okay?”

She brushed her fingers through the horse’s dark black mane, and she started sectioning it so she could braid it. “Who comes to feed you, huh?” she asked. “Is it Kenny? Or Beau?” Probably not the ranch foreman, but Edith didn’t care. Reagan obviously couldn’t answer.

“There’s so much that I’m going to braid it backward, okay?” She ran her hands down both sides of his neck. “That means I’m going to need to be in the saddle. Can you take the saddle?”

She knew he could, and she left his stall to go get the tack. She wouldn’t need every piece in the exact position it would need to be if she were going to ride him. But she wasn’t. She left the stall door open, and she wasn’t at all surprised to hear Reagan clopping out of his stall behind her.

She hid her smile as she pulled down a blanket and a saddle. She got him saddled out in the larger room of the stable and led him outside. “All right. Let’s find a shady spot, with plenty of a breeze. Okay?”

Reagan walked alongside her, trying to crowd into her shoulder. “No,” she said firmly but gently. “You stay back.” She shouldered him, and Reagan slowed his pace to do as she asked. “Thank you, Reagan.”

Doing what was required of her wasn’t always what she wanted, but Edith knew it would always make her happy. Just like Reagan thought he wanted to crowd her shoulder, but he didn’t. He’d be happier if he let her be in charge, because she’d never lead him astray.

Edith looked up in the Texas sky, where today, big puffy clouds sat in residence. “I will let You lead me, Lord,” she whispered. “I won’t crowd You, and I won’t beg You to give me something that might not be good for me. Okay?”

The peaceful feeling that overtook her made tears prick her eyes, but they were out of happiness this time. Maybe she did need to slow down a little. Maybe she had been crowding God a little too closely, trying to impose her will onto His.

So she’d fall back a step. She’d do whatever she needed to do in order to keep this feeling with her.

“This is a good spot,” she said as she made it to the wide open pasture that sat on Courage Reins land. A tall tree with wide, reaching branches provided plenty of shade, and Edith put her foot in the stirrup and landed in the saddle on Reagan’s back.

“Now, you snack a bit,” she whispered to the horse. “And I’ll braid.” Her fingers pulled the horse’s hair back and down between his ears, and she started with three large pieces that would bubble out into a thick, beautiful braid by the time she finished.

She murmured to the horse about Courage Reins and how much he’d like it. She asked him if he’d met the other therapy horses yet. And she’d just started telling him about Finn when the man himself showed up.

“Look at you two,” he said with plenty of appreciation in his voice. “Reagan, you have the most beautiful braid in the whole world.” Finn ran his hand down the horse’s side as Reagan lifted his head from the grass.

Edith smiled as Finn arrived near Reagan’s flank, where she was almost finished with his tail. “Isn’t he great?”

“This is what you do to train them?”

“He was having some trouble trusting me,” Edith said. “So we decided to go slow in the beginning.” She secured the braid, which still left a good eight inches of his hair loose. She moved out from behind the horse and took Finn’s hand in hers. “We’ll do more and more with every session.”

“You normally come every week?”

“Yeah,” she said, her throat a bit dry. “And uh, Pete says I have to see the counselor afterward. So I’m not done yet today.”

“Who are you seeing?” he asked.

“Bull,” she said, her stomach a little nervous. There was no way she could talk to Bull the way she’d just spoken to Reagan. She supposed that was why Pete wanted her to do both halves of the equine therapy.

“I think you’ll like him,” Finn said.

“You know him?”

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