Page 26 of A Nice Day for a Cowboy Wedding

Micah groaned in disgust, but Cora couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t morbidly fascinated by the whole thing. She could read the expressions on her child’s face, when she wasn’t second-guessing herself or he wasn’t shutting her out. There was asparkthere in his eyes as he hefted a huge pile of poop onto the metal scoop of a shovel.

Once the stalls were clean and Shane had inspected them all to make sure they’d gotten everything, Shane and Gavin led Cora and Micah through putting new hay down and then moving the horses back into the pens.

Cora looked sideways at the horse she was supposed to be leading. She didn’t feel much like a leader when the horse’s dark, gigantic eyes seemed to bore into her.

“She won’t bite. I mean, she could, but it’s doubtful.”

Cora scowled at Shane. “I don’t think she’s going to bite me. I think she’s going to eat my face off.”

“I think that’s gorillas.” He took the reins from her, which was a simple maneuver considering she’d been afraid to hold them in the first place and had just barely held the leather between her fingertips.

“Bears also eat faces, I’m pretty sure,” she offered, following him. Well, walking next to him so that he was between her and that creature. “And, look, I don’t know. Horses are still animals. It could go crazy and decide it wants to eat my face off.”

“She won’t,” Shane assured, clearly amused with her horse reticence. He easily led the horse into the stables and gave its rump a friendly pat.

Do not let your mind go any further than that, Cora Preston.

Cora glanced at where Gavin was talking to Micah, pointing to parts on the saddle Gavin had just fastened onto one of the other horses. Cora forgot about her discomfort with horses at that avid look of interest on her son’s face. She hadn’t seen that in a while.

“Is your mom always right?”

“No,” Shane replied flatly.

Cora waved her hand, knowing exactly what was causing that flat tone. “Aside from the Ben thing, which you’ve yet to prove to me isn’t right, she’s always right. Isn’t she?”

Shane shrugged. “Maybe more often than not.”

“I just love her.” Because if this was the thing that got Micah to wake up and participate in life beyond his video games again . . . Cora got teary just thinking about how much she owed this woman she barely knew.

“She incites that feeling in a lot of people,” Shane was saying. “For what it’s worth, she likes you too. And she’s got a good radar about kids who need a little hard work and a little horse therapy. Although, you can blameherif your kid ends up on the rodeo circuit.”

Cora must have visibly paled because Shane chuckled and reached out to touch her arm. A little shoulder squeeze she was sure was supposed to be friendly and reassuring and not at all a gesture that might make her wonder what that big, rough hand might feel like against bare skin.

Shane Tyler was aseriousproblem.

“Only one out of three boys she raised ended up in the rodeo. So, you might have a one in three chance.”

“How reassuring,” Cora muttered.

“You guys are pro at the poop shoveling. You care if we get him up there?”

Cora looked at the horse, something akin to terror clutching her gut. The giant beasttoweredover her baby, and Shane wanted to put the little bundle she’d nursed with her own body on one. Her sweet little boy who’d spent too many years in quiet, desolate fear.

“You can say no,” Shane said gently, and without an ounce of disgust or judgment. “No one would hold it against you. Horses can be intimidating if you’re not used to them.”

She watched as Micah reached out and swept his hand down thegiant beast’sside, just as Gavin instructed him.

“He’s not intimidated,” she said miserably. “Do you know what the absolute worst part of being a parent is?”

“Never knowing what the right thing to do is.”

She blinked up at him, because not only was thatexactlyit, but he said it so certainly. Without even the hint of a question. “How . . .”

He shrugged, watching Gavin and Micah, and it felt like he was very purposefully not meeting her gaze. “I’m the oldest. When my father died . . . Well, I was never a parent, no, but I took on some parent-like responsibilities here and there.”

Here and there. Somehow she thought it had been a little more than that. “I don’t wantmyfear to holdhimback, and yet . . .” Cora blew out a breath. “I need him to be safe and whole.”

“And happy.”

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