Page 36 of His Tenth Dance

A couple of other counselors from Pony Power came to these midday demonstrations, and Molly looked over to them. Gemma, Hope, and Judy didn’t seem overwhelmed at all.

“I’ve seen someone do this on TikTok,” Judy said.

“Oh, my word,” Molly groaned. “Now I know I’m never going to be able to do it. I’m too old for TikTok.”

“You are not,” Poppy said. “I’m older than you.” She scoffed and went back to braiding. “Now, when you get to the bottom, we’re just going to sort of squish it all together so that it makes a rectangle.”

She kept moving and demonstrating. “I know you can braid, Molly. I’ve seen Charlotte’s hair.”

“I really hope I have a boy,” Opal said. “Then I won’t have to do hair.”

Molly snorted as she looked over to her cousin-in-law. “Are you kidding? Ryder spends more time in the bathroom than any of my kids.”

Opal blinked at her, that semi-horrified look back on her face. “Really? What’s he doing in there?”

Molly rolled her eyes toward the heavens. “Lord only knows.”

That caused everyone to giggle. Then Jane asked, “How are the driving lessons going?”

“Good,” Molly said. “I mean, he’s been driving around the farm for a while now, so it’s really just a matter of trying to get him to pay attention when there’s a lot more happening on the road.”

“Sure,” Jane said.

She’d brought her little boy, Clint, who was about ten months old now. He babbled happily in the living room behind them,and Jane would only go check on him if he started to cry or shriek. He had a stubborn personality already, but Molly supposed that both of his parents did too, and being headstrong wasn’t the worst thing a person could be.

Molly had grown up with her daddy as the pastor. She’d learned to cook from a young age, and she actually loved making bread. She’d made it for Hunter early in their relationship, in fact.

As the owner of Pony Power and the matron at Hunter’s family farm, Molly had coordinated and hosted plenty of meals, parties, and luncheons, but Poppy existed in a different league.

Molly could make bread and rolls, but she’d never braided it. She’d never studded it with golden raisins and cinnamon or currants and rosemary. But Poppy did all of those things and more. Now that Molly’s kids were fairly grown up and would start leaving the house soon, she wanted to start learning some new things too.

Ryder had one more year of high school left, and then he would graduate and be gone. Pinning him down to what he wanted to do after he earned his diploma was like pulling teeth, and Molly had stopped asking. Her oldest talked more about those kinds of things with his father anyway, and Molly had been letting Hunter handle such things for years.

Her girls talked with her. Lisa was only a year behind Ryder in school. She spent almost every afternoon at either Molly’s mother’s house or her sister’s, helping with something. She was definitely more of an indoor person than an outdoor person, despite Hunter and Molly’s attempts to get their kids away from screens and out of the house as much as possible.

Charlotte, their third child, and Clay, their youngest son, had taken to Pony Power—probably because they’d grown up the most at the farm. They both worked in the stables before andafter school and had been helping with horseback lessons in the summer for a couple of years now, though Clay was only twelve.

Molly loved her family and her farm life and Pony Power with her whole heart and soul.

As Poppy continued with instructions about how to bake the bread and when to put tin foil over it if the cinnamon and butter started to sizzle too soon, Molly zoned out a little bit. She would probably never make this bread, and even if she did, it would absolutely come out burnt on the bottom—just as Poppy was warning them against.

She enjoyed last month’s lesson, where Jane had taught them how to make her grandmother’s hamburger stew. Molly had had it before, of course, at family functions, but she hadn’t seen the recipe until then.

Jane said she’d found it in an old journal of her grandmother’s, and that she’d share anything else that she found.

Molly came from a core family steeped in tradition as well, and such things made her feel like she stood on solid ground and always had somewhere to go should she have a question or need help.

“And that’s it,” Poppy said, dusting her hands on her apron as she turned from the oven, where she’d just slid the braided bread. “Any questions?”

Everyone gathered in her kitchen simply stood there, and then they all started to laugh at the same time, Molly included.

A few days later, Molly rode atop her beautiful pinto horse named Lady. She’d had Lady, with all her soft browns andwhites, for several years now, and she loved riding the gentle creature.

She’d gone out with the youngest horseback riding students this morning—the eight-year-olds. Some of them looked like they were still five or six, and though it was only the third week of summer riding lessons, they faced their equines with courage and determination.

Pony Power did a weekly riding lesson, as well as twice a week for beginners, so they could get a handle on the skills faster. She employed over twenty cowboys and cowgirls to help with the riding lessons, and she’d instructed them to always have two people up front and two in the back.

She never wanted anyone to feel alone or afraid if something happened and they got left behind. At Pony Power, it was impossible to be left behind. That could be a scary thing when riding a horse for one of the first times.

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