Page 56 of There I Find Hope

“She might. But if the horse is there, she might stay at least until she doesn’t need to supplement her so frequently anymore.” He wasn’t sure what she might do, but he wanted her to have the options. He wanted her to be able to make the choices. She’d had a lot of choices made for her, and while he knew that God was in control and allowed those things to happen to her, he wanted her to have the control over this if she could. Plus, the horse really did mean a lot to her.

“I see. That might be a good thing. I know I’m getting tired of getting up in the middle of the night, and my girls, instead of arguing about who gets to feed her, are arguing about who has to. It would actually take a lot of weight off my shoulders.” He narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure Sunday wants her?”

“I figured I’d check with you before I checked with her. I didn’t want her to get excited before I knew for sure that you didn’t already have plans for her.”

“No. I don’t have any plans. Other than to try to keep her from dying. That was my only goal.”

They shared a look, with Noah figuring he knew what Matt meant. Things had been touch and go for a while, and there was no guarantee that an orphan foal would live. It had been enough of a blow to lose the mom.

He thought that Matt might understand what he was doing. He probably had sympathy for him too, if he thought he was good enough for his sister.

Noah considered just outright asking.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.

“Is this okay with you?” he finally asked, figuring that that was a little less difficult to say than “Am I good enough for your sister?”

“Yeah. I kinda thought back in high school you two would get together, and I wish you would have. Glenn was a stupid detour that caused her more hurt than anything.”

“I think she’s better because of it.”

“I guess we all probably are. But it’s never easy to watch someone you love go through something hard like that. Glenn had a really great wife, and he treated her terribly. He had an amazing son, and he barely even noticed him. I really wanted to grab a hold of the guy.”

But of course he wouldn’t. And Noah understood that wasn’t a threat, it was just Matt making a statement. Talking about Sunday and letting Noah know how much he thought of her and what he wanted for her.

“Hey, guys. You look so serious.” Sunday walked into the barn. She smiled at Noah, and he nodded at her, then she turned her attention to Matt. “You’re slow today. Usually, you’re out of here by now.”

“I’ve not been scheduling rides during the hottest part of the day. Just to give the horses a break, although I have people clamoring for them. I’ve been thinking about getting more, but we need more ground.”

“That’s a problem. It’s kind of limited around here. There’s this big pile of water that takes up a lot of space.” She laughed, and Noah thought about how far she’d come since almost two months ago when she’d been standing at the casket at her son’s funeral.

He admired her more today than he had then, and he felt like he knew her better too.

He couldn’t help but wonder what she thought of him.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go to the diner and grab a bite to eat after we feed Hope? I had to walk down by it, and Griff is making his onion soup bread again, and it smells delicious. Plus, they had a brochure on the door that said there were strawberry banana smoothies along with strawberry lemonade cake.” She lifted her brows. “I hope Hope knows how much I love her that I walked by the diner and came down here to feed her.”

“I don’t think there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind how much you love Hope,” Noah said.

Matt smirked, but he didn’t say anything. Noah wondered if he might spoil the surprise, but he didn’t.

Matt finished up and left while they fed Hope and rubbed her down.

“I’ve been reading that it’s important that orphan foals are with another horse so they learn how to be a horse.”

“Interesting. I guess it makes sense that their mother teaches them that.”

“Yes. And horses are very social animals. They’re herd animals. They need to have other horses around them.”

“I see.” Maybe his idea of buying Hope had been a bad one. Or maybe there would be another orphan foal that they could get to grow up with Hope, so she’d have a companion.

“Does it have to be an older horse? Or can it be one their own age?”

“I think it can be any horse, but it said if you let it get too attached to you, then it starts to think that you are its mom, and they can get a little rowdy and out of control. Especially as it gets bigger.” She looked at Hope, who had been growing almost visibly before their eyes. “Because she has a little bit of draft horse in her, we have to be careful, because she’s going to be a big girl.”

“I see.” Maybe he could ask Matt if he had any suggestions of where he could find another orphan foal. He had a feeling that Sunday would be in her element raising two. But he would talk to Sunday before he did that. She might not want the responsibility. Although, he would make sure she understood that he would stand behind any expenses incurred.

Forty-five minutes later, they were walking back up the sidewalk toward the diner.

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