Page 41 of There I Find Hope

“I don’t want to think about it too long though, because sometimes when you do that, it ends up getting a name of its own, and then it’s impossible to get people to use the name you choose.”

“Speaking from experience with...dogs?”

“Cows. I would do this with cows, where it would take me forever to decide on what name I wanted. By the time I decided, the boys had already named it a name that went with its personality. It didn’t matter what I said, they only called it their name. We had a Bumper.” She lifted her brows at him. “I suppose you can imagine how she got her name.”

“Bumping into people?”

“Exactly. Pretty hard actually.”

“Any more odd names?” he asked, his eyes on the foal as her nose went into the bucket, and they could hear slurping sounds.

“We had an Eggie. She was born next to a nest of chicken eggs. She ended up breaking them all as she learned to stand.”

“And she never shook the name.”

“Nope. She was Eggie until she got on the trailer to go to the sale.”

“Maybe there’s a lesson there about how you have to be careful what you do, because your reputation follows you. And a good reputation is better to build because a bad reputation is hard to shake.”

They’d already been serious; she wanted to keep the conversation lighter. “It sounds like you’re talking from experience.” She slanted a look out of the corner of her eyes and gave him a little grin.

Was she flirting?

He chuckled.

“Come on. What’s this reputation that you wish you could shake?”

He laughed outright. “People will call me boring. Although, I guess I’m just as boring now as I was when I was younger. So, I’m not exactly making a big effort to shake it.”

“Boring?” She hadn’t been expecting that. She thought there was something he had done in his childhood, like wrecking his mother’s car or something that had given him a reputation he couldn’t get past. “Is that really all the skeletons you have in your closet? You’re boring?”

“Don’t knock it. Being boring is actually a really big problem. Nobody wants to spend some time with someone who’s going to put them to sleep either by talking about stuff that nobody cares about or by thinking about things and missing half the conversation.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a deep thinker. There’s nothing wrong with talking about things that interest you. You just have to be with the right person who wants to listen.”

“Well, for those of us who are boring, maybe finding the right person is difficult.”

He was still smiling, but there was a note of seriousness in his tone that made Sunday wonder if he wasn’t joking quite as much as he let on.

The foal’s mouth came out of the bucket, milk dripping from her lower lip as she looked at them with soft brown eyes.

Her muzzle brushed her arm, like she was looking for more.

“Watch out, she’s going to bite you.”

“Actually, I don’t think they have teeth.” She set the bucket down after checking to make sure that it was empty, and then she used both hands to pull the foal’s lips up. “Yeah. No teeth.”

“Wow. I thought they ate grass. How soon until they come in?”

She laughed. “I don’t know. I’m not a horse expert. I just thought I remembered reading somewhere that they’re born with no teeth. It’s part of the reason we have to be so diligent in feeding her. She can’t eat anything yet. If she doesn’t have milk, she won’t survive.”

“That’s a heavy responsibility.”

“Like being responsible for a baby.” She said that before she thought, but it wasn’t as awkward as it could have been, because he had a thoughtful look on his face.

“I suppose you’re right. Keeping a little human alive would be far more pressure than trying to keep an animal. Although still, having something depend on you for its very life would have to be scary.” He shook his head and laughed a little. “It’s crazy that I’ve never thought about that before.”

“You never thought about having children?”

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