Danica joined them.“Oh my god, she is soft.”
I stepped into the stall too.“Welcome to your new home, Flora.”
“Can I sleep out here on the cot tonight with her?”Sam asked.“Please?”
“It’s a school night,” Danica argued.
“So?I’ll be up earlier out here than I would be inside.I just don’t want her to feel abandoned or lonely.”
“She has over a dozen horses to keep her company,” her mother protested, even though I could see that Danica wasn’t really going to deny her daughter this request.
Now that the school had a new principal, Clyde was gone, and Sam had a team of people helping her manage her anxiety, she was thriving.Her grades were up, her mood was better, and she seemed to enjoy going to school.
“Will you actually sleep?”Danica asked her daughter.
“Of course I will.”
I glanced down at Portia, who was never too far from either myself or Sam.“You’ll make sure your sister sleeps?”
Portia looked up at me and grunted her version of “yes”.
“See?The pig babysitter is on it.”Sam leaned forward and pressed her cheek to Flora’s neck.“It’s like a pillow.I could sleep just like this.”
Danica and I both rolled our eyes.
“Fine,” Danica finally said.“You can sleep in the barn.”
Sam crouched down to Portia.“High-five.”
It was a new trick she’d taught the pig, and one Portia seemed to enjoy just as much.She plunked her butt on the straw, then lifted her trotter to tap it against Sam’s hand.
“Let’s leave Flora for a little bit to get acclimated, and go have some dinner,” Danica said.“Then we’ll bring the cot out.”
Sam pouted.“I don’t want to leave her.”Her eyes perked up.“Now, I’m just throwing this out there, but what do we think about anindooralpaca?We already have an indoor pig.”
Danica and I both said, “No,” at the same time.
Sam pouted again, then she glanced at Portia.“I told you they wouldn’t go for it.”
That made me laugh.“I highly doubt Portia had anything to do with that suggestion.She likes that she’s the only animal allowed in the house.Though, it has gone to her head.”
We headed into the house for dinner; however, Sam inhaled her food and packed her stuff up like she was running away to the circus.It was only seven o’clock, but she claimed she was “ready for bed.”
So I carted the cot out to the barn, and she set up her bedinFlora’s stall.
“I don’t think this is what your mother meant when she said you could sleep in the barn,” I told her.
“Then she needs to be specific,” Sam countered, already in her pajamas and laying down a series of blankets.
I cupped the sides of her head and pressed a kiss to her forehead.“Buonanotte, piccola mia.Ti amo.”
“Ti amo,” she replied, warming my heart.
Danica appeared at the door of the stall, her hand on her hips.“Well, this wasn’t what I meant.”
Sam was already snuggling into bed.“Whoops.Can’t change it now.”
Flora, on the other hand, was lying down in the opposite corner of the stall, watching us curiously.
