“I should have been here.”
“You should have been asleep. Is it a boy or a girl?”
He rubbed his hands up and down the little horse’s neck, and then dropped a hand to bend the left foreleg. “A filly. She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
Amanda tilted her head a little. It was difficult to call brand-new foals cute. They were so disproportionate, so wobbly. But there was that same wonderful openness that all babies possess. “Gorgeous. She’s gray. Does that mean we have another Grayghost foal?”
“Grayboy. This is Grayghost’s first grandbaby. Amanda, meet Graylady.”
“My pleasure,” she said, grinning. “What are you doing?”
His answering smile was crooked. “Bonding. The best way for this little lady and me to work together is for us to start now, while she still weighs less than I do. Isn’t that right, old girl? Right now, before she figures out she’s supposed to be scared of me. So we come in and introduce ourselves and scratch her favorite places and get her used to having me touch her.”
“What are you doing to her feet?”
“The sooner you get her used to having her hooves lifted, the easier it is to care for them later, and to have her shod. Tomorrow we’ll get a halter on her for the first time.”
Amanda was enchanted. The little animal tottered around Jake like a trusting child. The mother butted Jake every so often, demanding her own attention. Jake gave it with generous lashings of praise and profuse apologies that he hadn’t been able to attend the big event itself.
“That’s what they all say,” Amanda offered dryly.
Jake did his best to ease back to his feet, but he was still a little sore for that. When he lurched, the foal was startled and whinnied. Jake crouched back down and blew into her nose, very gently. Amanda was amazed. The little animal settled right down, nuzzling Jake with that velvety dark nose of hers.
“Secret code?” she asked.
Jake smiled as he unlatched the door to step out. “It’s the way horses greet each other. The great secret to training horses. Best way to control a horse is to think like a horse.”
“Can I do it, too?” she asked, still watching the foal as she redirected her attention to her mother. It was evidently breakfast time, and like all children, she was impatient.
“Maybe in a couple of days,” Jake offered, stepping out and bolting the door behind him. “Too many people at once is too much for her and her dam. Get to know her mama, though, and it’ll be easier to be friends with her.”
Amanda looked up at the soft light that lingered in Jake’s eyes. “You do this for every foal born here?”
He watched the baby he’d just left and shrugged. “A guy’s gotta like something about his job.”
Amanda huffed, much as Clovis did. “Like I said. A rank fake.”
Jake returned his attention to her, and the light in his eyes melted a little, shifted into something more uncertain. Amanda wished they could have talked before he’d left the bed that morning. She was so afraid suddenly that he wouldn’t be able to now.
“You didn’t eat breakfast,” she accused gently. “Did you?”
He picked his hat off a nail in the wall and plopped it back on his head. “I was late for work.”
“How are your ribs feeling?”
He at least had the grace to shrug a concession. “Better. I guess I might have needed a little food and sleep.”
“And codeine.”
Another shrug. “Aspirin probably would have worked just as well.”
Amanda knew better than to push.
“It’s boring up there without my computer. Is there anything down here I can do?”
Amanda was hoping for levity, for companionship. When Jake turned his gaze on her, she knew both would come with a price.
“Amanda,” he said, lifting a hand to touch her, but never quite doing it. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
