Adam whispered, “They’ve had a busy night, the two of them.”
“He’s so cute,” Kyra whispered back.
Adam nodded in agreement. “He is. Would you like to name him?”
She shot him a questioning look. “I thought this wasn’t your horse.”
“The mother isn’t mine, but her owner has offered me the colt as a gift. The pregnancy wasn’t intentional, as I understand it. Anyway, I thought you might like to name it.”
“Oh, it’s going to have to be the perfect name then,” she said, turning back to the curled-up colt. Its little ear twitched as though it could hear her in its dreams. “I’ll think of one.”
Suddenly, Adam’s hand was on her shoulder, and Kyra froze in place, afraid he might change his mind about the gesture if she reacted too much. “I thought you might also like to spend some time with it,” he said. “Get it used to human interaction and all that. What do you say? It’s a very important job, you know.”
She glared at him playfully. “If you wanted to keep me away from the more physically strenuous jobs, then you’ve picked the right carrot to dangle in front of me, boss.”
He chuckled. “It isn’t just that, you know. Someone really does have to do the job. But it’s a win-win, don’t you think?”
Ellie opened one eye and saw the two of them standing just outside her stall. She lifted her head but didn’t get up, which Kyra took as a sign of trust. “Don’t worry, mama,” she said in a soft voice. “We’re going to take good care of you and spoil your baby rotten.”
Outside the barn, when they were able to talk in normal voices, Kyra thanked Adam with all her heart. What she didn’t tell him was that it meant far more than he realized, that he had seen the colt and immediately thought of her. That hope her mother had warned her to temper swelled in her heart once more. “Can I make dinner tonight?” she asked him. “Please. I really want to cook for you.” She was desperate to do something nice for him after everything he’d been doing for her lately.
He shrugged like it was no big deal and agreed. “Just this once.”
She made chicken and pasta.It was an invented dish, using whatever Adam had in the kitchen for its ingredients. She hadn’t planned on cooking that night, but if Kyra was good at anything, it was improvising. When dinner was nearly ready, she went to collect him for the meal. She looked in every room in the house, but he was apparently outside. From his office, she texted him to let him know he could come and eat.
After putting her phone back in her pocket, she glanced down to see a book lying upside down on his desk. The fact that she even noticed it was a stroke of luck because his desk was piled high with papers and notebooks. This one book was hiding amongst them, but it caught her attention the moment she saw it.
She bent over the desk to look at it. It appeared to be a parenting book. Kyra doubted her own eyes and picked it up to examine it more closely. No doubt about it. Adam Sage was actually reading a parenting book. Now, why would he be doing that if he had no intention of becoming any kind of father? Maybe he was changing his mind.
If the book had been on a shelf or something, she would have assumed it was an old one he had lying around for some reason. But it was open on his desk, upside down like he was holding his place. No chance he wasn’t reading it. She grinned to herself, that same hope swelling in her chest again. Then she heard the front door open.
She quickly put the book back in exactly the same position and hurried out of the office, closing the door behind her. She passed Adam on the way to the kitchen. “Oh, there you are,” she said. “I was looking for you.” She tried to force her smile down to a less conspicuous level, but she couldn’t seem to manage it.
“What are you so happy about?” he asked, eyeing her with suspicion.
“Oh, I’m just so happy I finally got to make dinner.” That was barely believable, and she could tell it wasn’t quite flying with Adam. Oh well. It was good enough for now, anyway. As long as he couldn’t guess what she was really thinking, it was all good.
She set the table and served the dinner. He dished large portions onto his plate, and even that made her smile. Kyra’s mother had instilled in her a great love of feeding people. When she was able to make something that would not only nourish someone she cared about but also bring them a certain amount of pleasure, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride. It was a way to say you loved a person without scaring them, she figured, and not only in a romantic way. Although a romantic waywashow she meant it this time.
They sat together like a family, and Adam asked, “So, did you come up with a name for the colt? I’ve been dying to find out what you came up with.”
She had been thinking about it, actually. “I thought Stormy was a nice name for him. What do you think? Considering the weather while his mom was pregnant with him. Stormy is nicer than Tornado anyway, don’t you think?”
Adam laughed and nodded. “Shorter too. What would you call Tornado for short?”
“Nado? I don’t know. Torn?” It all sounded ridiculous. “Let’s go with Stormy then.”
“He is a little black raincloud after all,” Adam said, twirling another forkful of pasta. “Maybe he’ll have my temperament.”
“Oh, no!” Kyra’s eyes went wide. “Let’s hope not. He’ll be impossible to work with if that’s the case.”
She loved teasing him, but this time, he didn’t act at all offended. He said, “If he has my temperament and you’re the one working with him, everything will turn out fine. It’ll just have to be you and no one else.”
Kyra couldn’t stop herself from blushing when she heard that. It sounded so much like flirting, like a declaration of something real. She tried to remember her mom’s words about keeping her expectations reasonable, but Adam was so good at getting her hopes up. She quickly stuffed a bite of food in her mouth to cover up her awkwardness.
The following morning,Kyra went to the barn to feed the horses and spend time with the new colt. The sunrise was beautiful, turning everything around her golden. She crept into the barn, but all the horses were already awake and eager to eat, including Ellie and her colt. The little horse was still wobbly on its legs, and its head looked about three sizes too big for its body. Kyra had always thought newborn horses were the cutest creatures alive, and now she actually got to spend time with one.
“I can’t believe I’m getting paid to hang out with you,” she said to little Stormy as she made her way into the stall with Ellie, who she now trusted implicitly.
