‘Ladies,’ he greeted them as they approached.
Poppy ran up to him with all the exuberance of a kid about to do her favourite thing in the world. She threw herself at him, and Benji scooped her off the ground and spun her in a circle until she was laughing loudly.
‘You ready, Pops?’ he asked the moment his head had stopped spinning.
‘Yes!’
He carried her to where Zephyr stood, patiently waiting with Poppy’s small saddle on. ‘On three,’ he said, and because it was their little ritual, he swung Poppy back and forth so that she almost touched the saddle with each count. ‘One.’ She laughed. ‘Two.’ She squealed, and the sound was pure joy. ‘Three.’
Benji exhaled a winded breath once she was finally seated. Who knew that time would go by so fast, and that one day soon he’d be unable to lift his goddaughter onto a horse? He reached for her booted foot to put it into the stirrup, but, as if to prove his point, Poppy shouted, ‘No! I got it, Uncle Benji.’
He held his hands up, palms outwards, and stepped back as Poppy reached down and adjusted her own stirrups – and it washard. To leave her to it. To watch her growing up so freaking fast.
‘All right, remember how to hold your reins?’
‘I know,’ she said sassily and picked up the reins. But instead of holding them with both hands like they’d taught her, she gripped the Western split reins in her right hand and let her left fall loosely to her side. Like a damn cowgirl.
Benji only shook his head and held up her bright pink riding hat. ‘Let’s put this on and then we’ll get going.’
For a long moment, Poppy looked like she was going to argue. But before she could open her mouth to say anything, Sierra spoke up from behind them, ‘Poppy, no hat, no riding.’ And her tone was steel. It was Mom Voice, and, for only a moment, it reminded Benji of Ava Hunt and of all the things they’d lost.
Poppy’s lip wobbled. ‘But you and Daddy don’t wear riding hats,’ she insisted, those big Hunt eyes turned on Benji.
‘Sweetheart, your dad and I are really old,’ Benji attempted to justify it, even as he thoughtshit. ‘When you’ve been riding for thirty more years, you can choose to not wear a hard hat.’
Poppy’s mouth dropped open. ‘Thirty years?That’s a really long time, Uncle Benji.’
‘Okay, how about ten years?’ Benji asked, somehow negotiating when, if it had been up to him, she would have worn a riding hat every time she was on horseback irrespective of how old she was or how good in the saddle she got.
Poppy sighed, but she turned, and only one look at Sierra’s cool expression was enough to have her saying, ‘Fine.’
‘Atta girl.’ Benji gently put her hat on and clipped the buckle under her chin, being careful not to accidentally catch her hair. And because Poppy was still grumpy, he said the one thing that was bound to make her smile. ‘You look stylish – like Sisi.’
Poppy sat up straighter in the saddle and used both hands to adjust the pink hat, this time with a little pride. ‘Sisi got me this hat,’ she informed him. ‘Because we like pink. She has one too, but she doesn’t use it ’cause she doesn’t like horses anymore.’
Benji might have laughed at how similar Poppy and Sierra were if Poppy had saidanythingelse. But the words, from the mouth of someone too young to conceptualize all the reasons why her aunt didn’t ride anymore, saddened him.
Behind him, Sierra was eerily quiet. She didn’t snap, didn’t defend herself against Poppy’s attitude – because the five-year-oldhadmeant to be sassy.
‘Sisi loves horses,’ he said gently. ‘She’s just taking a break until she feels good again.’ And because he couldn’t bear for Poppy to say more on the off chance it hurt Sierra, he hurried to distract her. ‘You ready?’
Poppy nodded and gave him the biggest grin, her attitude completely forgotten in her excitement. ‘Yeah!’
‘Okay, give me one second.’ He left her on Zephyr, tied to the hitching post, and turned to face Sierra.
She was pale, her eyes so sad. She didn’t say anything, didn’t move from her spot off to the side, both arms wrapped around herself.
Benji went to her. He opened his jacket and waited for her to step into him and wrap her arms around his waist before he closed it around both of them, keeping her warm. He kissed the side of her head. ‘You okay?’
She didn’t reply, only nodded against his chest.
‘Uncle Benji, hurry!’ Poppy demanded.
Sierra laughed, and she stepped back. ‘Are you sure you want a bunch of them?’
Benji didn’t let her get away with the casual teasing. He replied, ‘Heck yeah.’ But because she needed lightness just then too, he added, ‘Your Mom Voice kinda turns me on,’ in a whisper.
Sierra laughed. She broke his gaze and shook her head. ‘Benji, I …’
