Pete grinned. “How’s Makayla getting along with Murphy?”
“She’d sleep in his stall every night if Tessa let her. He’s being so patient while she learns to ride. Great horse.”
“I’m just glad he found another little girl to raise. He’ll teach her all the things she needs to know. He did real good with my girl. Couldn’t have done it without him. Teen years can be tough.”
Desire to be there for Makayla’s tough teen years spiked through him so hard it hurt.
Pete shook his head. “I bred and raised Hope’s mama, And she wouldn’t cooperate one bit for me that day. But she calmed right down for Tessa. In all my years of ranching, I’ve never seen a cow put her head in anyone’s lap.”
“That was something, wasn’t it?”
“Special lady, that Tessa. Classy of her to plop right down in the mud for a suffering animal.”
As classy as they came.
Dillon glanced at his watch. Twenty minutes to school pickup. “Afraid I’ve got somewhere to be,” he announced. Pete walked him back to the truck.
He pulled into the elementary school parking lot and joined the line of parents picking up kids. Makayla came out with her violin case in one hand and a bandage on her elbow.
She climbed in and tossed her backpack in the back. “Hi.”
“Hi, you. What happened to the elbow?”
“I tripped.”
“On what?”
“On the floor.”
“Solid choice. It’s always there when you need it.”
She was lying, but he wasn’t going to press the point. She’d talk about it when she was ready.
About halfway home Makayla said, “I signed up to play my violin in the school talent show. It’s in a couple of weeks.”
“Good for you. I was never brave enough to do anything like that in front of the other kids.”
“Professor Cohen and I are working on a special piece for it. Will you come see it? Watch me play?”
Joy leapt in his chest that she thought enough of him to invite him. “I’d be delighted to come, Makayla.”
“Promise?”
“As long as there’s no big medical emergency I have to handle, I promise.” He added sincerely, “I’m sorry I can’t guarantee 100% that I’ll be there. But if I do get called away, I’ll ask your mom to video it for me and I’ll watch it later with you.”
She nodded, looking pleased.
“Ashley Deckard made fun of me for signing up to perform. She said playing violin is dumb and boring?—”
She broke off abruptly and he waited her out. She continued all at once. “Then I said she was dumb and boring, and she pushed me. I yanked my violin case out of the way so I wouldn’t fall on it and hurt it, and that’s how I skinned my elbow.”
He drove on in silence.
“Comments? Criticism?” Makayla asked anxiously.
“Is this Deckard girl, in fact, dumb and boring?” he asked gravely.
“So dumb and boring.”
