“You, too.” I stared out the front windows as Bill headed for his truck. I wished there were a more straightforward answer to maintaining the balance between the ranchers and the mustangs, but there didn’t seem to be one. And at the end of the day, the horses had been there first, so that had to earn them some rights.
I startled as my mom squeezed my shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, just an unhappy rancher.”
Mom frowned. “He say something?”
I sighed. “Nothing I haven’t heard before. You okay until closing? I was hoping to get some things set up for the new mare before Tuck brings Noah home from their manly man hang session.”
My mom laughed softly. “Of course. Go make she-who-has-yet-to-be-named a cozy home.”
I grinned. “She’ll have a name when she’s ready.” And she’d have a new home tomorrow.
11
Tuck
“Okay, what do we do next?”
Noah’s brow furrowed, his face scrunching slightly. “Get low and get quiet.”
I grinned. “You got it.”
We crouched, and Noah studied the outskirts of the clearing. “There are some broken branches over there.”
“Good eye, little man. You lead the way.”
His chest puffed out as he rose and gave me a smile that would have melted the coldest hearts. I loved getting this time with him. Teaching him to track the same way my grandfather had taught me.
Noah walked carefully towards the edge of the clearing, his gaze trying to figure out a path an animal might have taken. He made it a few feet into the trees and then halted. “I don’t see anything else.”
I gave his shoulder a squeeze. “When I can’t figure out what’s next, I try to look at the picture from a different angle.”
Noah looked up at me. “What do you mean?”
“Well, think about it this way,”—I got on my tiptoes, towering over him—“when I look at you from here, I see one thing.” I crouched down level with him. “From here, I see another.” I laid down on the forest floor. “And from here, another.”
Noah giggled. “So, I should lay down on the ground to see where the deer went?”
I sat up, smiling at him. “If that’s what it takes. But try getting low again first.”
Noah sank to his knees and stared at the brush all around us. His eyes squinted until they were slits, and he finally let out an exasperated sigh. “I still don’t see anything.” His head drooped. “Maybe I’m no good at tracking.”
“Hey, now.” I gave his back a pat. “No one is an expert their first few times out. I told you about the time your uncle Walker and I decided we were going to track a cougar and got lost, didn’t I?”
A small smile tipped up Noah’s lips, and he nodded.
“My mom and your grandma were so mad. Walker and I were grounded for two whole weeks in the middle of summer.”
Noah’s smile grew wider. “And Grampa made you guys muck out the whole barn, right?”
I ruffled Noah’s hair. “He did. And let me tell you, mucking stalls in the dead of summer is a smelly job.”
Noah giggled. “I bet.”
“All right. Ready to keep trying?”
“Ready.”
