Page 6

“Yessir. Yes. Thanks.”

“Okay then. See you Monday.” As Liam turned back to the barn, Cooper caught sight of Shay’s truck and empty trailer pulling into the driveway. For a long moment, he lingered beside the paddock, watching her park and head into the house. Her son, however, made a beeline to the paddock to see his new horse.

“Ryan!” Shay called from the doorway of her house when she realized he was not behind her. “Come inside!”

“In a minute!” he shouted back, sneaking a look at Cooper as his mom admitted defeat and went inside.

Cooper debated speaking to the kid at all, but Ryan spoke first. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she? I mean, she will be when we feed her up a little. Get rid of that awful coat with some good grain and grooming.”

“She your first horse?” he asked.

“Nah.” Ryan puffed himself up, trying to look older and cooler. He climbed on the bottom rail and leaned over the top. “Well . . . kind of—to call my own. But I’ve been riding since I was a kid.”

Cooper hid his smile. “I hear you’ve got big plans for her.”

Ryan looked surprised that Cooper knew this, but he nodded. “The Youth Horse Encounter is in October at Marietta’s autumn festival this year. We get one hundred days, but I’ve already missed a bunch. I’ve got until the festival to gentle her, train her, and show her.”

An ambitious eighty days from now.

“But when I win,” Ryan continued, “I get five hundred dollars. And whatever the auction brings in for her.”

“When you win? I like that confidence.”

Ryan shrugged. “My mom always says you either find a way or you make one.’”

“Does she, now?” Cooper smiled at the boy. “Wise woman, your mother.”

“Mostly,” he admitted, staring at the filly. “Do you think she’s already got a name?”

He considered that. “She’s two. Maybe she does. But you should give her one that suits her. One you pick. Names are important. Animals are particular about such things. Give them the wrong name and they’ll learn to embody it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, give a horse a name like Chaos or Diablo and that’s pretty much what you’ll get. But Charmer or Baby? Like putty in your hands.”

“Really?”

“I’ve seen it. Speaking of names, I’m Cooper, by the way. My friends call me Coop.”

Ryan held out his hand to him. “Ryan. My friends call me Ry.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“And don’t worry about my mom. She’s not really mad. She just kind of likes to be in charge, even when she’s not. But that’s only because she’s always taken care of me and her on her own.”

“Yeah?” he answered, amused. “I’ll try to stay out of her way then.”

“Good luck with that,” he retorted. “Maybe you should date her.”

Shock made him laugh out loud.

Ryan grinned. “Don’t tell her I said that.”

He ran an invisible key across his lips. This kid . . .

“I’ll think about a name for the filly, then,” Ryan said, as a text buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to look at it. He nodded to Cooper. “I gotta go. My friends are starting a Fortnite session. Later.”

Too cool for school at fourteen.