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“But it’s for babies.”

“Just because it’s written for them doesn’t mean it’s no good for anyone else. Like your favorite comic, it’s for you, but some grownups like it too.”

“Oh.” The boy seemed to accept the argument, because he shrugged and said, “I gotta go to the bathroom.”

Since the facility was in his line of sight, Jackson just nodded and the boy scampered off. Even that made him smile. It had been so long since he’d seen the normal, high-energy kid his son had once been, every sign was balm to his battered soul. This was only their second day here, and he already knew it was the best decision he could have made.

He finished the whimsical story of Murphy the pinto pony, closed the book, and set it on the seat Jeremy had been using. He picked up the adult volume on Last Stand history Joey had given him, which he’d found as intriguing as Jeremy had found the youth version. He read a couple of pages, then looked toward the restroom, calculating how much time to give Jeremy before he went to check on him. Only the certainty that it would embarrass the boy mightily made him add an extra two minutes to his mental timer.

He read some more, then glanced toward the door to the restrooms again. This time Jeremy was there, just outside the door, talking—actually talking—to a woman standing there. Joey was with them, so he wasn’t really concerned. Funny, how he already trusted her. Must be the librarian in her, he thought with an inward grin.

When he looked up again, the three of them were headed toward him, Jeremy in the lead, followed by Joey and the other woman, who—

Who was the woman from yesterday. By the statue.

He stood up slowly, oddly uncertain of his balance. Her hair was in the braid again, at the moment brought forward to trail down over the front of what looked like the same denim jacketshe’d had on when he’d first seen her. The jeans were different, looked newer, but still well broken in. Under the jacket was a sweater the same sea blue as her eyes. And it fit... well. Clung in all the right places, and she had some very right places.

And he was reacting to them again. In that way he’d thought dead and buried with Leah.

“Dad, Dad, she’s got horses. Can we go see them?”

Jeremy’s excited voice yanked his attention back, perhaps the only thing that could have.

“What?” he asked, looking at the librarian, feeling like he had to shake off some fog.

“Jackson,” Joey said, sounding a little self-conscious, despite the fact that he’d told her the “Mr. Thorpe” wasn’t necessary. “This is Nicole Baylor. She is a horse trainer—thehorse trainer in Last Stand—and she’s invited Jeremy out to her family’s ranch to see them, if it’s all right with you.”

“Please, Dad?” Jeremy asked. “She says they’ve got a pony too.” A too-rare smile flashed across the boy’s face. “My size. Like in the book you liked.”

Bracing himself, he shifted his gaze to Ms. Baylor.

“Only if you’re amenable,” she said with a polite smile.

Oh, crap. She had one of those voices. Low, almost husky, the kind that had a man thinking all kinds of thoughts it was way, way too soon for. The kind that made you think of sleepy mornings after a passionate night.

He gave himself an inward shake. He had to focus on Jeremy now, and what was best for him. He was the reason they were even here, after all.

“That’s very kind of you,” he said noncommittally.

“I look at it as building the next gen of horse lovers,” she said, the smile more real this time.

“Which keeps you in business?” He regretted it as soon as it was out, because it sounded rather like an accusation, and he hadn’t meant it that way. “I didn’t mean—”

He stopped when she waved a hand and said, “I don’t deny that. But more importantly, I want to help assure they remain a big part of western culture. Because I happen to love them.”

“So do I,” he said simply, leaving it at that.

Something seemed to flicker in her gaze then, and he wondered if she was deciding whether she believed him or not. He didn’t blame her. He wasn’t a guy who’d grown up around horses, although he’d always found them beautiful. But the personal connection had come to him later, the first time he’d gotten a crew job on a western film. He’d met Tucker then, and the onetime rodeo cowboy-turned stuntman had introduced him to the reality of the creatures, and he’d fallen hard. He counted it as one of the three best and most life-changing days he’d ever had, the first two being when he’d met Leah, and when Jeremy had been born.

And Tucker Culhane had become his best friend.

“Joey says you’re visiting Last Stand. Do you have a vehicle, or access to one? We’re a few miles outside of town.”

When he hesitated—and he hated that he had to, but this relatively newfound fame had its downsides, and not being able to trust people he didn’t know was one of them—Jeremy moved. His too-thin shoulders slumped, and the unreachable child he’d been for so long started to reappear. He couldn’t stand it. He looked back at Ms. Baylor.

“We’re staying with my sister. We can borrow her car while she’s at work, like we did today. If you’re sure, I know Jeremy would love it.”And that’s more important than anything else right now.

“Then come,” she said. She pulled out a phone, called up a map, and shared it to his when he was ready. “Tomorrow latemorning would be good. I’ll have some time to introduce Jeremy to our... shorter resident.”