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Chapter One

Edith Baxter nudged her horse forward while keeping her voice silent. She’d been working with Cocoa since the day Courage Reins had brought the beautiful bay to their stables. In fact, Peter Marshall, who owned this therapeutic riding facility, had called her and asked her to come help him train the horse for other clients.

She’d said yes immediately. She didn’t get to work with as many horses as she’d like on her brother’s farm, where she lived and wrote her children’s books, where she took care of the house and all the smaller animals—and her brother.

He’d had a terrible time since the death of their cousin, and while Edith felt that loss too, she hadn’t been as close to Carson as Alex had been.

She’d suffered a massive loss in her life too, and she’d been frequenting Courage Reins as a client since her return to Three Rivers three years ago.

Now, she shelved her thoughts, because being present with a horse was a big part of riding. She couldn’t forget for a single second that the beast upon whose back she sat could spook and spark at any moment. And Edith could end up with a broken back—or worse.

Cocoa had come a long way in the past couple of years, but she was still a horse. And horses had fickle personalities at the best of times, and this horse could feel what Edith felt.

So she couldn’t think about Alex’s troubles, or her own, while riding and guiding her. That was part of the therapy—the blessed release of thought. The fact that she didn’t have to worry about the dirty dishes piling up in the sink, or the dozens of errands she needed to get done before businesses closed in town, or the fact that she lived mostly alone, on a ranch with her younger brother in a state she thought she’d never return to.

But for right now, she breathed in. She centered herself on Cocoa’s back, right here on this tiny speck of land in a huge country, world, and universe.

Her fingers tingled, and she released her too-tight grip on the reins. Cocoa moved how she should’ve then, and Edith relaxed and smiled softly to herself. She could use this horse in a book now, and words and pictures flowed through her head as she moved Cocoa around the cone.

Getting the equines used to brightly colored objects was absolutely necessary, and Cocoa did great with the rest of the course. As Edith slid from the saddle so she could walk alongside Cocoa for her cooldown, the door to the observation room opened.

A cowboy stepped onto the dirt of the arena, his black cowboy hat wide and smiling up on the edges. “You’re both lookin’ good,” Peter Marshall said.

Edith trained her smile on him. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Do you?” He grinned at her, because he was a tall, good-looking, happy-go-lucky, sensitive, perceptive man.

“You think Cocoa doesn’t need me anymore.”

“She doesn’t.”

“What if I need her?”

“You can choose any horse you want when you come for personal sessions.”

Edith nodded and kept walking as Pete fell into step beside her. “You got a new horse?”

“Sure did.”

“What’s his name?’

“Reagan.”

“He needs me?”

“He does.”

Edith sighed, though it sure felt nice to be needed. Didn’t everyone want to feel that way? Important? Special? Necessary? The last few years of Edith’s life had put her in the top spot of “necessary” for so many people, and sometimes she craved a time where no one needed her. Or someone on whom she could rely on for everything, so she could have a weak hour, or day, or even a whole week.

“You don’t see Margot when you come work with Cocoa,” Pete said gently.

“Here we go,” Edith said, cutting him a look out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t pay for these sessions. I’m not going to take Margot’s time for free.”

“Hm.” That was Pete-speak for You need it.

And maybe she did. Edith wasn’t opposed to counseling and therapy. With all she’d gone through in the past few years, talking to someone without any skin in her game had helped immensely. But so did training horses—and Pete paid her for that.

“I need this job,” she said quietly. “And if you add on the counseling, then I feel like I have to pay, and then I’ll ask you not to pay me.” She looked over to him. “Alex’s ranch does fine. It really does. But it’s not like this place. We watch every dime.”