Page 66 of Save A Horse

She smiled and I could see a mix of sadness and joy on her face. I felt peaceful as we worked together pulling weeds and tending to the plants.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes! I wonder what your dad is cooking this evening. I’m sure it’ll be good regardless.” We chuckled, knowing my dad cooked well for a man. It was nice that he never taught us gender roles, only life skills. That was another thing I wanted to instill in my children someday.

“Let’s go dump these buckets and we can go inside and clean up for supper.”

“I know we’ve been busy today, Colt, but I have enjoyed it.”

“Me, too.” She gave me a soft smile, and I could feel the heat between us. She was beautiful, in more ways than one.

We walked over to the barrel and dumped the weeds inside. We burned them with other garbage from time to time in the barrel to dispose of them easily. I glanced at Daisy, fighting the urge to place a kiss on her cheek. The sun glistening off her made her beauty shine even brighter.

“Are we all set?”

“Yep. We can go in and clean up.”

“Good. I need a shower.” As we walked toward the house, Daisy leaned over to me. “Thank you for today. I needed this. Just this time together. It helped me not be taken away by my thoughts.”

“You’re welcome, and I know what you mean. I promise you; everything will be alright.” She nodded and I could see a hint of relief on her face.

As we entered the kitchen, I was taken aback by the delightful smell filling the air. I saw my dad stirring a pot on the stove, a big smile on his face.

“You two look like you’ve been working hard.”

“We got to the garden and got those weeds pulled.”

“I appreciate that. I just haven’t gotten around to it with everything else.”

“No problem. Daisy liked getting her hands dirty.” My dad had turned his back to continue stirring the pot on the stove, and that gave me the perfect opportunity to wink at Daisy after my joke. She hadn’t spoken, just stood there listening to our conversation.

“The food will be ready soon.”

“I need to go shower first.” My dad turned to Daisy.

“Of course. Yeah, you both need to go wash up. Supper will be ready when you get back.”

“Daisy, you can go on ahead and I will go after.” She nodded and walked down the hall.

“How did things really go today after the snake incident?”

“Things went good.”

“Daisy didn’t mind pulling the weeds?”

“No, she did good.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it. You dumped those weeds in the barrel, didn’t you?”

“Yep. Both buckets were full.”

“The garden look better now?”

“Yeah, it looks a lot better. I checked on the plants and they all looked good. Daisy was talking about when her mom used to plant a garden and make things from the vegetables.”

“I’m sure she’s probably thought a lot about her since being back here.”

“Yeah. She has mentioned her a couple of times to me.”