Lauraine Snelling (26 page)

“Hello?”

“Maggie, I’m sorry.”

She held the receiver away from her ear and stared at it. Was she really hearing Gil Winters’ voice?

“Maggie?”

“I’m here.”

“You didn’t answer.”

“What did you want me to say?”

“That I’m forgiven would be good.”

“You better ask for that from your son.”
Whoa girl, you do have your dander up
. She must have been thinking about Kool Kat too much.

“What happened to the silent woman I brought back from Los Lomas?”

“She’s breaking free.”

His voice had changed back to the usual deep, slow timber. “I was a jerk.”

“You’ll get no argument from me.”

“Eddie forgave me.”

“Good. He sets a fine example.”

“Is Breaking Free all right?”

“Bring lots of carrots and peppermint candies next time you come down to see him.” Maggie slid down against her pillows. Did she dare ask what set him off or be content with the apology?

“I will. Sorry to bother you.”

“No problem.”

“Good night.”

She responded in kind and hung up the phone. Talk about a weird evening.

The next morning when Maria took her to Rescue Ranch, Maggie got up the courage to ask for help.

“Sí, what do you need?”

“Next time before you go shopping, will you tell me who to call for an appointment to get my hair styled? Maybe next time you go to Bakersfield?”

“I go to Bakersfield on Friday, that be soon enough? But you get hair cut up here. I get the number for you.”

“Thank you.” Maggie lifted her cap and ran her fingers through her hair. “This needs help.”

“We could go before I pick up Eddie at school. I call.”

The next afternoon, Maggie kept wanting to look in the mirror on the van’s visor when they joined the queue of mothers waiting to pick up their children at school. After a good conditioning and a decent cut, she couldn’t believe the difference. She’d left the shop armed with hair care products and a tube of lipstick. Feathered back on the sides and moussed for body on top, her hair felt strange to even touch.

Eddie grinned when he saw her. “Look at you, Maggie. Like, wow.”

She could feel the heat rising from her neck. When she’d looked in the mirror she’d seen vestiges of the young woman she had been before the night that changed her entire life in one instant.

“Wait until Dad sees you. He’ll be impressed.”

“Thanks, Eddie. You think Breaking Free will like it?”

His hoot made Maria chuckle too.

Maggie left her ball cap in the trailer and leaned against the fence, watching Breaking Free graze. As soon as he saw her he wandered over to the fence to snuffle her, but when he sniffed her hair, he backed up, rolled his lips back, mouth open in horsey signal of yuck.

“What’s he doing?” Eddie called, rolling toward her as fast as he was able.

“He doesn’t like my hair.” Surely that feeling rising in her chest was plain old laughter, but it didn’t make it all the way to her mouth. She paused. “Where’s your dad?”

“He’s coming.” Eddie looked over his shoulder. No dad.

“You better go back.”

Eddie rolled his eyes and still laughing, wheeled back toward the house where Gil was just coming out the door. “Dad, you missed Breaking Free. He made a funny face.” He spun his chair. “Can you make him do it again, Maggie?”

Maggie shrugged and held out a carrot chunk. When Breaking Free came close, she bent her neck so he could sniff her hair, but he only took the carrot and ignored her. “Guess not.”

Gil joined Eddie at the fence, but kept his gaze on Maggie. “I like your hair that way.”

“Freebee didn’t,” Eddie replied.

“Thank you.” Maggie kept from touching her hair by a swift order to keep still.

“You ready to ride, sport? I need to get back to work.”

“You could always watch from the patio.”

“No, he needs to be here as an aide.” As they walked toward the barn, Breaking Free followed them to the gate and hung his head over the metal bars to greet first Bonnie, then Eddie.

With the three of them grooming him, it didn’t take long. The dust rising made Eddie sneeze. “See, I told you he would roll and get all dirty again.”

“That’s a horse for you.” Maggie agreed.

While the lesson went well, she could tell Gil was impatient to get back to the house so she said she’d do the night chores.

“But I . . .” Eddie caught a look from his father, patted his horse’s face, and dolefully wheeled away.

Gil stopped and turned. “I’d better tell you. I’ll be away for the next three days so you and Maria will have to work things out. And Sandra, Eddie’s mother, is coming for a visit at lunchtime on Saturday. You have my cell number on the pad in your trailer.”

“Have a good trip.”

The next day Maggie and Eddie were grooming Breaking Free and Maria was planting rust and yellow chrysanthemums in a half barrel in front of the barn to celebrate October. Maggie mentioned how calm he was now compared to how wild he had been.

“So what did you do?” Eddie stopped brushing.

“I spent a lot of time with him. The warden said he’d be put down if he couldn’t learn to behave so we worked really hard. The day that I got him to follow me in the round pen, we were doing a drill called joining up or natural horsemanship.”

“So what happened?”

“He came to me and followed me around like Bonnie does you.”

“I want to do that. Can I?”

Maggie paused. Did natural horsemanship take a person with two good legs or could Eddie do it? “Well, you’re good with your wheelchair, but you can’t flick a rope and turn at the same time. But you could turn, pause, and then flick.” She narrowed her eyes. Did she dare let Eddie try this? It wasn’t as if they were working with a wild horse. Nor a fear-crazed one like Breaking Free was in the beginning. But wasn’t life like that, take away the fear and everything worked better?

“Please, Maggie.” Eddie’s desire made her chew on her bottom lip.

“Let me think on it some more, and if I can figure out a way, we’ll give it a try.”

The shine in his eyes and the grin that stretched his cheeks were all the impetus she needed. But the question remained, would he be safe?

The next afternoon she took Eddie into the round pen and had him practice turning his wheelchair and flicking the rope. “You have to keep your attention on the horse at all times, so I’ll be the horse and you keep doing the turn and flick.” She trotted around the pen and when she slowed, he flicked the rope.

“Now you have to watch Breaking Free closely; he’ll give you the signals to tell you when he is ready to join up with you. When he hangs his head and he licks his lips, he’s getting ready. You’ll need to watch his eyes and when he starts throwing you glances, you lower your arms. When he comes toward you, turn away and let him follow.” By the time they had finished the trial exercise, both she and Eddie were exhausted.

Maggie fought with herself during the night over the wisdom of offering Eddie this chance. If it worked, his confidence would soar. If it didn’t, he could get hurt.

That afternoon Eddie raced up to the barn. “I’m ready.”

She led Breaking Free out and with Maria along they headed for the round pen. They could hear Bonnie’s plaintive howl from the house. She did not like being locked up and left behind. With Eddie and the rope in the center of the pen, Maggie walked Breaking Free to the rails and let him go. When she waved her arms, the horse tossed his head and broke into a trot, then a canter. When he turned to the center, Eddie flicked the rope at him, and the action sent him back to the rails. The circular dance continued for three rounds before the horse started looking at Eddie, then slowed and sure enough licked his lips. At Maggie’s quiet command Eddie quit flicking the rope, and Breaking Free turned to look at him. He took three steps forward so Eddie turned his chair and rolled a few paces away. Breaking Free followed.

When Eddie stopped, the horse stopped. The boy turned and offered Breaking Free a carrot chunk and then rubbed between his eyes and under the black forelock.

“You like me, huh, big horse?” He raised his arms, and Breaking Free allowed himself to be hugged by a small boy in a wheelchair.

Maggie didn’t bother to fight the tears, especially when she saw Maria’s tear-streaked face.

“You mean I could do this with any horse?” Eddie asked when she saddled up for his riding time.

“I don’t know why not. Although Freebee already was your friend, so other horses might not respond so quickly.”

“I want my dad to do this when he gets his horse.”

“That would be good.”
Please, Eddie, don’t go getting your hopes up too much
.
But then, when this kid prays for something, it seems to happen. Perhaps there is a lesson there for me.

“Thank you, Maggie.” He looked away, then bent his head. “I wish you were my mom.”

TWENTY-SIX

S
aturday morning Gil met Maggie at the barn, without his son.

Uh oh, Eddie told him about joining up
. “Good morning, did you have a good trip?” Maggie kept cleaning the stall.

“I did. But I have a question for you.”

“Oh.”

“Why did you choose to do the joining up exercise when I wasn’t here?”

Maggie knew this was coming. Why hadn’t she waited? “I went with it because it was something that would bolster Eddie’s confidence, and he wanted to do it so badly I couldn’t say no.”

“Even if it could have injured him?” His eyes narrowed and his tone bit.

“I knew it was safe and it was. He already has such a good relationship with Breaking Free that this was more for his benefit than for the horse’s.” She leaned her fork against the wall and trundled the wheelbarrow past him. “Gil, if you want me to help your son the best I can, you have to learn to trust my judgment.”
Even if I am an ex-con
.

He was gone when she returned to the barn.

She stared toward the house and watched him lean down to pat Bonnie before striding through the door. Well, I’ll be . . . either he was too angry to talk with her, or he wanted to think on it, or he had decided to trust her. Now if he’d only do the same with The Rule, as she’d come to call it.

Bonnie whined at the gate, then yipped. Maggie heard Eddie call her into the house. All the normal morning noises. Eddie would be down to ride pretty soon. She figured Maria would be making something special for the big lunch. But not a normal Saturday morning, that was for sure. Maybe she’d just take Breaking Free out for a ride on the horse trail.

Later when he was mounted, Eddie looked down at Maggie. “I want to ride by myself.” The set of his chin told her he was in a bulldog mood. She’d seen it happen only once before.

“Eddie.” Gil’s voice also wore an undertone of—what? Stress? Anger at her? Or most likely, he dreaded Sandra’s visit as much as Eddie did.

Play it cool, Roberts
. “Look, I have an idea. Instead of riding in the round pen today, why don’t we go out in the pasture? I’ll lead and your dad can be the aide.”
Please agree, Gil. We can diffuse some of the tension here before it gets to the horse too.

“Can we?” Eddie’s smile came back. He grinned at Maggie and looked toward his father.

“I guess so, if Maggie believes it is safe.”

Surely Eddie wouldn’t notice the slightly sarcastic tone in his voice
, Maggie thought. “Good, let me go get a lead shank and that way you can continue to hold the reins.”

Walking in the pasture did indeed make a difference. Breaking Free nodded along with his nose by her shoulder. Maggie didn’t dare turn around to see how Gil was doing. Why was it she could sense his feelings so easily? Like she had special Gil Winters radar. Breaking Free pricked his ears at kids playing ball in a field one over from theirs and stopped to look at a cat strolling along the top of the board fence. Maggie gave him plenty of time to look.

She looked up at Eddie. “See, when he reacts to something, you let him look until he relaxes again.”

“Good thing Bonnie isn’t along. She’d go after that cat.” Eddie leaned forward and patted his horse’s shoulder. “Good boy.” Breaking Free snorted, and Maggie walked forward again.

“The snort was his sign?” Eddie asked.

“One of them. What did his ears do?”

“Ah, I forgot to look. Sorry.” Going back up toward the house, Eddie looked down at his father. “How much time?”

Gil checked his watch. “An hour. But you need to get cleaned up.”

“Can Maggie come to lunch too?”

“I think it might be better, sport, with just us this time.”

Maggie breathed a sigh of relief.

“Can we bring Mother down to see Breaking Free? Maybe she could watch me ride?”

“We’ll suggest that.”

“She could help me brush him.”

Gil choked back a laugh. “We’ll see.”

When the doorbell rang at exactly noon, Gil motioned for Eddie to join him. With both Eddie and Bonnie at his side, Gil paused for a moment, gathered a breath, and reached for the doorknob. He plastered a smile on his face, winked at his son, and opened the door.

“Hello, Sandra. Come on in.” His insides were screaming,
Go away, don’t do this
. He stepped back and motioned her in. “Eddie, this is your mother.” She was still beautiful, but in a used sort of way; her smile seemed forced. Most likely she was as uptight about this whole thing as he was.

“Hello, Eddie.” Her voice was still musical, although he figured the deepness and slight rasp were probably the price she paid for smoking. He could smell cigarette smoke on her, overlaid with the musky perfume she’d always preferred.

“Hello, Mother.” Eddie nodded with a slight smile.

“It’s good to see you.” She glanced at Gil, obviously a plea for help.

“Maria has lunch all ready. We’ll be eating on the patio since it is such a nice day. The restroom is the first door on the left.”

“Thank you.” She handed him a shopping bag with wrapped packages. “I brought some things.”

“This is Bonnie, she’s my assistance dog.” Eddie stroked Bonnie’s head.

“Oh, well, I’m glad to meet you Bonnie.” Sandra smiled and reached to pat Bonnie’s head, but the basset drew back.