in a ponytail with a few stray strands curling around her oval face. Freckles sprinkled her turned-up nose and her large brown eyes drew a person to her. Fringed in dark lashes, Slade felt their pull as she came to a stop only a few feet from Mindy and him.
Tory looked at his daughter. “I’m so glad you didn’t have to cancel, Mindy.” Then she turned those large brown eyes on him. “I’m sorry to hear about Mrs. Watson’s emergency. Will her niece be okay?”
“She just went into labor a little early. My housekeeper assures me everything will be all right and she’ll be back in a week or so.”
“That’s good to hear. I know she was excited about her niece’s pregnancy. First in the family.” Tory lifted her arm toward Mindy to take over being her support if she needed. “Come on, Mindy. Let’s show your father the barn.”
“I have a meeting I need to go to.”
“Dad-dy, just—” Mindy swallowed several times “—see Bel-le.”
Slade stared at his daughter’s face, lit with hope and eagerness, and he couldn’t refuse the invitation even though it would make him late. After all, she was the reason he worked fourteen-hour days. He wanted only the best care for Mindy, and that cost money. “Lead the way.” Sweeping his arm toward the barn, he followed the pair.
As he entered, surprisingly the only scents to assail him were hay and leather. Scanning the darker interior, he noticed how clean the barn was. A few stalls had horses in them but most were empty. “Where are your horses?”
“In the pastures.”
“How many do you have?”
“Fifteen and one pony, Mirabelle, or, as Mindy loves to call her, Belle.”
“Th-ere,” Mindy said, gesturing toward the last stall. She hurried her pace, her left foot dragging in the dirt.
Mindy stumbled. Slade lurched forward to catch her, but Tory had already steadied her. Mindy continued her fast pace toward Mirabelle, towing Tory behind her.
Tory quickened her step to keep up. “Whoa. Mirabelle isn’t going anywhere.”
“Haven’t seen—her in—lo-ong time.”
Slade scooped Mindy up in his arms and continued toward the stall at the very end of the barn. “It’s only been five days, sweetie.”
“Too lo-ong.”
While Tory swung the stall door open, he went inside with Mindy. She squirmed.
“Dad-dy, put me down.”
He settled his daughter in front of Mirabelle and kept his hands on her shoulders so she wouldn’t fall as she found her balance. Even though her surgery had been eight months before, it was still hard for her to keep her equilibrium at times.
She bent forward and threw her arms around the pony’s neck. Nuzzling the animal, Mindy giggled. “Isn’t she ugly? No—” she shook her head “—pret-ty?”
Slade inspected the pony’s golden brown coat and big brown eyes that suddenly reminded him of Mirabelle’s owner. “Very pretty.”
“You know Mirabelle has been waiting just for you so you could give her a good brushing. No one does it better.” Tory produced a curry comb and passed it to Mindy.
Tory helped Mindy position herself so she could start on the pony’s left side. With one hand clutching the mane, Mindy began her task. Tory stepped back toward the entrance, motioning for Slade to follow. Outside the stall she paused. Reluctantly Mindy’s dad joined her.
“Do you think we should leave her alone like that?” he asked, a frown creasing his brow.
“She’ll be fine. She’s done that half a dozen times now and loves to. It’s her private time with Mirabelle.” A giggle drifted to her, and Tory smiled. “See. I think she tells Belle her secrets.”
“What secrets?” Panic laced his question.
“All little girls have them. Who’s her favorite movie star? What songs does she like? Who’s her best friend at school?”
“She didn’t go to school this year. She’s being tutored at home.”
“Is she going to attend in the fall?”
Slade opened his mouth to answer, then clamped it shut. He glanced away. “I don’t know. It depends on her therapy and how fast she recovers.”
“Mindy’s so good with the other children who come for riding lessons. She misses her friends.”
Slade straightened, his jaw clenched. “I won’t have her go to school and be teased because she talks too slow and walks funny.”
“Kids can be very accepting.”
“And kids can be very cruel. Mindy’s gone through so much this past year because of the car accident that took her mother and caused her epilepsy.”
“But didn’t the surgery make the epilepsy better?”
“She hasn’t had a seizure, but at what cost?” Slade waved his hand toward the stall where his daughter was talking to the pony, frustration in every taut line of his body.
“Do you regret agreeing to the surgery?”
Slade plowed his fingers through his hair. “Yes—no. The doctors told me this was best for Mindy, that given time she would recover most of her speech and physical abilities. A few years from now we’ll hardly know she had part of her brain removed.”
“But it doesn’t make it any easier right now?”
“No,” he clipped out.
“I didn’t mean to intrude, but Mindy has become very important to me. I was hoping she could come more often to the stables to help out. She asked me to talk to you about it.”
“She did? When?”
“She called me this morning and asked.”
“So that’s who she was talking to on the phone. I thought it was one of her girlfriends. When I made that assumption, she didn’t correct me.”
“She wants to be my assistant and go with me to the hospital when I take Mirabelle next time.”
Slade relaxed the tensed set to his shoulders. “It’s hard for me to say no when Mirabelle is the reason my daughter would cheerfully go to the hospital for her physical therapy. Before Mirabelle, Mrs. Watson and I had a horrible time getting Mindy to go. Now with the promise of seeing the pony, she’ll do just about anything.”
“Animals can be great therapy for people. That’s why I started my riding stable for people in need, especially children. So what do you say about Mindy helping me out?”
“Let me think about it. That’s asking you to do a lot for Mindy.”
“I don’t mind. If I didn’t want her
