his face. “You think that’s funny, huh?”
“Why Simon?”
Ted shrugged, not wanting to say that one of the shows he knew about from his mother was American Idol. She loved Simon Cowell, and maybe Ted wouldn’t feel so lonely if he had a dog here named Simon. Maybe then, it would be like his mother was close by.
“Seems like it fits,” he told Emma, because he didn’t need to get into all of his emotional issues with the woman. “I better go. See you later.”
“Yeah,” she said, backing up a couple of steps so he could move in front of her. “See you later, Ted.”
He wanted to stay near her too and ask her all kinds of things about herself. He’d tell her anything she wanted to know too—including how he’d gotten six years in prison—but he forced himself to keep walking.
Just because Nate had fallen in love at Hope Eternal Ranch didn’t mean Ted was going to. In fact, he was fairly certain Emma’s scream was really how she felt about him, and he didn’t need to put himself through anything unnecessary.
He needed to be here for three and a half months, and then he could return to Clydesdale with his head held high.
Chapter Four
Emma watched Ted round the corner, his stride straight and sure. How he possessed so much confidence, Emma didn’t know. When she’d looked up and seen the tall, broad-shouldered, shadowy figure….
The scream had been instant. So had the bottle throw.
Ted had some good reflexes too, and Emma was very lucky that bottle was made of plastic and not glass.
Embarrassment squirreled through her, getting into the really tight corners and making her mood turn sour. How did she keep running into him? She couldn’t get up any earlier to come feed the foals, and she shouldn’t have to.
“Maybe you should start later,” she mumbled to herself as she walked over to the industrial sink in the corner. She washed out the bottles and set them to dry for later. “All right, guys,” she said to her babies. “I’ll see you tonight.”
She left the stables, and the pink and yellow in the sky made everything sweeter. The last time she’d seen the sky like this, she’d been sitting with Missy out at the Frio bat caves. The sky was getting darker and darker then, not coming to life, but the feeling was the same.
There was a time between dawn and sunrise, and dusk and sunset, where the earth held its breath. Everything was calm and peaceful, and Emma had no worries, no doubts, and no insecurities.
She’d placed a kiss on Missy’s temple, and not ten minutes later, thousands and thousands and thousands of bats had come pouring out of the caves. Emma had never seen anything like it, and she’d stood there with her daughter in complete awe.
It had been a great experience for both of them, and when Emma had driven away last Sunday night, it was one of those times that she cried a lot on the winding roads back to Sweet Water Falls.
Thankfully, Ginger had been out on a walk with Nate, and Emma had managed to sneak through the house while Jess and Michelle shared a bowl of popcorn in the living room. By morning, her tears were dried up, the redness in her eyes gone.
A week and a day later, Ted had shown up, asking questions he had no right to ask.
She couldn’t believe that had just happened yesterday afternoon. It felt like he’d been on the ranch for a lot longer than that.
Emma returned to the homestead and poured herself a cup of coffee while the house cat, Frisco, wound between her ankles. She got out the sugar-free chocolate syrup and squirted in a healthy amount. With added cream, her cup no longer steamed, and it was more like a mug of hot chocolate with some slight coffee flavoring. Just the way she liked it.
The hot chococoffee was all she had in the morning, and since she wasn’t spiking her blood sugar, she counted it as if she’d eaten nothing.
She went into the office and pulled the cord to open the blinds, Frisco mewing behind her. The sunshine had started to stream over the Gulf of Mexico, and while there were a few islands between the ranch and the actual Gulf, Emma stood in the golden glow and fed off the energy of the sun, the sea, and the sky.
Another sip of her hot chococoffee, and Emma sat down at the computer.