grin. “Nah. I’m just kidding. And you don’t feel like a stranger to me. That might sound weird, since we only met the one time when you rescued those puppies, but after the girls’ night sleepover my daughter had at the farm with you and Bryn, she hasn’t stopped talking about you. She holds you in pretty high regard, and for a girl of only ten, Mandy is a pretty good judge of character.”
Elle smiled. “I hold her in pretty high regard as well. She’s pretty special. And smart as a whip.”
“Yeah, sometimes she’s too smart for her old dad.”
I doubt that. “I’ve been helping Bryn with the marketing and business end of the horse rescue, and even taking care of the animals a little. Whenever Mandy is over, she’s a great help. She’s seems older than ten.”
He chuckled. “That’s what happens to an only child who spends the majority of her time with adults—she starts to think she is one.” He moved forward in the line. “She was pretty young when her mom died, barely five, so it’s just been the two of us for quite a while now, and sometimes she acts like she’s the parent of me.”
“Do you need an extra parent?”
He laughed again. “Probably.”
“I’m sorry about your wife,” she said, softening her tone. “That must have been so hard.”
He shrugged. “It was. Sometimes still is.” He rested his hand gently on her knee and gave it a light squeeze. “But it does get easier.”
Elle swallowed again. “Thank you” was about the most she could whisper.
“I knew Ryan. He was a couple years younger than me in school. But he was a good guy. I was awful sorry to hear about his passing.”
She whispered, “Me too.”
He narrowed his eyes and gave her a hard nod. “From everything Mandy tells me, you’re stronger than you probably think you are. She was pretty dang impressed at the way you saved those puppies.”
“For the record, Zane’s the one who crawled down in that storm cellar and brought out the puppies and the mama dog. That poor girl was close to death.” She shivered at the memory of that day and remembered how thankful she’d been that Brody had been at the ranch when they’d pulled in. The cowboy-slash-veterinarian was the person they’d needed the most. That was the only time she’d met him, and she’d been so emotionally wrought up in saving the half-starved mother dog, she hadn’t paid much attention to him. But she was certainly paying attention to him now.
“How about we call it a joint effort and just be thankful it all worked out,” Brody said. “Except I’m not sure it worked out so great for me.”
“Oh?”
“Mandy’s been working on me all summer trying to convince me we need to adopt one of those pups.”
Elle grinned. “They are pretty hard to resist.”
“Not if you’re a veterinarian who sees cute puppies on a regular basis.”
“True. But adding a cute, tenacious ten-year-old to the mix probably takes the pressure up a notch.”
“Excellent point. And speaking of that tenacious ten-year-old, no pressure, but she seems to think you all are going to the swimming pool together sometime this summer.”
Elle laughed. “She’s right. I did tell her we’d do that. Thanks for reminding me.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to. I love to swim. And she’s good company.” A grin tugged at her lips. “She offered to be my best friend.”
Brody shook his head, but Elle noted the way his Adam’s apple moved as he forced a swallow. “Dang, that girl does wrench at my heart sometimes.”
“She got me too. I almost started bawling when she said it.” Elle noticed an older model minivan pull in behind them, a tired-looking woman at the wheel. A bored preteen sat in the passenger seat staring at her phone, and two younger girls were having a heated argument in the back. A stuffed animal came flying over the seat and hit the woman on the side of the head.
As she watched the mother turn and scold the girls in the back, Elle’s gut twisted in a jumble of jealousy and grief. She didn’t often let herself imagine the life, and family, she and Ryan would have had—it hurt too much to go there—but sometimes the extreme unfairness of it all hit her like a sucker punch to the kidney.
“That’s Kimmie Cox,” Brody told her after turning to see what had captured Elle’s attention. “I went to school with her, and her middle girl is in