she simultaneously realized two things, and they swept through her like a calming breeze.
She hadn’t responded to his advance. Not in any way that he could tell. So she hadn’t encouraged him to go further. He might have taken that wrong.
Or perhaps he was long past the stage of acting like a randy teen in the backseat of a car. Given the calm and serenity she had initially sensed in him, it was entirely possible that he wouldn’t rush into anything, but would take his time to see how matters went. What they used to call courtship, in the days before people started falling into bed together on the first date. Old-fashioned, but she discovered she liked the idea. Time to test the waters. Moving slowly. Finding out if things were right. Avoiding a heart-wrenching crash.
Relieved, she was able to turn and look at him with a smile. This time when heat flickered in his gaze, she almost believed it was real.
“Looks like it’s going to be a lazy day,” he remarked as he fed them scrambled eggs and some slightly browned toast.
“Do you have to go out?”
“I’m overdue for a day off. I don’t usually mind riding around in the gloom and rain, but today I may just stay tucked in. You can’t paint in here, can you?”
“Not well. I really need the light.”
“Oil lamps aren’t going to cut it.” He pushed his clean plate to one side. “I think we have a jigsaw puzzle or two tucked somewhere. But first I need to go look after Dusty.”
“Does he mind the rain?”
“Not a bit.” Craig grinned. “He’s waterproof. But his dry feed isn’t. I need to make sure it didn’t get rained on overnight. I’ll be right back.”
Sky decided to take the opportunity to step outside with her camera. Rarely at home did she see clouds sailing as low as they seemed to at this altitude. They almost appeared close enough to touch.
The day had grown markedly cooler, not that it ever felt hot to her here, but the damp combined with the dropping temperature made her feel like a cozy day inside that tiny cabin beside the fire would be perfect.
She snapped the clouds as they raced past, appearing to graze the treetops. It created the sense that if she just climbed a little higher she might look down on them as if she were in an airplane.
Walking around the corner, she also took pictures of Craig and Dusty. He didn’t wear his uniform today, but instead jeans and a thick flannel shirt. Only his felt Stetson remained.
She had no idea what she might do with these pictures, but she loved watching Craig with Dusty, the way they’d put their heads together as if communing, the way Dusty would nudge Craig and make him laugh. True companions, she thought, painted against a forest gone almost black in this light, with the deep gray of the clouds overhead.
Craig put some more feed in the bin beneath an overhang and added some water to the trough. Dusty nudged him again as if telling him to hurry, and the instant Craig stepped back, Dusty started to eat.
“I guess he was hungry,” she said as Craig came out of the corral. He looked tranquil again, as if he’d shed every possible worry and felt content with life just as it was. She envied that, especially since she found contentment only when lost in her art.
“That’s what he’d like me to believe, anyway,” Craig answered.
“You really think he can reason that much?”
He lifted a brow. “I can tell you haven’t spent much time with horses. Believe me, they think, they reason and I’ve even seen them lie.”
“How in the world can a horse lie?”
“You’d be surprised. Take the time he got a stone bruise. A couple of hours later he was limping on the wrong foot. I checked it three times. No new injury, but he wasn’t going to let up his demands for sympathy.”
She laughed, but the sound seemed deadened by the woods around. Pivoting, she snapped some more photos at random, just for something to do. Her hands wanted to be doing something entirely different.
All of a sudden a push on her back caused her to stumble forward a step.
“Dusty,” Craig said disapprovingly. “Leave the lady alone.”
She swung around and saw Dusty at the rail, only inches away. He hadn’t shown interest in her before. “Why’d he do that?”
“I think he’s decided he wants your attention.”
This close, she realized how large