Epilogue
“This is scary. It’s really scary!”
“Put your hands here,” I said, and showed her how to hold on. “I’ll be right next to you. Do you like dogs?”
“Yes,” the little girl told me. “But this is bigger than a dog!” She had been hiding at the back of the group and staying as far as she could from the horses, but eventually her turn had come.
I had held her hand to walk over to Smokey, who really was the most dog-like horse in the world.
And just like our other horses, he ate his head off and needed more care than anyone would have ever guessed, and I was very happy to give it to him.
“He’s bigger but he’s just as sweet. Squeeze him a little with your legs so that he knows it’s time to start.
” I clucked my tongue and Smokey knew what to do, so we started our slow circle around the ring while I told her about this sweet, silly horse.
“Last Easter, my sister made him a big hat and he loved the attention he got when he wore it. I think he was posing for the pictures we took.”
“Really? He wore a hat?”
I nodded. “He looked beautiful,” I assured her. We kept talking and circling and after a while, the little girl relaxed and started to smile, and she released her white-knuckled grip on the saddle horn to pat his neck. She stayed to pet him more when the ride was over, too.
“I want to do that again!” she told me. “I could learn how to do it myself, alone.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “You could do that. Smokey and I would be very happy to see you here.”
But for now, the visit was over. Regina came out to the barn to help the teachers round up their students and herd them back to their bus.
Everyone always listened to her, even the horses.
She drove to the cabin two or three times a week because she’d gotten a little bored in her retirement, and plus, we loved to see her.
She would be going away soon to visit Pinar and her new baby, and then she would hurry home to Michigan because there was a lot happening this summer.
“They were a nice group,” she said when the yellow bus had pulled away.
Keon had helped to expand the driveway so there was room for them to turn around easily, and his daughter’s class had been the first to come when we’d opened the barn for visitors.
We had hosted kids from schools and from group homes, bunches of senior citizens, and any other people who wanted a low-key, easy way to hang with horses.
We could have been busy all the time, but Theo kept telling me to slow down.
Regina said the same thing now. “Sit and I’ll get you something to drink,” she ordered when she saw me wiping my face.
She bustled up to the house and as she did, Theo came out of it.
His new pediatric practice had much different hours from what he’d worked before, so he was home a lot and regularly.
That was good for the fish and the horses, since they loved him so much.
That was even better for me, since I loved him more.
“Grace,” he called, and he smiled like he always did when he saw me. I stood up from the bale of hay where I’d made myself pretty comfortable and I realized I was smiling in just the same way.
“Hi,” I said, and I also heard the smile in my voice. It really was impossible to hide your happiness when you were with him.
“How are you guys?” he asked as we kissed, and he didn’t just mean me and Smokey.
It turned out that when you went on vacation and decided to have sex all the time without even thinking about birth control, you could bring something home with you.
I didn’t only mean the beautiful earrings I’d bought while we were in Fernando de Noronha or the few mosquito bites I’d gotten, either.
At the end of the summer, after we hosted the wedding of Regina’s son, we were going to welcome another Curran baby.
It would be a Winter baby, which was somewhat confusing since it would happen in August. I’d found myself explaining it more than a few times.
“We’re great,” I said. “We’re just about to clean some tack, except I don’t think the baby will be much help.
I wouldn’t expect him to do much for at least a few years.
” But from what I’d seen of my nieces and nephews, kids were pretty amazing.
I was excited to see what a tiny little guy who looked like my husband would be able to accomplish.
“What about if I clean the tack, and you sit and drink more water?” Theo suggested.
“You didn’t sleep very well.” Out of habit, his hand went to his jaw.
It didn’t hurt anymore since he wasn’t grinding his teeth at night, and I wasn’t kicking, either.
We usually slept very nicely but I was getting a little unwieldy and moving around in bed was difficult.
At this point, I was more the size of a bear before they entered torpor for the winter, and I didn’t really care for bears.
His jaw didn’t hurt anymore but he still worried, especially about me and the baby, so he needed to relax.
“You sit with me,” I suggested, but he thought it was an even better idea for me to sit on his lap, because he was interested in kissing me.
That was how Regina found us when she came back to the barn.
“You two,” she scolded, but she was smiling. As I’d said, it was impossible not to when you saw Theo. He had something in him that made his little patients relax, their parents trust, and me love him more every day.
“I can’t help it,” he told Regina. “When I see Grace…” He kissed me again. “You just have to love her.”
“I knew how you felt five years ago when you met her. It was as plain as the beak scar on her arm.” She pointed at the mark that had never totally gone away. “That was why I thought it was a good idea to hire her for the temp job,” she continued smugly. “It was a very smart decision.”
“It was a great decision. I remember when we took a walk around the fake lake and you talked about your favorite memory,” he told me. “You smiled up at the sky and threw out your arms like you were reliving it, and I looked at you and knew that you were the woman for me.”
“It didn’t happen gradually?” I asked.
“No. It was as shocking as getting smacked in the face with the fish tank water when I pulled your arm out of that old filter. It was a lot more thrilling and a little scary.” Theo smiled again. “It was also the best thing that ever happened to me.”
That was true, and amazing things were going on all the time.
You could suddenly meet a person who made your heart fill with so much love and happiness that you might burst with it.
I didn’t keep my lists anymore, since I’d checked off all the important items. But if you were going to make one for yourself, I would put “stick your hand in an aquarium” right at the top.
Because you just never knew when something wonderful would come.