Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“What’s up?” Fiona asked, moving to the living room window and pushing back the curtain so she could watch the paddock.
“I thought you might want to talk about that…” Tessa waved at Rhett.
“Or you want to tell me about Cade’s return.” She turned toward Tessa, who plopped on the couch. “The last I saw, you were heartbroken and crying into your spiced cider.”
“Well, yes.” Tessa grinned as wide as the whole outdoors. “When I got home last night, I found Einstein in his stall, deathly sick.”
“Oh, Tessa, I’m so sorry to hear that.” She splayed a hand to her chest.
“Fi, he almost died. It was horrible.”
Fiona scooted over to give Tessa a hug. “But he’s okay now?”
“Yes, but only because of Cade.” She went on to describe the harrowing battle they had to save her favorite mini’s life. “Cade came back to help me and decided to stay. And after that, the Christmas card just burned up the way it did for Wyatt.”
Overcome with emotion, Tessa’s eyes misted with tears.
“Wow.” Fiona dug a tissue from the packet in her purse and passed it to her friend. Then she cast a sidelong glance out the window. Through the glass, she could make out Jamie’s small form still at the fence, Rhett and Cade not far away.
“They’re fine,” Tessa said. “Cade’s amazing with animals. I’m sure he’s great with kids too, and Rhett seems—”
“I don’t know what he seems. I don’t know anything about him except he came out of a Christmas card this morning.”
“Okay, back up. Start from the beginning.”
Fiona told her what had happened. Her parents leaving for Arizona, Jamie’s meltdown, finding the card in a box of decorations, and how, in desperation, she asked the card for Rhett’s help.
Tessa listened without interrupting, but when Fiona finished, her friend’s expression shifted from curiosity to concern. “Your parents left this morning? Fi, why didn’t you call me?”
“There wasn’t time. Everything happened so fast. While you were fighting for Einstein’s life, my parents were dropping earth-shattering news.”
“Seems we both had a heck of a night.”
“Then Rhett was just there, and Jamie needed—” Fiona pressed her fingers to her temples. “I don’t even know how long my folks will be gone. Dad’s doctor said all winter, but what if it’s longer? What if they can’t come back at all?”
“You’ll figure it out.” Tessa patted her hand.
“Will I?” Fiona checked on Jamie again. He was still at the fence, still safe. “I couldn’t even handle one morning without them. I had to pull a stranger from another century because I couldn’t calm my own son.”
“You handled it. That’s what matters.” Tessa joined her at the window. “And for what it’s worth, you’re not the only one dealing with a time-traveling cowboy. It’s not easy for them either.”
“I imagine it’s not.”
“Cade gets easily overwhelmed by things we take for granted. Cars, phones, the internet. Last week he had a panic attack in an elevator. Too many people, too much noise, too much everything.” Tessa’s voice softened.
“That sounds rough.”
“He’s learning, but it’s hard. Really hard. And Wyatt is the same. Eliza says some days he just shuts down because he can’t process it all.”
Fiona absorbed that information. She’d been so focused on her own crisis, she hadn’t stopped to think about what this meant for Rhett. He’d been ripped out of his life, dropped into a world that made no sense, all because she couldn’t handle a meltdown.
“How do they do it?” she asked. “How do they just adapt?”
“They don’t. Not really. They survive it, one day at a time.” Tessa squeezed her shoulder. “But they’re not alone. That helps. Wyatt had the worst of it until Cade showed up. And now they have Rhett.”
Fiona glanced out the window again, her gaze finding Rhett. He stood with his hands in his pockets, watching Jamie with infinite patience. Cade said something that made Rhett nod.
Then Cade moved toward the paddock gate.
Fiona’s stomach dropped. “What’s he doing?”
“Probably going to check on the minis.”
But Cade wasn’t checking on the minis. He was opening the gate. He was walking in. And Jamie was scrambling through the fence rails after him, his small body slipping through before Fiona could even process what was happening.
“No. No, no, no.”
Tessa leaned closer to the window. “It’s okay. Cade’s got him.”
But Cade didn’t have him. Cade was lifting Jamie onto Cupcake, and Jamie’s legs were dangling on either side, and he was so small, so fragile, and the horse could bolt, could buck, could—
“He could fall. He could get hurt.”
“He’s not going to fall. Look, Rhett’s right there with him.”
Rhett was at Cupcake’s head, one hand on the mini’s halter, the other hovering near Jamie’s leg. Calm. Patient. Exactly like he’d been that morning when he’d stopped Jamie’s meltdown with nothing but a wooden top and deep inner calm.
But that didn’t matter. Jamie was on a horse. Her son, who’d never ridden before, who panicked when routines changed, who could spiral into a meltdown at the smallest trigger, was sitting on a horse in a paddock with two men she barely knew.
Every worst-case scenario flooded her mind at once. Jamie losing his balance. The mini spooking. Her son hitting the ground, his head cracking against the frozen earth, blood, screaming, the hospital, the guilt of knowing she’d left him with strangers who didn’t understand.
“I have to get out there.” Fiona was already moving toward the door.
“Fiona, wait—”
But she was through the door, across the porch, running toward the paddock with her heart hammering so hard she couldn’t hear her own thoughts. She shoved through the gate.
Jamie perched on Cupcake, fists tangled in the pinto’s mane, his grin beaming and unguarded.
“Mom! Look at me! I’m riding a real horse!”
Rhett stood at the mare’s head, one hand holding the halter, the other on Jamie’s shoulder. Cupcake stood square and calm, as if carrying a boy was nothing worth noticing.
Cade leaned against the fence, arms folded, watching.
Fiona stopped a few paces away. Words crowded her throat but refused to leave.
Jamie was fine.
More than fine. His shoulders were loose, his body at ease.
“Did you see me, Mom?” Jamie shifted in the saddle. Gentle Cupcake didn’t even blink. “Mr. Rhett lifted me up, and I’m riding all by myself!”
“I see you, buddy. That’s wonderful.”
Her eyes went to Rhett. He had put her son on a horse. While she’d been inside. While she hadn’t been there to say yes.
Rhett met her gaze.
“I want to ride some more!” Jamie’s eyes shone.
“That’s enough for one day,” Fiona said.
“One more time, Mom.”
This was the edge where things tipped.
“One loop,” Rhett said. “Then we stop.”
Jamie studied him. “One loop?”
“One loop.” Rhett clicked his tongue, and Cupcake moved forward.
Jamie laughed. Seven years of scaffolding and safety nets. Seven years of routines and tight control. And she had never given him this. The lift of joy without fear trailing close behind. Rhett managed it in minutes.
At the end of the loop around the paddock, Rhett stopped Cupcake and swung Jamie down. The boy bolted onto Rhett’s legs, locking his little arms around him.
“Thank you, Mr. Rhett!”
Rhett touched his head. “You did well, son.”
Son.The word stood out like neon.
Jamie darted to her. “Did you see? I rode a horse!”
“I saw.” She pulled him close, taking in his scent. “You were brave.”
“Can I do it again tomorrow?”
“It’s supposed to snow a lot tonight, so maybe not.” She looked past him to Rhett.
He stood a few steps back, watchful, as if waiting to see what she would do with the trust Jamie placed in him.
“Go on, pet Cupcake while Cade hangs out for a while,” she told her son. “I need a word with Rhett.”
“Okay,” Jamie bounded off.
Tessa came up to the fence. “Everything all right?”
“Fine.” Fiona didn’t look away from Rhett.
Cade pushed off the rail and went with Jamie.
Fiona moved closer. She was angry, but she’d called him here in the first place. This was all on her. “You put my son on a horse.”
“I did.”
“Without asking me first.”
“You were inside. The boy wanted to ride. The horse was gentle.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“What is the point?”
She held his gaze. “He’s my son. His safety is my call.”
“Understood.”
She turned to get Jamie, shaking inside while trying not to show it.
“He’s a good kid. Strong. Braver than he knows.”
Fiona looked back. “He had a rough morning.”
“We all have rough mornings. Doesn’t make us less strong.” Rhett’s gaze drifted to Jamie, who was now stroking Cupcake’s nose with reverence. “Just makes us human.”
The words settled in her chest, unexpected and uncomfortably accurate. She spent so much time managing Jamie’s challenges, preparing for his struggles, that she often forgot to see his strength. His resilience. The way he kept trying even when everything felt impossible.
Just like she did.
“I should get him home,” she said. “He’s had enough excitement for one day.”
“Probably wise.”
She called Jamie over, and he came reluctantly, dragging his feet, throwing longing glances back at the minis. Tessa and Cade waved goodbye, telling them to come back anytime.
Jamie clambered into the backseat, chattering away about Cupcake.
Fiona turned, and Rhett was there at the fence, hat in hand, waiting. “C’mon,” she said and waved at the passenger side. “Get in.”
She thought bringing him here would help, that Cade might ease the shock, maybe even take some of the weight off her. But Cade had his own life. Wyatt too. She’d called Rhett here, pulled him straight out of his world.
And now she had no earthly idea what to do with him.
* * *
A darkening sky, puffed thick with gray clouds, followed them home. Jamie’s joyous energy filled the car as he reenacted every second of his day with Cupcake.
“And then she sneezed! Right on my coat!” Jamie doubled over, giggling.