Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Gilbert stood the whole time at the fence, watching.
Summer often had parents watch their children’s sessions, and sometimes adults brought friends or relatives or even siblings or kids to watch their sessions as well.
In fact, more often than not she had someone standing at the rail watching her.
And she long ago ceased to be nervous about it.
She didn’t know why she was very conscious of Gilbert’s eyes on the back of her head at this point. She should be immune to that by now, but she found she wasn’t.
“Good job, Larissa. Cricket is really paying attention to you. Your feet are in the correct position, and you only need to straighten your back just a bit,” she called out to Larissa.
Larissa straightened her back, not realizing she’d been slouching, and continued around the ring.
Lucas rode with authority on Thatcher. Thatcher was a great horse, always willing and very careful of whatever load he held.
He had been great for Lucas. And she felt like Lucas and Thatcher had bonded.
She very seldom had to remind Lucas of anything that he needed to do, and Lucas was always very conscientious and considerate of Thatcher after they were done.
“Good job, Robert. Keep your feet out,” she reminded him as he came around, a big smile on his face. She returned the smile and noted that he obeyed immediately, his feet pointing in the proper direction as he passed her.
It was time for the kids to get off, but she was loathe to end their session. She didn’t have anyone else coming; this was her very last therapy session ever. At least on this farm, with these horses.
She’d almost not gotten through her conversation with Gilbert without crying.
She’d fallen in love with each of these horses, and it was going to kill her to see them go in all different directions, but she was serious when she said that they were going to good homes.
She really had knocked the price down way below what they were actually worth so that she could sell them before she moved and to good homes, where she knew they would be taken care of.
So often, people who didn’t know anything about horses bought them, thinking it would be easy, not realizing that they needed regular farrier care, vaccinations, grooming, their stalls cleaned out on a daily basis, and good, fresh, mold-free hay to eat, which was not cheap.
Often those horses got dumped off at an auction, since the same people who had bought them had no clue on how or where to sell them.
It was just a fact of life, but if she could help it, it wasn’t going to happen to the horses who had served her for years and helped her build her business. It would have been a roaring success if she hadn’t inherited so much debt from her parents.
Regardless, she wasn’t going to think about the what-ifs. She was going to get through this hard part and wait for God to open up His windows of blessing on her. She knew they were going to open, and at any time.
She just didn’t know how or when, and it might not be exactly what she wanted, but she knew it would be exactly what she needed. God was so good that way. He never gave her something she didn’t need. He always had her edification in mind.
“All right, guys. Let’s dismount, and we’ll untack the horses and brush them out.”
It was her favorite part. She loved riding, always had, but with the horses that she had, there wasn’t anything she loved better than brushing them and making them look beautiful.
Their manes and tails were so long and flowing, she would never get tired of looking at them.
The way they moved, the way they held their heads, the fluid grace that they had, combined with their beautiful hair and coloring, was enough to make her content to just sit and look at them all day long.
Not that she ever had that kind of time, but she would if she could.
She tried not to think about how this was her last session, her last call to dismount, her last time to watch the children brush out the manes and tails and give Thatcher and Bunny and Cricket all the attention they could, since they would be leaving over the weekend.
“Where are you going?” Robert asked once they had their horses tied up and had started brushing them.
“Today?” she asked, wondering why he wanted to know what her plans were for the day.
“No. Dad said we were going to move here, and I want to know where you’re going?”
“Oh. Right now, I’m going to be moving in with a friend in town, but… I won’t be staying there forever.”
“Why don’t you just stay here with us? You could live here. I would share my bedroom with you. Daddy said I was going to get my own all to myself.”
“Well, that’s very nice of you, Larissa. I appreciate that. But I think you and your daddy and your brothers need a place of your own without me interfering. Plus, if it’s not mine anymore, it’s kind of silly for me to stay here.”
“But I want you here. It won’t be the same without you. And if the horses aren’t in the stalls, and they’re not here to ride, it’s not going to be the same at all.” Lucas made an impassioned plea, which was rather out of character. Especially as he’d gotten quieter and quieter.
“I’m going to be fine, and so are you. Maybe your dad will get you horses, and you’ll have new horses to stay in the stalls and to ride.
And if you’re here and the horses are yours, you might be able to ride on the pasture field, which you were never able to do with me. Think about how much fun that will be.”
She tried to make it sound like it would be exciting and fun.
She didn’t want the kids to be sad. The whole point of her therapy sessions was to try to help them work through that, so that they could look forward to all the happy things that were going to be happening in their lives, and realize that they had the ability to take control of their emotions, and not feel like they were tossed and turned by every little thing that happened.
That was one of the problems the children had.
There was so much that they didn’t control, not just with death and suffering, but having to go to school and following their parents’ rules, which was very good, but being in charge of their own horse, riding it, brushing it, gave them the chance to be strong, be the one who was in charge, and realize that they could depend on themselves for certain things and that they weren’t completely powerless.
It gave them power that they weren’t used to and showed them that they were quite capable.
She thought it had worked well with the children, but she was disappointed she wouldn’t be around to see them grow up and to see the adults they would become.
If things had gone well, she would have stayed in Mistletoe Meadows until she died, but it probably wasn’t a big enough town for her to be able to open a regular counseling practice.
She needed to go to someplace a little bigger. Like Harrisonburg.
At last, forty-five minutes after their therapy session was supposed to be over, she finally said, “All right, guys, it’s time for us to pack it up.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Larissa said, sniffing and holding onto Cricket’s neck. “I may never see Cricket again.”
“We’ll make sure to visit her, honey.” Gilbert’s voice came from behind them.
Summer had been so aware of him when they were out riding in the ring, but she’d kind of forgotten about him as she watched the children take care of the horses, thinking about how far they’d come and how much the therapy had helped them and how much she was going to miss them.
The kids all protested, even Lucas, who didn’t want to leave Thatcher.
It broke Summer’s heart to see the children so unhappy.
And she wondered if all of the work that they had done in therapy was going to be undone.
They’d gotten over their mother’s passing, and they’d been taught self-reliance, patience, and a work ethic that included thinking of others before they thought of themselves, since of course, a horse person always had to take care of their horse first.
But maybe all of that would be lost in their grief over being separated from their beloved horses.
Still, in another five minutes or so, they had gotten in the car, with Gilbert giving her one last thoughtful look before he got in and drove away.
That’s when Summer finally allowed her own tears to fall, holding onto Cricket’s mane and crying softly. Everything she had ever known was being taken from her.
No. She was voluntarily selling everything she knew so that she could start another life, wherever God wanted her. She had to think about it like that. She couldn’t think about it any other way, or she wasn’t sure she would be able to function.