LATE SUNDAY MORNING, Cord finally relented and let Shallie help with the stall cleaning. She was appropriately dressed in worn jeans, a long-sleeved cotton shirt, old running shoes. And she looked as good as she had in the new clothes she’d had on the other day. She wore a ponytail tied on top of her head, and beautiful as her long chestnut hair was, this style revealed her elegant cheekbones and her smooth forehead. He had to force himself to stop watching her as they had their breakfast of decent coffee and microwaved leftover pizza.

As she’d said last night, it wasn’t as though she’d never cleaned stalls or groomed horses before; she explained that she often assisted Emma at the Horses Help stables. “I don’t have a problem with the housekeeping part of working with horses.”

With Mitch there, too, the work went quickly; the three of them mucked out the stalls, delivered fresh hay and fresh water, then brought the horses back to the barn.

All the while, they exchanged horse stories, some of them emotional, others amusing. Cord especially liked the one Shallie told them about a horse of Emma’s becoming “best friends” with a cat owned by the people who rented her the property. Napoleon the cat would leap onto the stall railing, then he and Charlie the horse would nuzzle each other.

As he prepared to leave, Mitch said he’d never enjoyed a session of stall cleaning more. “I’m going to tell Tina your cat and horse story. She’ll love it!”

Afterward, Shallie said she was going up to her room to shower.

“Me, too,” Cord said. “I mean,” he added with a slightly embarrassed grin, “I’m going up to my room, not yours.” Her laughter made his gaffe seem worthwhile. They all converged in the kitchen at around six, Shallie wearing black jeans, a fringed shirt and sandals. Carly was in new-looking jeans and a glittery tank top (which Cord was pretty sure belonged to Susan). She ended up driving to Bailey’s with Tina and Mitch, while Cord gave Shallie a ride. Their conversation continued on the theme of what she called “interspecies relationships.” Surprising how many stories they both knew. “Emma, more than anyone so far, helped me learn about animals, about how they relate to each other and how we relate to them,” she said with a smile he couldn’t miss even in the dim interior of the car.