Carly decided, for now, to go with the feeling-sick excuse. At some point soon, she’d tell the truth; she owed that to Tina, not to mention Cord and Shallie. “I felt…like I had to throw up.”

Tina’s expression instantly became sympathetic. “Oh, you poor thing! Are you feeling any better?”

“A little.” Actually she felt worse. Now she really did feel sick to her stomach, nauseated by her lie.

Yes, she wanted to tell the truth—would tell the truth. But how? When? Maybe she’d get Shallie’s advice.

AS THEY CAME back inside after another successful session, Shallie said, “Looks like Carly and Tina are still out. Why don’t I fix us sandwiches?”

“Thanks.” This wasn’t typical of his clients. But Shallie was more than a typical client. Not that he’d ever had a history with any of the others. “I’ll go check my calls while you do that.” In his study, Cord found a voice mail message from a potential new client and phoned back. “Mr. Lewis?” he said when a man answered. “It’s Cord Hollister.”

“I’m Leonard, but call me Len. As I mentioned, my wife and I are interested in doing one of your horse-training sessions.” He chuckled, and Cord liked the sound of his laugh. “I suppose that should be people-training sessions.”

“Some of both. I’d be happy to work with you. However, I have a current client who’s staying in the suite, so…”

“Not a problem,” Len assured him quickly. “My wife, Mary Jean, and I are recently retired and—as it happens—we have a nephew living in your town. We’ll be able to stay with him. It’s Ted Lewis, your fire chief, who’s also in a band called The GateCrashers.”

“Of course! And is that how you learned about my business?”

“Yep. And I should add that we’re considering getting involved with a therapy group, one that focuses primarily on kids.”

Cord heartily approved and they made arrangements for the older Lewises, from Missoula, to arrive next Monday.

Cord thought about this new situation and decided he’d ask Shallie to stay for an extra week, maybe two, at no charge, on the pretext of requesting her help with the Lewis sessions. Not that he didn’t believe she’d do an exemplary job; he knew she would. But he didn’t want her to leave. It was too soon to tell her that, though.

He’d come to realize that not only did he want her to stay, he wanted her to stay here, with him. The more he saw of her, the more he liked. There was so much he hadn’t recognized—or understood—in the past, and he hoped he could make up for that now.