“Kid wants to gallop full out in the worst way. Wants everything full out. You gotta admire that. But she listens. She learns. I’m crazy about her.”

Laura blinked against surprise and sunlight. “She . . . she’s full of Mr. Fury and his horses every time she comes back from the stables.” Determined to relax, she sat on the rock, and barely jolted when he joined her. “She’s starting to lose interest in her dance lessons.”

“I don’t want to mess with your plans.”

“No.” Smiling now, Laura shook her head. “She only wanted them because Ali had them. That’s Kayla, always determined to keep up.”

There were tiny blue flowers fighting out of a crack in the rock toward the sun. In an absentminded move, Michael plucked one and offered it. “Did you get her that drawing instructor?”

Surprise again flitted into her eyes. How odd that he should remember those little family details. “As a matter of fact I did find someone.” She glanced down at the bloom in her hand, wishing she could take those habitual offer of flowers as casually as he did. “She’ll start next week.”

“Kid’s got real talent. Me, the only way I can draw is with a ruler. About Ali.”

“She’s going through a difficult time. She’s not as flexible as Kayla, or as resilient. She’s so easily bruised.”

“She’ll come around.” He took her hand, playing with her fingers. “The riding lessons. I don’t know how far you want me to push it.”

With a sigh, Laura studied her older girl, sitting so ladylike on the ground beside Margo. “If she isn’t cooperating, there’s no reason for you to push anything.”

“Laura, she’s a natural.”

“Excuse me?”

“The kid sits a horse like she’s been doing it all her life. She’s got this kind of baffling grace. And she listens to me as if what I’m saying is etched in stone. It’s scary. If you want to pursue this for her, you might want to look for someone with more experience in teaching than I have.”

Staggered, Laura stared at him. “She never says anything. Kayla comes back talking a mile a minute, and Ali just shrugs and says it was fine.”

“Kayla’s a bullet. Ali’s a song. She’ll sing when she’s ready.”

How could he know her children so well? she wondered. How could he see inside and understand their hearts so well, so quickly?

“She trusts you,” Laura said slowly. “Trust isn’t easy for Ali these days. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to stick with it. She needs something so badly right now, and I don’t seem to have whatever it is.”