“Guess not.” He struggled to relax, to remind himself that Nature generally knew what she was doing. “First time I went through a foaling, I thought of my mother. Figured I should have cut her more slack. I’d rather have my tongue pulled out than go through this.”

“Actually, it’s more like having your bottom lip pulled out and over your head until it reaches the nape of your neck.” She laughed as he went white.

“Thanks for the visual.”

It would do him good to talk, she decided. And until the mare’s water broke, they had time. “Your mother moved to Florida, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, her and Frank. That’s the guy she married about ten years ago.”

“You like him?”

“It’s hard not to like Frank. He just goes with the flow and manages to turn the current in his direction without making waves. They’re good for each other. Up to him her taste in men sucked.”

“The divorce was hard on you?”

“No, it was hard on her.” Idly, he picked up a shaft of hay, spun it through his fingers. Then, to Laura’s amusement, he handed it to her as he had the flowers.

“I don’t suppose it’s ever easy. Divorce.”

“I don’t see why. Something doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. My father cheated on her from the get-go, never troubled to hide it. She just wouldn’t let go. Never could figure that either.”

“There’s nothing mysterious about wanting to hold a marriage together.”

“There is when it’s a sham. He wouldn’t come home a couple nights running, then he’d show up. She’d rant and throw things, and he’d just shrug and plop down in front of the TV. Then one day he didn’t come back at all.”

“Ever?”

“We never saw him again.”

“Michael, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.” Though her hands continued to soothe the mare, her attention was on him.

“Didn’t matter to me. Or not much.” He shrugged. “But she was miserable, and pissed, and that made it hard to be around her. I didn’t spend much time at home for a couple of years. Hung out with Josh, drove Mrs. Sullivan crazy thinking I was going to corrupt him.”

She remembered him. Remembered well, now that she allowed herself to, those brooding, dangerous eyes. And her reaction to them. “My parents always liked you.”

“They were cool. It was an eye-opener, watching them, you, what went on in Templeton House. Whole different world for a cliff rat like me.”

And the world he was describing was different for her. “Your mother married again.”