Liz nodded. “Let’s go.”

***

They rode to the horse barn in comfortable silence. Two very different emotions rattled around inside Raylen. Hearing Liz say that watching him leave would be painful made him happy, but it was short-lived. He could see the future as plain as Liz did when she read the cards. Colleen was pulling up her roots and growing carnival wings right before his eyes. He’d always figured all five of the O’Donnells would settle down right there close to Ringgold. They’d all come to Sunday dinner when Maddie called them in like a hen with her chickens. And raise their kids together. If Colleen and Blaze got serious and wound up together, Rachel would hardly know her carnie cousins.

And Gemma? What did the future have in store for her? Would both of his sisters wind up living far away?

Maddie waved at them from the barn door where she leaned on a scoop shovel. When Raylen got out of the truck and then opened the door for Liz, Maddie tossed her shovel to the side and met them halfway. She wrapped Liz up in her arms and said, “It can’t be easy to watch your family leave like that. We’ve all lived in a close pile. I’m not so sure how much longer that’ll be the way it is. I saw the way Blaze looked at my daughter and it scares me. Colleen has always been the one with the…” She stumbled.

“The most pessimism.” Raylen smiled.

“No, the one who took care of everyone else,” Liz said.

“That’s right.” Maddie nodded. “I always thought she’d probably wind up with a nearby rancher who’d adore her.”

“Blaze is not a rancher, but he adores her,” Liz said.

“And that is probably the most important part. But right now, this minute, I think you need some good old hard work. I understand you ride?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Liz said.

“Well, start on the south side of the stables at the end. That’ll be Missy. A couple of turns around the forty acres over there,” Maddie pointed to her left, “should do it. You can ride as many as you have time for, and I appreciate the help.”

“Thank you, Maddie.”

“I’ll clean out her stall while you ride,” she said.

Raylen draped an arm around Liz’s shoulder and directed her to Missy’s stall. “She’s partial to this.” Raylen hefted a saddle from the stall and handed it to Liz. “Do you need me to put it on for you?”

Liz picked a bridle from a nail up above the saddle and started talking softly to the horse. “I can do it myself.”

Raylen backed up to the other side of the center aisle and crossed his arms over his chest. He’d make sure she had the hang of things before he went over to Danny Boy’s stall. The saddle might be too heavy for her. She might have trouble getting Missy to stand still while she cinched it up. Or she might need a boost to get mounted up and ready.