Tom seemed genuinely happy to hear the colt was ready to come back to his ranch, and even happier to hear the colt had done well with his training. He had done so well, in fact, that Jessie offered to buy him right there over the phone, and told Tom to just name his price. Her thought was to get the colt and give him to Henry as a gift, but in hindsight, she realized that her enthusiasm about the colt did nothing to help deter Tom from wanting to keep him in the first place.

Jessie broke the news to Henry the next morning over breakfast—Tom would be coming by about midday to pick up the colt. At first Henry seemed unaffected by what she said and ate his breakfast and visited with Jessie just as they did every morning. Near the end of the meal he suddenly stopped eating, looked out the back door and said almost inaudibly, “I’m gonna miss him.”

Tom, unencumbered by all the traffic hazards that had plagued him when he delivered the colt months earlier, showed up with his trailer at the ranch along about eleven-thirty that morning. He had called Jessie when he stopped in Grant to fuel up, so Henry had plenty of time to get the colt groomed and saddled before he arrived. Henry tried to be as businesslike as he could while getting the colt ready, but still found himself lingering through the process more than he normally would. The colt, sensing something was different, refused to take his eyes off Henry and twice nickered to him when he went into the tack room to retrieve his saddle or put the brushes away.

Jessie brought Tom across the yard and toward the arena, where Henry would bring the colt and put him through his paces so Tom could see what they’d done with him.

“So he turned out to be a good horse after all?” Tom asked Jessie.

“He sure did,” Jessie forced a smile. “One of the best I’ve seen in a while.”

“I gave a little thought to your offer to buy him,” Tom said, clasping both hands behind his back as they walked. “I’d like to get him home first and see if he’ll work for us on the ranch.”

“I understand. But please do keep me in mind if you don’t think he’ll work for you. We’d love to have him around here. I wouldn’t mind breeding some of my mares to him sometime down the road either, so if you decide to geld him, I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a call first so we could do that beforehand.”

“Fair enough,” Tom nodded. “Say, I heard you had some kind of accident. How are you doing?”

“Oh, I got a little dinged up, but I’m fine now. Thanks for asking.” Jessie looked up and saw Henry bringing the colt, saddled and bridled toward the arena. “Here they come.” She nodded her head in their direction.