Free Someone Like You (Night Riders) by Leigh Greenwood

herself, from platters of eggs, pork, and fried potatoes. “What do you have in mind for today?”
    “I’m taking Luis riding. I’m going to pack into one morning everything he should have learned by now.”
    Maria looked hardly less dismayed than the boy. “Do you think that’s wise?”
    Rafe didn’t like the way Luis looked to Maria as if he expected her to protect him. “I won’t know until I see how much he can do. Do you ride a lot?” he asked the boy.
    Luis didn’t meet Rafe’s gaze. “Not often,” he mumbled into his plate.
    “How often is
not often
?”
    Maria answered for the boy. “Not at all since last summer. There was no one to take him.”
    “Don’t you ride?” he asked Maria.
    “I have no need. Whenever I feel the need for exercise, I take a short walk along the road to town.”
    “You’ve got some fine riding stock in the stable.” Broc had helped himself from most of the dishes on the table. “But I didn’t see Luis’s pony.”
    “He doesn’t have a horse,” Maria explained.
    Rafe could understand his father’s withdrawal from the house hold to avoid Dolores, but he had bought a new pony for Rafe every year until he was big enough to ride a regular horse.
    “Wouldn’t it be better to wait for the riding lessons until you can purchase a suitable mount?” Maria asked.
    “The pony I brought is for Luis. I’m sure one of my old saddles will suit him.”
    Luis’s eyes grew wide. “Is it really mine?”
    Rafe smiled. “Who did you think it was for?”
    “I never had a pony. I won’t know how to take care of it.”
    “Someone in the stable will do that,” Maria said.
    “A boy should know how to take care of his own horse. Take care of your horse, and it’ll take care of you.”
    Luis didn’t appear to know whether to be pleased he had his own pony or worried he would be expected to take care of it. Rafe decided that even if Maria were the most wonderful woman in the world, Luis needed a male role model. There were some things a woman didn’t know about being a man.
    Rafe could tell Maria wasn’t happy with the idea because she ate almost no breakfast. He didn’t know how much Luis normally ate, but it didn’t seem like enough. He didn’t take it as a good sign that the boy could be thrown off his feed so easily. A man ought to have the courage to face challenges, maybe even be excited by them. He blamed his father for ignoring the boy.
    “Where would you like to ride?” Broc asked Luis.
    “I don’t know.” The boy answered so softly, Rafe could barely hear him from across the table.
    “There must be some place you like to visit.”
    Luis shook his head.
    When he was Luis’s age, Rafe had liked riding out to see the mares with their new foals, but most of his favorite places had been in the foothills east of their ranch. He’d found sunny meadows, one spooky cave, cracks in the rocks where he could hide, and several places that offered spectacular views of the valley below.
    “I don’t encourage Luis to wander far from the house.” Maria’s tone was mild, but Rafe sensed disapproval. “We’ve had several reports of cougars in the mountains east of the ranch.”
    He remembered the occasional loss of livestock to a bear or one of the big cats, but that had always resulted in a hunt for the offending animal. Those hunts had provided some of the most exciting moments of Rafe’s teenage years. He decided not to mention them to Maria.
    “I’m sure Rafe can show you a lot of interesting places,” Broc said to the boy. “I had my own favorites growing up in Tennessee. I remember one particular swimming hole. It was just a deep place in the creek, but it was shaded by a bunch of trees. It was a treat to go swimming there on a hot August afternoon.”
    “Luis doesn’t know how to swim,” Maria told Broc.
    “Why not?” Rafe asked.
    “There’s no one to take him.”
    When Rafe had once asked his mother why women didn’t swim, she’d told him that no