Free Marrying a Delacourt by Sherryl Woods Page A

caught sight of her first.
    “Hey, Grace, Michael almost fell off the horse,” he shouted. “Me and Jamie didn’t. Slade says we’re real naturals, didn’t you, Slade?”
    A lanky cowboy turned toward her and tipped his hat. “Ma’am.”
    “Hi, I’m Grace Foster,” she said.
    “Slade Sutton. I work over at White Pines. Harlan Adams sent me over to see if I could turn these three into cowboys.” He winked at the boys. “I’m doing right well with these two.” He gave a nod in Michael’s direction. “He’s another story. Doesn’t trust the horse.”
    “He’s a business tycoon,” Grace confided. “He doesn’t trust anything.”
    Slade grinned. “Ah, that explains it. Think he’d do better with a pretty little filly?”
    Grace stole a quick look at Michael and discovered he was taking the teasing in stride. “Oh, he’d like a filly, all right, but he still wouldn’t trust her.”
    “Okay, you guys, that’s enough.” Michael swung his leg over the horse and dismounted, fairly smoothly in Grace’s opinion. She had to wonder if some of his awkwardness hadn’t been for Josh and Jamie’s benefit, to give them a much needed sense of being better than an adult at something.
    He stalked straight to Grace, put his hands on her waist and hoisted her into the saddle before she could catch her breath to protest. “How does it feel up there?” he inquired, regarding her with amusement.
    Because she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of begging to be rescued, she settled herself more securely in the saddle and gave the question some real thought. “Interesting,” she said at last. “I like the vantage point. It’s not often I get to look down on a couple of tall men.”
    “Teach her, too,” the boys begged Slade.
    The cowboy looked up at her. “You care for a little spin around the corral?”
    “Why not?” she said gamely.
    He led the horse around in a big circle until she got the feel of being in the saddle.
    “Ready to try it on your own?”
    “Sure.” She listened carefully to his instructions, then followed them precisely. She was pleased—and more than a little relieved—when the horse obeyed her commands.
    “Another natural,” Slade commended her, helping her down at the end of the lesson.
    “Can we ride again?” Jamie asked, regarding the horse with longing.
    “Not today,” Michael said. “We have to let Slade get back to his job.”
    “I’ll be back around this time tomorrow,” Slade promised.
    The boys turned fearfully toward Grace, all of the animation drained out of their faces.
    “Will we still be here?” Josh asked, a telltale quiver in his voice.
    “You’ll be here,” Grace assured him. She and Michael had some serious decisions to make tonight, but in the meantime, the one thing she knew with absolute certainty was that Jamie and Josh weren’t going anywhere. Not yet.
    Unaware of the undercurrents, Slade merely nodded. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Michael walked with him toward his pickup, leaving Grace alone with the boys. Eyes shining again, Josh immediately started in with a blow-by-blow account of their riding lesson.
    “It was so cool,” he concluded. “It was the very best thing we ever got to do.”
    Grace smiled at his exuberance, but she couldn’t help noticing that Jamie hadn’t said a word. “Jamie, was it everything you expected it to be, too?”
    He lifted his too-serious gaze to meet hers. “Nobody has ever done anything like this for us before. No matter what you guys do with us, we won’t ever forget that you were real nice to us.”
    She thought she saw him blink back tears beforehe turned and ran off to the barn, Josh hard on his heels.
    “Jamie, what’s wrong?” Josh called out worriedly. “Jamie?”
    Grace couldn’t hear the boy’s mumbled response, couldn’t swear that she heard him fighting to choke back a sob, but she took a step after him just the same, then stopped herself. Jamie wouldn’t welcome her