A Cowboy’s Honor by Lois Richer Page A

Mommy.”
    “Really?” Dallas ruffled her hair. “Good for you. I don’t think I could count that high when I was five. You’re way ahead of the game.”
    A gong echoed nearby.
    Misty gasped. “My school is starting. I have to go. Emily will be waiting.”
    Gracie noted Dallas’s raised brow. “Emily is her attendant,” she told him quietly. “Each child has a specific person assigned. It makes them feel more secure. She met Emily yesterday morning.”
    “Got it.” He nodded, but the warm glow she’d glimpsed earlier had been doused. “Let’s go.”
    They walked together with Misty in the lead, widening the distance between them with every step she took. Gracie opened her mouth once to call her back, but Dallas caught her arm, shook his head.
    “Doesn’t she know the way?” he murmured.
    “Of course she knows it!”
    He raised one eyebrow. Since her daughter was already at the gate leading into the school, Gracie abandoned the argument, unwilling to admit it was she who felt ill-equipped to handle this next stage of development. For so long she and Misty had only each other.
    “Hi, Emily,” Misty crowed, showing her confidence that Emily would be there, as she had promised.
    “Hello yourself. Did you sleep in?” The young woman glanced at Dallas curiously.
    “I was up early. My daddy came to see me.”
    Gracie caught her breath at the ease with which Misty had accepted Dallas.
    “I heard about that. You are a lucky girl.” Emily nodded. “Dallas and I met last night.” She waited for Misty to reach her side. “See you later,” she said before they hurried inside.
    Gracie watched her baby with regret and with joy. Misty was growing more confident, more comfortable. Leaving North Dakota and the friends who’d seen them both through some tough times had been difficult, but it had been the right choice.
    “Are you going to the barn?” Dallas’s quiet question broke through her thoughts.
    “Yes. I’ve got a mare that’s due to foal anytime.”
    “Isn’t it late in the season?”
    “Maybe, but I had no control over that.” Gracie picked up her pace, heard him catch up. “Aren’t you going to work?”
    “Trying to get rid of me?” he challenged, a hint of mirth underlying his words.
    As if she could.
    “Elizabeth assigned me to shadow you, do whatever you told me to.”
    She frowned at him. “Why?”
    “Maybe she thinks we need the time together. I don’t know. Do you want me to ask her for something else to do?”
    Gracie thought about it for three seconds, quickly shook her head. There would be enough gossip about them circulating through the ranks. No need to add to it.
    “Okay then.” He followed her into the barn. “Tell me what to do.”
    The morning went better than Gracie had expected. Dallas anticipated her needs so well she managed to finish her work half an hour earlier than usual.
    “Now what?”
    “Elizabeth just bought a horse. She likes to rescue animals that have been mistreated, and this one definitely was. We need to check her out.”
    The mare whinnied at their approach, stomped hard to make her displeasure clear when Gracie undid the gate and stepped into her space.
    “Stay back,” she ordered. “Let me try to calm her. Two people will seem like a threat.”
    “Are you—”
    “Just this once, do as I ask!” Gracie pulled the carrot from her pocket and headed toward the horse, too irritated to apologize for her outburst. “Hello, Lady. Feel like a carrot?”
    Having already sniffed the treat in the air, Lady definitely was interested. Holding it out, Gracie coaxed her into an area of the corral where she had a better chance of getting close enough to check her wounds. But the mare had other ideas.
    She allowed Gracie to touch her mane, but when the carrot wasn’t forthcoming as quickly as she wanted, she pressed her head against Gracie’s chest and knocked her onto her backside. Snorting with disdain, the horse pranced off, head high in the