A Father In The Making by Carolyne Aarsen Page B

could sit there.
    â€œI have to go into town,” Nate said. “I could take you.”
    Mia’s shake of her head was automatic. Nate knew that by now. “No. It’s okay. I’ll just go next week.”
    â€œYou need to get things started as soon as possible,” Nate said. “I’m going, anyway. Give me a few more minutes and we can get the kids moved around.”
    Mia was about to shake her head again and then he saw her pull in a deep breath of resignation. She shot him a look of sheer gratitude, but still seemed to feel the need to add one more token protest. “Are you sure?”
    Nate didn’t even bother replying. He pulled the van door open and asked Nico and Josh to come out. “You take out Grace’s car seat, I’ll catch Jennifer’s,” he said to Mia, looking down at Jennifer, who was grinning a drooly smile. He grinned back at her. She waved her hands and giggled and he felt a curious hitch in his heart.
    Again, enough. He unbuckled her car seat and carried her, seat and all, back to his truck.
    Fifteen minutes later the kids were all buckled in and they were on their way. Five minutes into the trip the twins fell asleep and Nico sat quietly, playing with the old Nintendo.
    â€œThis is a great day,” Josh said, sitting up straight, his eyes glued to the road as if he had never seen it before. “I got to ride a horse and I get to sit in the front of Nate’s truck.”
    â€œMr. Lyster,” Mia gently corrected.
    â€œI don’t care if he calls me by my first name,” Nate said, waving off her protest. “Mr. Lyster sounds like a character from a kid’s book.”
    â€œWhy do I have to call him Mr. Lyster when you call him Nate?” Josh pressed.
    â€œBecause it’s polite, that’s why,” she explained in a patient voice.
    â€œNow I feel old,” Nate joked.
    â€œYou’re hardly old,” Mia returned. “I’m sure you still buy green bananas.”
    Nate chuckled at that. “The few times I go grocery shopping.”
    â€œI understand you don’t have your own place?”
    â€œI mostly rent when I need to stay in one place for a while to work with the horses. I think the last place I called home was the Norquest ranch.”
    â€œHow long were you there?”
    â€œI moved onto the ranch when I was twelve. Stayed there until Denny and Lila got divorced and Denny had to sell the ranch.”
    â€œIs that when you started working with cutting horses?”
    â€œI started before that. Before I got to the ranch.”
    â€œDid the Norquests raise cutting horses?”
    Nate leaned back, his wrist resting on the top of the steering wheel as he slipped back to the past again. “Nope. Karl did. My stepfather.”
    Mia was quiet a moment as if digesting this information. As if trying to figure out the convoluted path Nate’s life had taken to end up at the Norquests’. He wasn’t about to tell her.
    â€œSo what does a cutting horse do?” she asked, thankfully veering away from that topic.
    â€œYou got ten hours?” he asked, slanting her a grin.
    â€œTwenty-four minutes,” she returned.
    He just laughed, surprised how easy she was to be around. “It’s not that interesting.”
    â€œI’m interested,” Mia put in. “Tell me.”
    â€œBasically, a cutting horse is used to cut animals out of the herd when they’re out on pasture. If you have a calf you want to vaccinate, or a cow you want to check, a cutting horse can separate them and get them where you want them. It’s how animals were handled out on the open range and still are on the larger spreads. Over the years it turned into a competition. That’s what I do.”
    â€œAnd how do you do that?”
    â€œWell, that’s where the ten hours of explanation comes in.”
    â€œMommy, I’m tired,” Josh said with a yawn.
    â€œJust lay