The Girl in the Window by Valerie Douglas Page A

strongest male influence, and Josh had loved him fiercely. He missed him just as fiercely.
    He’d been a good man, his grandfather, his word his bond. Josh only hoped he was half the man his grandfather had been.
    “Then it became a business and as with all things when it becomes a business, when you stop doing it just for the love of it, but for the money too, in time the money part takes over. It stops being about raising up a horse that loves to run, trot or pace, of the beauty of the animal, of their gait, of watching those magnificent creatures trying to outrun each other. It stops being about the excitement, the joy of it, and it becomes about trophies and cups, of prizes, of bigger, better, faster horses. You see it all over in sports, but in life, too. In sports you get players who hold out for ridiculous amounts of money, of tickets that are so expensive most folks can’t afford anything but the nosebleed seats. A company gets started by someone who does something for the love of it, then they die or retire and it becomes about the business, about dividends and stockholders, it becomes about the money. The good people leave, the ones who did it for the love of it, and are replaced by the ones who do it for the money.”
    It had already been changing when his grandfather had died.
    He sighed and looked at Fair, at that incredible animal, at the glory of him.
    “There are still some of us who do it for the love of it in pockets here and there. Russ wanted to give up on him, sell him again as he’d been sold before, but I thought we could save him. This time we would save him.”
    For the first time Matt chanced a look at her.
    She’d come back. Something had happened, but she’d come back.
    “I want to see if we can get the harness on him,” he said, “or, actually, if you can.”
    He was taking a risk, pushing her a little, but also trying to find a way to keep her here and involved.
    “This time without a fight.”
    It was also true. If Fair would let Beth harness him it would be easier than fighting him each time. Easier on all of them, and a step closer to racing him.
    Beth looked at him, something like relief going through her.
    She’d wondered what would happen next, if they’d just been working up to Fair being able to take the grass from Josh and then she wouldn’t be needed any more. She wouldn’t be wanted and she’d lose something else.
    “I’ve never done that,” she said.
    She’d never even been this near a horse, although she had always loved them, the grace and power of them, the beauty of them.
    Something inside Josh eased, a tension he hadn’t really known was there.
    “I can teach you.”
    For a minute Beth looked at him, a little twinge of trepidation going through her, but there was anticipation, too.
    There was kindness in Josh’s face – an openness. It was something in his eyes, in his expression. She had a sudden sharp desire to reach up and run her fingers through his hair, brush the thick tumble back from his forehead. As much to feel the texture of it as to touch him. She wasn’t even sure if that’s what he wanted, if he wanted the same things she did.
    She was afraid and she wasn’t.
    It was another step.
    That’s all life was, Ruth would have said, another step. It was a matter of putting one foot in front of the other until you were through the hard patches as well as the soft. Keep moving forward, because back was gone. You couldn’t stay still or you would die inside where it mattered.
    She’d been still for too long.
    “All right,” she said.
    Josh didn’t ask what had made her return.
    He realized then that he didn’t need to know. Not then, not right at that moment. Someday she might tell him or he would learn the reason why she’d run, but right now it wasn’t what he needed.
    What he needed was for her to keep coming back. A second chance.
    “Not today, it’s still too soon,” he said. “And first we have to teach you how. We can start that