The Fake Husband

Erin glanced out the window. “Mom, it’s looking kinda gray. We might get caught in the rain.”

“No way. Maybe it’ll snow a little. Riding in the snow is fun, right?”

“Snow means temperatures around thirty-two degrees. That’s cold, Mom.”

“Oh, come on. It’s the weekend. Let’s live a little.”

“Okay. I guess.” After giving her a puzzled look, Erin addressed her tuna sandwich. “I hope I can find my gloves.”

She did find her warm riding gloves, and by the time the horses stood in the trailer and Hurry had been locked in the house, she’d found her enthusiasm, too. They sang with the Christmas carols still loaded in the CD player as they drove, ending with “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

“My favorite carol.” Erin sighed happily when they’d finished. “I remember watching you decorate a really tall tree with bows and hearing you sing that song.”

“You remember that? You were only two when I did the tree with the bows.” Discounted ribbon had been all she could afford that year. “That tree was about four feet high. You must have been on the floor looking up.”

“Seemed really tall to me. And I remember getting a fashion doll with a fancy red dress and shoes.”

“Which you promptly took off.” Not the name-brand doll, of course, but an inexpensive version. “That poor woman never wore clothes again.”

“After a while, her head got lost.”

Jacquie grinned. “You were playing doctor, I think.”

“That’s one way to cure a headache.”

They laughed together, and Jacquie tried to take a mental photograph to save against the time to come.

The wind was brisk and cold, the sky heavy with clouds as they unloaded the horses. Jacquie shivered as she swung into the saddle on Nina’s back. “Cold leather against your rear end. What a great feeling.”

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