Sam’s my friend. She can be your friend, too.”
The boy glanced around and saw Zach and Beth.
Without thinking, Zach walked over to the pair and took the apple from Sophie’s hand. Her startled gaze locked with his. The connection was instantaneous and well remembered. Silently, he asked her permission.
Her nod was almost imperceptible.
Zach hooked his cane over his left forearm and put the apple into his right hand.
“You need to make sure your hand is flat. It makes it easier for the horse to get the apple if your fingers are not in the way,” he explained. “I’m sure Sam wouldn’t want to bite your fingers, so you have to make it easy for her.”
The boy’s eyes widened.
Zach showed the boy how to hold the apple, then offered it to the horse. Sam opened her mouth and took the apple.
“Wow. Can I try?”
“Sure.” He looked at Sophie.
She stood and walked over to the barrel by one of the wooden porch columns, opened it and pulled out another apple. She gave it to Zach.
“Open your hand,” Zach instructed the boy. When he looked up, doubt colored the youngster’s eyes.
“Would you like for me to help?”
He nodded his head. “’Kay.”
Zach moved behind the boy. Zach wished he could’ve squatted, but the prosthesis wouldn’t allow it. Instead he put the apple in the boy’s outstretched hand. “Now, be sure your fingers are out straight.”
Zach slipped his big hand under the boy’s and they moved their hands to the horse’s mouth. Sam’s lips and teeth picked up the apple.
The boy giggled. “That tickles.”
Sam chewed happily. Zach grinned.
Sophie’s eyes twinkled. The lady’s impact on him hadn’t diminished over the years.
She stepped to their side. “Would you like to ride Sam?” she asked the boy.
“Okay.” He turned to Zach. “My name is Andy. I come here to ride. Mom says riding’s goin’ to help me. Is that so? What if I fall off the horse?”
He was way over his head here. Zach glanced at Sophie, hoping for some sort of direction.
“You don’t have to worry about falling, Andy. You see all the other people around here walking beside the riders? That’s to make sure no one falls.”
Andy looked around. “Oh.” He turned to Zach. “Are you here to help me? Will you walk beside me?”
The question took Zach by surprise.
“This is Zach’s first time here,” Sophie explained. She stood on the other side of Andy. “He doesn’t know how to be a sidewalker.”
A mulish frown settled on Andy’s face, and he crossed his arms over his chest. He looked at Zach. “Would you ride with me?”
Zach swallowed. “Well, Andy, I haven’t been riding in a few years. Besides, my leg doesn’t work as well as it used to.”
Andy looked at Zach’s legs, then at the cane hanging over Zach’s arm. “Why?”
Suddenly the air filled with tension. He glanced at his sister, then Sophie. Did they think he’d go off on the kid? Zach leaned close and whispered, “I have a fake foot and calf.”
“Calf?” Andy frowned.
Nodding, Zach pulled up his pant leg and showed the prosthesis on his right leg to Andy.
“That’s cool. Can I touch it?”
“Maybe—” Sophie started.
“Sure.”
The boy squatted and touched the artificial leg. His eyes widened. “Wow. How’d that happen?”
Sophie stepped in. “You want to ride, Andy?”
“Can Zach help? He can walk beside me.”
“Sophie knows how this works. I don’t.” Zach turned to her. “What do you want me to do?”
The tension seeped out of her shoulders. “I’ll lead Sam and you can walk on one side of Sam, and Beth on the other. Will that work for you, Andy?”
“Yes,” he crowed, hopping to his feet. He patted Zach’s arm. “It’s okay about your leg. I’ve got Down’s.”
“Really?”
Andy nodded. “Mom says I’m extraspecial.”
“She’s right.”
Sophie smiled at Zach. “Thanks,” she mouthed.
Satisfaction spread through Zach’s chest.
They walked to the mounting steps. Sophie got the horse into position. Andy scrambled up the steps.
“Put on your helmet, Andy,” Sophie called out.
He raced back down the steps and over to the row of helmets sitting on a shelf at the end of the stalls. He grabbed a helmet and put it on. He raced back to the steps. Zach rested his cane against the side of the stable by the mounting steps.
“Let Zach help you get on the horse, Andy,” Sophie instructed.
Whoa, he didn’t know how he was to help. Glancing at his sister, he silently questioned her.
“Just support him as he slips his leg over the pad,” she instructed, “then guide his foot into the stirrup.”
Resting his hands around Andy’s waist, Zach lifted the boy onto the saddle blanket. A smile curved Andy’s mouth.
Beth helped Andy put his leg in the stirrup attached to the blanket.
“Now, just hold his leg to make sure he doesn’t slip,” Beth instructed her brother. Beth had been here before and worked as a sidewalker.
“What do you say, Andy?” Sophie asked from her place by Sam’s head.
“Go forward,” Andy crowed.
Sam started walking.
Zach grabbed the front of the saddle pad and his other hand rested on Andy’s leg. Andy turned and smiled at Zach. His heart overturned. With the warm New Mexico sun on his back and the feel of the horse under his hand, Zach felt a peace in his soul—a peace he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
Oddly enough, Zach, Beth and Sophie worked in tandem, he on the left side of the horse, Beth on the right, and Sophie leading Sam.
After three times around the ring, Zach felt the strain in his arms and legs. He stumbled, and his artificial leg folded underneath him, and he fell to the ground.
Andy cried out in dismay. Beth raced to Zach’s side. Sophie started to move away from Sam, but Zach waved her back.
“I’m okay.”
All the activity in both rings stopped. One of the sidewalkers from the next ring came to Zach’s side. The man stopped and said, “How do you want to handle this?”
He would’ve rather faced a terrorist in the streets of Baghdad, instead of being facedown in the dirt in front of his sister and the woman he’d been attracted to. He rolled to his side and told the man how to help him stand. It was slow and awkward as he struggled to his feet. When he stood, Andy clapped.
“You need any more help?” the man asked Zach.
Zach shook his head. He limped over to a bench under the stable’s awning, which sheltered the entrance to the stables. He’d been thrown by plenty of wild broncos and bulls in his rodeo days, but there’d been no shame in it. This time, he’d fallen flat on his face