Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Surprisingly, I found this almost intelligible. “I appreciate you, ah… looking out for his energy,” I said soberly.
Lellie squawked in my ear when she saw Trigger, so I headed over that way and let her pet him. Indigo’s face lit up when he saw how happy it made her. “Dudette’s a natural. Got the horse bug for sure. Gonna be a big rider, just like her dad. No doubt.”
“Hope so. But then again, I’ll go gray early. Riding can be dangerous.”
“Dude, say less.” Indigo rolled his eyes. “I was flexing in a polo match once ’cause I had a girl watching, you know? So when I hit a tail shot—epic shot, killed it—you know I had to turn around to see if my girl’d seen it. Ended up twisting myself right off the pony. Total wipeout, bro. Bruised all to h-heck and took a mallet to the face by their number two just for some extra humiliation. Almost got trampled. Polo’s no joke.”
“And yet you got back on the horse.”
“’Course I did,” he said. He added in a fake-snooty accent, “‘A polo handicap is a person’s ticket to the world.’”
I grinned at him. It had been a long time since I’d met a fellow polo-phile. “Winston Churchill.”
“Uh-huh. My first coach called polo the great equalizer,” he said. “No matter your size, you’re all the same on the back of a pony.”
Indigo was not only friendly and approachable, great with horses, and even better with my daughter, but he was smarter than I gave him credit for. I’d misjudged him almost as badly as I had Tully. “I owe you an apology,” I began.
He looked surprised.
“I made assumptions about you from the very beginning,” I admitted. “Which is unfair. It’s something that happened to me when I was growing up and made me angry as hell. You deserved better. I would never want anyone to treat Lellie the way I treated you, and I’m sorry.”
Indigo’s eyes widened as I spoke. “Whoa, dude. That’s, like, totes unnecessary. But thanks. And no worries about the Lellinator. With all these bros around her… pfft. No doubt she’s gonna shine.”
He shook her little socked foot that stuck out of the carrier on my back. “Studies show that positive guidance—like nurturing your kid’s potential through consistently positive interactions—in early childhood helps them feel safe and secure. Doesn’t have to be overly permissive. But positive. Love and encourage her like crazy, dude. She’ll do okay.”
I stared at him until he started laughing. It set Lellie off with a case of the giggles until Trigger snorted in my face, which only made the two of them laugh harder.
When they finally caught their breath, I met Indigo’s eyes. “Will you stick around after this summer and help me with Lellie?”
His smile faded. “You serious? Like, a job-job?”
I nodded. “I know you wanted to work with horses, so you can still—”
“No, dude! I want to work with kids. I took the horse thing because no one was hiring for preschools or daycares around here.”
Way and Silas, and even Tully, had tried to tell me, but I hadn’t listened. Now, it was time to trust the people in my life. Trust that I had a family who cared about me.
Who cared about Lellie.
“Then I’d like you to consider coming to work for me as Lellie’s nanny on a trial basis. The trial period is as much for you as for me,” I warned, “because I will probably be an unbearable person to work for. I’m a new parent who doesn’t know what the fuck I’m doing.”
Indigo’s lips had curved up in a pleasantly surprised grin. “Well, if my new boss isn’t opposed to some gentle and positive guidance… might I suggest finding age-appropriate language to use around her? Language development is fascinating at this age. She’s likely to start to mimic the words she hears most often. We should focus on those being words like Dada, right? Maybe not so much with the uk-fay.”
Heat bloomed in my cheeks. “It’s a hard f-freaking lesson to learn, Indigo.”
“No ship, bro. Nooooo ship.”
I reached out my hand. When he took it, I felt the promise of a new beginning, one in which Lellie had yet another guardian angel of sorts. Someone who would look out for her and help her grow and thrive.
“Thank you,” I said.
I let Indigo help Lellie feed Trigger a peppermint. Thankfully, Trigger remained unaffected by her exuberant noises. My ears were not so unaffected.
“You know another word we should keep working on with her…” Indigo said after a few minutes.
“What?”
“Tully.”
I could feel the heat of his stare on the side of my face while the beloved name swirled through the air and came to rest on my heart.
Then I turned to him and smiled. “I imagine you’re right.”
He nodded. “Nice.”
“Does that mean you’d be okay with a little travel until I can figure out where the three of us are going to settle down?”