A Love Undone by Cindy Woodsmall

the clothes … she hoped.
    Taking her horse-training book with her, she walked out on the porch and gave Hope and Tobias a dozen instructions and then hurried toward the corral. Andy had maneuvered three horses into three small round pens, and he seemed to be in the process of separating one more horse from the herd, probably to get it into the fourth and last small pen.
    Andy glanced at her as if an insect had caught his attention for a moment. He then returned to his task as if she didn’t exist.
    Great. So maybe it wasn’t going to be an interesting summer after all. She stayed back from the fences, watching. Her goal was to help, and since he’d realized she was here, it was up to him to say what he wanted her to do.
    In Lester’s younger days he trained horses, but after he broke his hip, he sold all but a few horses and never bought any more. Until right now she’d never given much thought to how well his place was set up for dealing with horses.
    About a year after her folks died, he’d made a reluctant butgenerous offer to let the Keims live with him, but she’d declined. He’d been too unsure of his offer, and that alone was reason enough to turn him down. But also, by that point she was certain that she wanted to surround her siblings with as much of her folks’ parenting influence as she could. Even though Lester had a good and giving nature and encouraged her at times like her own Daed had, Lester was a strong-willed man with opinions and ideals that would have prevented Jolene from creating the home she wanted for her siblings. She reached into the hidden pocket of her apron and felt the padlock key to the attic. Whatever else he was, Lester was definitely a good encourager and an excellent keeper of secrets.
    After getting a beauty of a stallion extracted from the herd and in a pen, Andy moved to the center, coiled rope in one hand, and stood his ground. The horse charged toward him, threatening to run over him.
    She felt the coarse, dark-green cover of the book in her hand. Her heart had raced with anxiety last night while simply reading about the taming of wild horses. Right now her head spun as nervousness pulsed through her. She squeezed the book, wishing she could close her eyes tight and not watch this event. But Andy might look her way, and she refused to be seen with her eyes shut.
    As the horse came at Andy, seemingly trying to get the man to yield his tiny bit of ground, Andy raised the coiled rope, keeping it looped tightly, and flung it toward the horse while he yelled several short-syllabled sounds. The horse ran the other way. Andy then put his arms by his side and waited. Was he humming?
    The steed ran at him again, and he slapped the rope against the chaps that were over his pant leg. Then he hollered and flailed therope against the horse’s face and neck. But Andy didn’t allow his feet to budge from his spot of ground. Andy and the horse were in a battle to see which one would rule the other.
    The horse took off running to the other side of the pen, and Andy lowered his arms and waited. This time it was clear. He was humming. Her heart pounded. Would she have to enter the pen with Andy? Or worse, enter one by herself? Sweat beaded across her upper lip and trickled down her neck and chest on this cool May morning. How could he calmly stand there as a thousand-pound creature thundered toward him, wanting to knock him down and stomp him?
    After a few more deliberate runs to try to knock Andy down, the horse ran toward him again, but this time Andy didn’t raise his arms to defend himself. The horse stopped just short of knocking into him and retreated. How had Andy known the horse would stop short this time?
    She understood what he was doing because she’d read a little about this method in her book. She opened it, looking for answers, hoping it would say a woman shouldn’t take on such a task. Instead she found a page that said the size of the adult trainer made no difference.