Page 60 of Pistol Perfect

“I think it’s me that should be thanking you. You’ve...created a home for us.”

“We created a home together.”

He wanted to add that God had brought them together, but she already knew that, and even though they weren’t talking about Him, He was in the midst of them. Anywhere there was joy and laughter and kindness and consideration, God was there.

And their home seemed to be full of all the good things. He just hoped that it continued in that way, because he loved the happiness that seemed to radiate out of their home.

“I love the girls. You were right about them,” he continued, pulling her closer and dropping a kiss on her temple.

She closed her eyes and smiled, and that almost made him bolder. But they had the rest of their lives, and he didn’t have to rush anything today. There had been a lot of changes, and although he felt that most of them were good, he still didn’t want to push Mabel into things she wasn’t ready for.

“All right, lunch is on the table,” Aunt Carol said as they all gathered round.

It didn’t take them long to eat, although they sat and talked for a while, with the girls telling them stories about their homelife and the adults at the table trying to hide their dismay.

James kept telling himself that they were with people who loved them now and could care for them properly.

After they ate, it was time to feed the filly again, but before they went out, they handed the hat to Aunt Carol.

“We all put a D name in there, and you’re going to pull one of them, and then that’s going to be her name.”

“All right. I am not sure I can handle this much pressure, but I’ll do my best,” Aunt Carol said, sticking her hand into the hat and pulling out a slip of paper. “Denise.”

“Yay! You picked my name!”

“Oh, that stinks. I was hoping we could call her Dolly.”

“We agreed that we were going to go with the name that came out of the hat. Denise it is,” James said in a tone that brooked no argument. The girls must have understood that tone, because two of them didn’t look happy, but they didn’t argue anymore.

“All right, you guys can all come out, and we’ll practice mixing up Denise’s milk.”

Mabel led the way to the mudroom, where there was a deep sink and where the bucket of milk replacer sat.

“Remember, it doesn’t have to be warm, but until she’s drinking really well, I like to warm it up some. She’s young, and she would be getting milk from her mom, so I like to imitate that.”

She reminded them how to measure the cup, and after she filled the container up to the specific amount, she shook it and then added a little bit of corn syrup.

“What’s that again?” Annabelle asked, her eyes glued on everything that Mabel did.

“This is corn syrup. It makes it sweet, kind of like sugar, only sugar is a little bit hard on her little tummy, so we use corn syrup instead, which is easier for her digestion. Even though horses have a sweet tooth. This should help her drink a little bit better.”

“Oh,” she said, watching as Mabel put her hand over one end of the bottle and shook it up.

After the milk was ready, the girls followed Mabel out the door, with James bringing up the rear. Aunt Carol had stayed in to clean off the table.

That reminded James that he wanted to talk to his aunt and make sure that they weren’t giving her more work than she could handle. If he knew her, like he thought he did, she would say that she just wanted to stay busy, and she was happy to have people to serve.

He could be wrong, but he would be shocked if she said the girls were a nuisance in any way.

They got Denise up, and immediately she put her head in the bucket and slurped all the milk they had just made down.

“She’s still hungry!” Bernice said, concern on her face as Denise lifted her head and looked around.

“And we’ll start feeding her a little bit more once we’re sure that she’s going to be okay eating this much. Probably tomorrow. And then, when she’s eating even more, we won’t have to feed her so often.”

The girls nodded solemnly and then petted Denise.

Mabel showed them how to run their hands down her legs and lift her feet, teaching her that it was okay to have someone touching her and working with her feet.