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She didn’t try to argue but led Prince Charming into the arena. She walked around the perimeter of the ring.
“Things look much better up here,” Zach commented.
“Amen, brother,” Ethan quietly said. A hint of moisture gathered in his eyes.
They walked around the arena for close to thirty minutes. Zach realized the muscles of his stomach and thighs were protesting.
“How are you feeling?” Sophie asked, looking over her shoulder.
He didn’t want to admit weakness. “I’m okay.”
She accepted his word and they worked for another ten minutes before she called a halt to the session. She led the horse toward the mounting block.
“I won’t need that,” Zach told her.
“Zach,” Sophie said, touching his leg, “I don’t recommend that.”
“I can dismount by myself.” Pride cometh before a fall. The verse ran through his head.
She looked to Ethan for help.
“Uh, maybe she’s right, Zach.”
There was no saddle horn for him to grab on to to keep his balance and he felt a cramp in his injured right leg. There were a lot of scars up and down that leg.
“Okay.” The word tasted bitter in his mouth.
She walked the horse to the mounting block. Zach pushed up on his left leg and swung his right leg over the horse’s rump. When his prosthesis hit the wood, it folded on him. He tumbled back off the horse. Ethan stepped up and caught him. His left foot remained in the stirrup. Prince Charming didn’t dance or spook. He stood calmly. Ollie sprinted around the horse and disengaged Zach’s foot.
Ethan pulled Zach backward so his feet could touch the ground. His right leg didn’t hold. Ethan’s arms clamped around Zach’s chest, holding him upright. Zach’s hat fell to the ground.
Zach struggled to make his right leg work. Quietly, Sophie handed him his cane. He grabbed the lifeline and used the cane for balance. After struggling for a moment, he found his balance. Ethan picked up Zach’s hat.
“We probably worked too long,” Sophie said.
Zach wanted to rail that Andy had more endurance than he did. He nodded. “Ethan, you want to drive me home?”
Sophie dropped the horse’s leads. “Zach—”
He shook his head and started to walk away.
Prince Charming turned his head and caught Zach’s attention. The horse bobbed his head.
“He’s expecting a carrot,” Ollie offered. He nodded toward a pail on the bench. Zach took two steps and looked inside. Carrots. He pulled one out and turned toward the horse. Prince Charming readily accepted the treat.
Sophie stood on the other side of Prince Charming, gently rubbing his neck, her eyes dark with worry. He didn’t—couldn’t—acknowledge her.
With a final pat on Prince Charming’s shoulder, Zach turned and walked toward the parking lot.
What made him think that he could be the man he used to be?
Sophie buried her face in Prince Charming’s neck, taking comfort from the strength and smell of the horse.
“Give him a few minutes.”
Her head jerked up and she found Ethan standing beside her. “We never scheduled another lesson,” she said.
“I’ll talk to him.” Sadness and concern creased Ethan’s face. “Seeing him on a horse was great. I’ll have him call you to set up another appointment.”
She nodded and watched as Ethan walked toward the parking lot.
“Lord, touch his heart,” she whispered.
“Don’t you worry, Miss Sophie. I saw a spark in that young man’s eyes. Once he wrestles his pride down, you’ll see him again.”
She glanced over Prince Charming’s neck to Ollie. “I pray you’re right.”
Over the next week, Sophie held on to Ollie’s words. She heard nothing from Zach. She called Beth, asking about Zach.
“He’s not taking my calls,” Beth informed her. “If I was in town, I’d drive out to his apartment and face him down again.” Beth did a lot of traveling for her job with a big department store headquartered in Santa Fe. “I told Ethan to talk to him, but I haven’t heard back from him.”
Sophie couldn’t wait any longer. Andy’s next session was scheduled for tomorrow. “Give me your brother’s address.”
Beth gave her the street number of the new and trendy condominium and town house.
Sophie helped Ollie finish putting out feed for all the horses. She stopped by Prince Charming’s stall. “Hello, handsome.”
The big horse stuck his head out of the top half of the door. He nudged her hand.
“You are so spoiled,” she said, rubbing his nose. “I’m going to try to get Zach. You were great with him. Now he needs to understand that he needs you.”
Prince Charming nodded.
“You like him? He’s a real cowboy. Well, I like him, too. I’ll see what I can do to bring him back.”
Driving to Zach’s place, she prayed for wisdom and the right words to touch the stubborn man.
The new complex of town houses stood on the eastern edge of the city, built at the foot of one of the mountains surrounding the city. She found the number of his town house and parked. She whispered the opening lines of the twenty-third Psalm as she exited her car and walked up to the door and knocked.
Nothing.
She knocked again. “Zach, it’s Sophie.”
After several more seconds, the door opened. He was unshaved, and his closed expression didn’t give her any hope.
“I was hoping to talk to you.”
He studied her. “Why?”
Well, at least he didn’t shut the door in her face. “I wanted to talk about your next lesson.”
He shrugged his shoulders and walked back into the living room.
She followed him, closing the door gently behind her.
“How have you been doing?”
He shrugged again, settling into a leather recliner in front of a sixty-inch plasma TV. A baseball game flickered on the screen.
She walked to the sofa. “I think we pushed your first time too far. We should’ve stopped earlier.”
He didn’t respond.
“Zach, talk to me.”
He turned to her and nailed her with his blazing gaze. “What do you want me to say? Yeah, I didn’t tell you the truth when you asked if I was tired. I’m less of a man now than I was when I blew you off when Beth came home during college.”
It was a reaction, but not the one she hoped for. “What I see is a man who’s trying to come back. What I see is a man who helped a young boy overcome his fear and enjoy his ride on a horse.”
He turned away from her, staring down at the head of his cane.
“Zach, the man I met in college was full of himself and knew his strengths. One of those strengths was a faith in God and a determination to do the right thing.” She pulled a pamphlet out of her purse and put it on the coffee table. “This is from NARHA.”
He gave her a puzzled frown.
“North American Riding for the Handicapped Association. It talks about equine therapy and its benefits. What you expected from your body was unreasonable.”
His head came up and he looked at the pamphlet.
“When I fought for the guys who were wounded on the battlefield, I wanted to save them all. The ones who survived were blessings. You have a duty to those who didn’t make it. You lost a foot, but I don’t think you lost your soul. The Zach McClure I knew is still inside you. You just have a challenge you’ve never faced before.”
She stood. “Andy’s session is tomorrow morning at ten. He’s told all his friends about you, and I’ve had two more mothers of Down’s children call me, wanting to start with equine therapy.” She started for the door. Pausing with her hand on the knob, she turned to him. “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” With those final words she walked out the door.
I will never leave a fallen comrade. The words of the U.S. Military’s Honor Ethos echoed in Zach’s brain. How many times had he gone back to get a fellow wounded soldier. With the guys who were gravely wounded, their survival depended on their individual will to live.
He’d made it. The roadside bomb that wounded him had killed two members of his team. He didn’t remember much after the bomb, except his good buddy calling for him to hold on and telling him that they’d get him help.
They kept him sedated until he woke up in Walter Reed Army Hospital.
He picked up his Bible and turned to Exodus. The story that always amazed him was Joshua’s. This was a man who led Israel after Moses’s death in their fight to conquer the Promised Land.
Zach turned over to the book of Joshua and read the first three chapters, where Joshua faced his first major obstacle—the Jordan River. Not just a normal river but a river ten times its usual size. That crossing was a major miracle.
He faced his own Jordan River.
God gave Joshua a plan, and if Zach didn’t miss his guess, God just gave him a plan. And it started with showing up to help Andy.
Chapter Four
Zach took a deep breath and glanced at his brother, who sat behind the steering wheel of his truck. Zach chaffed at having to be driven, but he didn’t want his truck fitted with hand controls. He wanted to be able to build up the strength in his leg to be able to drive his own truck.
“You sure you don’t want me to stay?” Ethan asked.
Ethan had quickly covered up his surprise this morning when Zach called, asking for a ride.
“I’m sure.”
Ethan studied him. “I’ll stop by after I finish the business at the bank.”
Zach put on his straw hat. It was already warm beyond normal for an early spring morning. “I’m okay, Ethan.” He clamped his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Thanks.”
Ethan nodded.
Zach opened the truck door and carefully rested his feet on the ground. He used his cane for balance. Hopefully, he could permanently retire it in a few weeks with hard work and exercise.
He walked down the breezeway to the open rings. The first thing Zach saw was Andy. The boy sat on a bench by the helmets. He stared at the ground. Glancing up, he spotted Zach.
“You came,” Andy yelled, launching himself off the bench.
Zach braced himself for Andy’s hug. The boy stopped and looked up at Zach. He reached out and grasped the boy’s hand. Andy snuggled close to Zach’s side.
“I see your sidewalker is here.”
Zach’s head snapped up. Sophie stood before him, her blue eyes glistened with moisture, and he read approval and something else there. But before he could analyze it, Andy raced toward Sam.
“Hi, Sam.” Andy stroked the horse’s shoulder.
Sam turned her head toward the boy.
Pride for Andy’s actions filled Zach. The boy overcame his fear. It was something Zach needed to do.
“Get your helmet, and I’ll take Sam to the mounting ramp,” Sophie instructed.
Andy dashed off.
A smile curved Sophie’s mouth. “I’m glad you’re here. Andy was disappointed when he didn’t see you.”
“What did you tell him?” He waited, curious for the answer.
“I told him that Sam was glad he was here.”
“Is that all?” He moved toward her and lightly ran his hand over Sam’s withers.
She held his gaze. “When he asked about you, I told him that things would be okay. I prayed. I know Andy is happy you’re here and…”
Zach understood the unspoken part of her sentence. She was glad he was here, too.
“I got my helmet,” Andy yelled, waving it above his head.
