Sweet Talking Cowboy (12 page)

Now she was again headed to back to Atlanta.  Aunt Poog was
looking forward to a couple of days with her cousin, Victoria, that Briann had
stayed with when she first went to Atlanta and Briann was thrilled that she
would finally be with her little girl again.

Briann drove first to Maggie’s, unable to do anything before
getting Tris.  She’d called when she was almost there and when she stopped the
truck; the child flew across the yard and sailed into her mother’s arms.

“I’ve been missing you!” she cried, so filled with emotion
she couldn’t hold back the tears.

Briann squeezed her tight and swung her around, the child’s
legs sailing out in the air behind her, her arms clasped tightly around her
mother’s neck.

“And I’ve been missing you too, baby.”  Briann assured her.

Maggie followed the child and having met Aunt Poog when
she’d visited Briann in the past, they exchanged warm hugs of greeting.

The two days they stayed in Atlanta were busy.  Briann had
some things in storage and they had to be packed into the sleeping compartment
of the three horse trailer.  She spent a few hours with Shelly, ending the
visit with the promise of letters and visits when she was in the area again.

Aunt Poog enjoyed her stay with Victoria and found that
talking about Mike made her feel closer to him.

When they left Atlanta behind, headed home Tris, safely
buckled into the car seat in the back seat of the crew cab F250 Ford truck, kept
up a steady monologue with the two women.  She asked questions about what her
room at the farm would be like and they played games like, I Spy Something, and
 counted red cars, until the child finally dozed off.

When she was sure Tristin was asleep, Poog studied the look
of concentration on Briann’s face as she drove.  Finally she spoke.

“I know you’d rather avoid the subject, but you know Mike
always wanted you to tell Slade about Tris.”  She knew she was treading on thin
ice.

Briann didn’t take her eyes off the road.  “That’s not
something I’m willing to do.  In fact, I don’t even want to talk about it.”

Aunt Poog plowed on.  “Have you looked at her, Briann?  She
looks just like him.  I don’t think it’ll be long before someone notices. 
She’s got his coloring, his mouth, even his eyes, and if he didn’t keep his
hair short, it’d be as curly as hers is.”

“Aunt Poog, Evan was Italian.  Everyone always said Tris
looked like him.  His father has blue eyes.  I don’t want to borrow trouble.  I
will not let him know.  I know that you feel Uncle Mike was right, but this is
one time, I have to disagree.  Evan DeAngelo was Tris’s father and it’s going
to stay that way.”

Aunt Poog looked back at the little girl sleeping in the car
seat behind them.  “She’s so pretty.”

A smile tilted Briann’s lips.  “I can’t wait for her to see
the house.  She’s wanted a big yard.  And, Aunt Poog, she’s going to love Speck. 
She’s always wanted a dog.”

Poog shrugged her shoulders.  “Well that’s good because he
is her dog.  He’ll love having a child to play with him.  Maybe it’ll help him
not miss Mike so much.”

“And when school starts back, she’ll think she’s so grown up
starting kindergarten.”  Briann found she was dreading that.  It seemed her
baby was growing up much too fast.

When they finally turned off the highway into the lane
leading up to the house, Tristin was all eyes.  Her head turned back and forth,
unable to see it all at once but not wanting to miss anything.

Speck met them at the truck, his whole body wiggling with
excitement.  When the child alighted from the vehicle, the dog almost froze. 
It was love at first sight.  The two of them were trembling with barely
contained elation, but always the gentleman, Speck didn’t jump up against her. 
He inhaled her aroma and quivered as she tentatively stroked his head, his pink
tongue quick to flip out against her cheek for a wet kiss.  He’d been Mike’s
dog, but Mike was gone.

Tris squatted and buried her face in the surprisingly soft
hair around the dog’s neck.  “Oh, Speck,” she whispered.  “I’ve wanted a dog
all my life!  I’m so glad I’ve got you!”

Speck had never been a house dog, but when the people
entered the house, he never paused, but followed his new person right on inside
as if he’d been living in the house his entire life.

When Briann started to object to him coming in, Poog quickly
caught her attention and shook her head negatively.  “He belongs with her now. 
Don’t separate them.”

Briann nodded and a smile melted across her face.  “You’re
right.  They belong together.”

The next few weeks passed very peacefully for Briann and her
family.  When they arrived home from Atlanta, they learned that Slade was departing
on a tour of the northern part of the country, appearing at clinics featuring
the training methods he’d learned while working with the great Cooper Harding. 
Briann was relieved to know he’d be gone the entire summer.

She, Tristin, Speck and Aunt Poog had fun redecorating the
bedroom next to Briann’s for the little girl.  Pink was the theme and they
painted with varying shades of pink paint until Poog swore that her hair was
turning pink instead of white.  Even Speck was not safe from the flood of pink
that filled the room.  The bed Tris chose for him, to go beside her own bed,
was several shades of pink.  Poog laughed when the dog hopped into his bed and
sat looking up at the three humans as if he were the most satisfied animal in
the world.  And with Tris smiling back at him, he was.

Tristin was delighted to be allowed to choose the colors and
things she wanted in her room and when she discovered her mother’s old Breyers
Horse Collection packed away in several boxes in the back of the old garage,
she hauled them out, cleaned them up and proudly placed them around the room. 
She could spend hours listening to her mother talk about the history of each
figurine.  Some were modeled after real horses and Briann had committed to
memory the show statistics of each one and its bloodlines.

Knowing how much both Tris and Briann loved swimming, the
three of them agreed to invest in an in-ground pool.  It was summer, and with
temperatures reaching the mid to high 90’s most days, they knew they wouldn’t
be doing much riding.  The pool would become their summer activity.   Watching
her aunt with Tris was almost like stepping back in time.  Except for missing
Uncle Mike.  But hearing the laughter in her voice and the liveliness in her
steps, it appeared the woman was growing younger instead of older.  Briann knew
that Uncle Mike would be pleased.  Aunt Poog was much too busy to be bothered
by depression.

It took a little over a week to get the pool built and then
another week to allow the water to warm up.  Then the child and her mother were
usually found in swimsuits, playing in the water.  They talked Poog and even
Speck into joining them a lot of the time and to her delight, Poog found it
helped the stiffness that often affected her aging joints.

The horses were turned out to pasture, only coming in for
evening feed, then being allowed the freedom to find both grass and cooling
shade in the ten acre field that bordered the creek.

Briann had refused to bring any of the horses she’d been
training at Shelly’s barn home for the summer, knowing she wouldn’t be riding
in the heat, but had arranged to have two of them shipped down in September to
begin hauling to the Gold Coast Shows once the weather cooled off.

Until then, she had free time to spend with Tris and Aunt Poog.

Tris loved the pool, but had never been to the beach, so
they reserved a condo on the beach in St. Augustine and spent a week there. 
They booked a tour with one of the tour companies and each day, caught a
trolley that delivered them to places of interest around the historic district
of the Old City.  They caught a tour boat that carried them along the coast and
tried to imagine what it might have looked like to the first explorers, but
they couldn’t help joking about which condo the simple Spanish sailors might
have preferred to stay in.  It just wasn’t possible to ignore the huge
structures that stretched for miles down the coast along the white sandy
beaches.  The white sandy beaches filled hours of their days there.  Poog often
remained at the condo, but Briann sunbathed while she watched Tris and Speck
romp along either in the shallow waves, or along the wet sand nearby.  The
child and the dog found everything amazing.  A dead fish washed ashore, a flock
of low flying pelicans soaring just above the waves, the sea gull diving and
darting along the beach, a crab or even a bit of seaweed was an adventure that
had to be investigated and there was always the most fun game ever invented for
a child and a dog.  Fetching a tennis ball thrown by Tris was the most fun
Speck could have.

The unusual color and pattern of the dog’s coat attracted an
extraordinary amount of attention from other beach goers and Tris was always
happy to share her newly acquired knowledge of the uncommon breed.  Briann
would listen with pride as Tristin explained that the correct name of the breed
was Australian Cattledog, but no matter what color they happened to be, in the
U.S. they were usually referred to as Blue Heelers.  She would patiently put
him through the series of commands which he eagerly obeyed while explaining
that the breed had been developed from a combination of other breeds and an
infusion of wild Dingo and in the outback of Australia were used primarily for
herding cattle

When they returned home, Tris brought along seashells she’d
collected and they joined the Breyers horses, adding interest to her room.

All too soon, summer passed and then they had to drive to
the mall in Gainesville to buy school clothes.

Tris was so excited that Briann feared she’d throw up, on
the drive in to school that first day.  When they’d attended Meet You Teacher
Day, Tris had fallen in love with her teacher and Briann had discovered that
the teacher was a girl she’d been friends with during her growing up years.

She and Lacie Knox had always enjoyed each other’s company,
but Lacie wasn’t interested in horses, so they never got really close.  Now
Lacie was married and had a little girl the same age as Tris who would be in
another teacher’s class.

It was so hard to leave Tris at school, but leaving her with
Lacie made it easier.  However, Briann and Poog were both at a loss with how to
occupy their time and Speck wondered around looking for her.  Unable to find
her, he took refuge in his pink bed.

Finally Aunt Poog climbed the stairs and opened the door to
her sewing room.  She hadn’t been inside the room since Uncle Mike had died and
Briann worried that it might be painful, but for an hour, Poog just sat and
looked around the room, allowing her eyes to commit to memory each and every
detail, then she began packing stuff away into some boxes she found.

Stunned, Briann offered to help, but Poog wouldn’t allow
it.  “No.  This is my mess and I’ll deal with it.  Don’t you think this will
make a nice study room?”  As she talked, Briann saw a glimmer of excitement in
her aunt’s eyes.  “We can put shelves along that wall, and I’ll bring my books
up here.  I’d like to move Mike’s old chair here, near the window.  I love to
sit in it and read.  I almost feel like his arms are around me again when I sit
in that chair.”  She wiped away a tear then continued.  “We can put a computer
desk over there and get a desk top computer, a desk over here so Tris will have
a quiet place to study and you can bring in some of your art supplies.  I
haven’t seen you doing any art work in a long time.”

“Aunt Poog, are you sure you’re ready to give up sewing?” 
Briann was remembering all the hours her aunt had spent working on different
sewing project for one on the local nursing homes.

Poog stood up and rubbed her back as she looked at this
young woman she’d raised.  “Briann, have you ever known me to do things that I
haven’t given lots of thought to?  Of course, I’m sure.  I want this to be a
place where we can spend quiet time.  Together or alone.  We need someplace to
give time to our thoughts.”  Then the sparkle twinkled again.  “And I want a
table and a couple of cabinets where I can store some things.  I think I want
to put some of our old photos into scrape books.”

September came and along with it, the two horses Briann
would be hauling to the Florida and South Georgia shows.  The palomino mare was
double registered and she would show her at AQHA shows as well as the Palomino
Breeders Shows.  The sorrel gelding was destined for the big time and as he
progressed through the smaller shows, Briann wasn’t sure she could commit to
hauling him out west where he’d compete with horses on a national level.  She
didn’t think she’d be comfortable leaving Aunt Poog and Tris for weeks at a
time.  She’d probably just let the owners find a trainer who was more flexible,
but she desperately wanted to get some shows in on his back.  She wanted her
name associated with his, because some day, she knew he’d be a World Champion
and she would be the trainer who had provided his foundation training.  That
was worth a lot, financially and professionally.

She found she was restricting herself to shows that would
require only a Friday and a Saturday night away from home, occasionally talking
Aunt Poog and Tris into traveling with her.  However, they both let her know
that it was an imposition on them and most weekends she had to go without
them.  Tris was an outgoing, friendly child and almost every weekend she was
either going to a sleepover at a friend’s house or having a friend sleepover at
her house and Aunt Poog enjoyed the sleepovers at her house almost as much as
Tris did.

September became October and October became November and
people were calling Briann wanting her to train their horses.  She had two
horses at horse shows every weekend and five colts in the barn to ride during
the week.  She was thankful for the work, but was now starting to look around
for someone she could hire to take care of feeding and stall cleaning.