Chapter 173
However Long It Takes

Lucas paced outside Jet's stall, waiting. He was mildly aware of how the horse's head would follow his progress, up this way and then back the other, but it didn't stop his progress in the slightest. He had always considered himself a patient person, and everyone else would tend to agree, but there were just some things that would come and challenge his calm… and this was one of them. He checked his phone, to make sure he hadn't received a call or message and been too distracted to notice, but there was nothing. He was about to slip his phone back in his pocket, but then the screen lit up and he stopped all at once, unlocking and then opening the message.

Maya: Nope.

He let out a breath as he felt the anticipation release him. He sent a reply to show that he had seen, and then he went and sat on the bench outside Jet's stall. For the space of about ten minutes, there had been a possibility that he and Maya might have been expecting again, but now she'd taken a test and disproved it. Who knew, maybe it was just too early and soon… No, he didn't think that. This time was a no go, and they would just have to keep at it. She'd been so sure when she'd called him, enough that they'd decided she should just go ahead and take a test and let him know right away instead of waiting for the end of the day.

Exceptionally, Lucas was here at Sullivan Stables for the entire day, as he had been for the past three days and would be again tomorrow. Juliet had asked this of him because a few people were out, accompanying riders to a competition out of state, and Lucas had jumped at the chance. Of course, he would help them if he could. This put him in a position of having to check that his father would be okay with this; he didn't want to abandon him to the work he knew they both had to do. Thomas assured his son that they would find a way to make this work, and Lucas agreed… He knew what they could do. It was one of the many things that Sullivan Stables did, providing space for business meetings, so maybe they could have access to one of those for the week?

Juliet was more than happy to accommodate them, especially for how Lucas would be helping her out. So, all through this week, he would be out and about in the ranch, helping where he was needed, and whenever he'd get the chance, Lucas would go and rejoin his father and join him in his work. It also meant that, at the end of the day, the two of them would have to keep going a while longer than they usually did, but that was fine, too. Thomas understood very well the merit of adjusting their own schedules for a few days if it would mean helping others. Maybe more than anything, as Lucas and Maya had suspected, he just really saw that this meant a lot to his son, and from there the rest was easy.

If not for the fact that he was already having to divide his time between his father and the ranch, there might have been a way for him and Maya to find a way and meet up as she took that test, but it wasn't possible, and they both had this overall dislike over having to wait for hours and hours before they'd know, so the alternative had been this, for her to take the test on her own and then let him know the results. With all this anticipation, brief as it might have actually been, now that it had come to naught, Lucas had no choice but to sit and deal with that small disappointment, giving it those few minutes it deserved before he could move on and carry on with his day. This was the second time, since they'd started trying, that they'd believed they'd succeeded only to be ultimately proven wrong. It was normal, came with the territory, but it was still hard to set aside that feeling of 'maybe it worked' once it settled in.

The wait for Maya's message had made it so that Lucas completely forgot why he'd been in the stable in the first place. It wasn't until he looked up and spotted Juliet walking this way, accompanied by a man, a woman, two teenage boys, and a young girl, that he remembered, and he sprang up from the bench to go and meet them. He was supposed to give them the tour, as it had been offered to them ahead of their possibly registering their daughter for lessons. Already from what he saw of them, Lucas couldn't help but be curious. They were together, but there was a distinct sense of… disconnection. The woman just looked like she was somewhere else, mentally, and the boys gave the immediate impression that they had at one point asked, 'do we have to go?' and been denied or convinced into making the trip anyway.

The man looked a bit distracted, too, but compared to his wife, he actually seemed to be focused on something other than himself, in this case his daughter. He held her hand as they walked, while she… She was the only one among them who looked one hundred percent focused and excited by all she saw. She'd listen to Juliet as she spoke, occasionally look to her father like 'did you hear that?' and getting a faint smile from him.

"Good morning," Lucas nodded to the group as they met up. Everyone responded roughly as he'd expected them to, from the self-consciously polite down to…

"Hello!" the girl spoke, her excited chirp making him smile. With those clear eyes and that mass of auburn hair curling from her head and halfway down her back without restraint, he could easily imagine her as 'the type.' Get her on a horse and, oh, she would fly. Right now, she was the only one that was going to enjoy this tour, so as far as he was concerned, that made her his priority. He crouched, the better to get at her eye level. She wasn't especially short, but she definitely looked like a growth spurt was still in her future. He estimated she was about ten, and he was proven correct.

"I'm Lucas," he held out his hand, and she shook it with enthusiasm. "It's nice to meet you. You want to learn to ride horses, huh?"

"I do, I really do," she nodded as she treated him to a toothy smile.

"Well, we can help you with that," Lucas promised. "What's your name?"

"Ava," she introduced herself, pressing so much confidence in that one small name that anyone would be left to recognize that here was a force to be reckoned with.

Lucas was introduced to the girl's mother and father and to her brothers. She had two more brothers, older than these here, already in college while the seventeen-year-old twins were seniors in high school and about to leave home as well. From the looks of them, they couldn't wait to clear out as soon as they had the chance. They're not the ones looking for lessons, or anything, from the ranch. With all this in mind, Lucas stood again, the better to lead the young hopeful rider and her family around. This wasn't going to be about pointing to this structure and another and being done with it, no. He let the Nash family how wonderful a place this was and why they should want to see Ava take her lessons here.

Vet or not, Lucas was very knowledgeable when it came to the ranch, its history, its horses… He talked to the girl as he led her and her family along, talked to her as someone who recognized her cleverness and maturity, because he did. She took it all in, and she asked questions… She showed that she knew a lot already.

"You've done your research," he complimented, and she smiled, a new lift in her steps as she nodded.

One of her brothers, Lucas didn't see which one, snickered. Ava whipped her head around like she knew exactly which one it was, but before she could say or do anything, her mother gave both boys a look stern enough to silence them both. Lucas hadn't felt particularly favorable toward her already but looking at her he could sense that she had intervened much more for the fact that they were reflecting poorly on her than for any sleight toward their younger sister. Mrs. Nash ruled her household, and all listened. Mr. Nash looked at his wife like he thought she needed to lighten up, but he never said a word. Meanwhile, Ava looked like this kind of display was not unfamiliar to her. Lucas felt as though he could sense her brightness fading down in increments.

"Hey, Ava," he crouched before her and she looked at him again, a fear blooming in the back of her eyes like she was this close to hearing her mother say they should just leave and forget the riding lessons. "Have you ever seen a foal?" The fading ceased, reversed.

Within minutes, they were off to meet the newest member of Sullivan Stables' equine population. Even as Lucas talked with Ava, the two of them with the little one, he could just hear the conversation happening a few steps behind them between Juliet and the girl's family. He didn't get every word, but there was enough for him to get the general idea. As had been feared, the mother was leaning toward changing her mind. Lucas might have been disappointed that he had not done a good enough job to convince her, but he knew that wasn't it, no. Something had convinced her to hold this visit as a family, but whatever it was, it had very little to do with Ava or what she wanted. They're falling apart. Maybe this is their way of trying to start and repair the cracks…

What saved things in the end was Juliet. As good as he could be, she was shrewd when it came to making deals like this, and she got in right where she needed to. She also let them know that Lucas himself would train their daughter, which was news to him. He hadn't taught anyone, not yet; he'd barely been back riding himself since the accident… But the way she talked about him, calling up the fact that the ranch was built by his grandparents, that this was a time-honored family business, suggesting that he was a skilled instructor, just what their daughter needed… It was just as well that he wasn't involved in this conversation or he wouldn't have known what to say. Did she really believe all that or was she just trying to make sure Ava got what she wanted? Whatever it was, it worked. Ava would have her lessons.

When she heard this, she nearly jumped to hug her parents, to thank them. Her father smiled, the expression on his face being the most open that Lucas had seen as of yet. Whatever his issues might have been, he clearly loved his daughter dearly. As for his wife, she returned the hug, but there was still something… a disconnect…

"When can I start?" Ava asked, looking at everyone. Juliet turned to Lucas. He was her instructor now; this was his call.

"How about Saturday morning?" he told her, and her parents. Saturday morning it would be. Lucas and Juliet soon watched the family walk off together, back toward the parking lot.

"I don't think that girl's feet will stay still for the rest of the day…" Juliet chuckled lightly. Lucas smiled, agreeing. "You did very well," she told him.

"I just wanted them to know about us, what we do, who we are… And I'm an instructor now?" he had to ask.

"That's what you wanted to be, wasn't it?" Juliet smiled on.

"Yes, I just haven't…"

"You know, seeing you with her, it felt right, and that was all I needed to know," she explained. He appreciated that. "It reminded me of your grandparents… when the local news would do those segments with them. Do you remember those?"

"Yeah," Lucas smiled. Mostly he remembered seeing recordings of those, though he didn't remember when he'd seen them. What he really held on to was this feeling like 'wow, that's my grandparents, on television.'

"I don't know that you've ever reminded me of them more than you did with that girl just now."

The thought stayed with him long after he and Juliet parted ways, after he went back to work with his father and then, eventually, went on home. He had felt something like that, too, hadn't he?

The boys were off at their great grandparents' house when he came home, so the only one there other than the cats and dogs was Maya. When he saw her, hard as it was to believe, it was the first time he thought about the message from that morning since he'd met the Nash family. But now he remembered… the test… no baby yet. When they reached one another, Lucas put his arms around his wife, kissed the top of her head and held her a while.

"We good?" he asked her quietly.

"Yeah. Yeah…" she promised, pulling back to look at him. "That's how it goes, right? I mean, we had two who weren't planned. Just because those two times worked, we didn't exactly… keep count of how many times we ended up with no baby. We just keep going, that's all."

"We sure will," he told her, and her smile showed she knew as well as he did that his response was less so in line with their usual 'hey, we're trying to get pregnant, guess what that means' humor, and more so about sharing his confidence with her. "Hey, guess what."

"What?" she asked, as requested.

"I have my first riding student," he revealed, and her face was instantly open and awake.

"You do?" she took hold of his arms. He nodded, and now she was the one hugging him. "Tell me everything." He gladly did so.

He told her about Ava Nash, ten years old, eager, clever, and the brightest spot among her family. He shared his concerns for her family, and Maya quietly listened, understood. He told her how they had spent all that time going around the ranch, some of what he'd told her about.

"You can take the guide out of the museum…" she beamed, and he grinned. It did take him back there a bit, didn't it? "Well, Juliet was right. I think she couldn't have a better suited instructor." Lucas leaned in to kiss her, even as he thought to himself…

I think I might be on track now, Maya. I think I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do out there…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners