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Vivi Ann tossed the two flakes into the iron feeding rack and closed the door behind her While Cle mare’s silky neck

“Are you ready for the rodeo, girl?”

TheVivi Ann off her feet

In the years since Mom’s death, Vivi Ann and Clementine had beco and started drinking, and Winona and Aurora had been busy with high school, Vivi Ann had spent rief and emptiness had been too much for Vivi Ann to handle, she’d slipped out of her bedroom and run to the barn, where she’d fall asleep in the cedar shavings at Cleotten older and become popular, she’d still considered this mare her best friend The deepest of her secrets had been shared only here, in the sweet-s confines of the last box stall on the east aisle

She patted Clem’s neck one last time and left the barn By the time she reached the house, the sun was a sray winter sky Froray waters of the Canal and the jagged, snow-covered peaks of the distant mountains

When she stepped into the shadowy far of floorboards and knew her father was up She went into the kitchen, set three places at the table and then started breakfast Just as she put a plate of pancakes into the oven to war hiar, she took it to him

He took it froazine

She stood there awhat she could say that would start a conversation

Dressed in his usual work clothes—orn Wrangler jeans and a plaid flannel shirt, with a saucer-sized silver belt buckle and leather gloves tucked in his waistband—he looked like he did everydifferent, too: a subtle collection of lines or wrinkles that aged his face

The years since Mo his features and adding shadohere none belonged, both in his eyes and in the fleshy bags beneath His spine had curved; it was the mark of a farrier, he said, the natural result of a lifeti nails into horses’ hooves, but loss had played a part in that curving of his spine, too Vivi Ann was certain of it The weight of an unexpected loneliness had reshaped him as surely as the hours he’d spent hunched at work The only time he really stood tall anymore hen he was in public, and she kne much it pained him to appear unbowed by his life

He sat down at the table and read his azine while Vivi Ann readied and served breakfast

“Clem’sher place across fro the rodeo in Texas”

“Where’s the toast?”

“I made pancakes”

“Fried eggs need toast You know that”