Page 37 of The Cowboy Who Came Home

But Finn had siblings, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to run a cattle ranch. He’d enjoyed his time in the Army, and he’d been trained in some computer science for his job in intelligence. There were new companies in Three Rivers now, and Finn wondered about getting a job there. A small hobby farm. A wife, kids, someone to plant the garden with the way he had with his momma, daddy, and grandparents.

Finn knew farm and ranch work too, as he’d grown up at Three Rivers, and no one there simply lived without pulling their weight in some way. “I don’t mind farm work,” he whispered next, and that rang true in his heart too.

Turning back, he saw his daddy still holding his cowboy hat in front of his belt, and Finn went down the row to his right. He’d only taken four steps when he saw the name Levi Kingsley. Finn sucked in a breath and stopped.

“Levi Kingsley.” He crouched down and wiped his hand across the letters of the man’s name. “Beloved son, uncle, fiancé, and friend.”

This was Edith’s fiancé, and pure wonder streamed through Finn. He’d been twenty-eight years old when he’d passed, and that was simply far too young. Sadness that Finn didn’t understand flowed through him, and then a sense of complete protectiveness. For Levi or someone else, Finn wasn’t sure.

Edith, maybe?

He couldn’t even imagine what it must’ve been like for her to stand here and mourn the loss of the man she’d loved. He straightened, the breath in his lungs streaming out. “Life’s not very fair, is it, Lord?”

He stood there for another minute, and then the breath he took cleared his mind and his fears. “Help her to have an easier life now, okay?” With that, he smiled at Levi’s headstone and turned to rejoin his father.

Daddy met him on the paved path, and Finn said, “Daddy?” in a voice quiet enough so as to not disturb the peace here. Daddy put his arm around Finn and cocked his head in his direction, his cue to say, I’m listening, son. Go on.

Finn’s nerves trembled, but he said, “Could the ranch spare me?”

“Spare you?”

“I’ve been thinking and praying a lot since yesterday,” he said. “And I want to offer my help to Coyote Pass. They have nine sinkholes, Daddy. It’ll consume Alex for a month, and that means the ranch won’t be looked after. I could—” He swallowed. “I want to do it.”

Daddy said nothing, but he dropped his hand from Finn’s shoulder. They left the graveyard before his father said, “The ranch can spare you, son.”

“It’s not all about Edith,” Finn said.

Daddy smiled with only half his mouth. “Of course it is,” Daddy said. “And that’s okay. I think you should be prepared to tell Momma more details than you have if you want to get up every morning, eat breakfast at the homestead, and then drive to Coyote Pass. But otherwise, it’s fine if it’s about Edith.”

Finn got in his father’s truck and buckled his seatbelt, his thoughts circling again. “I sure do like her, Daddy. She works all day on the ranch, and she writes at night. It hasn’t been easy to see her.”

“Working with her all day sure will make it easier, then, right?” His dad pulled out of the church parking lot and aimed the truck north.

“How should I talk to Edith about it?”

Daddy scoffed and half-laughed. He looked at Finn, who wasn’t kidding. “Uh, I don’t know?” He focused back on the road in front of him, but it was straight and boring. Finn had driven it many times, and it certainly didn’t distract from any hard conversations. In fact, his father had often taken him to town for something completely unneeded simply so he could talk to him on the drive.

“She won’t want me there,” Finn said. “I’ll have to have a really good reason.”

“Nine sinkholes isn’t a good reason?” Daddy asked.

Finn watched the fields go by. “She’ll say they’re fine. Maybe I should talk to Alex first.” But that idea rang like a discordant gong in his head. No, he had to be a man, and bring it up with Edith first. She’d feel betrayed if he talked to her brother first and they doubled up on her.

His hand wandered to his phone, but he didn’t want to text her about this. “Daddy, will Momma be upset if you drop me at Edith’s now and I skip lunch?”

He flipped on his blinker and slowed the truck to take the turn to Coyote Pass, the only answer Finn needed.

Fifteen minutes later, Daddy eased his truck to a stop in front of the farmhouse where Edith lived. Finn looked at the peaked roof, the spanning front porch, and the cheery wreath of yellow daffodils someone had put on the front door since the last time he’d been here. Which was yesterday.

It screamed Edith, as she’d always loved yellow flowers. Tulips, roses, daffodils, daisies, all of them. Finn couldn’t believe he’d just now remembered that, and he wished he carried a bouquet of them right now for her. It might make this proposition of his easier for her to accept.

“Go on,” Daddy said. “Surely you don’t like her more than she likes you, right?”

“I think I might, actually,” Finn admitted.

“I doubt it,” Daddy said. “Go on, Finny. Just speak from your heart.”

“Speak from my heart,” Finn repeated. Then he flashed a smile at his father and reached for the door handle. He climbed the steps. Rang the doorbell. Took a breath as he realized the daffodils were real and smelled like pollen.

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