Page 31 of His Eighth Ride

That broke the tension, and Tag looked down at his poutine. “When I get back to the farm, I’m going to ask her if she knows how to make this.” He grinned at Bree, who laughed. “Because if she does, and she’s been holding out on me…we might have our first fight.”

Everyone at the table erupted into laughter then, including Tag, and he couldn’t wait to text Opal and tell her how well dinner had gone tonight.

“I’m Tag,” he said as he stepped past Gerty to shake Bryce Young’s hand. “It’s great to meet you. Gerty talks non-stop about how amazing your ranch is.”

Bryce grinned and grinned, and he had a really good air about him. “She does?” He glanced over to her, and Gerty rolled her eyes. “Seems hard to believe.”

“I’m not the saltiest woman on the planet,” she said.

Bryce tipped his head back and laughed, and Tag got the impression that Bryce had called her exactly that in the past. Gerty did have some saltiness to her. But she ran an excellent farm, and she cared deeply about her animals, her family, and God.

Tag took in the grandeur of Bryce’s ranch—named the Rising Sun Ranch—as the sun started to do that over the Teton Mountains in the distance. “This is a beautiful place,” he murmured.

“Sure is.” Bryce leaned against the railing of the deck where they stood. The roof of the house had been extended over the deck, so he wouldn’t have to shovel it when the snows came. Everything Bryce had here Tag wanted.

“We work it hard,” Bryce said. “Especially in the winter.”

“There he is,” a woman said, and Tag turned with everyone else to see a petite woman carrying a little boy on her hip. “He’s busy with our friends already, baby. Just give him his morning hug, and then he’ll have to get out to the stables.”

Bryce chuckled as he crouched down. His wife—Codi, Tag had been told—set the little boy on his feet, and he ran-toddled toward Bryce, saying, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. Mor-ing hug. Mor-ing hug.”

Bryce scooped up the child as they both laughed, and Tag had never seen such love so openly displayed. It permeated the air and expanded out and out and out until it filled the whole farm, then the sky, and it zoomed toward the towering mountains in the distance.

He cuddled the little boy close, Bryce’s smile joyful. His eyes sat closed, and Tag couldn’t look away from the pair of them. Then Bryce settled the child on his hip and said, “This is Momma and Daddy’s friend, Gerty.”

“How old is he now?” Gerty grinned at the boy, everything about her softening too.

“Eighteen months,” Codi said as she smoothed down her boy’s collar. “And West is…what? A year?”

“Next month,” Gerty said.

“And Tag,” Bryce said. “They’re buying some of our horses.” He grinned at his son. “This is Matthew.”

“Matt,” the boy said, his cute little-boy voice only telling Tag what he’d said but hadn’t known until now—he wanted kids.

“That’s right,” Bryce said. “Matt. All right, go back to Momma. It’s oatmeal day.”

“O-meal-O-meal-O-meal,” Matt sang as he got passed from one parent to another.

“Good to see you, Gerty,” Codi said.

“Thanks for letting us disrupt your morning,” Gerty said. “We just wanted to give the horses time to load up and get headed back to Ivory Peaks.”

“Only Rooster will give you any trouble getting in the trailer,” Bryce said. “We’ll do him last, because he’s a big sheep at heart.” He grinned and looked up into the sky. He clapped his hands together and said right out loud, “Thank you, Lord, for this snowless day to move horses.”

Then he started down the steps to the path that split the lawn and led to the gravel road beyond.

“All right, then,” Tag said. “Let’s move some horses.”

“I’m feeling good,” Gerty said, and they moved down the steps as Codi turned to go back inside the farmhouse with baby Matt.

Tag felt fine right now. Opal’s parents had comfortable beds and hot coffee, and once they had the horses loaded up, he and Gerty would be back on the road toward home.

Home, Tag thought. Where was that for him?

Where am I supposed to be? he asked, and he wasn’t sure if he was asking himself or God Above.

He loved Colorado, he knew that. He loved Gerty’s farm, and Gerty’s horses, and Gerty’s family. The problem was, they all belonged to Gerty, not him.

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