Page 21 of The Rancher's Wedding

“It must have been easier to make sense of the world back then,” Michael said, “believing in all those gods. It makes sense when things go wrong because they weren’t perfect and they were always fighting. Now, when things go wrong, we just need to have faith in the one God and that everything He does is for the best, even if we can’t possibly imagine how.”

Michael took a sip of the tea. “It’s good,” he said.

“Thank you.”

“I can talk to you about this,” Michael said, “on account of the fact that that’s the one thing I know we have in common. We both lost our parents.”

He waited for her to respond.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it,” he added.

“No, it’s fine,” Estelle said. “It’s just that, growing up an orphan, that’s just the way life is. I never really thought about losing my parents because I never had parents to lose.”

“Well,” Michael said, “then what was that like?”

She looked down at her tea, hiding her face from Michael, and didn’t respond for a minute as if something about the conversation was making her uncomfortable.Perhaps, Michael thought,it just brings up bad memories.

“It was just, as I said, it was life. I woke up in the morning and spent time with my brothers and sisters cleaning the house. Some of them would sometimes get adopted and I’d never see them again. At the same time, we’d always have new people coming in. You didn’t know who was coming or going or how long you’d get to know them.”

She had raised her voice at the end and then lifted her head, looking at Michael but avoiding eye contact.

“But I don’t like to dwell on the past,” Estelle added quickly. “I like thinking to the future and all of its possibilities.”

“I hear that.” Michael raised his glass and took another long, slow sip.

There seemed to be something more to her than she was letting on, the way she kept trying to push him away from the subject and avoid looking at him, like there was a reason for her to be hiding something from him. He wouldn’t judge her no matter what it was, but maybe she felt differently. Surely she was right and all that mattered was the future, at least in a sense, but it mattered to Michael to know about his wife’s past. He didn’t think she would truly know him if she didn’t understand his own history.

A star shot across the sky, interrupting his thought, then vanished in an instant.

“Did you see that?” Michael asked.

“See what?”

“You’d a known if you’d seen it. It was a shooting star.”

“You’d better make a wish, then.”

“I’ll make one for the both of us,” Michael promised.

“No.” Estelle put her finger up to his lips to stop him. “You mustn’t tell me. Or it won’t come true. Keep it to yourself and make it for yourself.”

It was all just superstition, of course. The way Michael saw it, there was hard work and there was fate. You didn’t get something just by asking. There were some things you had some control over, like the quality of his livestock. So long as he fed them and cared for them, there was a solid chance they’d turn out pretty good.

Then, there were the others that were all left up to God’s plan. And God didn’t care none if you wished on a shooting star or a four-leaf clover. Sometimes he giveth and sometimes he taketh away, and it was only through fate and determination that you could find out what his plan was.

Still, it couldn’t hurt to send God a little message. He could think of it as an opportunity for a silent prayer.

Michael looked up where he had seen the shooting star and what was now an empty patch of sky. He closed his eyes tight and thought hard to himself,I wish for happiness and comfort in this new life for me, for Jacob, and for Estelle.

He smiled and opened his eyes.

“Good wish?” Estelle asked.

“I think so.”

She smiled at him, and it felt like maybe it was already starting to come true.

Chapter Eight

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