Page 22 of Long Past Dawn
“I’m glad you like the idea, Miss Dawn. I suppose there are all kinds of things you could do using that train of thought. I hope you stay and accept Miss Heaven’s offer. I don’t think nothing would be the same around here without you.”
“I second that statement,” another voice said from the doorway. I glanced up to see Beau lounging on the frame.
“Hey, Beau,” I greeted him before I pointed at Tex. “We were just talking about the ranch.”
Tex tapped the table and stood. “I gotta be getting on anyway. I have chores to finish before I turn in. There’s a new group of guys coming this weekend, so I better rest up.”
He pushed in his chair then turned to Beau. “Please, convince her to accept Miss Heaven’s deal?” he asked. The desperation was loud and clear in his words. “I don’t want to do this without Dawn working here. The two of us, we’ve put too much into this place to give it all up now. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t be standing here. She kept us going when Miss Heaven couldn’t. I think that’s more than a good enough reason for her to accept this reward now.”
Beau nodded once but no words passed between them before Tex patted me on the shoulder and walked out the door.
I rubbed my temple without making eye contact with the guy I couldn’t stop thinking about every single minute of the day. I hadn’t seen him much in the last few weeks since the kiss, which was probably for the best, even if it left my heart in more pain than anything my body could dish out. There was something about a broken heart that was three times as painful as a broken bone. “You can go, Beau. I’m sure you have work to do at the ranch. I’ll be fine.”
“Nope, my work is done. I was thinking about starting a fire or going for a walk on the ridge. Do you want to join me?”
I glanced out the door before I answered. “It’s dark already.”
“I like the darkness. I can hide in it, and no one can find me. That’s the most relaxing part of my day.”
I lifted a brow. “The darkness also likes to hide bears and wolves.”
“I walk loudly and carry a big gun,” he volleyed.
“I guess we could go for a walk. I could stand to work off that steak,” I finally said, my head shaking at his determination.
“First, you would have to eat some of it,” he murmured.
“I ate, Beau,” I insisted. “I just don’t eat a lot at one sitting. Besides, you know how I feel about bison meat.” I did an involuntary shiver, and he chuckled as he walked the rest of the way into the kitchen.
“I do know how you feel, but I think your aversion to it has more to do with the fact that you always thought Blaze was gonna take this ranch, and you refused to like anything Blaze McAwley had a part in.”
I patted his chest on my way to my room. “You might be right. I love bison meat, even more than I love beef. The thing is, I’m not a camp deserter. I learned the hard way about the pitfalls of that. There, my secret is out. I’m going to change my clothes. I’ll meet you at the barn.”
I was almost to the end of the hallway when he spoke. “Maybe one secret is out, but something tells me you have more secrets than a porcupine has quills.”
I heard him, but I refused to turn and acknowledge it. He could think whatever he wanted to think. He wasn’t getting my real secrets out of me now or ever.
The ridge was always peaceful in its harmony. The occasional call of an owl, the gruff grunts of the bison, and the whisper of our feet in the grass as the snow melted was the melody. We walked along the fence toward the lower pasture that used to be Heavenly Lane’s land. When Heaven sold it to Blaze last year, that made it part of Bison Ridge, but in the end, none of it mattered. In a few more weeks, all of this was Bison Ridge, and we’d move the cows and red dogs down to the lower pasture closer to the watering hole.
Heaven only keeps about a hundred head of cattle now, primarily for her guests to learn to work with while they are at the dude ranch. With Heaven’s physical limitations, she could never manage a big enough herd after her daddy died to keep the ranch in the black. When Heaven flipped this place into a guest ranch, she had found more success than any of the three generations before her. For that, I think she deserved the success and happiness she was experiencing now. Heaven had poured more than her fair share of pain and heartache into this place. More than anyone should have to. I was glad she had Blaze now, even if it seemed to everyone else that I wasn’t.
“You’re quiet,” Dawn said, leaning into me a bit to shake me from my thoughts.
“I was just thinking about Miss Heaven and her daddy. A lot has changed since he passed.”
Dawn’s head bobbed in the moonlight. The beam rested across her beautiful face making her glow like a goddess. She was a goddess, in my opinion. I just wished she was my goddess. “I would venture to say for the better.”
“For Heavenly Lane Dude Ranch, and Miss Heaven, yes. I don’t know about for you.”
“Definitely for you,” she said without missing a beat.
Dawn Lee was good at never allowing the spotlight to stay on her. This whole venture to convince her to talk was more challenging than I thought, and I already knew it would be challenging. I put my arm around her shoulder and tucked her in close to my side. I wanted to direct her down toward the lower pasture. I had a plan, and I wanted her to stick with me until we got there.
“Blaze told me I would be getting the partnership in the ranch that day when I went back to apologize to them,” I admitted, hoping to get her to open up.
“I texted them that you were on your way back, but Heaven said you didn’t even go inside. They decided to hunt you down in the barn and found you messing with her saddle.”
“I can still see the look on her face when she saw me in the barn by her horse,” I said with a chuckle. “She was ready to read me the riot act until she noticed Grover. Her anger turned to tears of happiness on a dime. It was glorious.”
