Page 23 of Long Past Dawn
“It was glorious to make your friend cry?” Dawn asked with a lilt to her voice.
“No, the look on her face when she realized what I’d done to the saddle was glorious. Sorry, that did sound rude,” I sighed and shook my head at myself.
Dawn shoulder-bumped me and then tipped her head up to gaze at me. “I know what you meant, Beau. She came racing into the yard, screaming my name at the top of her lungs. I ran out thinking she was hurt or something. When she showed me all the changes you made to the saddle, I was flabbergasted. I’d never seen anything like it. You have a real talent with leather, Beau.”
I tipped my head uncomfortably, never sure how to accept a compliment like that. I figured out long ago that I got that from my momma. She was the same way. Blaze always said I was too humble, but I don’t think that’s a thing. I’m not a bragger. Never have been, and never will be.
“That’s what Blaze said, too. He wants me to spend more time doing my leatherworking once I’m a partner in the ranch. He doesn’t want me doing the grunt work anymore, at least not full-time. I’ll be training the guys to work with the bison as well as hiring and training new hands, but I won’t be doing chores every morning and night like I have all these years.”
“Sounds like reason enough to sign on the dotted line to me,” she said, nodding.
I led her down through the trees and stopped in the pasture’s clearing. She turned in a circle out of surprise while I gathered some twigs and got the kindling burning in the fire pit. Once it had caught, I laid longer logs over it in a teepee fashion until the fire was crackling intensely bright and offering warmth to the air around us.
“This is where you were those nights you were missing?” she asked, gazing around the space. “You’d never see a fire down here from up on the ridge.”
“I didn’t want anyone to notice it, so I always kept it small. You’d see this fire from up on the ridge,” I assured her, motioning at it. I held up my finger and grabbed my flashlight, finding my waterproof bag right where I left it in a tree. I pulled out several blankets and carried them back to the log I used to rest my back on. I laid one down on the ground and helped her sit, then covered her with the other one before I joined her.
“Wow, Beau, were you always a boy scout?” she asked, straightening the blanket out so I could throw it over my legs, too.
I was the furthest thing from a boy scout growing up, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “Would a boy scout bring this?” I asked, reaching in my coat and pulling out a small bottle of Jack Daniels. I lifted a brow and screwed off the cap, taking a healthy gulp before handing it to her. She took a long swig herself and gave it back to me, coughing a bit when she swallowed. “I don’t know any boy scouts who carry Jack around in their pockets,” she agreed once she’d cleared her throat.
“I think they would have kicked me out of the boy scouts,” I said, my laughter echoing around the pasture. “Besides, I worked hard on the McAwley’s ranch. I learned everything I needed to know from Mr. McAwley. Man, I can’t wait to see Blaze’s momma and dad again.”
Dawn leaned over onto my shoulder, and I put my arm around her so she could get more comfortable. “I would venture a guess that at this point, they’re your mom and dad, too. At least in the sense that they love you like a son. I know no one can replace your mom.” She was stumbling about trying to fix what she thought she’d said wrong.
“I know what you mean, Dawn. You’re right, though. Blaze’s mom came through for me when she didn’t have to. She’s my second momma in my eyes. Senior was the father I never had and was never gonna have. He taught me how to respect myself, my friends and, most importantly, how to respect women. I could have gotten along far worse if they hadn’t helped me through my teenage years. Sometimes, I still didn’t know nothing from nothing, but at least the discipline I got for it fit the crime.”
“Nothing from nothing?” she asked, her laughter making my chest shake.
“Yeah, down south, that means I was dumb. I did dumb stuff a lot. I was tryin’ to fit in. Sometimes I succeeded, and sometimes I failed miserably, but Blaze’s daddy was always there to remind me I could try again or help me see what I had to do to fix the situation. He’d been raising boys for a long time by the time it was just us left on the ranch. He had plenty of experience with rough and tumble, wild boys.”
Dawn patted my chest and left it against my jacket, either for warmth or comfort. I didn’t know which. I didn’t much care. Having her this close to me was as comforting to me as to her. “If my opinion matters, I think he’s going to be impressed with the way those two rough and tumble, wild boys have succeeded in this state. You’ve built something from nothing. Not just anyone can say that.”
“You can,” I promised, laying my lips on her forehead for some reason. Whether I wanted to comfort her or me, I also couldn’t say, but the warmth of her skin soaked into my lips, and I didn’t want to move them.
Dawn shifted to get more comfortable, and I held her closer to me until she was spread across my lap, facing the fire. I rubbed her neck and pulled the blanket up over her a little bit higher. It felt strangely intimate and more than just best friends sitting by the fire, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Dawn had relaxed for the first time in too long, and I wanted to keep her that way.
“I haven’t built anything, Beau. Sure, I’ve helped Heaven keep the place going, but the grit on the back of her neck did that, not mine.”
I shook my head vehemently in the firelight. “Not true. You did the work after Heaven was injured again on the ridge when she couldn’t do it herself. You could have walked away, but you didn’t. You hung in there. I know you weren’t getting paid a quarter of what you were worth, Dawn.”
“You don’t walk away from your friends when they need you, Beau,” she whispered, her words practically drowned out by the crackle of the fire.
“I know, but that doesn’t make anything I said less truthful. My point is, you worked hard for years to get where you are with the ranch. Why on earth would you want to walk away now?”
Dawn tossed her hand up and let it fall to her hip. “I don’t want to walk away now, but I’m not sure how to feel about Heaven just giving us a piece of the property. I don’t know how her daddy would feel about that either.”
Duane Lane had passed away five years ago after contracting an illness from the cattle he loved to raise. Right before he died, he begged Heaven to make sure, no matter what, that she held onto the ranch. It had been in the family for three generations, and he gave up everything for it, including Miss Heaven’s momma when she couldn’t stick around and live that kind of life. Miss Heaven had promised him she would do her best, but the medical bills his illness created nearly broke that promise before she could think about keeping it. Against all odds, she managed to recover and not lose the ranch to the bank. That only happened because Dawn and Tex worked for nothing but room and board for nearly a year.
I ran my fingers through the hair on the top of Dawn’s head, glad the season of hats was gone so I could play with her silky tresses again. “Duane would be thrilled to know the ranch was still firmly in his daughter’s grasp. He wouldn’t quibble about her business decisions as long as it stayed in the family. Tex is right, too. Miss Heaven has put plenty of safeguards in place to protect the ranch if one of you decides it’s time to leave. She wants you to have a piece of something that you’ve worked for, Dawn. Miss Heaven wants you to feel the pride of being a landowner and a business owner. Everything changes when you’re working for something that you own. Suddenly, all those late nights and extra shifts are worth it. You get to be the one who benefits from your good ideas when you implement something that brings in more guests or money. Those are the benefits of having a piece of the pie. Not to mention, your duties are going to be a lot less, which will make things easier for you.”
Dawn sat up instantly and stared at me with fire flaming in her eyes. “What did Heaven tell you?”
I held up my hands in the don’t shoot position. “Nothing, darlin’,” I promised, helping Dawn to get comfortable again. “I just meant I can’t quite figure out why you’d want to keep killing yourself when you’ve been handed the power to delegate work? If you take ownership of the ranch, you can focus on the work youwantto do instead of what youhaveto do. There’s a big difference.” I blew out a breath and shook my head. “Am I even making any sense?”
“You’re saying that I’ve already put in the hard work, so not signing on the dotted line to reap the rewards is just plain stupid.”
I rubbed her arm to keep her warm but chuckled at her breakdown of the situation. I was thrilled when she didn’t pull away from me instantly like she usually does. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Besides, the way Heaven has it set up if you decide to leave any time after you sign on the dotted line, she has to buy you out. You could flip your part of the place and walk away with a hefty payday in a matter of a month.”
