Page 43 of Long Past Dawn
“No!” I jumped in, waving my hands. “Not at all what I meant. I was just explaining that I knew about the book of stories. I wasn’t in any way accusing you of being nosy. I don’t feel that way at all.” My hands were waving in front of my chest until she took them gently, holding them down.
“I’m glad, but I was kind of being nosy.” We chuckled together, and Amity tossed the towel on the counter then motioned me to leave the kitchen with her. “I’m worried about him, and I wanted to make sure he was in a good place now. I also think the book has so many great stories and nuggets of wisdom that should be shared. If someone could get him to put them together, I think it could even do well on the market as a life lesson kind of book. His mother was a lot like you. A hard worker and devoted to Beau. At the same time, she suffered a lot in life and struggled through a disease that wasn’t kind a lot of the time.”
I sighed, and my shoulders slumped forward as we walked into the living room. “Beau told you about my condition.” The memory of her holding my hands gently just now was an obvious indicator I had missed.
Amity grabbed her coat off the rack and stuffed her arms into it. “He did. He said it took you a year to tell him, so forgive him for telling us. He just felt we should know, so we didn’t shake your hand too hard or wonder why you grimaced a lot.”
I took my coat from her outstretched hand and put it on. There would be a fire where we were going, but it was still chilly enough to need a jacket. “It’s not that I don’t want people to know, Amity. I just didn’t want Beau to know about it for obvious reasons.”
Amity held the door open for me, so I walked through it, waiting for her on the porch. “Because if Beau knew, then he might decide he couldn’t date you since his mom had the same kind of disease.”
I held her arm so she couldn’t walk down the stairs without me saying my piece. “Beau isn’t like that. He loved his mother, and her disease was the smallest part of her. That said, it’s different when you have a choice about committing to someone who has a disease like that versus being born into the situation. When he met me, my health was completely different than it is now. I’ve lost weight, my joints are a mess, and so is my head. I don’t have any family left, and Heaven was leaving the ranch too. Risking my friendship with Beau made me very fearful of the future.”
Amity rested her hand over mine and patted it. “You’re wrong. You have a giant family. All those people out there,” she said, pointing at the group sitting around the fire laughing and drinking beer, “they’re your family. All my sons back home in Texas, one word from me that someone is messing with Beau’s girl, and they’re here, too. We have your back.”
I smiled, fighting back the tears that were blurring my vision. “Thanks, Amity. That means a lot to me. I do consider everyone here to be my family. They’ve always got my back, even when it hurts so badly that I can’t move. As for Beau, you raised a good man.”
She shook her head as we walked down the stairs. “That wasn’t me. That was his momma.”
“She certainly did right by him, but he tells everyone that you finished the job when you didn’t have to. You shouldn’t belittle your contribution because he’s not your biological child. You didn’t have to do what you did and take in another boy just because he was your son’s best friend. You changed someone’s life at a pinnacle time for them. Remember that.”
Amity smiled and patted me on the back. I walked over to Beau and kissed his forehead before taking the empty chair next to him. He was a good man, and I would do anything to keep him.
The fire was dying down, but no one was in a hurry to leave. I’d been listening to Ash tell stories about our older brothers while holding Dawn’s hand in one hand and a beer in the other. I was relaxed and happy, something I never thought I could be on a night like tonight. Maybe I had finally found a way through the grief of losing my mom after all these years.
The flow of the conversation slowed, so I cleared my throat. “I got a text after dinner that my client wants to order the retrofit pieces for their daughter’s saddle.”
Heaven was the first to clap her hand on her thigh and let out a squeal. “Beau! That’s amazing! How exciting.”
Dawn kissed my cheek. “I’m proud of you. Look at what’s happened because you did something nice for someone else,” she said, motioning at Heaven.
Ash stood and shook my hand, his grin wide, while Amity hugged me around the shoulders. “We’re proud of you, too, son.”
“Thank you,” I said, completely embarrassed by their show of support.
Blaze offered me a fist bump. “I told you when you developed that system for Heaven that you could sell them all day long without even trying. Should I start looking for a new ranch hand director?”
“I’m available,” Tex jumped in, his voice teasing.
“Hush your mouth, boy!” Heaven demanded. “You will not defect. Do you understand me?”
Tex held up his hands in laughter, the excellent food, and beer relaxing everyone.
I cleared my throat again, a little embarrassed by what else I had to say. “The client sort of can’t pay me due to the accident their daughter had. The doctor told them getting her back in the saddle would help her mental health, though. They can’t do that without the retrofit saddle, so they’re stuck between a bull and a fence. He asked if we’d be willing to take a load of hay in exchange for the saddle. I told him no.”
“You told him no?” Blaze asked as though he was clarifying.
I held up my hand so he’d let me finish. “I ta—told him no because he could sell that hay and use it to help dig them out of da—da—debt.” Dawn squeezed my hand gently to remind me to slow down. I changed the direction of my jaw and cleared my throat. “I’ll make the saddle pieces from smaller scraps of leather that I can’t use to make anything else. Their daughter's needs aren’t anywhere near as extensive as what I made Heaven, so it won’t take much leather. Bison leather is ridiculously expensive, so I’ll pay you back for what I use. I know you didn’t ask for repayment on the one I made for Heaven’s saddle for obvious reasons, but this one ain’t on you,” I said to Blaze.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Ash said quietly from across the fire. “You’ll make the saddle pieces and help the family out. That’s what we do as ranchers. We help each other out of tough spots, be it with family or farm. Not everything in life is about payment.”
My eyes widened at his statement. This was coming from the man who all my life was about the monetary value of everything.
Amity nodded her agreement. “There’s more to life than money, Beau. Those hides don’t cost us anything. If you didn’t know how to tan and use them, you’d just be selling them off as unfinished hides for pennies on the dollar. Use your talent for good any way you can and anytime that you can, son. That will come back to you tenfold more than any payment will.”
Ash spoke up before I could say anything to that. “When someone can afford to pay, take their money, and give it back to someone who can’t pay but needs the help. That’s how we do it at our ranch. I know I’ve always come off to you boys as a miserly old man who sits in his house and counts his pennies. The truth is, that was an image I cultivated for your own good. Teaching you to respect the business as a young person was important. Until I did that, I couldn’t teach you about philanthropy. I can see I don’t need to teach the second half of the lesson anymore. You’ve got it down already. I’m aware you all thought I was going to screw Heaven out of her ranch. I never had any intention of doing that. I planned to buy her out and bail her out but never take possession of her land and home. That’s not me, and I hope you know that now. Life is about giving people a hand up when they need it, but the distance between us can make it hard to show that to you boys.”
“Which is why we’re thinking about making Wisconsin our summer home,” Amity said, a grin on her face.
