Page 40 of Long Past Dawn
I nodded with my gaze still locked onto hers. “I have a meeting with a potential leather client at two. My first paying client with any luck,” I said, crossing my fingers. “By the time I'm done, Ash and Amity will be arrivin'.”
Her shoulders slumped as she walked back to the bed and kissed my lips. “Beau, that's awesome. I'm so proud of you. A paying leather client.”
I picked up her hand carefully, so I didn’t hurt it, and held it to my chest. “Potential but thank you. Just don't be disappointed if they don't order anything.”
Her smile filled me with light in a way I hadn't been for a long time. “Beau, I've never been disappointed in you before. I’m not going to start now.”
I returned the smile and caressed her cheek with my finger. “Dinner is at seven. I'll come home, change, and pick you up?”
“I'll be ready,” she promised as she walked to the door.
“Dawn?” She paused but didn’t turn around. “Did I hurt you? I noticed your hand is all swollen again.”
She shook her head but still refused to turn. “You didn’t hurt me, Beau. I’m just … confused. I’ll see you at seven.”
She walked out the door then, the vision of her sweet backside one that would stay with me for the rest of the day. I glanced down at my naked body, my need for her already growing again. If there was one thing I was suddenly and acutely aware of, it was that Dawn Lee had ruined me for all other women. I had loved that woman since day one, but that emotion had changed from abstract to concrete in a way I never expected the first time I kissed her. I thought back to the words that fell from my lips a few moments ago and wondered if she had heard them. She didn’t say anything, but she was flying into the sky on the wings of an orgasm. Maybe she didn’t hear me after all. The image of the tears in her eyes told me she had. Was she crying because I said them, or was she crying because she couldn’t say them back?
I sighed, sat up, threw my feet over the bed, and ran my hands down my face. I never claimed to understand women. I did know that I had just changed the rules of the game, and there was no going back. Dawn would either have to accept it or leave the game.
The barn was cold, silent, and gloomy when I walked in to ensure the animals had enough feed and warm bedding to tide them over during this cold snap. We’re a guest ranch now, and the guests are supposed to be responsible for the care of the small animals, but I always check on them just in case the chore was forgotten. Besides, nothing brightens your day like playing with baby goats. Princess Bubblegum, one of our newest babies, hopped up to me with much enthusiasm. I bent down and lifted her from the cage, laughing at her pure joy to be held in someone’s arms.
“Hello, baby,” I cooed, her soft fur tickling my chin. “Are you staying warm enough in your sweater?” The argyle wool wrapped around her reminded me of something your grandpa would wear on a chilly afternoon while sitting by the fire.
The rest of the gang, Jake, Finn, and Earl of Lemongrab, all clamored over for attention as well. I laughed happily, hugging them and giving them all equal attention. When Heaven first started her small menagerie of pets, she decided to name them after cartoon characters. Her horse’s name is Grover, and she always found it funny to come up with a name that fit the animal. Like our hen named Camilla and the love of her life, our rooster named Big Bird. Our latest collection of baby goats was named after the show Adventure Time since their mother’s name is Marceline the Vampire Queen.
I shooed the babes back into their pen and brushed off my shirt, glad the hyperventilating that I’d been suffering from the last hour had finally eased.
Beau loves me?
No. Beau said he thinks he loves me. I plopped down onto a hay bale and put my head in my hands, the tears I’d been holding back dripping onto my jeans.
A tiny hand came down on my back, making me jump, and I quickly swiped at the tears on my face. “What are you crying about?” Heaven asked, sitting down next to me on the hay bale.
“Hey, Heaven,” I said, clearing my throat of the tears. “I didn’t hear Grover.”
“I brought the truck over. I’m too cold from riding over at lunch, but Beau asked me to check on you.”
She sat rubbing my back but didn’t demand answers to the questions she didn’t need to ask. Heaven was the kind of friend who understood when you were upset and needed to talk and when you were upset and didn’t know how to talk.
“Beau asked you to check on me?” I finally asked, swiping at my nose with the sleeve of my shirt. “He didn’t leave that long ago.”
“He has a client about a saddle system for their disabled child, or he would have come over himself.”
More likely, he had no idea what to say any more than I did.
“I knew he had a client, but I didn’t know it was for another saddle system. How did they hear about it?”
Heaven patted my back once and then motioned at her left arm and shoulder. “I’ve been telling everyone I know about it! I even posted a picture of me in the saddle on one of my forums. The only other systems out there require you to order a whole new saddle, which is usually cost-prohibitive, especially for kids. Since Beau can retrofit the parts to the saddle they already have, it saves the client money. If the client is a child, the parts can transfer to bigger saddles as they grow. That isn’t available in the industry right now, so it’s a gamechanger.”
“You’re saying he might end up overrun with orders.”
Heaven tossed her head back and laughed, her body shaking at the idea. “Lord, I hope so. That boy has so much talent and no confidence about any of it. It would be great to see him succeed to the point he doesn’t need that ranch anymore.”
“You don’t want him to be part of the ranch anymore?” I asked, confused. “Blaze just signed over half of the rights to him.”
Heaven slashed her hand through the air. “No, that’s not what I meant at all. Beau is that ranch. Bison Ridge only exists because of him. We all know it. What I meant was, he doesn’t need to work on the ranch anymore. He can be a partner but still focus on his leatherwork for the most part.”
“Oh, right,” I nodded, staring at my folded hands again. “Beau would probably like that, too. He loves the ranch and the animals, but he lives for the leather shop.”
