Chapter 4
Chapter Four
“Watch this.” It surprised Fiona to find herself thrilled to teach Rhett what a phone was. She held it and motioned for him to come closer so he could see.
“That’s slick and shiny.” He moved toward her but stopped a respectful distance away and eyed the phone like it might bite him.
She demonstrated how to change the wallpaper, shifting from a snow-covered Christmas village to one of Santa and his reindeer.
He whistled. “That sure is fancy.”
“Oh, you haven’t seen the half of it.” She played a Chamber of Commerce video for him advertising Evergreen Springs as a holiday destination.
She cast a glance at him.
He stood gobsmacked. Jaw unhinged, eyes huge as Tootsie Pops. She tried to imagine what emerging one hundred and forty-seven years in the future must be like for him, but her brain stumbled on the concept.
“What the devil is this?” He pulled his hat off and scratched his head.
“It’s how we communicate in 2025. Through images and sounds on this device called a cell phone.”
“But how?”
Indeed. Modern inventions were as magical to him as time traveling was to them both. And she couldn’t claim to know how cell phones and the internet worked.
“I can contact my friends by writing them a message and sending it through the airwaves on this phone.” Fiona opened up the message app, called up Tessa’s number with her perky picture in thumbnail, and texted:
Did Cade come back to 2025?
“Cade. That’s my friend.” Rhett pointed at her message and plunked his hat back down on his head. “What happens now?”
“We wait for Tessa to respond.”
“How long does it take?”
“Hard to say. Depends on when the person on the other end checks their phone and sees the message. Could be right away, could take hours.” Just then the phone rang, vibrating in Fiona’s hand, startling her so that she almost dropped it.
Rhett jumped back as if he’d encountered a rattlesnake.
Caller ID showed the call was from her best friend, Megan Collins, the principal of Jamie’s school.
She noticed the time: 9:15. Heavenly days!
School started over an hour ago, and she completely forgot about it.
Understandable under the circumstances, but guilt drilled a hole straight through her chest.
“Hello?” Her voice came out uncertain, caught up in the disorienting fugue of her son’s meltdown and a time-traveling cowboy.
“Fi? You okay? I’m calling to check on Jamie. His teacher told me he didn’t show up for class this morning.” Megan’s kind tone recentered her in reality.
A desperate urge to confess everything pushed against her throat, but the last thing she needed was Megan calling 9-1-1 and sending a psych team to her door. “Yes, um… I apologize that I didn’t call. Jamie had an incident. He’s okay, but I’m gonna keep him at home today.”
“I’m so sorry, Fi. Is there anything I can do?”
Fiona eyed the handsome cowboy beside her. “It’s under control now.”
“What caused it? He’s been doing so well.”
She told her about her parents’ unexpected departure to Arizona, giving just the need-to-know points.
“Oh, that’s a blow. You must feel like you’ve had the rug yanked out from under you.”
“Yeah.” And then some.
“Do you want me to come by after work, help you figure out how you’re going to juggle everything with them gone?” Megan asked.
“It’s so kind of you, but I just need some time to process first,” Fiona said, feeling both supported and crowded by the offer.
“I sure understand that.” Megan lost her mother on Christmas Day last year, and she was still battling depression and grief, but doing her best not to show it.
“Thank you for checking in. Jamie will be back in school tomorrow.”
“If we don’t end up with a snow day. Snow dump expected overnight. You might want to check the forecast.” Megan gave a chuckle.
“I’ll do that.”
“I hope Jamie’s doing better soon.”
Fiona glanced at her son, who was spinning the top and counting seconds, a happy smile on his face. “Thanks.”
They rang off.
“I’ve got to call into work,” Fiona thought out loud as the magnitude of her situation settled in.
Rhett stood watching her like a stranger in a strange land, which of course, he was.
She pressed the button to call her boss at the Chamber of Commerce.
“Morning, Fiona!” Riata said. “Perfect timing. Can you pop over to Holbrook’s Hardware on your way in?
They’ve finished the scaling and power washing of the mural from the 1800s, and there’s a faint outline of what appears to be four cowboys galloping on horses.
This is so fun! We need photos and a write-up for the website and the newspaper. ”
Cowboys. Of course, it was cowboys. Everything in her life narrowed to that one impossible word. She glanced at Rhett, who studied her with thoughtful eyes, soaking in her every move like each modern detail was a clue to some intriguing mystery.
“Um, about that… I can’t make it in today.” She filled her in on her parents’ departure and difficulties with Jamie.
“I understand. Don’t worry about it for a second. You’re such a wonderful employee and you do so much for this town. Take your time. Those cowboys have been galloping on the mural for over a hundred years. It won’t kill them to wait.”
“I’ll get on it first thing tomorrow. I promise.” She let out her breath, relieved at Riata’s patience and understanding.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. We’re supposed to receive two feet of snow overnight.” Humor tinged her boss’s voice.
“Oh gosh, for real?”
“We might all have a snow day.”
Was the universe conspiring against her? Parents leaving, cowboys arriving. Epic snowfall. Well, at least Mom and Dad didn’t have to deal with the winter weather. She went to the fridge to check Dad’s travel map. They would overnight in Salt Lake City. “Fingers crossed it’s not that bad.”
“Take care of yourself and that boy. I’ll see you when I see you.” Riata ended the call.
Her phone pinged with a text.
Cade did return last night. Long story. But how did you know?
Fiona glanced at Rhett, who was peering over her shoulder to read the message.
“Cade’s here?” Joy lit up his face.
She nodded and texted:
Um, I found a card in a box of Christmas decorations.
What?!!!!!!
I’ve got a cowboy in my kitchen.
In an instant, the phone rang.
“That thing sure is noisy,” Rhett said.
Fiona laughed and picked up.
“Girrrl!” Tessa squealed. “Spill everything. Who is it?”
“Rhett Kelsey.”
“Hang on…” Tessa muffled the phone.” Cade, Rhett Kelsey is in Fiona’s apartment.”
She heard Cade’s voice in the background but couldn’t make out what he said.
“This is amazing! Can you bring him to the ranch?” Tessa asked.
“Let me get back to you on that.”
She ended the conversation, glancing from Rhett to Jamie, who was still engrossed with the top.
Taking her son out risked undoing the morning’s hard-won calm.
One misstep and they would be right back at the edge of another storm.
But the alternative, staying here all day with Rhett tucked into her kitchen like a secret she couldn’t keep, was a nonstarter.
“Do you want to go to Tessa’s ranch and see Cade?” Fiona asked Rhett.
His face lit up so bright and happy, she felt his joy deep in the center of her solar plexus. “Can we?”
She chewed her bottom lip, crouched down near Jamie, counting under his breath as the toy spun. “Jamie, do you want to go see Miss Tessa’s horses?”
He didn’t look up. “No.”
“But you love her mini horses.”
“I’m playing.” He flicked the top again, sending it whirling.
“You can bring it with you.”
“No. I want to stay here.” He hunched his shoulders and avoided eye contact.
At a loss, she pressed a palm to her mouth. Should she try firmness or more coaxing? It was so easy to make the wrong decision.
Rhett came over and hunkered down beside her. “You know what makes it spin that long?”
Jamie shook his head but didn’t stop watching.
“The point on the bottom. It needs to be just right. Too sharp, it digs in. Too dull, it wobbles.” Rhett pulled a knife from his pocket, flicked it open, and held it to the light.
Fiona’s pulse jumped, but he didn’t move closer, just let the boy see the worn handle and the gleam of a well-kept blade. “I carved that top with this knife.”
“You made it yourself?”
“I sure did. It took me three days to get the balance right.”
Jamie’s interest sharpened. “Three whole days?”
“I had to dry it out between sessions. Cedar’s particular. Rush it, and it’ll crack.”
“What’s cedar?”
“A type of wood. Doesn’t split easily. Smells like Christmas when you work it. Light enough to spin long, heavy enough to keep momentum.”
“Momentum?”
“The force that keeps things moving. Like horses. Once they’re galloping, they want to keep going. Takes more effort to stop them than to keep them going.” Rhett snapped the blade closed and tucked it away.
“Miss Tessa raises tiny horses. Minis. Like if regular horses got shrunk.”
“I’ve never seen a mini horse.”
Jamie’s head snapped up. “Never?”
“They don’t have them where I come from.”
“They come up to here on me.” Jamie held his hand at waist height. “They’ve got fuzzy manes and soft noses, and they blow on your hand when they smell you.”
Rhett nodded, solemn as if this were sacred knowledge. “Sounds worth seeing.”
Jamie considered it. “Would you come too? To see them?”
“Sure will.”
Fiona’s throat squeezed. In minutes, Rhett had done what she couldn’t. He pulled Jamie out of his corner, turned his “no” into curiosity, lightened the morning. A pulse of emotion she had no name for thumped at her wrist.
Jamie grabbed the top and shot to his feet, energized. “I need my coat. And snacks. Mom, we need snacks for the car!” He barreled down the hall.
She met Rhett’s gaze. “Thank you.”
He shrugged, though his eyes stayed on hers. “Boys like horses.”
But it was more than that. He read Jamie with a precision she couldn’t match, found the balance between distance and connection, coaxed him into yes without breaking him.