41
W e get up to Meadow Mountain and unpack everything.
Coolers of beer. Paper lanterns. A small Bose speaker cranks out Sturgill Simpson while the campfire burns.
Ford and Wyatt stand at the edge of the sandstone ledge, looking south across the vast canyon landscape as they light sky lanterns and let them loose into the air.
Ruby watches with wide eyes, her hands clasped to her chest. “Oh,” she gasps, trailing the glowing lantern with her finger. “There it goes.” She looks up at me. “What happens to it?”
I keep a protective hand on the small of her back, reminded of the last time I took her up here. Last thing I need is her getting too close to the edge.
“It’ll float down there,” I tell her, pointing below the cliffside. Runaway Ranch is microscopic, but we can see the smoke from the campfire. “It burns out in the air but stays lit long enough for the guests to see at the end of the night.”
Her mouth drops.
She looks ethereal in the setting sun, her long rose-gold hair falling across her face. Montana may be majestic in her beauty, but so is Ruby.
“Make a wish,” Ford drawls, lifting another lantern into the sky.
“Make a wish?” Ruby asks.
“Hopes. Dreams. Wishes.” Hand dropping to her waist, I lean in and explain our annual tradition to Ruby. “For next season.”
Ford kicks us off. “To the Braves winning.”
Davis rolls his eyes. “He means the ranch, asshole.”
“To next year,” I grunt, giving Ford side-eye. “No more goddamn videos.”
Fallon extends her arms. “To Pappy Starr,” she says, toes hanging off the ledge of the cliff.
Wyatt makes a face of revulsion. “What do you want with that prick?”
Fallon cocks a shoulder. “I’m taking up with him.”
A scoff pops out of Wyatt. “He doesn’t rep girls.”
“I think the statement you’re searching for is he doesn’t rep you .”
“Wouldn’t want him to,” Wyatt grumbles, snapping a twig in half and tossing it over the cliff.
The disgusted look on his face echoes my own. Pappy Starr is a sleazy rodeo agent who worries more about what his clients can do for him than what he can do for his clients. He treats the rodeo like a game instead of the sport that it is.
“Besides,” Fallon continues. “He will if I do something crazy enough.” A sly grin crosses her face as she sticks a leg out over the cliff ledge. “Life number four, here I come.”
Wyatt laughs, but his gaze is on her precarious balance. “Sounds like you need a therapist.”
Fallon rounds on him, looking like she’s ready to mow my brother down with her gunfire eyes. “Sounds like you need a muzzle,” she snaps.
Ruby, watching the scene with great concentration, edges closer to me. “What’d he do?” she asks softly.
“Who?”
“Wyatt.” She arches a brow, wags a finger between Wyatt and Fallon. The glares they’re giving each other could melt steel. “To make Fallon’s face look like that?”
I consider my brother. Ruby’s right.
That’s a goddamn great question.
I can’t tell if Wyatt wants to fuck Fallon or fight her. Maybe both. Which is strange because Wyatt usually tells me everything, but he’s never told me what he did to piss her off.
“You wanna feel alive,” Ford says, intercepting the argument with a wicked grin. “Let’s climb these cliffs, cowgirl.”
Taking the dare, Fallon wiggles her brows and grabs Ford’s pack. “You got chalk on you?”
“Christ,” I groan. Beside me, Ruby lets out a panicked squeak. The last thing we need is these two idiots plunging to their deaths.
“Y’all need to chill the fuck out,” Davis growls, stomping forward. In one swift motion, he hooks a finger through Fallon’s belt loop, lifts her into the air and sticks her back on solid ground. I watch the tension melt out of Wyatt’s lean frame.
Sticking her tongue out at Davis, Fallon grabs a beer from the cooler. “I’m gonna do something that’ll blow y’all’s mind, then get the hell out of this town.”
Ford holds up the last lantern. “Y’all get in here.”
Chuckling, Stede ambles forward and takes the lantern from Ford. A flash of silver shows in his smile. “I’ve had a pretty good life, but I sure would like some more.”
A small intake of breath beside has me glancing down at Ruby. She looks faraway, her light dimmed.
Fallon goes to her father. “That’s perfect, Daddy,” she says, her face the softest I’ve seen in a long time.
As Stede releases the lantern, I reach out and cup Ruby’s cheek in my hand. We watch as the glowing lantern floats in the dusky sky. “Your turn, Sunflower,” I tell her.
She shakes her head, stiffening at my words. “I don’t need a wish,” she says. And then she looks up, a gorgeous smile overtaking her face. The storm cloud in her eyes disappears, her sunshine glow restored. “I have you.”
How much I love this girl.
It vibrates through me like an electric shock.
Stays in my bones. Ashes my heart. Caves in my chest.
“Goddamn, baby.” I pull her closer into my arms.
That mouth is mine. I claim it in front of everyone, drinking her in deep.
When I release Ruby, all eyes are on us.
“Take a damn picture,” I growl.
Ruby blushes and ducks her head against my chest.
Everyone laughs and the night goes on. The stars come out. The cooler is emptied. We build a fire. Ford launches into a story about the fish he caught this summer and the bear he swears stalked him for a mile before he offered it the trout in exchange for his life.
Stede appears at my side. He looks healthy as hell. “Charlie, Davis, think I can bend your ear a second?”
Davis and I catch each other’s eye and slip away from the group. Stede takes a seat in one of the campfire chairs we brought, while my brother and I sit across from him on a log bench Ford whittled over five years ago.
“What’s goin’ on, Stede?” Davis asks.
“Listen, son, I’m an old man and I do things like stick my nose in spots where it might not be wanted.” He lifts a hand when I open my mouth. “I’m your elder and you respect your goddamn elders, you hear me?”
I chuckle. “We hear you.”
Stede leans forward. “Charlie, son, I’m afraid to tell you, but you got yellow-bellied grunkles on your property.”
I rub my jaw, my gaze flicking to Davis. “What the fuck’s a grunkle?”
A raspy chuckle comes from Stede. “Hell, if I know.” A mischievous grin appears on his weathered face.
“I’ve been trying to find a way out of your problem, and I think I’ve done it.
You know I have that friend at the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Well, I went down there a couple of weeks ago.
It took some time, and I cashed in some favors, but Runaway Ranch is officially designated as a wildlife preserve. ”
Davis and I stare at each other in stunned silence, then look at Stede.
Emotion has me in a stranglehold, and I have to clear my throat to get the next words out. “Jesus,” I say hoarsely.
No one can take Runaway Ranch from us now.
Davis still looks stunned. “Must have been a lot of fucking favors.”
Stede grunts. “Don’t ask.”
Blowing out a slow breath, I shake my head. “Why’d you do this? We have it covered. We have dirt on DVL.”
“And what about next time? When someone else comes calling? This way, even if you sell the land, it’s protected.
” He lifts his Stetson and smooths a hand over his bald head.
“I got money, son, a little power, some respect. Let me put it to good use. I’m the damn fool who didn’t think of the solution earlier. ”
Davis covers his face and barks a laugh of disbelief into his palms.
“Charlie, you being on the deed, you’re due down at the courthouse to sign paperwork tomorrow,” Stede says. “It’s all set up. No one can touch your ranch now.”
I smear a hand down my beard, overwhelmed. “Stede. It’s too much.”
“It’s not.” He straightens up, his gray eyes flicking to Fallon. “I admit, it wasn’t from the goodness of my small-town heart. I want you to do something for me.”
“Name it.”
“I want you to protect my daughters.”
More silence. Davis sits straighter.
“Call me old-fashioned, but my daughters are my everything. I won’t be around forever. When I’m gone, I want you to look out for them.”
Davis lets out a sharp breath. “You didn’t have to do this. We’d protect Dakota and Fallon, no matter what. All you have to do is ask. And no disrespect to you, sir, but I’m not so sure your daughters need our help.” He glances over his shoulder at Fallon, who’s currently howling at the sky.
“Fallon can’t be tamed,” Stede says, pride in his eyes. “My fault I suppose. Wild as the wind, that girl. Ever since her mother ...” Stede trails off, his hand turning to a fist. He takes a beat, clears his throat, and says, “And Dakota, well ...she’s a mystery to all of us.”
Davis flinches.
Somewhere across the ridge, a coyote joins in with Fallon.
Stede raises his hand, cutting off any further discussion. “You all are like sons to me. I trust you. With the land. With my daughters.”
“We’d be glad to help, sir. Anything you ever need.” Davis glances down, knuckles going white around his beer can. Something in his expression, in his tone, is soft. Unreadable.
Stede stretches out, searching his pockets. He comes up with a hard candy and pops it in his mouth. “I love being alive, man. I know I did something good with the time I got left.”
My throat clogs. “You got lots of time.”
“Time is the one thing we’re not guaranteed, kid.” Stede’s voice is steady. “We have to make our time. We have to make every second count. You can’t miss out on your life trying to get it together.”
I freeze at his words.
Stede looks out over the ridge, gesturing at the landscape. “This is what it’s all about.” Davis and I both rotate, following his eyeline.
In the distance, the splash and crash of Crybaby falls. The spires and cliffs of Meadow Mountain. Darkness breaking over the trees.
He’s right.
The dirt. The earth. Family. The girl in front of me dancing in the firelight.
I’d be a damn fool if I didn’t make her mine forever.
“Fuck.” I open my hands. Let out a breath. It’s like a weight’s been released. “Thank you, Stede.”
Stede stands and raises a hand without looking back. “Out here, it’s all about the people you know,” he replies. “And you know me, and that’s all you need to know.”
Davis nods, but his eyes are distant, his mind elsewhere.
With that, I leave Davis to brood on whatever it is eating him while I head back toward the group. Laughter rings out. And there’s Ruby, shining like a diamond in the firelight.
Too beautiful for words.
And she’s fucking mine.
I need to tell her about the ranch, but first I need to tell her something else. I go to her and take her hand, pulling her away from the others.
“What’s up, Cowboy?” she asks brightly, turning her magnificent blue eyes on me.
I touch the brim of her cowboy hat. Stars freckle her cheeks. “Thinkin’ about things.”
Ruby lifts on her toes and presses her lips to mine. “What kind of things?”
“Thinkin’ about the sunrise.”
She tilts her head. “Try tonight?”
“Goddamn right we do.” My palms ride over her shoulders. Her body arcs toward mine, the beat of her heart pulsing against my chest. “Thinkin’ about you and me and what’s next.”
She wiggles her eyebrows playfully. “And what’s that?”
“Thinkin’ about how I’m plannin’ to marry you.”
She gasps. Her eyes widen and she sucks in a shaky breath. “Oh, Charlie.”
“Soon, Sunflower,” I warn, taking her face in my hands. “I’m gonna put a ring on your finger and pray like hell you take my last name. Because you own me. For the rest of your life, Ruby, I’m yours.”
The days of wondering what I want, of walking around like a broken man, are gone.
I’m building a future with Ruby. A family. A garden. Her in my bed. Rocking chairs and whiskey and flowers and sunshine.
Until the end of goddamn time.
“Will you be my wife, Ruby? I’ll love you well, Sunflower. I’ll make you happy.”
She’s crying now, nodding into my chest. Tears streak over her cheeks, soaking the front of my shirt. “Shhh, baby. Don’t cry.” I kiss the top of her head, inhaling her strawberry scent. Then, lifting her face, I swipe her tears away with my thumb. “Happy or sad tears?”
“Happy.” She’s smiling so brightly that my own lips rise. “This is without a doubt the very best sunflower day.”
“Sunflower days for the rest of your life,” I vow. “I’ll give them all to you, baby.”
“You have me,” she says on a sob and my chest heaves in relief. “You have my heart, Cowboy.”
I lean down, sweeping my mouth against her lips. And that final dark part of me that’s hidden in shadows finally slips into the sun.