CHAPTER 25
Randi awoke before dawn at the ranch.
The reception she had received was as if she was a daughter returning home. For a moment, she lay still, unsure what had stirred her. Then she remembered. She reached for it quickly, her breath catching as she saw the last notification, missed call, and final voicemail from Brew’s number.
Her phone rested beside her and her breath hitched as she listened.
His voice filled the quiet room, closer than it had been in weeks.
“I know what you’ve done,” he said. “I know where you’re headed. I’m coming to you.”
The message ended, but the warmth it left behind didn’t. Her heart filled with joy, and she jumped from bed dancing happily.
Randi sat there for a long moment with her fingers curled lightly around her cell as something steady and certain settled inside her.
Then she smiled and moved.
It only took her a matter of minutes to pull on a pair of eats, zip-up a matching hoodie, and pull her hair into a high ponytail. The house was quiet as she descended the stairs, walked toward the kitchen, and prepared a pot of coffee so it would be ready for the others when they rose.
With cup in hand, she stepped out into the cool early morning air, the sky still holding onto the last traces of night. The world felt suspended in that quiet space between darkness and light, where everything seemed possible.
Her feet carried her without thought to the place she had come to love most.
The meadow stretched wide before her. A soft mist hovered low over the ground, drifting in delicate layers across the open field. The first hints of sunrise began to break along the horizon, casting a pale glow that slowly awakened the land
The mustangs were already there.
Quietly grazing, moving in slow, deliberate rhythm as if the world had never known anything but peace and unaware of anything beyond that moment.
Randi stood at the edge of it all, her hands wrapped around the warmth of her coffee cup seeping into her hands as she took it in. She stepped forward, watching them.
Breathed it in, her mind sighed, the feeling this place offers, the life you’ve chosen you want with this wonderful man. Hold onto it. Never take it for granted.
The sun slowly began to peek in the distance over the Pryor Mountains, and the ranch’s resident roaster welcomed the new day … it’s repeated cockle-doodle-do renting the air.
Behind her, the ranch stirred quietly to life and lights slowly flickered on.
Voices of ‘Good morning’ carried faintly.
On the porch, Brew’s family trickled out the front door, inhabiting a comfy rocker, with coffee cups in hand, their expressions a mixture of anticipation and quiet knowing.
They had heard Drew’s voicemail received the night before well after Randi had arrived. It was quite a joyful calamity.
The wait was nearly over, and now they were watching the driveway.
The car pulled in just as the sun began to break over the horizon.
Brew stepped out before it fully stopped, his eyes already searching.
“Where is she?” he asked, his voice already carrying urgency.
Blythe smiled, pointing toward the meadow.
“Where she always goes.”
He didn’t wait.
Randi felt it before she saw him. A subtle shift in the air, unmistakable, and she turned slowly.
And there he was.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Distance stretched between them … not far, but long enough to hold everything that had come before it, filled with everything they had been through. Everything they had risked. Everything they had chosen and had almost lost.
Then, he started toward her.
The coffee cup slipped from her hand, forgotten as she moved at the same time, her steps quickening without thinking.
The space between them closed faster than either of them could think.
When he reached her, he didn’t stop. His hands found her face, her shoulders, pulling her into him as if letting go wasn’t an option anymore.
Their kiss wasn’t tentative. It wasn’t careful. It was all-consuming and deeply passionate, everything they had held back, everything they had nearly lost and chosen.
“I’m done with distance,” he said against her lips, his voice rough with emotion. “I’m done pretending this is something we can live without.”
Her hands tightened on his shirt, her breath uneven.
“I’m here,” she said. “I want this. I want a life with you here.”
He pulled back just enough to look at her, something unguarded in his expression now, in a way she had never seen before.
“Then don’t leave again,” he said quietly.
“Not without you.”
The words settled between them. And this time, they held and truly meant it.
He reached into his pocket, his hand steady despite everything else.
Randi’s breath caught as she watched and a thought flashed in her mind.
No, he’s not -
“This wasn’t how I planned it,” he said, a faint smile breaking through. “But I don’t think I could wait another second.”
He dropped to one knee.
Oh, my God! He is.
The world seemed to still around them - the horses, the rising sun, the quiet rhythm of the land holding the moment as if it knew what it meant.
“Marry me,” he said.
No speech. No hesitation. Just truth.
Tears filled her eyes before she could stop them, her hand shakingly, instinctively lifting to her mouth.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Then stronger, louder for the world to hear.
“Yes.”
He rose, pulling her into him again, laughter breaking through the emotion as the weight of it all finally gave way to something lighter.
Something certain.
Behind them, the porch came alive with loud celebration, Brew’s family watching with knowing smiles, his brother’s high-fiving and whooping, their presence steady and unwavering.
And this time - nothing would ever stand between them again.
EPILOGUE
The seasons changed on a slow roll.
But the land remained.
The house they built stood just beyond the main homestead, close enough to feel connected, far enough to belong to them alone.
Morning light spilled across the porch where Randi often sat with her coffee, her gaze drifting across the open fields where the mustangs moved as they always had.
Wild, free, and unforgettable.
Inside, life had a different rhythm now. Laughter echoed more often. Small footsteps followed behind larger ones.
The future Brew had once spoken of had taken shape in ways neither of them had fully imagined but both had hoped for.
Randi’s studio stood just off the house, filled with canvases that told stories of land, of movement, of connection. Her work had found its place in the world, but it had also found something deeper.
Meaning.
One canvas remained untouched by anyone but them, and it hung proudly over their fieldstone fireplace.
The field of wildflowers.
The butterflies.
And two loving figures cuddled side by side, holding a child resembling them both, and their faces reflecting the deep love they shared.
Brew found her there one evening, standing before it, her fingers lightly brushing the edge of the frame.
“You finished it,” he said.
She smiled softly. “I did.”
He stepped closer, his arm settling around her as he followed her gaze with their beautiful, little girl Aster propped on his hip.
“It still feels like the beginning,” she added.
He kissed her temple gently.
“That’s because it is.”
Outside, the horses moved beneath a fading sky, their presence steady and unchanged.
A reminder ... of where they had come from … of what had been protected ... of what had been chosen.
And inside, they had it all – the dream they both had once wished for now come true.
The End.