Chapter 15 #3
“The funniest part is they’re so competitive,” Emma continued. “Mr. Hanson accused Mrs. Cowalski of buying new clothes instead of using thrift-store stuff, and she made him smell the inside of one boot to prove it was used.”
Aiden choked on his drink.
Tamara leaned back in her chair, laughing. “I take back everything I said. The Throwdown can stay.”
Conversation rolled on, but Caleb’s attention snagged on Sasha. She laughed at Emma’s story, then gathered empty dishes without being asked and carried them to the counter. Tomorrow she’d go back to Crooked Creek for another week, but soon that week could be the start of something much longer.
Like opening the wide arena doors and letting light into the barn, understanding flooded in, and Caleb got it. That was the problem tickling the back of his soul like an itch he couldn’t reach.
The hall was almost finished. Everyone knew where it was headed, and barring some disaster, they knew when they’d walk through the doors.
Sasha’s future wasn’t like that. No schedule to consult, no inspection list, no set date when the answer would arrive.
When a decision belonged to him, at least he had something to do. He could weigh choices, make lists, argue with himself, then take a step.
Waiting for someone he loved to decide was worse because all Caleb could do was watch.
“Dad?” Sasha stood beside him, a stack of plates balanced against one hip. “You okay?”
“Fine.”
Her brows lifted in a way that was entirely Tamara.
Caleb sighed. “Thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
“Very.”
She smiled, but something in her expression stayed careful. “I’m going to finish packing after cleanup.”
“I figured.”
“Uncle Frank wants to start early tomorrow. We’re moving cattle between the south sections.”
“Roads should be good.”
“Looks that way.”
There were a dozen things Caleb could have said. Are you happy there? Do you miss home? Are you leaning one way or the other?
He said none of them, not because he didn’t care, but because he cared too much, and he didn’t trust himself not to make the weight she was carrying any heavier.
Sasha leaned in and hugged him as she passed. A small, affectionate gesture that meant the world to him, but he smiled and winked and sent her off with no hint of the turmoil still rolling through him.
The next morning, her truck was gone before the sun came up.
Caleb thought long and hard as he did his morning chores. Changes. Not all of them were going to be easy, but some were good, and he needed to get his butt in gear and celebrate those.
Tamara walked out to the bus stop with Emma and Tyler, and Caleb got moving.
By the time she got back, he had two dozen of the flickering LED candles glowing around the edges of the living room, the coffee table pushed aside, and a thick blanket in the middle of the floor with soft music playing in the background.
Tamara blew into the house with her usual vigor, back to the room as she hung up her scarf and coat. “They made it off. Do you have time for another coffee?”
She turned, and her eyes widened.
“Time for coffee, and a little more.”
Tamara’s lips twitched up at the corners. “What’s going on here?”
“If you don’t know, that means it’s been too long.” Caleb stepped forward and caught her hand in his. He lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them gently. “Been thinking about changes. Like how Tyler being in school full time is a big change, and one we could take advantage of.”
“In interesting ways,” Tamara returned, peering over his shoulder at the makeshift bed on the floor.
“For stretching,” he deadpanned.
“Of course.” She slid her fingers up his chest before linking her hands behind his head. “We should work on our flexibility together.”
He kissed her. No distractions, no need to rush. Just them as a couple instead of dad and mom, ranch owners, stewards of the land.
Two people who had fallen in love in spite of their past baggage and worked hard to make what they shared together now so sweet.
They could make the future work as well.
After, they lay together in front of the fireplace, clothes scattered nearby and both of them still catching their breath. Caleb linked his fingers with hers and stared up at the ceiling, the heaviness inside him not gone, but shifted into something he could handle.
Tamara turned her head. “Better?”
“Much.”
“I meant your mood.”
“That too.”
She laughed quietly and squeezed his hand.
Caleb watched the firelight flicker across the room. “I figured out what’s bothering me.”
“Wondered if you had. Sasha?”
“Only partly. It’s the waiting.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of Tamara’s hand. “It’s harder waiting for her to decide than it ever was making decisions for myself.”
“I know. For me too.”
“I want her to choose what’s right.”
Tamara’s gaze was steady and true. “She will.”
His last confession was still humbling to share. “And I don’t know what I want her choice to be.”
“Good part?” Tamara eased closer until her shoulder pressed against his. “You don’t need to know.”
Outside, the wind pushed dry leaves across the porch, scraping them briefly against the steps before carrying them away.
Some changes were good.
Some would be hard.
Caleb lifted their joined hands. Whatever came, they’d get through it together.