WINNIE
In Freefall
The chopper’s rotors are loud even through the headset West jammed on me.
I clutch my seat like it’s the only thing keeping me attached to the aircraft.
West’s flying isn’t that bad; I’m simply not a fan of heights.
When he said Do you want to survey the building site for Sally’s house with me?
, stupid me thought we’d use Cord’s three drones and fly them out from our favorite picnic spot.
I didn’t ever imagine we would be flying over it in an actual physical aircraft. But this is Wilder West. Why would I expect anything different?
He laughs, and I clutch my metaphorical pearls tighter—and my seat. One hand gently moves mine away from a set of buttons I assume he needs for something else. I offer him a wan smile and follow his pointed finger.
“This is where we can run cattle.” West points toward the steepest incline I have ever seen.
“You mean mountain goats!” I screech.
West winces. “It’s a mic, Winnie. And it’s not Hollywood. You don’t need to yell.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
His headset shakes, and I can’t tell if he’s already exasperated with me or laughing at me. Let’s be fair; it’s probably a bit of both. “Okay. And this is where her woolly will live.” Another point.
“That’s a really big area for one sheep.”
“Yeah. It might get some friends.”
“Like a thousand.” I stare at the giant piece of land he points out.
“If we have to get a shearer in, might as well do a bunch.”
“That’s fair.” I consider his words. Sheep eat stuff, and there’s no pasture, just trees. The logistics of it all overwhelm me, and I know he’ll have an answer prepared for everything because he’s been doing it for my brother for years. “What if we like having the forest close the way it is?”
“You have nearly two hundred thousand acres for forest, Winnie. I don’t think you’re gonna run out.” West’s dry tone carries through the intercom just fine. “I mean, you can subdivide the mountain, but I don’t think anyone is gonna wanna build all the way out here, except for us and all.”
Which is kind of the point, or at least one of them.
Cord has effectively walled Sally off from the world.
But he’s also given her protection, privacy, and a source of income.
She’s going to become a rancher at twelve.
Happy birthday, offspring. That happens this week.
And her total value? She’s headed for the same realm as my brother.
Either West or I will need a law degree to keep up with her, or she is.
I’m starting to understand my brother’s world a little more. How big it is. Ever-expanding.
The possibilities and…
The fear. Of what’s there and what can be taken away.
“My preciousness is right here and she’s all mine,” I mutter, all too ready to surround Sally in sheep and cows. “But she’s also gotta have a social life. And birthday parties.”
“Pretty sure we can afford to ship some kids in for those,” West mutters, circling around. “Pool here, dirt-bike trail here.”
That’s not the point. Or maybe it is, and I’m missing it. Still… “Dirt bikes? Hell, no.”
“Yep. She asked. And if you don’t let her and educate her, she’s gonna go do it anyway. Teach her, and she’ll be safe, Winnie.”
“I know nothing about bikes except the fallout at the other end.” My ex-paramedic’s mind swims with grazes, broken bones, and traction casts from accidents like Cordell’s. “West…”
“I can ride. I’ll teach her. And I’ll get her coaching from a friend. I promise.”
“Okay?” This is going to go fast. Far too fast.
“We’ll take it slow.” I can sense his smile. “Get you on a bike too, okay?”
“Burn in hell.”
His laugh follows us as he circles over the house build that looks good on paper and becomes more real as we fly over the building’s skeleton.
I said it was too big. Cord even agreed.
Sally and West both shouted me down. The square structure with its open courtyard/pool area in the middle is a veritable mansion, and it’s Sally’s.
I sat in on the majority of the design sessions while Cord, West, and Sally pored over the screens in Cord’s study and West did some truly amazing designing.
And I’ve never been so proud of the three of them.
I’m still in awe of what came out of those sessions.
I think I might always be. It’s art and it’s over the top and it’s perfect for us.
And now they’re building it. But my own little room at the back that’s bigger than the entire townhouse I used to live in?
I designed that. It looks over that mountain that West and I wake up looking at that each morning.
I get to see the sunrise over that same peak every day for as long as we live there.
That’s the gift Cordell gave us.
The same day that he proposed to Lanie, quietly, while West and I were still trying to find our butts with both hands and Randall Rand couldn’t work out what his thumb was meant to do.
While Sally and Jesse Duke are discussing the finer points of the wrong end of a bull, and Billy studied one like he might give that eight-second bell a try one day.
When the yard was full and the homestead he built for a family he never thought he’d earn finally happened… That was when my brother got down on one knee and proposed to the woman who will now become his wife.
And she said yes before any of us could figure out what the hell just happened.
I stare at that peak, the gift my brother gave all of us, the land that spreads out across the forest floor, and I can’t speak. It’s too much.
As always, in the world of Cordell freaking Rand.
“You okay?” West’s hand covers mine as the chopper carries us in a smooth line, heading away from everything we know, deeper into the mountains. To a place we’ve never been before.
“Yeah. It’s just… a lot. You know?”
“I know. It’s always a lot, isn’t it? I don’t think that stops.” West’s voice is tight.
I look across at him, but he stares straight forward. I do too. So many peaks line up, so many different rugged and brutal faces, stunning in their stark, harsh glory. “It’s beautiful,” I breathe. “I wish I could paint this, or photograph it. I have zero skill in either.”
He shrugs. “So learn. You have all the time in the world.”
“You say that as though you can just rip talent from someone and put it on a screen.”
West says nothing.
“Hey. Did I break you?” I turn my attention from the mountains. “West?”
“Look down.”
“I mean, I’d prefer not to.” If I do it too often, I’ll probably puke. Heights really aren’t my thing, though the longer we’re up here, the better I’m getting, to be fair.
“Winnie.”
“All right.” I peer over the edge of my window at the forest below me, into the snowy foothills of the mountains. “Is there a wildfire risk? I see a lot of snow. It’s very pretty.”
“Fuck, I love you,” he grumbles. “Look in your lap.”
“Oh.” I readjust, wiggling my butt as I settle back into my seat and find a tiny purple leather box in between my legs. “West. It’s Sally’s birthday. Not mine.”
“I know that.”
“Why are you—Jesus, that’s huge.” I study the Asscher-cut teal sapphire with diamonds studded on either side in its silvery band. I doubt it’s silver, though, and it feels heavy. “West…?”
His laugh rebounds around the helicopter’s cabin. “Put it on, Winnie.” There’s a smugness factor in his voice that I love/hate instantly because it’s all West.
I slide the ring on my right ring finger, and he groans inside my headset. “Seriously. I have limits and we’ve reached them.”
“What?” I turn to him, the ring’s band gripped between my fingers. “It fits perfectly. See?”
“Wrong. Fucking. Hand. Beautiful.”
“Huh?” I blink at him. Back to the ring.
At him. “Oh. Oh.” I switch the ring to the left hand, my belly in freefall even though the chopper remains level, thank God, because only one organ needs to plummet right now.
My best Winnie smile comes out as my nerves skyrocket, heading in the opposite direction to my stomach. “Better?”
“Uh-huh.” He sounds like he’s speaking through gritted teeth. “Are you gonna say yes?”
“Are you gonna ask me?” I smile sweetly and find his hand. My heart pounds and I know I’m up for a spanking later. Or something.
“Winnie, I—”
“Yes.”
He stops talking. The breath over the intercom ceases. It’s actually silent for a moment. Then—“That was fast.”
“I just needed you to say it.”
“I didn’t get to.”
“It was a start.”
His hand grips mine as he circles the mountain twice as though he doesn’t want to head back to reality either. The sapphire glitters, reflecting the strange light that’s always come off the mountainside.
A place that’s just for us, somewhere this drifter’s heart can be happy but be satisfied wandering all the same. A drifter who is mine.
*