Chapter 4 #2
Bandit is all show—chestnut coat gleaming, white blaze catching light when he lifts his head. The horse prances like he knows he’s the favorite in every parade route, and Tex encourages him with a soft whistle.
That horse is the embodiment of Tex’s personality, charming and full of flash.
My own horse, Whiskey Jack, stands beside me. He’s scarred from a barbed wire accident years ago, when he got spooked during a storm and ran right through a fence. I found him tangled up and bleeding.
Most horses don’t come back from something like that with trust still intact, but Jack did. He’s loyal and tough, patient enough to let me lean against him on the hard days.
We reflect each other. I don’t know if that’s comforting or a little depressing, but I choose the first option.
Jasper snaps another picture. He’s been documenting the whole process for a project he’s developing for his photography gallery in town. He keeps saying he wants to capture “the heart of the ranch,” whatever that means.
I don’t argue because his work is good and it makes him happy. The townsfolk like seeing familiar faces in the gallery windows anyway.
Tex calls over his shoulder for me to bring the rope around. I loop it in my hand and whistle low to Jack, walking toward the closest stallion.
The silver roan watches every move like he’s trying to decide whether to charge or pose for the camera. I like him already.
We’ve been working since dawn, taking turns easing each new stallion into the routine. They don’t know us yet, don’t know our voices or our hands or the way we guide instead of force.
Every horse has to learn that we mean to partner with them, not break them. It takes patience.
Sweat runs down my spine under my shirt, and my muscles complain every time I lift my arm, but this is the work that settles me.
Tex jokes that I turn into a different man around animals, calmer, easier to read. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know I can breathe when I’m doing this.
I wipe my forehead on my sleeve and step toward the roan. When he shifts back, I stop and wait. He blinks at me, ears twitching. His coat glimmers under the sun, pale silver dusted with dark speckles.
I stretch one hand out slow and let him decide. After a long pause, he lowers his head an inch. Progress.
I take another step.
That’s when a truck rumbles up the drive.
I turn without thinking. Dust curls in the air behind the approaching vehicle, and before I can even register the shape of it, my chest tightens.
It’s her car. I know the sound, the dent on the front bumper, the way the windshield catches the light. I know everything about that damn car because I’ve spent months trying to fix it, and she keeps telling me not to.
She pulls up beside the fence and steps out.
I forget how to breathe for a second.
Sedona hops down and shuts the door with her hip. She’s wearing a denim mini skirt and boots that stop half an inch below her knee.
Her hair is loose around her shoulders, curled from heat and travel. She looks sun-kissed and tired and happy to see me all at once.
My hat’s already sliding off the back of my head because I’m moving before I even think about it.
Tex whistles behind me. Joey mutters something approving. Seth says her name with a grin.
I don’t slow down. My boots kick dust up behind me.
She laughs as soon as I reach her. “You didn’t even give me a chance to say hi.”
I pull her straight into my arms and kiss her. She leans into it, smiling against my mouth as she pushes my hat back and lets it drop to the ground.
My hand skims her waist, then slides up her back. She hums like I just did something right.
My brothers cheer like idiots. Sedona laughs harder.
“When’d you get back?” I ask her as I brush my thumb over her cheek.
“Just now,” she says. “I went straight to my dad’s to drop him off, but he fell asleep before I even got the car in park. So I came here.”
I kiss her again because I can, because she tastes like travel and summer dust and everything I’ve missed for three long days.
She catches my shirt and pulls me close. “I’m here to invite you all to dinner tonight. Dad’s going to stay home and sleep off the drive. But I want the rest of you there.”
Tex lifts his hat in salute. “Say no more. Free food from Sedona’s kitchen? I’m in.”
Seth nods. Joey raises a hand and calls out that he’ll be there after checking on Diesel.
Jasper keeps taking pictures, muttering about “natural romance lighting” like a man possessed.
I look down at her. “What’s the occasion?”
She bites back a smile, playful and nervous at the same time. “I talked to my dad. I told him I want us to have an engagement party.”
My chest pulls tight like someone hooked a rope around it. I try to speak, but the sound sticks for a moment. Then I lean in and kiss the corner of her mouth, more tender than I expect.
“You’re sure?” I ask. “Really sure?”
Sedona rises on her toes and kisses me. “I’m very sure,” she murmurs. “Do you think you can get me a ring? No pressure, babe, but I want the whole world to know I belong to you. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Maybe we can go into town. I think we can find something at the flea market.”
“No need.”
I peel off my gloves and reach into my pocket. Her breath hitches when she sees the small velvet pouch.
I’ve had it with me every day since she told me she wanted to marry me. I was convinced it was just her grief speaking, so I asked her to take her time and think about it.
I didn’t think she would make the decision so fast. That she’d be sure so fast. I didn’t know when she’d be ready to say the real words, but I wasn’t about to be caught unprepared a second time.
I loosen the drawstring and slide out the ring. It’s my mother’s ring. Sedona’s breath catches.
“I’ve been carrying it around,” I tell her. “Waiting for when you were ready to say yes.”
She presses her hands over her mouth, shaking with emotion she tries to swallow. Her eyes look darker than usual, wide and wet and full of this aching tenderness that hits me right in the sternum.
“Yes,” she says, voice cracking. “Yes.”
“You mean it?”
“Yes,” she says again, louder this time. “Billy, yes.”
I laugh because I can’t do anything else. My brothers are already running toward us.
Joey gets there first and claps my back hard enough to make me stumble. Tex hugs Sedona. Seth shouts something about needing champagne even though none of us are fancy enough to keep that around.
I slide the ring onto her finger. It fits like it was always meant for her.
She raises her hand, staring at the band glinting in the sun. I kiss her palm, then her wrist, then the inside of her arm. She blushes all the way to her hairline.
Jasper snaps a photo at that exact moment.
We kiss again while my brothers cheer. Sedona wraps her arms around my neck as if she’s trying to climb inside my skin.
My hands ease down her back, and I hold her close enough to feel the rise and fall of her ribs. She breathes my name against my mouth.
The kiss is slow and warm, full of the promise we’ve been circling for years.
Joey eventually tells us to save it for after dinner. Tex winks at Sedona as if he isn’t the biggest menace on the ranch. Seth asks her what she’s making tonight, and she tells him I’ll help her cook.
I groan.
She grins up at me. “You’re my fiancé now. You have to help me.”
We laugh, leaning into each other, the ring shining on her hand like it’s always belonged there.
The rest of the world can wait. She said yes.
And for the first time in years, everything in my life feels like it’s in the right place.