Epilogue - Wyatt
Week Before Christmas
I love Christmas, don’t get me wrong. But seeing everyone all happy and in love and spending time with their families reminds me of the one person who isn’t here to celebrate her favorite holiday of the year.
My mom.
It’s been years since she passed but it was sudden and happened without any warning that it left a mark on my heart that has not and will never go away.
Every Christmas, I light a candle on the window frame of wherever I am at the time so she can look down and know I’m thinking of her.
This year it’s really weighing on me. Whatever I do, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s always a piece of my heart that’ll be missing.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with my life. I’m living the dream in Timber Falls. The Cooper brothers and their wives have all welcomed me into their family with open arms. And I come home to Bull and Spring Haven as often as I can to see Dad, Mags, and the rest of the ranch family.
But as I sit here on a bench in the Spring Haven town square watching Christmas festivities wind down after a busy all-day festival, it dawns on me that despite being content and happy, I’m still a little… lost.
I may have finally found my place in the world at Cooper Ranch, somewhere I can really make a difference and share the knowledge Dad instilled in me to help rebuild the property. A home where I can give back to the mountain. It’s where I belong. For however long that may be.
Yet, there’s something still missing.
“Hey,” a warm voice says from beside me. “Is this seat taken?”
I look up to see Sage Roberts, Colton’s sister, sitting down next to me.
Colton came to live and work with us at Bull Mountain Ranch, along with Rhett, Austin, Toby, and Landry Graham. It’s where my Dad and I lived too once all of us retired from the rodeo circuit to bring the derelict and neglected ranch back to life.
Colton and his now wife, Leah, originally lived at Eagle Mountain Ranch, along with Sage–who happens to be Leah’s best friend.
Sage has visited a number of times over the years, but we usually miss each other given I was crab fishing before coming to Timber Falls and she’s constantly moving around, trying out different jobs and vocations, trying to find a good fit.
Because of the age gap between us, my nineteen years to her late twenties, I can’t say we’re friends. I’ve always been Red Grayson’s son, the kid of the ranch. It’s one of the reasons I left to forge my own path as soon as I could.
“Is it always like this?” she asks.
“Like what?”
“So… happy,” she sighs.
I snort and cock my head. “Maybe you need to talk to Santa. He makes everyone happy, don’t you know,” I tease.
“Tried that. It didn’t work,” she looks out to the crowd in the distance. “I don’t know about you, but this time of year always makes me miss my parents.”
Sage and her brothers and sister lost their mom and then their dad years ago. “I was thinkin’ the same thing. It’s not that I’m not happy, it just feels like–”
“Somethin’ or someone’s missin’,” she answers for me.
Silence falls between us until I whisper my biggest unanswered question. “Does it ever get easier?”
She shrugs. “Would you ever want it to? In my mind, wouldn’t that mean that you’re forgettin’ them?”
As I stare into her soulful eyes, something jolts inside of me.
It’s not like the earth moves or like being struck by lightning or anything.
It’s more like something clicking into place deep inside of me.
I shake my head to myself, not even wanting to contemplate what the hell just happened, because it’s not possible. Not now. Not Sage.
“I could never forget Mom,” I reply.
“I couldn’t forget my parents either. I wouldn’t ever want to.”
“So, what are we supposed to do? Be sad every holiday?”
“Cherish them. Remember them. Live your life always strivin’ to make them proud,” she says, still staring at me.
I sit there and take her in, realizing there’s something about her that makes me feels at peace even though we hardly know each other.
Sure, she’s visited Colt, Leah, and the kids a lot since that’s her brother, best friend, and her nieces and nephews. But in terms of meaningful time together, nope.
I think I’ve been missing out.
Despite the age gap and my lack of life experiences because of that, I sense a kindred spirit of sorts. Why haven’t I seen her this way before?
I’m snapped out of my realization by Sage pointing to something above us. “Hey, what’s he doin’ here?” she says.
Looking up, I spot Duck Norris–the cross-eyed, one-legged bane of our existence from Bull Mountain–perched on a beam above our heads. Given he’s known to be a bit of a Houdini with an untold ability to turn up anywhere, his appearance isn’t exactly surprising.
What’s new is what he has sticking out of his beak and currently being held over our heads.
“Is that…mistletoe?” Sage asks.
I snort. “Sure looks like it.”
She drops her gaze to mine before it slowly roams down to my mouth and back up again. “Doesn’t mean we have to…”
My pulse spikes at the mere thought of kissing Sage. Despite my body’s reaction, I shake my head. “We don’t have to…” I say, even though I’m suddenly very curious about what it would be like to do it. My lips tingle at the thought.
She shrugs, her eyes crinkling at the sides as she leans in a little, shooting me a small smirk. I don’t miss that she can’t stop looking at me either. “It is tradition. It doesn’t have to mean anythin’. Right?”
Except it would. I don’t say. What if it means everything…
“Yeah,” I say, my voice strong, not betraying the way I’m truly feeling inside.
I’m full of butterflies and without realizing I’m doing it, I’m rubbing my clammy palms on my jeans.
“Yeah…” she repeats, leaning in further as I find myself drawn to do the same. It’s like there’s an invisible string pulling us closer.
Then it happens, our mouths touch and again I feel that same jolt course through me. This time it’s not that something slides into place, it’s like a key has been turned, locked in place.
We both stay there, as if we’ve been frozen in time. Her eyes flutter closed but I don’t dare look away. I can’t. Not this time. Not with her.
I make sure to commit this moment to memory. It is my first kiss after all.
Suddenly it’s like my body is no longer my own, instinct and need taking over.
I slide the tip of my tongue out, gliding it along the seam of her lips and earning a barely-there moan before she opens for me.
The world around us disappears. It’s just the two of us and this moment… this kiss. Sage’s whimpers and my rumbling groans, her tongue stroking with mine, her taste on my lips enough to see me through from this life till the next.
A loud ‘quack’ echoes around us, breaking the moment and the isolated bubble we found ourselves in.
Jumping apart, both of us breathing hard, both of us staring with wide eyes and confusion over what the hell just happened. And yet, neither one of us can speak. All I’m left with is one big unanswered question. Did she feel it too?
Because what started as a tradition, a rite of passage, turned out to be anything but.
That kiss wasn’t something that could ever mean nothing. For me, it was the exact opposite.
It was everything. Eye opening. Revealing. Showing me what the space in my heart is waiting for.
“We... ah… I guess we should get back,” she stammers as she gets up from the bench.
I watch as she plasters on a teasing smile that doesn’t reach her wide, surprised–maybe even still-confused eyes. Did she feel it too? I ask myself again.
“Was that… OK?” I ask because it’s not every day you experience your first kiss.
“What?” she asks before understanding fills her gaze. “Yeah, Wy. Thank you.”
She dips down and brushes her lips against my cheek. “That was just how it should be.”
I stand and join her as we walk wordlessly back to our families.
I may not know what that kiss meant, but something tells me the mountain spirit is about to make sure I find out.
I can only hope though, because if I’m guessing right, my time to hear the Call is coming.
And if that kiss is anything to go by, Sage Roberts might just be the one I never knew to look for.