Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
David
The next morning, I walk down to the breakfast buffet to grab some coffee and see what else they have.
As I turn the corner, I see Zoe already sitting there with her laptop open and a plate of food sitting in front of her.
She doesn’t see me from afar, so I wait this second to take her in while I walk to where the food is.
She’s wearing a pair of black dress pants and a silky-looking white tank top with black flats.
I glance down at my Ariat jeans and cowboy boots and laugh.
I look Montana professional, while she looks New York professional.
She’s definitely in for a treat today. I hope she doesn’t care too much about those shoes though.
After yesterday, I’m starting to see her in a different light, but I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not.
She was always this little spitfire, and I had no problem giving her flame right back, but now, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why things have changed between us.
It’s not like we physically did something to one another that warranted the way we acted toward each other. We just did.
I pour myself a cup of coffee, grab a banana and a muffin, then head over her way.
“Can I join you?” I ask.
She visibly jumps in her seat, then looks up at me with a blank expression.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I sit down, not waiting for the answer to the question I asked, and make myself at home at her table.
She moves her laptop to the side and closes it, which I take as a good sign. If she didn’t want me here, she would have kept it open, working on whatever she was reading so intently.
“Morning,” she says before taking a bite of her waffle.
“How did you sleep?” I try to start our morning with civility.
“Good, considering it’s a hotel. The bed wasn’t too bad. How about you?”
“Same. The first night is always so weird because you don’t really know where you are, you know?” I open my banana and take a bite. I chew a little, then take a sip of my coffee, loving the way they taste together.
“I can see that. I don’t go a lot of places, so I didn’t think about it that way. What’s on the itinerary for today?”
“Once we leave here, we’ll go to the farm to meet Samantha, and she’s going to give us a tour. We’ll have lunch there, and then we’ll go to where they are actually making the product.”
“It’s all done here?”
I don’t know why that surprises her, but it does.
“Yeah, when there aren’t crazy ingredients, they can make it just right there on the farm. And there is no reason to ship the tallow somewhere else. She’s still in the building-out process, but the manufacturing process is pretty much complete.”
We finish our breakfast before heading back up to our rooms, deciding to meet in the lobby in ten minutes.
When I arrive downstairs, she’s sitting in a chair near the front door, applying lip gloss. The way her lips shine from the light spilling in through the big windows makes me pause while my chest unexpectedly tightens at the sight.
Before I can gain my composure, she sees me and gives me the cutest smile, which only makes this feeling inside of me worse.
I inhale a deep breath and continue making my way toward her. “Ready?” I try to say as nonchalant as possible.
“Yep.”
She stands, and we head outside to where our car is parked.
We don’t say much on the way to the farm. It’s weird how comfortable the silence is. Neither one of us feels forced to fill the air with chatter. Instead, we let the music play, both of us singing along to the songs that come on.
As we pull up to the farm, I turn toward her and love seeing the amazement on her face.
“Why do you look like you’ve just seen a unicorn or something?” I ask jokingly.
“Have you looked around?” She motions to the land around us. “It’s gorgeous here. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Welcome to Montana. There’s a reason it’s called Big Sky Country.”
“I can’t believe you grew up in a place like this,” she says under her breath as she looks around in awe.
I turn the car off and sit back to watch her. “I can’t believe you grew up in the city. Did you really never go on vacations?”
“We did, but not to places like this!”
“Well, you’re in for a treat then. Let’s go.”
I open the door and step out onto the grassy, dirt road where we parked the car. Thankfully, the makeshift road is pretty compact, so any dirt we could be on is not a big deal now, but who knows where they’re taking us for this tour?
We walk up to the barn that’s five times larger than any barn I’ve seen and much nicer, too, with a sitting area out front, where it’s shaded from an overhang off the roof.
The railing lining the area is used for tying horses, which you can tell is original to the land, where other parts have obviously been redone.
Zoe rubs her hand over the softened wood on the railing, seemingly enjoying both the beauty and the history of it all. “How long do you think this has been here?”
“Over a hundred years,” Samantha says as she opens the door, wearing jeans and riding boots—a huge change from the Chanel outfit and Louboutin heels she had on in our office. She holds her hand out to Zoe, then me. “So glad you guys could make the trip.”
“Thank you for having us,” I reply.
“This place is amazing. Truly. I’ve never been anywhere like this.” Zoe doesn’t hide her awe.
She holds her arms out to the sides with a genuine smile. “Then welcome to our family home. I see you’re prepared.” She points at me, and then she looks at Zoe. “Did you happen to bring any other shoes?” She points at Zoe’s flats.
She glances my way in panic, then back to Samantha. “I didn’t realize we were supposed to dress a specific way.”
“It’s okay. I have something you can slide on. Follow me.” She motions to us, then turns around to walk inside the barn.
Zoe is quick to slap my arm and forcefully whisper, “Why didn’t you tell me to dress another way?”
“Why didn’t you think about the fact that we were going to tour a ranch?” I chuckle under my breath.
She rolls her eyes and tries to fix her composure, but I can tell it’s eating away at her.
We enter the barn, which is not what I was expecting. Normally, you see horses and stables with hay everywhere, but no. This place has been made into a home-like atmosphere with hardwood flooring that looks like it was refinished years ago and a seating area with a few desks off to the side.
“Wow,” Zoe says in awe as she takes in the area, and I have to admit, I’m feeling the same way.
“I have some boots out here for you, and then we can start the tour.” Samantha motions for us to follow her through two big wooden doors.
Once we walk through there, I’m brought back to my childhood. It’s just like the barn my grandparents had, where I used to spend my weekends as a little kid, then worked all through high school.
To the left are piles of hay, and farther down, multiple horse stalls line either side.
The sight of saddles and pitchforks brings a smile to my face that I haven’t felt in years.
I didn’t realize I’d missed this as much as I did until right this minute.
I thought I could leave this part of my life behind me, but being back here is making me think otherwise.
Samantha picks up a pair of riding boots and hands them to Zoe. “These should fit you. You can place your flats here.”
Zoe places her hand on my arm to steady herself, like it’s something we’ve done a million times and not the first time she’s ever touched me on her own.
“How do I look?” she asks once she has them on.
“Gorgeous,” I respond without thinking, but meaning it one thousand times over.
She blushes, and it does weird things to me.
Thankfully, Samantha intervenes by saying, “Okay, let’s get going.”
We walk to a four-seater side-by-side vehicle, where I allow Zoe to sit in the front seat so she can get the entire view.
“Hold on. It can get a little bumpy,” Samantha says before driving away.
I know I should be watching the land around us, but I can’t take my eyes off of Zoe.
Her excitement is infectious and palpable, like a child experiencing magic for the first time.
It’s as if she’s truly awakened to life’s beauty and blessings, soaking in every gift God has to offer in our great land and appreciating all He’s given us.
“Look over there.” With the biggest smile on her face, Zoe points to a pond, where two deer are drinking water.
“Have you never seen deer?” Samantha asks in surprise.
Zoe shakes her head. “Nope, not in real life.”
“Well then, I need to take you on the full tour to really knock your socks—or boots—off!” Samantha says and takes a sharp turn, changing her plans on where she was going to take us.
We spend the day driving around where her cows are feeding off the land. We also get to see some elk, a ton of birds, and even two large moose off in the distance.
“Those things are huge!” Zoe points to the moose.
“Yeah, they can get up to fifteen hundred pounds!” Samantha exclaims.
“You think you feel small now. Wait until you stand next to one of those,” I tease.
She brings her hand around to playfully smack my leg, and out of instinct, I grab it, holding on to her for a few seconds before letting her go.
We make our way back to the barn, and Zoe cannot stop grinning.
“This has been the best day ever!” she says with a smile so big that it lights my world as well.
Samantha joins us on the passenger side of the vehicle. “Shall we have lunch now?”
I allow them both to walk ahead of me, needing a moment to get my wits about me and wondering why just seeing Zoe this way is affecting me so much.