“I’ll also get the stable ready.”
“Thanks, Ángel.”
“Any time, my dear.”
I lower my phone and find Javier watching me over the top of Levi's journal.
“Ángel invited us over.”
Javier doesn’t look up from the journal. “Did he invite me?”
“He invited Bear. I assume you’re included by association.”
Javier gives me a look. “I don’t know if going is the best idea.”
Shoving my hands on my hips, I glare. "I'm letting you know, not because I need permission, but because I'd rather not sneak out." I throw on my winter gear and march out to the barn.
I’m entering the barn when I hear “Not without me!”
The smell of fresh-cut pine still lingers inside the new barn, but the last of the construction crew packed up two days ago. The scaffolding is gone. The sawhorses have disappeared. Even the muddy tire tracks left by their trucks have been swallowed beneath fresh snow.
Horses shifted contentedly behind polished pine doors, hay rustled beneath steady jaws, and warm golden light spilled across the aisle.
For weeks, the fire has been all I can see when I step through these doors.
Burned beams. Smoke. Ash.
Now it’s just a barn again, exactly as it should be.
By the time I have Shadow saddled and ready to go, Javier is waiting for me on top of his own horse.
“It’s been a long time since I raced someone like that,” Javier admits. “Better luck next time.”
I give Javier a side eye at the way he rubs salt into my wounds. “Why does that feel like a taunt?”
“I’ve been living the vaquero life since before you were born. I want you to feel like this is your home because Santi and those boys already do, but I never want you to show me up.”
“You really care about them, don’t you?”
“I’ve been loyal to this family since before Santiago was born. But if something were to happen to you while you’re on my watch, I won't live long enough to worry about losing my job.”
Shadow's ears flick lazily as she picks her way along the familiar trail. Fresh snow muffles every hoofbeat until it sounds as though we're floating instead of riding.
Javier rides beside me, every so often pointing toward something I've never noticed before.
A hawk's nest tucked into a cottonwood. Deer tracks crossing the creek. An old branding post that's probably older than both of us combined.
Maybe I've been too busy surviving to really see Falling Sky.
Or maybe I'm finally starting to belong here.
Determined not to be a thorn in Javier’s side, or at least no more than I already have been, I keep my mouth shut when the falling snow makes me shiver.
It’s my own damn fault for not wearing a thicker jacket.
Instead, I force my gaze over the landscape. I may have spent my childhood in Evergreen Falls, but I feel as if I’m seeing it for the first time.
Another snowflake lands on Shadow's mane as a deafening crack interrupts the stillness. The sound echoes through the trees, bouncing off the mountains until it seems to come from everywhere at once.
