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Tam shook her head. “I burned everything the day after he left,” she said.
“Tamara,” Blaine said, his face lighting up. “You told me that fire was for the dead brush along your fence.”
“Sue me,” she said. “I lied.”
They laughed together, and Tam realized she’d been worried about nothing. Their food arrived, and Blaine got the biggest steak Tam had ever seen. She looked at her French onion chicken, her mouth watering.
She told him how her dreams for her wedding had changed in the moment she’d literally watched what she’d been planning go up in smoke.
“So now what?” he asked, taking one last bite of his steak.
“Now,” she said with a sigh. “Well, now, I’m just gathering things I like, and I think if someone ever asks me to marry him, we’ll plan our dream wedding together.”
Blaine’s eyes shone like golden diamonds, and he nodded. “I like that plan, Tam. Seems safe.”
“Yes, well, I do everything on the safe side these days, don’t I?”
Blaine smiled, but he shook his head. “I don’t think so, Tam, or you wouldn’t be here with me. On a date.”
She swallowed, because he was absolutely right. She hadn’t walked on the wild side since her days in the rodeo. She’d dang near broken her back, and she didn’t want to be a cripple for the rest of her life.
She did enjoy an adrenaline rush from time to time, and she’d planned out specific things in her life, like who she’d marry, how the wedding would be, and where they’d live.
Now, though, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere but in Gran’s house, and she’d realized that a man could be part of a wedding too.
She didn’t argue with Blaine’s assessment that their relationship was a bit dangerous, but she pushed the idea out of her head. She couldn’t think too hard about it, or she’d end things tonight. She didn’t want to do that.
You like him, she told herself as he paid the bill and they got up to leave.You’ve liked him for so long. Be brave. One step at a time.
She took that step, took Blaine’s hand, and decided that a romantic relationship with him was absolutely worth risking their friendship for.
7
Blaine pulled up to his mother’s house on the ATV, the sky just beginning to lighten. Julie Chappell would be up, because Julie Chappell never slept past six a.m. At least she never had when Blaine was a boy, and she’d come over the speaker system at the homestead at an ungodly hour every Saturday morning when he and his brothers were teenagers.
He could still hear her singing.Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day.
Mom ran five miles five days a week, and she had until age fifty-six, when she’d had to have both of her knees replaced. She didn’t carry a single ounce of extra body fat, and she didn’t understand anyone who didn’t know exactly what they wanted and exactly how to get it.
Blaine had failed her in so many ways.
He took a moment to watch the sun finish coming up, the sky lightening quickly through the navies, purples, pinks, and oranges until it settled into a golden-hued blue. Kentucky and much of the Southeast was in the middle of a week-long heat wave, and Blaine touched the brim of his hat as he said, “Thank you, Lord, that we got the breeding done last week.”
They’d have another break for a couple of weeks, and then Duke had more studs coming to the ranch. With a gestation period of eleven months, having foals in spring and early summer was good for their health. They got a long summer of eating fresh grass and learning how to be horses before their training began.
Blaine had scheduled the vet back at the same time the new round of breeding would begin. That way, he could check the thirty-four mares they’d covered last week, and monitor a couple of their other prize-winners to see if they had viable follicles.
Blaine really needed something else to think about besides the horse reproduction on the ranch. He looked toward the house, this breakfast something he’d initiated. When he’d texted his mother over the weekend about getting together for breakfast, she’d been quick to respond with an enthusiastic,Yes! Come any day next week.
Blaine had chosen Wednesday, because that gave him some time to gather together his thoughts. He’d sat in Spur’s suite last night, and the two of them had gone over a plan for how Blaine could tell Mom about his failed engagement.
“Just be honest with her,” he said, repeating something Spur had said. To his knowledge, none of the other brothers had acted on Spur’s message about how their parents needed them. Blaine’s heart hadn’t stopped hurting that they felt abandoned and cast aside, especially Daddy.
He’d worked right alongside all of his sons and all of his men and women for many long years. So many, Blaine wasn’t even sure how to number them all. All the Chappells—male or female—learned to work around the ranch from a very young age. One of Blaine’s earliest memories was of him toddling after Spur, the end of a rope in his hand while his oldest brother led a horse to a training ring.
Before he went in, Blaine dropped to the ground right there in the front yard and swept his cowboy hat from his head. “Lord, I want to mend this rift between my mother and I. I don’t know how to do it, but I believe You do. If You’ll guide me, I’ll follow.”
Satisfied that his prayer was on its way to heaven, Blaine stood and adjusted his jeans. Turning toward the house, he caught the scent of bacon and maple syrup, and his taste buds started to cry loudly for whatever his mother had made for breakfast.
