AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Meryl lifted her shoulders. “She had one date with your dad and decided she was going to be a rancher’s wife. I don’t know if she ever wrote after that, but it wouldn’t surprise me. If you search the attics, you might find lots of dusty old journals. A writer writes; they can’t help it. And you, Dusty Walker, are a writer.”
A weak smile was forming on my lips. “Thanks. Even if only one person likes it, I guess I am.”
“Oh, I guarantee it’s more than one person! But the question I have is who inspired this particular poem. It wasn’t a horse, was it?”
I sucked my lower lip between my teeth, and my gaze fell. And I shook my head.
Meryl’s brows lifted gently, and I could see her eyes scanning my poem again. “She’s remarkable.”
I huffed. “You don’t even know who she is.”
“It doesn’t matter. You have the eyes of a poet, someone who can read the soul, and what you see in her is priceless.”
“Well…” I clutched that pillow again. “Like you said, it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter who she is and it doesn’t matter what I see. It’s just a poem.”
“No.” She rose and gently laid the magazine beside me. “It’s your dream. Maybe you deserve to win this time, Dusty.”
Jess
“Do you and your handsome rancher have plans for tonight?” Audrey asked as she slipped into her coat sleeves. We’d had a fun afternoon with the kids—a muddy afternoon, because the bad weather had held off for a little while, so we took them outside to learn how to identify different kinds of pine trees.
Audrey and I were the only ones who seemed to notice the cold. The kids had had a blast, but we were in the break room now, trying to warm up our frozen fingers under the faucet and dry out the wet hems of our jeans with paper towels. I zipped my fluffy hat into my duffel bag and tied up a fresh ponytail in my hair. “Yeah, I guess.”
“You guess? Didn’t he plan a nice date for Valentine’s Day?”
“Oh, I think so. He said something about Beaufort’s.” I shrugged. “I should’ve broken up with him by now, but I’m a big chicken.”
“Broken up with him? What for? I thought he was nice.”
“That’s just the problem. Heisnice, and whenever I work up the guts to break it off, he shows up with flowers or something. I don’t care about the gifts, but I feel bad slapping him in the face when he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Audrey slung her Chanel backpack over her shoulder and came close enough to look me in the eye. “It’s not about whether he’s done something ‘wrong.’ What has he doneright? If you feel like you need to cut him loose, then you need to do it before either one of you loses too much. What are you afraid of?”
I looked down at my bag to search for my keys. “I guess I needed to hear someone else say it. I’ve been worried about hurting him.”
“You’ll hurt him a lot more, not to mention poison yourself, if you don’t do anything. Trust me on this one.”
I drew a shaky breath. “Right. So, should I dump him on Valentine’s Day or let him pay for dinner first and break up with him over the phone tomorrow?”
Audrey snickered. “No way to win that one. It will work itself out. Here.” She wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. “For luck.”
“Thanks. Say hi to Kat for me.”
“Will do.”
We walked back out to the classroom together so she could collect her niece and I could pick up some books I’d brought about trees. Lizzy was still in there coloring, but so was Aedyn.
“Hey, buddy, your mom hasn’t come yet?” I asked.
“Nope. I bet my little brother ran off again.” He kept coloring.
“Ran off?”
Aedyn didn’t look up. “He hides sometimes. Last time it took an hour to find him.”
I met Audrey’s eyes, and she shook her head and tapped her watch. “I have to get Kat her meds on time. She’s won’t do it herself anymore. When do you need to leave for your date?”
I glanced at the clock on my phone. “I can stay with him. No problem.”
