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I lowered the card, my heart pounding in my ears. He’d said it. Somehow, in that quaint, spare lilting style I’d come to know so well, Austen had known exactly how to shatter my resolve and make me want to take another chance on him.
But could I really do that? I had already set my heart on Dusty, on finding out if he could love me. Could I let go of that hope for what I already held in my hand?
“Austen,” I whispered, “this is… I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything yet. Open the box.”
My fingers trembled, and I eyed that box with a fear I’d never known. It couldn’t bethat. Surely not. We’d only been dating a couple of months and never talked seriously about anything.
I’d never even said I loved him, and he only said that when he talkedaboutme. He loved my hair. He loved the way I rode a horse. He loved how I helped my dad—that sort of thing.
No, this couldn’t be what I thought it was. It was probably that pair of silver earrings I’d admired at the western store last week. Thathadto be it. Austen wouldn’t dare…
But as the lid creaked open, my eyes were almost blinded by two sparkling carats, princess-cut and set in platinum.
“Huh-huh-wha… what?” I gulped. My voice didn’t want to work, to say nothing for my brain. “Why?”
Austen had taken the moment to walk around the table and drop to one knee beside me. “Why?Because I’m crazy about you, and I hope you feel the same way. Jess Thompkins, will you make me the happiest man alive? Marry me.”
I knew what I needed to say. I couldn’t possibly accept. I didn’t love him—at least not yet. That poem, though, set down in his own hand and speaking from his heart, at last, voicing all the things I needed to hear… I couldn’t walk away, either. Not until Iknew.
“Jess?”
I just stared at him, and a tear slipped down my cheek.
Chapter 21
Dusty
“Youhaveavisitor,little brother!”
I was out in the yearling pen, putting Daisy through a few herd work exercises and checking over the cows when Luke’s voice called from the barn. I looked back and saw Dustin, the kid who’d gotten lost up at White Pines back at New Year’s, walking carefully toward me and carrying a box.
“That’ll do,” I said to Daisy. “Here.” She dropped and slunk under the fence to appear beside me like a little shaggy black apparition. You’d never know she was there unless you happened to look down.
“Hi, Dustin,” I called. “What do you have there?”
He waited until he was close to me before he would answer, then he pushed the box toward me and stared at the ground. “It’s for you.”
“For me?” I smiled, hoping to encourage him to make eye contact, but it didn’t work. When he did look up, his eyes settled on the yearlings behind me.
“I made it,” he said.
“You made… Oh, wow.” I reached into the box and pulled out a wood carving of a horse, about ten inches high and polished to a satin sheen. He’d made it out of some exotic wood with rich color contrasts and natural flaws and knots that highlighted its beauty. The horse itself was posed in a proud gallop, with only one foot on the ground. The rest of the sculpture’s weight balanced on what looked like a wave of grass. The neck was slightly bent, the mane and tail whipped out behind, and nostrils flared to the wind.
“Dustin, I don’t know what to say. You did this yourself?”
He nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose as he stared at Daisy. “To say thank you.”
“Well, that’s really nice, Dustin, but what are you thanking me for?”
He acted like he was trying to swallow, and I realized he was struggling with the words. That was something I could understand, so I just waited. “F-for finding me on the mountain wh-when I was cold.”
“Aw, Dustin, you didn’t have to do that. And anyway, it wasn’t all me. Cody and Marshall were out there, too, and Kelli came up with her coat.”
He nodded. “They have one too. But theirs are different.”
“Ah,” I breathed. “How are they different?”
