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Jess
It was a good thing the horse could see, because I couldn’t. How far was this ridge, anyway? It felt like I’d been riding for an hour, but it was probably only about fifteen minutes. My coat wasn’t thick enough to handle the wet and the cold together, and my gloves were just little knit things that had soaked through in only a few minutes. My hands were almost warmer without them.
I’d found a head lamp in the barn, as well as an extra hat and a yellow rain slicker. I’d thrown them on, and they were absolute lifesavers. At least I could see the path in front of me, and the rain wasn’t falling in my eyes. The horse probably didn’t need the light, but I wasn’t quite bold enough to turn it off.
Would Dusty even be happy to see me coming? I tried to prepare myself for anything. If he was working—cold, wet, and miserable like I was, and trying to do his job as quickly as possible, he might not appreciate me showing up and trying to hug him. Maybe he would. Or maybe he’d just brush my arms off and bark orders about getting the stock to safety.
But even as I tried to convince myself to expect the worst, some part of me whispered that it would be alright. I was an extra pair of hands if nothing else. I might have to wait for more, but Dusty wouldn’t turn me away.
My horse’s stride faltered, and he raised his head, then sent up a shrill whinny. I couldn’t hear anything over the shrieking wind, but the horse’s hearing is never wrong. Someone was coming. I pointed the beam from my headlamp in the same direction the horse was looking. All I could see at first was the dull gleam of old snow, the heavy gray of the sky where the clouds shrouded the moon, and sleet streaking across my vision. But then, a ghost seemed to come into view.
My horse whinnied again, and I let him break into a trot. The figure ahead was faint, silent, and moving so slowly I couldn’t be sure it was really there. The fractured rainfall wasn’t helping. My breath was fogging the way, and the light bounced off all that mist to blind me. Impatiently, I switched off the head lamp.
What I couldn’t see with the light flashed brilliantly clear without it. The clouds had shifted just enough for the moon to break through, piercing through the darkness to shine on a little girl’s silly dream come true. The brave knight on his valiant white charger… or just a humble cowboy with a heart of gold, laying himself on the line to save the weakest of the herd.
This was the man I loved.
Chapter 26
Dusty
Myeyeshadjustadjusted to the darkness again when a beam sliced across the field in front of me. I shielded them from the foggy glare with one hand and kept rubbing the shivering calf over my saddle with the other.
“Evan?”Please be Evan,or maybe Brandon. Luke needed real help back there, and though he’d never admit it, Marshall wasn’t back to his full strength yet.
But he probably couldn’t hear me over the rain and wind. His horse neighed, and the beam started coming faster, but with that light in my face, I still couldn’t tell who it was. I just kept plodding on, “hurrying slowly,” as my mom used to say. It wouldn’t do the calf any good if he got beat up on the ride to shelter.
The light switched off, and I lowered my hand. “Evan, is that you? Luke needs some help down in the coulee!”
“Dusty?”
Duchess jerked to a halt beneath me. I hadn’t told her to. She just felt me stiffen, and she pulled up on her own. That voice… it sounded like Jess!
I shook my head and urged my horse forward. I was looney, that was the problem. It was just Kelli, coming out to see how we were doing. That was better than nothing. She could take the calf to the barn, and I could go back to help Luke.
She was trotting straight for me, her hat pulled low against the rain. All I could make out was the dim outline of her figure as she came close. But then her horse drew up beside mine, and her face lifted.
A bolt of wonder shook me.Jess!I rubbed my eyes. They had to be playing tricks on me—dazzled by the flashlight and a long day on the road. But there was no mistaking her voice.
“Dusty! Are you okay? Please, say something. It’s me!”
I could only stare, the pattering rain growing to a deafening roar in my ears. What was she doing there? Shouldn’t she be with Austen or something? The calf wriggled beneath my hand, and Duchess snorted, impatient to get back to work, but I couldn’t separate the line between reality and hope. Could she have ridden through the storm, blundering around in the night, forme?
That was when her hand found mine in the darkness. Where I cradled the calf, she caught me… and I was lost. I turned my hand over and trapped her fingers. Those gloves she wore were so thin I could feel her shivering through them, and instinct took over. I dragged her hand to my lips, cupping it around my mouth so I could breathe some warmth into her, and kissing the palm of her hand between breaths.
“Oh, Dusty,” she whispered. Her hand slid up my jaw, her thumb stroking my cheek, and when I stared down into her face, it glistened in the weak moonlight from the rain. Or were those tears?
The words scrambling around in my head finally broke loose. “Jess! What are you doing here?”
“I came for you. Dusty, I’ve been such a fool. Please tell me I’m not too late.”
My heart heard, but my mind refused to believe. It was too glorious to be true! I couldn’t keep riding the wave of crashing hope forever, but I was too reckless, wanted it too much. How many times had I dreamed the woman I loved would come to me, say she wanted me? And here she was in the middle of this storm, risking danger and quaking from the cold, and she said it was all for me.
I jerked off my right glove and reached for her. Her cheeks were wet with warm tears, and she leaned into my hand. I felt her breath, a deep sigh of relief tickling the skin of my wrist, and I let my fingers explore what my eyes already knew so well. The delicate curve of her ear, the fine ridge of her cheekbones, the lushness of her lips. That was enough to thrill my soul for all the ages, but my body craved more.
And Duchess sensed it. Faithful and true, she shifted beneath me and, once more, carried me where I wanted to go. Right into Jess’s arms.
Our knees were almost hooked together now, and my arm fell to loop around her waist. Thiswasreal! She was truly there, asking for nothing less than my whole heart, the thing that had been hers from long ago. I tipped my hat down to gaze into her eyes, and a splash of water ran off, drenching her even more than she already was. “Oh, Jess, I’m sorry.” I needed to get her to safety, get her warm and dry.
