Page 28 of Eighteen Bowties and Counting

Then his mouth moved, and surprise streamed through Charlotte. “What is he doing?”

Beau set his coffee down in the rocks, got up, and adjusted the phone. Then he picked up a red Frisbee and tossed it out in front of him, clearly in line of the phone—he was recording something—and Ruby went after it.

He wore pure happiness on his face, and again, he spoke.

Deciding to find out what was going on, Charlotte started to cross the lawn. Ruby caught the Frisbee and brought it back, and once Beau had it in his hand, he looked over to her. Surprise crossed his face, and he kept talking.

As she neared, she heard him say, “…we’re only about forty-five seconds away now, folks. The sky is so pretty this morning, ain’t it?”

Oh, the cowboy drawl was enunciated, and Charlotte paused on the edge of the gravel, lest her boots make too much noise on it and ruin his recording.

“We’ve got someone new with us this morning,” he said. Charlotte noticed the scrolling comments on his phone then. Hearts and thumbs-up emojis kept flitting onto the screen and rising like steam too.

He was broadcasting. Live-streaming. Confusion puckered her brow. For who? And what?

“And here we are, folks,” he said. “Six-fifty-four a.m., the prettiest sunrise in the world, I think, what with all those stringy clouds in the low horizon. Straight to you from the Texas Panhandle.”

He paused for a moment, looking at his phone and not her, and continued with, “I am at the homestead this morning. It was an excellent view of the clouds. I’ll try to get out to the creek later this week.”

Another pause, and then he answered another comment. After a few minutes of this, Beau said, “All right, ladies and gents. This cowboy’s gotta get to work.” He plucked the phone off the tripod and turned it around to face him. “And look, the new Stable Manager here at the ranch joined us. Say hi, Charlotte.”

She lifted her hand, no idea if she was in the frame or not. “Hi.”

Beau grinned at his phone and said, “Until tomorrow’s sunrise, have a good one, doing good things and living good lives.” He waited a couple of seconds as comments positively streamed up his phone. More emojis than Charlotte had ever seen in her life followed, and then Beau ended the live-stream.

Beau transformed in front of her. His shoulders relaxed and went down. He sighed and shoved his phone in his pocket. He turned to face her with a hint of resignation in his expression. “Nice sunrise today,” he said.

He came to her side on the fringe of the gravel, and they both faced into it as the golden light bathed the land in front of them.

“It is,” she said.

“So I live-stream the sunrise every morning,” he said. “I’m the Sunrise Cowboy.”

Charlotte let a puff of air out that sounded harsher than she intended. “That’s—wow.”

“Unexpected,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t—it’s not like you don’t know how to use technology.”

“People tune in from all over the world,” he said. “They’re fascinated by the American cowboy way.”

“Are they now?” She grinned into the morning light.

“Seem to be,” he said. “It’s about twenty minutes is all. I bring out my coffee and my dogs. Set up in a different spot most days, and we…talk.”

“You have online friends,” she teased.

“A lot of ‘em.” He chuckled. “I have in-person friends too.”

“Mm.” Charlotte wanted to ask if she was one of them, but she wanted to be more than friends too. “Beau?”

“Yep.”

“Let’s go have breakfast.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He gathered his tripod and his dog toys quickly, and they made the walk back to the cabin they shared. She pulled out a package of bacon and started laying strips in the hot pan while he gave his dogs fresh water and their breakfast.

She sliced tomatoes and tore lettuce, turned the bacon and set bread in the toaster. Beau sat at the counter and typed on his phone, finally setting it aside as the first slices of toast popped up.

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