Page 36 of Her Saltwater Cowboy

“Okay—Belly.”

Bella curled her lip. “Fine! I’ll come up with another nickname for you.”

Willow laughed. “You do that. Now, from what I can tell, these trees have been dormant a long, long time.”

“Except for those two in the middle that have some olives on them right now.”

“Right. Anyway, Patsy never even mentioned anything about them to me.”

“Sounds like no one really knew what to do with them once Mae was gone.” She gave a sad little sigh. “They were forgotten.”

“But still rooted,” Willow said. She could relate to that, in some ways. Life as she once knew it felt long gone. Still, she had a sense of grounding, a deep hope that, despite the gum and pins that held her situation together, it could all work out. Her mother would be safe in her new home, her disease would slow, and her uncle would continue to stay far, far away.

“Hel-lo?”

She snapped her chin toward Bella, whose eyes were closed against the honey-yellow warmth of the sun. “I haven’t gone anywhere.”

Bella turned over and propped herself up on her forearms. “If you need to get back to the kitchen, I can help you.”

“I have a little more time but thank you for the offer.” They had been sitting out here for the better part of an hour. Rafael had offered lawn chairs, but they had opted to sink into the grass and watch the bees buzz around Bella’s burgeoning garden.

Between them, a half-empty basket of biscuits lay next to a drained pitcher of iced tea. Willow glanced out to the grove of trees again, seeing them far differently than before. Now when she looked toward the olive grove sloped gently up a hill, the trees dusty with age and stillness, she noticed something brand new.

She saw life.

Willow stared at them now, trying to envision Mae’s dream. “They’re just waiting for someone to love them.”

“Sounds like poetry,” Bella said. “Or maybe a Sutter Creek Ranch metaphor.”

“Want some bread with that cheesiness?”

Bella giggled.

Willow laughed too, but the metaphor stuck with her. Her own mother had waited for that very thing. She’d made decisions in the name of love, only to have everything she had worked so hard for taken away from her.

And, by extension, it had all been taken away from Willow too.

More than the trees needed tending here—Ace and Chance needed to mend the rift between them. Oh, on the outside, their relationship looked solid, but she’d seen them spar over meals, noticed the tension and dark glances. Theirs was a family that had grown wild at the edges, and if they weren’t careful, their fragile foundation might very well become uprooted.

It didn’t have to be that way.

Maybe what they needed was some understanding—and trust. Maybe even the revival of an old dream.

“Do you think Ace will be on board with this?” Bella asked, interrupting Willow’s thoughts.

“I feel like he would be. Of course, someone has to tell him about it first.”

“Do you think Chance will do that?”

Willow nodded. He hadn’t explicitly said so, but this was his mother’s dream. She knew in her heart that meant something to him. “I do. I really do. He … he loved his mother so much.”

Bella twisted a look at her as if waiting for something more.

“I just mean there’s this incredible softness about him whenever he talks about his mother.”

“Rafael says she was a sweet lady.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Willow nodded. “Sometimes I forget that she was Rafael’s aunt.”

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