Page 104 of A Rancher's Vow
“A young woman woke one morning feeling sad and alone. ‘Feelings are feelings, but I don’t want to stay sad. How can I make myself happy on this cold, dark day?’ she asked herself. She decided that a touch of brightness was the answer. Something she might not see during the daylight but that could be a guiding light at night and in future dark moments.” Suz took a sip from her water bottle. “Your turn, Cee.”
Chelsea twisted a cord of LED lights into the branches of a rosebush as she told the next part of the story. “The first night when she looked outside, the small light was barely visible against the darkness. But day after day, the girl did what she could to add brightness to her world.”
“Days passed. Weeks. Years. Until the young girl became an old woman,” Suz said, speaking slower, her voice changing to that of someone who’d lived a long life. “And when she looked out of her house at night, the small, insignificant touches of brightness were now so many, that an entire universe of stars shone back through the darkness.”
The story was such a part of her past that Charity felt it bubbling inside. She pushed her final solar charger into the earth and crossed to Dustin’s side.
He tugged her into his lap, and she laughed, settling comfortably.
“It’s a beautiful story,” Dustin said, his gaze drifting over Charity’s sister and her wife as they tucked their heads together and kissed softly.
“Small touches of brightness add up. Our grandmother taught that story, and she demonstrated how to live the lesson daily.” Charity laid her head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. She wanted to say something else. Something profound. Something sweet—
Something more than silence, but that’s what came out. She didn’t want to break the unspoken connection between them.
His stomach rumbled a moment later, loud enough everyone heard, and amusement carried on the air.
“Don’t worry, Dustin, we’ll save you.” Suz pulled Charity from his lap. “Get your own seat, Tee. Time for lunch.”
Chelsea passed Dustin a filled plate with a firm order. “Eat. We have an entire afternoon and evening of adventuring to enjoy, and we can’t have you fading away from hunger.”
Another short ride after lunch was followed by a walk around the lake. Charity held Dustin’s hand as they strolled, the temperature heating up to scalding summer conditions.
When they gathered around the fire to cook hotdogs to go with premade salads and an assortment of chips, Suz shocked her wife by joining Dustin in singing some off-colour songs involving buckle-bunnies and rodeo stars.
Chelsea stared at Suz. “You never told me you knew cheesy country and western—”
“Cheesy,dirty, country and western,” Dustin inserted, shoving his roaster stick farther into the flames. “You’re my fave, Suz.”
“Of course, I am.” She held up a hand and he high-fived her.
It was late before the sun dropped behind the mountains, and even later when the sky changed from crimson and gold to twilight pinks. On the opposite side, the moon was already up, its surface glowing brighter and brighter in the eastern sky.
Suz and Chelsea sat side by side, staring into the fire and talking quietly, hands linked and heads close together.
Dustin caught Charity by the fingers and tugged her toward the darkness. “Come on.” Patchwork Annie made as if to rise and join them, but Dustin waved her back. “Stay.”
The pup resettled with an enormous sigh, sad eyes watching them leave.
“Poor pupper,” Charity whispered.
“Poor pup, my ass. Your sister-in-law fed Annie three hotdogs on the sly at suppertime. The dog can stay by the fire and enjoy her full belly.”
Charity chuckled as he led her away from camp. The glow from the fire and the lights she and her sister had set up faded behind them quickly. The moonlight overhead and the rising sound of the waterfall was her only clue of what direction they were headed. “Are we going to the lake?”
“You’ll see in a second. Around the corner, and…” The trees vanished to their right, and a shimmering oasis greeted her.
He’d set up his own set of lights.
They reflected off the water like dozens of twinkling stars. A small semi-circle tucked to the edge of the lake away from the falls.
Dustin guided her over the rocks, slowing his step. “Careful here. That’s it. And…we’re here.”
The rock nearest to the water was flat and smooth, and another of his pre-planned setups appeared. “Is that a picnic blanket?” she asked.
Dustin scooped her off her feet, ignoring her inhale of surprise. “It’s a blanket, but I failed to pack a picnic.”
“Oh,” she said, nodding sagely. “It’s a sleeping blanket.”
