Page 83 of The Wedding Ranch
“You are a very unique woman, my friend Lorri.” He scooted the bag closer to her with the toe of his boot. “I brought you something.”
A hint of smoke lingered. He pulled out a big chunk of something.
“What is that?”
Ryder cocked his head. “Whoops. It’s a femur. This isn’t for you. It’s for you, Mister. Come here, boy.”
Mister’s ears perked. He slowly got up and tiptoed toward Ryder. His nose wiggled and bobbed, dewlaps huffing the whole way.
“That is the biggest bone I’ve ever seen,” she said. “Probably better outside though.”
“Definitely. I think he’s going to appreciate it.” But Mister was taking his time approaching the foreign object. “Eventually.”
“He’s impossibly slow sometimes.” They laughed as he cautiously opened his mouth and then tugged the bone from Ryder’s hand and started across the room.
Lorri got up from the couch and opened the back door. “Let’s take that out back.” Mister moved like a walker horse, rising each foot high with the pride of a show pony. “I believe you’ve made a forever friend.”
When she turned back around, Ryder was standing with an armful of yellow roses wrapped in shimmery silver paper.
“I hope so.” He extended them toward her.
She walked toward him filled with unexpected emotion. She’d received flowers lots of times over the years, but never like this.
“What are these for?”
“For you, my friend Lorri. You are appreciated, and special, and I’m really grateful we met.”
She steadied herself, trying to keep her emotions in check. The divorce had been so ugly, and this… this was so nice and unexpected.
“Thank you, Ryder.” She pressed her nose into the bouquet. “They smell so good. Yellow for friendship. They’re perfect.”
“I haven’t stepped out of my little family circle for a long time. Lorri, I value this friendship. The time we’ve spent together here recently. It’s been good, and I haven’t danced like that in years.”
“You could’ve fooled me. You were great, and it was magicalunder the tent, with all the twinkle lights.” Swept away. By him. By the whole night. She saw it in the reflection of his eyes too. Trying to maintain balance she quickly added, “Your niece and nephew have created something very special. I see why you’re so proud of them.”
“Very. One day they’ll carry this farm on to the next generation. It’ll change. It won’t be like I had it all worked out in my head, but then I suppose I need to just focus on what I can do here and now and leave the future to them.”
“It’s hard to not let our visions expand further than our own lifespan. I know what you mean, but the here and now… that’s what matters.”
He took her hand in his, sweeping his thumb across the top. “With you around, I’m beginning to believe that.”
Is he feeling the same pull that I am?“It’s not easy to let life happen around us. It leaves us feeling out of control. It’s uncomfortable.” She sucked in a breath, then stepped back taking the flowers into the kitchen to fill a vase with water. She came back into the living room and arranged the flowers as they talked.
“But that’s the thing. I believe and know we’renotin control,” Ryder said. “There’s one big plan for all of our lives—we’re just custodians of our time here, and yet I fight it every single day. I have no idea why.”
She sat down on the couch catty-corner from him in the chair. “I’ve been working on that myself. Accepting what life is handing me and trying to see the new opportunities out of the obstacles. It’s not easy. When I get irritated, I try to look at the situation from another perspective, but when it’s personal… that’s when it’s really hard.”
“Easy to say, hard to live. Mostly I leave that to my prayers when I ride the property each morning.”
“That’s something else I could use a refresher on.” It had been a long time since she’d counted on prayer. Craig had never been much of a churchgoer to begin with, but once they got married it had completely faded away.
“I think it’s harder where family is concerned, because I want to protect everyone. My sister, Reece, and Ross, they’re my whole life. Have been since I lost Valerie and Ronnie Dwayne. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“Yes. A brother.” What else could she say about him? She didn’t mean to sound uncaring. There’d been a time when she loved Jeff so much it killed her to see him begin to self-implode.
“Does he live in Raleigh?”
“He’s buried there.” She dropped her chin. “He struggled for a long time.”
