He reached out and pressed a hand to her shoulder. “Don’t,” he ordered. “It’s too cold out. And I don’t—”
He was interrupted by the sound of tires on the gravel. He turned to see a car coming to a stop in front of the house. Seconds later, a scowling Emma Archer stomped toward them, after slamming her car door shut so hard it rattled on its frame. Before she crossed the driveway, the front door opened, and Willow came out with a coat thrown over her pink pajamas, Wooliam in tow. “Hi, Aunt Emma! Hi, Uncle Seth!” she called, waving.
Emma’s angry stride broke as she glanced at the girl.
“Morning sweetheart. Wooliam,” Seth replied with a wave of his own. He caught Emma’s widened eyes and her mouthing Uncle Seth? to Rowan, who shrugged.
“Emma,” he said with a friendly smile.
The woman didn’t return the greeting or the sentiment.
“He fixed the gate,” Rowan told her, pointing toward the driveway.
Emma’s gaze followed the gesture. “Okay,” she said slowly.
“Well,” Seth declared, defusing the tension, “I better get back. Thanks for the coffee, Rowan.”
He nodded again to Emma, not harboring any actual ill will toward the woman, but all the same wishing she wasn’t here. He much preferred his quiet moments alone with Rowan. They were much better, it seemed, than his quiet moments alone with himself. Though he wouldn’t let himself look too closely at why that was.
Chapter Sixteen
‡
Rowan rose early the next morning, ready to get a head start on the day. She dressed Willow in her warmest clothes and bundled her into her coat. “Don’t get too far ahead,” Rowan told her as she buttoned her up. “You stay with the dogs. And—”
“I know, Mama.”
They’d already been through it all during breakfast, but Rowan was still nervous. It was the first time Willow would be so far from the house. A lot of things could go wrong.
Rowan pulled on Seth’s jacket and then unlocked the small closet in the kitchen.
Willow watched in fascination as Rowan loaded the Winchester rifle, better than the shotgun for this kind of work. She slid in a handful of cartridges and hoped she wouldn’t need more.
Or even one.
She thumbed the tang safety button and shouldered it with the padded strap. “Just in case, baby,” she told Willow. “Just in case.”
Outside, Rowan opened the dog run and let the pack out just as a truck turned into the driveway.
Seth pulled up in front of the house, apparently comfortable with the dogs at this point, because he only cautiously opened the driver’s side door before lowering himself to the ground.
“Don’t shoot. I brought another peace offering,” he said, handing her a thermos.
Rowan took it, unscrewed the top and inhaled deeply. A rich, dark roast warmed her senses.
“I thought maybe it was my turn to bring the coffee,” Seth told her.
“Oh,” she breathed. “You’re a saint.” When she glanced up at him, Seth had a strange look on his face. “What?” Rowan asked.
“Nothing,” he told her. “I’m just not a saint.”
Rowan smiled at him. “You fed my sheep, you fixed my gate, you brought me coffee. You’ve done more for me in just a few days than anyone has…well…ever. That’s a saint in my book.”
He didn’t seem to have an answer to that. He just sipped his own coffee as the morning light grew brighter around them.
Rowan wasn’t certain what he was doing here, but she was happy to see him, just the same. “There were wolves last night,” she said.
He nodded. “Yeah, I heard them at our place, too.” He eyed the rifle on her back. “Expecting trouble today? Because Court’s asleep and probably will be until lunch.”
She snorted. “I’m going to check the fence line on the north side. I think it’s been a while since Dad did it.”
Seth glanced at Willow and the three dogs circling her. “And Willow?”
“I can’t leave her here alone, and it’s days’ worth of work. I can’t wait for Emma and Troy. She’ll have to come. She knows the rules. We talked about it.”
Seth considered it for a moment, then nodded as though Rowan had asked for permission. Finally he said, “We taking the dogs with us?”
Rowan paused. “We?” she asked.
“You’re not going out there alone,” Seth declared. “Even with that rifle.”
“Our spread’s not as large as yours, Seth. It’s less than a mile one way, and—”
“Why are you arguing what’s settled?”
Rowan closed her mouth and held her thermos in her hands. Everything was easier with someone else around, and she’d be a fool to push away his offer of help, even though it made her feel guilty, like she was taking advantage of his generosity without giving him anything in return. Which reminded her she did have something, though it wasn’t much by comparison.
“Here.” She reached into the jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves.
Seth took them but frowned. “These aren’t mine.”
She blushed. “I…got them for you,” she replied, feeling silly now. “Yours had a hole in them.”
“Yeah, I don’t have time to get to town, except to the feed store for Dakota, and I always seem to forget to pick up a pair when I’m there.”
Rowan grimaced. “And now you’re here, wasting time walking my fence line.”
“It’s not wasted time, Rowan. It’s work that needs to be done.”
“But it’s not your job to do it.”
“It is if I say it is. Your dad is a good neighbor, Rowan. He’d do this for us if we needed it, I’m sure.”
“Right,” Rowan replied, turning away to check on Willow. “I’ll tell him how much you’ve helped.”
They started off, three humans, three dogs, and entered the paddock that ran for nearly a square mile over the hills and valleys of Lincoln County. They followed the triple-barbed wire with a view of the Tetons miles away in the distance. The purple morning sky was streaked with gold.
“Look, Mama! Look how pretty!”
Rowan smiled, glad that her daughter would spend the rest of her childhood in paradise.
Up ahead, the top wire had come loose from one of the posts. Seth stopped to reattach it, and Rowan was struck by his competence in farm work, which made sense, but it was nice to see someone other than Dad and Emma in action. It felt like maybe she wasn’t alone in keeping the place going.
As she watched him work, Rowan discovered that she was tired, so very tired, of feeling alone.
They continued on, up one hill and down the next. The snow had melted in some places, revealing large patches of brown grass. Next month it would grow green and lush and be dotted with splashes of purple, yellow, and pink from the wildflowers. If Rowan closed her eyes, she could see it in her mind’s eye. She could practically smell the blooms in the fresh, clean air now. When she opened her eyes, she found Seth looking at her curiously.
“Some people only smell the sheep when they visit,” she explained. “But…I smell—”
“Spring in the air. The lavender will be up soon.”
Rowan grinned at him. “I’ve never known a man who liked flowers.”
“I like everything beautiful.” His gaze was suddenly penetrating, and Rowan felt heat creep across her face.
Rowan stopped first then Seth beside her. Ahead of them, in a patch of as-yet unmelted snow, footprints had iced over, temporarily fossilized until the noonday sun hit it.
“You’re keeping the flock locked up at night, right?” Seth asked quietly.
Rowan nodded. “The dogs, too.”
“Good.”
Willow shrieked happily and darted across the path. Her pink rubber boots obliterated most of the tracks, except for a few. Kinka’s huge paw, thankfully, dwarfed the print by comparison. He sniffed the ground and growled low in his throat.
“Chase me!” Willow demanded to him, not understanding that the game had changed.
“Go on,” Rowan told the dog, nodding at the girl. She adjusted the rifle on her back, just in case.
They resumed the trek, Rowan scanning the ground for more prints. She almost didn’t realize they’d come upon one of the only trees on their property. The plains cottonwood was huge, hundreds of years old. As they approached, the light section of the bark came sharper into focus. Carved into the trunk were initials, going back decades. MA + BA, Mac and Beverly, Mom and Dad. Her grandparents were there, as well as Emma and Troy.
The last pair was scratched out—gouged out, really. In anger, with tears. Rowan remembered the hollow ache in her chest that day. Her own initials were still mostly visible because she’d been so intent on erasing Court from her life, out of their lives. Standing next to Seth, who was inspecting the marks, Rowan felt her cheeks pinken. She cleared her throat and turned away. “I was young,” she said, by way of explanation. “And stupid. Back when I thought…well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. I’m okay. Willow’s all I need.”
Seth moved in front of her, shielding her from the fierce sun as he gazed down at her. “But is she all you want?” he asked in his quiet way.