Chapter 99
Chapter 99
Maisie walked closer to us and smiled. “Taylor, this is Liam. He works with us here on the ranch. Liam, this is my friend Taylor, and her daughter, June.”Liam nodded to me. “Nice to meet you, Taylor.”“You too,” I said, suddenly aware that I was holding my breathe. Wes came up as well. “Liam has been here about a month now. We’d be in trouble without him.”
“Not trouble,” Liam said. “Just behind schedule.”Wes snorted. “That’s his polite way of saying we were drowning.”Maisie rested a hand on her little boy’s shoulder as he toddled after Wes. “After Wes’s dad retired from ranching, the place became too much for the two of us to manage alone. I remember telling you we’d hired someone.”I did remember. Maisie had mentioned it during one of our long phone calls, somewhere between telling me about the broken water line and apologizing for not calling sooner. At the time, I had been listening without really hearing much of anything.“Liam handles the morning stock checks, repairs, and most of the heavier work,” Wes continued. “He knows horses, cattle, and machinery. He also knows when to tell me I’m about to make a stupid decision.”“That part’s still a work in progress,” Liam said.Wes’s little boy laughed, and Maisie shook her head. “The kittens are part of his unofficial duties.”Liam glanced toward the barn. “They were born in the hayloft. Their mother’s a stray who comes and goes. I found all three tucked behind the feed bags last week, so I’ve been leaving food and water where the dogs can’t reach it.”“And trying to keep them out of the tractor shed,” Maisie added. “He says they’re safer in the barn.”“They’re safer if they stay in the barn,” Liam corrected.June scooped up the smallest kitten with both hands. It fit against her sweater like a warm, trembling comma.“Can I have this one?” she asked. I laughed, “no honey we really don’t need one.” June started to get watery eyes and shook her head, “of course mama, they should stay together.” We all looked at each other and I bent down and gave her a hug. “Maybe some day we can have a cat, but lets wait okay?”
Liam smiled, though his expression stayed contained, as if he had learned not to take up more room than necessary. He crouched beside June and extended one gloved hand. The kitten sniffed his fingers, then climbed from June’s arms onto his knee.“He likes you,” June said.“He likes food,” Liam replied. “That’s a reliable quality in a ranch cat.”“June likes food too,” I said.“I do not,” June protested. “I like pancakes.”Liam looked at me, and for one disorienting second the whole yard seemed to sharpen around those blue eyes—the creak of the windmill, the dusty smell of sun-warmed earth, the faint sweetness of hay drifting from the open barn.
“Does she come out here often?” he asked.“Not often enough,” I said. “We’re visiting from town.”“Then she should see the foal before you go. He’s in the far pasture, the one with the white blaze.”“There’s a foal?” June asked.“There is,” he said. “But he’s shy. You’ll have to walk slowly.”It was an ordinary exchange. He was being helpful, not charming. Still, something fluttered low in my stomach.Butterflies. Real ones.I had not felt that sensation since Eli died. The thought arrived so abruptly that I almost stepped backward from it. Guilt followed close behind, hot and familiar. How could I notice a man’s eyes, his voice, the quiet steadiness of him, when my heart still carried the shape of someone I had loved?But a flutter of attraction was not a betrayal. It did not erase Eli, or lessen the years we had shared. It only meant some small part of me had responded to the world without being asked.That part of me had been silent for a very long time.
We walked toward the pasture together, June skipping ahead with Maisie and Wes’s little boy riding on Wes’s hip. Liam stayed near the fence, pointing out the foal’s pale face and explaining why the horses were restless in the changing weather.He never performed knowledge for us. He simply answered when June asked questions, fixed a sagging latch with one hand. There was nothing polished about him. His boots were dusty, and a streak of grease marked one sleeve.I found that reassuring.For so long, I had assumed my life had already been decided. I had pictured the years ahead as a house with all its doors closed, every room arranged around the absence of Eli. I had thought love was something that happened once, and that afterward a person could only remember the warmth of it.I wasn’t choosing a future. I wasn’t ready for one. I didn’t even know whether the butterflies meant anything beyond a moment of surprise.But something inside me was capable of responding again.When June finally handed the kitten back to Liam, the kitten curled against his jacket and began to purr. Maisie called from the porch that we should leave before the roads darkened, and June hurried to say goodbye to the other two kittens.I turned toward the car, then looked back.Liam stood beside the barn, one hand resting on the open door. The evening light caught in his blue eyes.“Goodbye, Taylor,” he called.“Goodbye, Liam.”He gave me a small nod, as if we had made a simple agreement rather than exchanged names for the first time. June tugged my hand, and I let her lead me away.I glanced back once more before we reached the gate.Liam was still watching me, and I had the strange, quiet feeling that I would see him again.