Page 48 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late
He sank onto his bed when some of his nervous energy had finally abated, tossing his cowboy hat behind him. With midterms done, he had the weekend ahead of him without being on the work schedule. But as laughter floated down the hall from the living room to his ears, he couldn’t help but think that God had cursed him nonetheless by bringing the gorgeous—and completely unavailable—Ruby Reynolds into his life too soon.
Chapter Fifteen
Caroline Thompson stood at her front window and watched the sky lighten and darken every few seconds. Clouds rolled across Three Rivers, and they moved through her soul too.
“It’s going to rain tomorrow,” she muttered to herself.
“What did you say?” her sister asked.
Abigail had come from Colorado Springs for Caroline’s wedding. Her mom and dad had come too, as had her brother. Belle still lived here, of course, with her daughter, Judy. Caroline had enjoyed having her family in town for a few days. They’d all met Dawson. He’d taken them around on the Three Histories tour, something he’d done for Caroline last fall.
They enjoyed themselves, visiting the ranches, museums, and parks surrounding Three Rivers. But her wedding was tomorrow, and they’d planned an outdoor event in mid-March at the Rhinehart Ranch. The house she and Dawson would live in had been finished two weeks ago.
Dawson had moved in and had been living there by himself for a fortnight. Caroline was eager for this next chapter of her life to begin, but she didn’t want it to start with a thunderstorm.
“Dear God,” she prayed to the window, to the wind outside, to the gray sky, to the Good Lord Above. “The wedding willreally only be a half-hour. Thou can calm the seas for Jesus to walk on. I know Thou can clear the skies for half an hour for my wedding.”
Someone yelled from behind her. The door leading into the kitchen slammed. She turned away from the window and went into the kitchen to find Belle there, lifting her recyclable grocery bags onto the counter.
“Whew. That wind is no joke today,” Belle said.
Caroline’s frown deepened, moving all the way into her toes as she went to help her sister unload the groceries.
“Zona is staging True Blue just in case we need to move inside,” Belle said without looking at Caroline.
Caroline wanted to pull a move Dawson often did. When he didn’t like the conversation, he’d grunt, he’d glance, he’d think, and then finally, he’d say something. It was a good recipe for how to deal with something so that he didn’t say something he would regret later, and Caroline employed it now.
She grunted; she glanced at Belle; she went back to unloading grapes and lettuce and cherry tomatoes while she thought about a proper response. She didn’t want to get married in True Blue, the Glover family barn at Shiloh Ridge Ranch. Lincoln and Misty had gotten married there, as well as a whole host of Link’s aunts and uncles. It was a beautiful facility, Caroline could admit that.
Big space. Easily decorated. Full kitchen. Very rustic, and perfect for cowboys. Caroline could have all of that. But it had nothing to do with her and nothing to do with Dawson.
She wanted to be married onhisranch with his hens, his crows, his dog, and his family. She wanted to be part of the Rhinehart legacy. And she would be tomorrow when she took on his last name. She wanted to do it at his ranch, silly as that may be.
They didn’t have a nice indoor facility with space for a large number of people. And the Rhineharts, being old Three Rivers blood, knew everyone in town. Heck, the entirety of the Glover family would come from Shiloh Ridge.
Finn and Edith, and Alex and Nikki, and a whole host of cowboys from Three Rivers Ranch. Golden Hour Ranch was owned by Brit Bellamore and he and his wife were coming, as well as his three kids and their spouses and families.
The cowboys took care of each other around Three Rivers, and Dawson had been working with many of them for decades. And if not Dawson, then his daddy. Caroline was old enough to know that a wedding wasn’t just about the bride and groom.
“What about…?” she started to ask, but she couldn’t finish. There was nowhere on the Rhinehart Ranch that could house three hundred people. Absolutely nowhere.
“I’m just going to pray that there’s no rain,” she said. “I only need it not to rain for thirty minutes right in the middle of the day. Surely God can do that.”
Belle looked at her, a nervous tic of apprehension in her eyes. “I’ll pray for the same thing.”
Belle was going to stay in Caroline’s house. In fact, Belle had been healing and recovering from her divorce over the past year and a half so well that she was nearly in the position where she could purchase the house for herself. She was going to work on that after the wedding, but for right now, she was renting it from Caroline for only what it cost to pay the mortgage.
“Auntie C, look at my dress!” Judy said, and Caroline turned around to find her niece standing there in a beautiful, pale yellow dress.
“Oh, it’s so beautiful.” Caroline crouched down to hug her niece. “Do you think you can wrangle the hens?” They had planned for the hens to wear little collars around their feathered necks, tied with twine that would go to one main piece that Judywould hold as she walked down the aisle with the hens. She was the only flower girl as Abby’s kids were a little bit older and would simply walk with the family.
“I can do it,” Judy said. “I’ve been practicing real good.”
“That’s great.” Caroline smiled and straightened and stepped into her mother’s arms. “It’s going to rain tomorrow, Mama,” she whispered.
“Oh, it’s not going to rain,” Mama said. “I’ve been having a good long talk with both Mother Nature and God, and it’s going to be fine.”
Caroline wanted to believe her, so she held on to her shoulders in another long, tight squeeze, and then she stepped back. “All right,” she said as she drew in a deep breath. “Belle just got back with the groceries, and that means we need to get started on the feast.”
