Page 21 of Before. Then. Now.

“Babe, bring the steak over,” Felicity said. “We’re eating.” She took the plate from him and looked at Charlotte. “Come on, you two. We can talk when we’re not hangry.” She nudged Mason, who startled and looked at his wife.

Felicity took the steak over to the table, and Mason watched her for a moment. Then he met Charlotte’s gaze again. “I’m not going to ruin anything for you, Char,” he said. “If you like Beau, great.”

Charlotte gave a mirthless laugh. “It’s not great, and you know it.” She turned and moved over to the table, bending to get a napkin Alice had dropped at some point.

“But I’m not going to ruin it for you,” Mason called after her.

We’ll see, she thought, and then she prayed with everything in her that nothing would ruin the good thing she had going with Beau. He was the first man who hadn’t treated her like she was broken and couldn’t do anything, and she appreciated that so much more than she’d even known she would.

As Ella prayed over the food, Charlotte added her own silent prayer that dinner would go well, that Mason would let this drop, and that she could take home some of Felicity’s delicious strawberry jam for her handsome boyfriend to try.

Exhaustion pounded behind Charlotte’s eyes as she moved down the row in the stable. She had three more stalls to clean, and then she’d be done for today. At least for a couple of hours, and she could have Kenny do the evening feeding tonight.

The kids had been in school for a week, and she’d been getting texts every night about their teachers and how they’d settled in so well. She missed them so much, but she didn’t want to go back even a year in time to where she’d been last August.

She led Bolt out of his stall, and the pretty Palomino plodded along behind her without complaint. He wouldn’t, because she’d put him in a great pasture where he’d get to be outside with his friends. She made that trip two more times to get the other horses out of the stable, and then she wheeled the wheelbarrow down the aisle to the last three stalls.

Her back ached, and by the time she finished, the teeth on the right side of her face actually throbbed with their own heartbeat.

And Charlotte knew she was in trouble.

She left the last stall and closed the door behind her. But she didn’t try to take the waste out to the bin or get back to the cabin. Instead, she moved as quickly as she dared down the hall to the small office.

She ducked inside and took a seat in the only chair in the room. It sat at a table where she kept her notes and files, and she put her head down and breathed in slowly, trying to control her emotions so they didn’t add to her sudden stress.

Something told her to call Beau, but she didn’t have the energy to even reach for her phone. With her eyes closed, she started to hum to herself. A lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she was a little girl, and then in the hospital when they had to wait for tests.

She knew the words, but forming them took too much from her, so Charlotte just hummed while she rested. She didn’t feel like she was going to pass out, but Beau would want to know about this situation anyway.

Charlotte tried to remember when she’d last eaten or drank, and she’d had lunch. She’d had a granola bar an hour ago, but she probably hadn’t gotten enough water that day. She lifted her head and got to her feet slowly, really paying attention to the things that hurt.

She didn’t normally suffer from headaches, so this didn’t seem related to her heart condition. No, she’d just overworked herself today. Her big water bottle waited out in the stable, on the shelf across from the last stall.

After she made it there, she took a long drink, already feeling slightly better. What she really needed was some food, some painkillers, and an ice pack for her lower jaw, which still ached as if she’d had dental work done that day.

But she still had three horses to bring back in and all the waste she’d pulled out of their stalls to dispose of. She moved down to the stall where a tall, reddish-black horse had already been out and had a clean stall.

She started to sing to Bronco as she put both hands on either side of his head and stroked down his neck, using the horse to help stabilize her. She smiled at the equine, who had a calm, gentle spirit. Bronco worked with the clients at Courage Reins, not with the cowboys at Three Rivers Ranch, and Charlotte could tell a difference between the therapy horses and the others.

The ranch owned many great cutting horses too, and they had to have a certain attitude to work with a cowboy and separate cattle from the herd. Charlotte loved watching cutting competitions, and she needed to ask Beau if any of the horses here had ever competed in such an event.

“You’re a good boy,” she said to Bronco, and then she moved down to Woodstock and started singing to him. She calmed too, and while she didn’t start to feel better, she started to think she could finish her job for the day without asking for help.

Then, as she moved down to Valentine, her legs shook about the knees. As she sang, she got out her phone and created a group text with Beau and Kenny. I need help in the third stable. I’m not feeling well, and I’m not done with the work.

On my way, Beau said instantly, before Charlotte had even sung the next note in her song. Satisfied that she’d done the right thing, but with her heart hanging heavily in her chest, she looked at Valentine and kept singing to her.

She sensed Beau as he approached, because he came with all the energy of thunder and lightning. And he didn’t pause a distance from her, but moved right into her, his arm sliding around her waist. “You’re still standing.”

“I don’t think I’m going to pass out,” she said. “I just have this awful headache, and I need to go home.”

“I can finish,” Kenny said, his footsteps coming closer. “Just the last three stalls?”

“They’re done.” She looked over to him. “I just have to take out the wheelbarrow and bring the horses back in.”

“They can stay out too,” Beau said. “No big deal.”

“It’s hot,” Charlotte said. “They were out all morning too.”