Page 25 of Lost Trust

Dad laughs.

Bryce looks around the screen at everyone gathered on the porch.

“And I wasn’t expecting to see everybody,” he mumbles.

“Sorry, cowboy. I’ll find somewhere quiet,” Charli says, turning the screen back around. “Everyone, tell Bryce bye.”

A chorus of, “Good night,” follows.

“Night, Bryce.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Get some sleep.”

“Don’t miss your flight, old man.”

Charli laughs and steps away from the group, still holding the phone in front of her. She starts down the porch steps, and the rest of us fall back into conversation.

“Hey, do we have room for two more at the wedding?” I hear him ask.

Charli stops, and her eyebrows lift.

“I’m bringing an old friend home with me from Dallas.”

Marina

The gates to Wildhaven Storm Ranch stand open ahead of us, and I sit a little straighter in the passenger seat.

For the first time since we left the highway, I stop looking at the road and really look at where we are.

“Wow.”

Bryce glances over at me, one hand resting casually on the steering wheel. “Pretty, huh?”

“Pretty?” I laugh. “After spending the better part of the last five years in the city, this place is magical.”

He grins as he turns the truck through the gates.

The gravel road stretches ahead of us, pale and dusty beneath the summer sun, winding past enormous lodgepole pines. Fences run in long, neat lines toward distant hills, and there are horses scattered across the fields—chestnuts, bays, grays, paints—all grazing beneath the wide Wyoming sky.

A group of cattle moves across one of the hills in the distance, pushed along by two cowboys on horseback.

Behind me, Ryder makes a sound somewhere between a gasp and a squeal. “Mommy! Look!”

I turn around.

My little boy is practically plastered against the back window.

His enormous brown felt cowboy hat is sitting crooked on his head, his shoulder-length blond hair blowing wildly around his face through the open window. His big blue eyes are wide as he watches everything flash past.

“Cows!” he announces.

“I see them, buddy.”

“And horses!”

“I see those too.”