Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
When the last section of the foundation was broken up and hauled away, we stood in the empty space for a long time without speaking.
We built the new house on the same rise, just far enough from the old footprint that it felt like a clean start. Simple, solid, with a wide porch that faced west and enough windows to let the light in. Ryder did a lot of the framing himself. I stained the wood, painted the interior, and lovingly argued with him over the kitchen layout until he finally submitted and gave me what I wanted.
By early fall, we moved in, and the first night we slept there, the house still smelled like fresh lumber and paint. It felt like our new start. I remember lying awake listening to the quiet and realizing the old fear had nowhere left to live.
I worked the ranch harder than I ever thought I would, and I loved every moment of it.
I learned to run the equipment, how to fix fences, and what animals liked which treats. Ryder never treated me like I was fragile. If I did something wrong, he told me once, showed me the right way, and that was that. When I got it right, the praise he gave me was enough to make me wet and beg him to fuck me behind the bales of hay in the barn.
He always obliged.
He gave me all the independence I wanted or needed, but still, he was never far. If I was on one side of the pasture, he found a reason to be there with me. If I stayed too long in the barn alone, he appeared in the doorway like he needed to make sure I was okay.
We finished repairing a section of fence that had come down during last night’s windstorm. When the last post was set and the wire was tight, he leaned on the post and looked at me for a long second.
Without saying a word, he reached over and brushed a strand of hair from my face, his fingers lingering against my cheek a moment longer than they needed to, like he couldn’t quite make himself let go.
We headed back to the house, hand-in-hand, ate dinner and drank a beer, and found ourselves on the porch of the new house with Kash snoring at our feet. The land we'd worked so hard to make our own stretched out dark and quiet in front of us. I could still feel the ghost of my father sometimes, but it was thinner than it used to be. I knew that one day it would grow further and further from my thoughts.
I shifted closer to Ryder on the porch swing, rested my head against his shoulder, and murmured, “Some days, I still can’t believe this is our life.”
His arm came around me, heavy and sure, his hand settling low on my hip like it belonged there. “All ours, sweetheart. Nothin’ is ever gonna change that.”
I shifted closer to Ryder on the porch swing and rested my head against his shoulder. It was chilly out, but he was big and strong and all heat.
Out beyond the fence line, the last of the daylight disappeared, and the ranch settled into the kind of quiet that only comes after a long day's work.
Ryder tightened his arm around me. “Whatcha thinkin' about, sweetheart?”
I smiled. “Home.”
His fingers brushed my cheek before he pressed a kiss against my temple. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Me too.”
And for the first time in my life, I knew exactly what that word meant.
The End.