The joy in her father’s face was contagious. Some of Brielle’s recent sorrow disappeared as she watched three kindred smiles beam at her from different positions at the table.
“This is a lot to take in,” she finally said.
“Well, I love that you ended up here, Brielle,” Joseph told her. “There are good people in Sterling. One of my best friends, Martin Whitman, lives here, along with Bethel, Eileen, and Maggie. I’m sure you’ve met them all.” He reached out his hand to clasp hers and added with a laugh, “I’m your Uncle Joseph, in case you got me and George confused.”
“I don’t think I’ll mistake you with that voice,” Brielle said.
“I don’t understand that. Everyone says I speak so loudly. I think I’m quiet as a mouse,” he replied, and she couldn’t tell whether he was joking.
After the initial shock wore off, Brielle was finally able to move, so she made them a pitcher of fresh lemonade, and the four of them spoke long into the evening. Just before she went off to bed, she and her dad sat down together alone for the first time that day while Joseph and George left to visit with old friends.
“We’re headed to see Crew next. He’s our last stop,” Richard told her. Crew and her father had probably been the ones to butt heads the most, but through this journey their father had sent them all on, the relationship of father and oldest son had improved greatly.
“I’m coming with you.” Brielle didn’t know the words were out until she said them.
“Well, of course I’d love to have you join us, but is it a good time for you to take off?” her dad asked.
“Yes, Tony has everything under control here, and it will only be a few days. And…” She had to fight tears. “I just need to get away for a bit.”
She was more than thankful when her father didn’t ask her the questions she saw forming in his eyes. “Okay, Peaches. We’ll head out at first light. Don’t warn your brother. We like surprising all of you. It’s family drama at its best.”
“I quite understand. Now enough of all of that. Tell me what your doctor has been saying.”
His lips tilted up a little bit more as he looked at her. “I’m going to need to have another surgery…” he began when she stopped him by holding up her hand.
“Another surgery? When was the first one? Why would you keep this from any of us?”
She didn’t want to yell at her father in the condition he was in, but at the same time, she couldn’t believe that he would keep something like this from them. It was just wrong.
“I had my first surgery last year, and it didn’t look good, so my previous doctor told me to get my affairs in order, which is what I set out to do with you and your brothers. Then I moved to Seattle and met my brothers. They didn’t like the first prognosis and they knew another doctor, my current one. He had a different opinion. He’s hopeful. I’ll know more in a few months. For now, it’s best for all of us to not dwell on it.”
He gripped her hand as he spoke and looked at her with both hope and love in his eyes. She had a million questions, but she could see that he was tired. She’d be with him all week, and one way or another she would find better answers.
After giving her a big hug, her father went to the bedroom she kept for him, and for the first time in a week, Brielle climbed the stairs not dreading her own cold bed. She would get away, take time to think, and figure out what she was going to do next.
She didn’t want to leave the Ponderosa Pines Ranch, but she didn’t know how she could stay with Colt being her neighbor. Maybe she should just offer to sell it to him. That’s what he really wanted, wasn’t it?
She went to bed that night and finally was granted a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Colt paced Brielle’s front porch, feeling more like a fool the longer he waited. She’d been absent an entire week — she’d completely disappeared, and he had no idea where. When he first found out that she’d left, he’d thought for sure it was over, that he’d lost her for good.
Not that he would have given up so easily. Love like this didn’t just disappear. No. If she moved away, he’d follow her. Even if it took months, years, decades, he would wait for her. He’d barely slept during the last two weeks, his arms empty without her in them, his heart aching without her there to fill it.
He sounded pathetic even to himself, but that was the way it was. He was desperately in love with Brielle Storm, and whatever he had to do to prove that to her he would do. There was no way he’d live his life without her.
He’d been greatly relieved to find out from Tony that she wasn’t gone for good, but that she’d left with her father to visit one of her brothers. And Tony had let him know that she was coming home tonight.
So here he was on her front porch, where he’d been waiting for the last three hours. The ranch hands had all walked by at some point or other to snicker or just enjoy the show. Colt didn’t care. He was going to prove his love to Brielle, even if the entire town of Sterling thought him nothing but a lovesick idiot.
That’s what he was, wasn’t he?
“You know you’re going to set her house on fire, don’t you?”
Colt turned to find Hawk walking toward him. “Not now, Hawk. She should be here any minute,” Colt said, turning to pace the length of her porch yet again.
“When I got calls from three of her ranch hands who were concerned that you aren’t in your right mind, I figured I had best come out to investigate,” Hawk said as he came up onto the porch and then kept in step with Colt.
“The candles are all in jars,” Colt pointed out before stopping and looking around, making sure the scene was still set.
Her entire front railing was covered in lighted candles. There were three hundred of them. He knew this for sure, because he’d lit every single one himself.
“You do know that with the dry weather, if even one of these jars tips over, the place could go up in flames, right?”
Of course Hawk had to say it — he was the fire chief. But it was also Colt’s prerogative to ignore him. “If it burns, I’ll build her a better house,” Colt said before he resumed pacing, not even thinking about what an arrogant statement he’d just made.
“All right. Since Tony has the fire tender on standby, I guess I’ll let you be.” Hawk patted Colt on the shoulder and stepped down from the porch to go and sit with Tony, who, sure enough, had the fire truck backed up to the house. He was in a chair behind it, hose in his hand in case he needed to act quickly.