Page 115 of Ransom
"Yeah."
Neither of us moved.
"Winston."
"I'm going, darlin'. Give me a second."
He didn't give me a second. He kissed me again, quick this time. Then he stepped back and scrubbed a hand down his face. The ring caught the light when his hand came away. He looked at it, shook his head once, and started for the mare.
I clicked my tongue at Galahad, and he walked to me without a lead. No well-trained horse did that. Galahad was not a well-trained horse. I ran my hand down his neck, walked back to Faye for the halter rope coiled on her horn, and rigged him up.
I swung up bareback. He didn't argue.
Winston turned Faye around, and we started down the wash at a walk. The sun was up higher now and the frost was gone out of the shadows. The country was all pale yellow grass and sage, with the dark line of the mesa cutting east. It was the kind of clear February morning I'd seen a thousand times. Today I was riding down it with a man who'd said yes.
Winston caught me looking at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Bullshit."
"You're gonna let me get away with it, though."
He grinned. "For now."
When we rode down out of the wash and the ranch came into view across the flat, I pulled Galahad up. Winston stopped beside me.
The ranch sat low against the land. The roofs had gone dark with the morning's melt. The smoke from Sierra's kitchen stack went straight up into the blue. We'd rebuilt the barns we lost, bought and broken new horses. Some of the bunkhouse boys had moved on. But it was still the same as it ever was, give or take.
Winston didn't say anything. After a minute, he reached across the gap between the horses and put his gloved hand flat on my thigh. He left it there. Galahad didn't bite him or Faye, which was as close to a miracle as you could get in a place like Pae Saco.
"Ready?" Winston said.
"Yep."
We crossed the flat and rode up the lane. Sierra was on the back porch folding and refolding the same dish towel. Rafe was at the paddock rail. Coyote was up on the bunkhouse porch with Nimue around his neck, grinning wider than a reasonable man should grin.
Winston swung down off Faye and tied her off at the rail. I followed him down and tied Galahad next to her. When Winston turned, Coyote snatched up his left hand.
"Took you damn long enough!" Coyote said. "Was startin' to think you forgot what you drove to T or C for."
"You knew?" Winston called back.
"Maybe."
"Let him go, Coyote," Sierra said from the porch, and Coyote let Winston go.
Rafe pushed off the rail, walked over, and clapped Winston on the back. "Congrats, son. Welcome to the family."
Coyote whooped from the bunkhouse porch and started clapping, Nimue swaying along his arm with the motion of it. Sierra shot him a look, and Coyote stopped clapping. Only Sierra could stop Coyote with a look.
"You go fetch the soap," Sierra said. "It's bath day."
Coyote's eyes widened, and he looked at me, but I wasn't about to save him from the bathtub this time. He turned to Winston and opened his mouth.
"Bath," Sierra repeated, "or no pancakes."
