Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 77(@250wpm)___ 64(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 77(@250wpm)___ 64(@300wpm)
“Is that really what you want though?”
“Does it matter what I want?”
I nod. “What you want matters to me, Dolly. So I’m asking you, what is it you want? Tell me. There’s no wrong answer for this.”
She hesitates for a bit longer. There's a tear dripping down her cheek.
“What’s the matter?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing. Nothing’s the matter. Just… no one’s ever gone and asked me what I wanted before.”
I cock an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“My mother’s always been very self-absorbed, and when she actually paid attention to me, she was controlling. Telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. It’s been like that all my life, even into adulthood. Then she left for Seattle, and I accepted Annie’s generosity, because what else was I going to do? I’ve never had any real choice about my life.”
We pull up to a red light. I take her hand. “I want you to be happy, Dolly. Tell me what you want and I’ll support you with every breath.”
She smiles, despite the tears still dripping down her face. “Well… what I want… is…”
I stroke her hand.
“I want to be a mom. I want to have babies. I want to sing them such sweet lullabies.”
I raise an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by her response. “Really? I thought with how outgoing you are and your talents that you’d want to be center stage. That you’d want nothing less than to take after your namesake.”
She shakes her head. “That sounds fun and all, but it’s not my passion. I don’t want or need the world’s attention. I think I’d be perfectly happy with the attention of just one person.”
I smile back at her. “And who might that one person be?”
She giggles. It’s such a sweet sound, one that I could never ever tire of. “You, Angus.”
I let out a laugh.
“It’s true. I’ve always had a bit of a crush on you from afar. You were a lot older than me, so I thought it was just a foolish, girlish crush. Now that we’re both all grown up, I realize it’s anything but foolish.”
I smirk. “You’ve always been off limits to me, but I guess sometimes the rules are meant to be broken.”
“But I’m stuck with this thought, Angus. I worry about it.”
“What would that be?”
“I’m not like you. I’m not a college-educated person. I’m just a small-town girl who never had much ambition. I mean, even the beauty school scholarship was because I won the pageant – it’s not like I picked it especially. I can think of worse fates than doing people’s hair professionally, but it isn’t my passion.”
“That’s it? That’s your worry?”
She raises an eyebrow. “You don’t think it’s worth considering? No one in Burly goes to college.”
I just shake my head, unable to believe her. “My mother never went to college, but she was always the smartest person I’ve ever known. She would have gone if she came of age in today’s world. I didn’t go out of some sense of superiority, Dolly. I went because my mother said it was the right path for me. Because she knew that keeping the ranch ready for the changing world was important, and that a college education was the only way to do it.”
“I’m not your mother, Angus. I don’t think I can ever hope to be that smart.”
“You’re smarter than you realize, but it doesn’t matter. My father knows about ranching. And that's all he knows. He’d be the first one to tell you he knows less than a sack of bricks about anything outside that. Yet he still found a powerful love with my mother. A woman who read math textbooks because she found them interesting.”
“Wait, really? She did that?”
I nod. “She was a weird woman, but I loved her dearly. And I’ll love you just as much, Dolly. You’ll be my woman, my love.”
She nods along. “I guess that’s it then. I want to be a mother. A wife. To be there for my children, to stand by my man. To be a good country wife, the mistress of the house. Cooking for my man, and making him proud, and growing our family.”
“A family, huh? Just want to cut to the chase?”
“Well, who am I going to sing lullabies to if I don’t have a baby, Angus? As much as you’d enjoy them, it just wouldn’t be the same.”
I laugh. We pull into the driveway off the Rowdy Ranch. I lean in, and we share another kiss. It’s not as intensely passionate as the last, but it’s lovely all the same. If anything, it’s almost better – deeper, with love running all through it.
She breaks away, still happily giggling. She goes solemn for a moment. “Uh… what about Annie? What are we going to tell her?”
I sigh. “We tell her the truth. She’ll understand. She’s a smart girl and understands love.”