“Can I show you around?” Sean asked her shyly, and she nodded. She followed him off the porch, and he took her through their horse barns, past the breeding pens, which were a growing operation. They went through all the buildings, and he got in his truck and drove her to the far reaches of the property, and the entire time the mountains were standing behind them, like a mystical blessing over the whole ranch.
“Your father loved those mountains,” Maddie said as she looked at everything with him, and could feel Andy everywhere.
“Yes, he did. He went riding up there the day before he died. I think he was saying goodbye to them. I always feel like he’s up there somewhere now,” Sean said in a gruff voice and Maddie nodded.
“He’s always with you, Sean. He always will be.” Andy had breathed life into the ranch.
“With you too, Maddie, he always was. It would have killed him to move to New York. I’m sorry you couldn’t be together, but he was meant to be here.”
“I knew that then. It was just shit luck that our lives were so different.”
“I don’t know. Maybe that’s a good thing. You brought something special to each other. He always said that he was braver because of you.”
She smiled at the thought. “I think I was braver because of him too. I had to make my dreams happen, to justify not staying with him.”
He nodded. “My wife, Becky, and I went to high school together. Sometimes that keeps things small. She went to Cheyenne afterwards and got her CPA. She does the books for me. And her brothers work on the ranch here. It’s kind of a family operation. That’s what you need here. People you can trust. Selling horses can be a risky business.”
“So can life,” Maddie said quietly. She was still shaken by the idea that Andy had died two months earlier, and she had missed him. It shocked her to realize that a man she had loved so much was dead now. That made her feel old too, although he had been eight years older than she was. He was sixty-six, too young to die.
After the tour, Sean stopped his truck outside one of the two stone houses. “Dad and I rebuilt these houses with our own hands. Some of the other buildings were here, and falling down when we bought the place. We fixed them up, and remodeled them, put in insulation, new roofs, heating, plumbing, all of it. I’m going to have to add on to this one next spring. We’re going to turn Dad’s into more offices. We need them, to run the auctions. It’s a lot to keep track of.” He looked slightly overwhelmed, but he had only been running the place on his own for two months, and he was young.
Maddie followed him up the front steps, and into the house as he called out to Becky. She was in the kitchen feeding the boys lunch. Sean’s oldest son was five, and had just gotten home from school for lunch, and his little brother was two. Becky stood up, smiling at them, and Maddie had never seen anyone so pregnant. Sean explained to her who Maddie was, and she looked touched immediately.
“I’m sorry, Maddie. I’ve heard so much about you. Sean’s dad talked about you a lot.” Maddie nodded, fighting back tears again. “Would you like some lunch?”
“I’ll get it,” Sean said immediately. “She’s supposed to be resting,” Sean explained to Maddie. “She never does, but it’s okay now if the twins come early. They’ll be fine, although the doctor would like them to stay where they are for another two weeks, if possible, for their lungs.”
“Both of the boys weighed ten pounds when they were born, and the doctor says the girls weigh eight pounds now, so we’ll be good,” Becky added. Her arms and legs were slim, and she had a pretty girl-next-door face with big blue eyes. Her long blond hair was in a braid down her back. She was beautiful, and probably had a trim figure when she wasn’t carrying sixteen pounds of baby. The thought of it made Maddie wince. “I’m ready,” she said, as Sean put two turkey sandwiches on the table with a bowl of potato chips, and Maddie thanked him and helped herself to one of them. They were a sweet family and she could imagine how much Andy must have enjoyed them, and seeing his son happy. It must have been wonderful building the ranch together. It really had been his dream.
Maddie chatted with the two children and Becky and Sean all through lunch. Sean showed her around the house they had built. The boys shared a room and the twins would too until he added on to the house in a year or two, when he had time to do it. Maddie stopped in the living room for a minute and looked intently at a framed photograph of Andy, leaning against one of the corrals, beaming at the camera, with his favorite hat on, and his weathered cowboy boots. The picture was pure Andy, and he seemed like he was smiling at her.
“We had just sold the best horse we’d ever sold at auction, for the highest price anyone’s ever gotten around here. It was last year, right before he got sick. I think it was one of the happiest days of his life.” Sean reached out and grabbed the photograph then and handed it to her. “You should have it. He would want you to. I’ve got others.” Maddie instinctively hugged it to her as though she were hugging him. Then she leaned over and kissed Sean on the cheek.
“Thank you,” she said in a whisper, as Becky went to put the boys down for their naps. She was back five minutes later. They were sweet, well-behaved children and reminded Maddie of Ben’s boys, Willie and Charlie. Sean’s oldest was named Andrew for his grandfather, and his little brother was Johnny. They hadn’t decided on names for the girls yet. They wanted to see them first, Becky said.
Maddie thanked her for lunch, and she and Sean walked outside. He had to get back to work. He had spent three hours with her, and she was grateful for the warm reception. It wasn’t the visit she had expected, but it felt right and the way it was intended to happen. She was still holding the photograph in her arms, when he walked her back to the SUV.
“Thank you, for everything, for all the things you said,” she said softly.
“You meant so much to my dad, Maddie, along with his family and this ranch. He never stopped loving you,” and she hadn’t stopped loving him either. She wished she could have seen him again, but she knew he had died happy, and had his dream. Sometimes that was all you got, some dreams weren’t meant to come true, and theirs hadn’t, but this was close enough. She and Sean hugged tightly for a long time, and then she got into her car and carefully put Andy’s photo on the floor of the passenger seat so nothing would happen to it.
“Stay in touch, and come back whenever you want,” Sean invited her.
“You too.” She had left her numbers with Becky. “Let me know when the twins come.”
He nodded. “I’m thinking Madison Wyatt has a nice ring to it.” He smiled at her, and she realized instantly that it would have been her name if she’d married Andy. But at least there would be a Madison Wyatt after all, if they used her name.