Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

C harlotte woke early in the morning, the way she always did. No matter how early she got up, Beau's bedroom door stood open. This morning was no exception, and she glanced across the hall and then went into the bathroom.

She didn't know where he went in the morning, but she'd never found him in the kitchen. His dogs were never there either, and she hadn't found a spare moment to ask him. She'd been at Three Rivers now for two weeks, and there always seemed to be fifteen hundred things happening on this ranch.

When she'd asked Beau about that, he'd chuckled and said, "Yeah, about." They weren't the biggest ranch in the Panhandle, but coming in second meant they were quite huge indeed. Charlotte had over forty horses to care for, and she'd gone through the notebooks and files for each of them, then started adding to them.

She felt it important to build a rapport with each and every equine, and that took copious amounts of time. She had to learn their personalities; they had to learn hers. They had to learn to trust her; she had to learn to trust them.

With so many horses, she couldn't spend significant time with each of them every day, so she'd put them on a schedule where she got at least a half-hour with every horse every third day. Some of them obeyed instantly, but some had a stubborn streak that would take a bit more time for her to overcome.

They were working horses for sure, and that meant any cowboy or cowgirl should be able to swing into the saddle and get the job done.

Charlotte finished brushing her teeth, and she returned to her room to get dressed. Sure enough, the kitchen held a half-pot of coffee, and she poured herself a cup and added cream and sugar as she looked out the window above the sink. Movement caught her attention in the pre-dawn light, and she thought it was Ruby's bushy collie tail.

It could also be a fox or a coyote, but they didn't usually venture so close to humans—and out of cover, where they could hide. Feeling adventurous—and she'd get to see the sunrise this morning—Charlotte left the cabin through the back door.

Looking left, she found Ruby trotting along behind cabin row. Alone. "Odd," she said to herself. Ruby never went anywhere without Pepper, and both of them stuck to Beau like glue.

The dog went around the corner of a cabin, and Charlotte went down the steps, her curiosity off the charts. Then Pepper came tearing out of the gap, a ball flying ahead of him and bouncing in the field, where he dashed to retrieve it.

Ruby didn't reappear, and once Pepper had returned the ball, he didn't get to chase it again.

Charlotte went past cabin after cabin, realizing that Beau and his dogs had to be on the lawn of the homestead. When she finally made it past the last cabin, she found him sitting in a lawn chair at a firepit, both dogs lying beside him.

And he had a tripod set up with his phone on it, all four of them facing the rising sun. No one else seemed to be anywhere in the vicinity, and Beau lifted the lid of his thermos to his lips and took a sip.

Then his mouth moved, and surprise streamed through Charlotte. "What is he doing?"

Beau set his coffee down in the rocks, got up, and adjusted the phone. Then he picked up a red Frisbee and tossed it out in front of him, clearly in line of the phone—he was recording something—and Ruby went after it.

He wore pure happiness on his face, and again, he spoke.

Deciding to find out what was going on, Charlotte started to cross the lawn. Ruby caught the Frisbee and brought it back, and once Beau had it in his hand, he looked over to her. Surprise crossed his face, and he kept talking.

As she neared, she heard him say, "…we're only about forty-five seconds away now, folks. The sky is so pretty this morning, ain't it?"

Oh, the cowboy drawl was enunciated, and Charlotte paused on the edge of the gravel, lest her boots make too much noise on it and ruin his recording.

"We've got someone new with us this morning," he said. Charlotte noticed the scrolling comments on his phone then. Hearts and thumbs-up emojis kept flitting onto the screen and rising like steam too.

He was broadcasting. Live-streaming. Confusion puckered her brow. For who? And what?

"And here we are, folks," he said. "Six-fifty-four a.m., the prettiest sunrise in the world, I think, what with all those stringy clouds in the low horizon. Straight to you from the Texas Panhandle."

He paused for a moment, looking at his phone and not her, and continued with, "I am at the homestead this morning. It was an excellent view of the clouds. I'll try to get out to the creek later this week."

Another pause, and then he answered another comment. After a few minutes of this, Beau said, "All right, ladies and gents. This cowboy's gotta get to work." He plucked the phone off the tripod and turned it around to face him. "And look, the new Stable Manager here at the ranch joined us. Say hi, Charlotte."

She lifted her hand, no idea if she was in the frame or not. "Hi."

Beau grinned at his phone and said, "Until tomorrow's sunrise, have a good one, doing good things and living good lives." He waited a couple of seconds as comments positively streamed up his phone. More emojis than Charlotte had ever seen in her life followed, and then Beau ended the live-stream.

Beau transformed in front of her. His shoulders relaxed and went down. He sighed and shoved his phone in his pocket. He turned to face her with a hint of resignation in his expression. "Nice sunrise today," he said.

He came to her side on the fringe of the gravel, and they both faced into it as the golden light bathed the land in front of them.

"It is," she said.

"So I live-stream the sunrise every morning," he said. "I'm the Sunrise Cowboy."

Charlotte let a puff of air out that sounded harsher than she intended. "That's—wow."

"Unexpected," he said.

"Yeah," she said. "I mean, I didn't—it's not like you don't know how to use technology."

"People tune in from all over the world," he said. "They're fascinated by the American cowboy way."

"Are they now?" She grinned into the morning light.

"Seem to be," he said. "It's about twenty minutes is all. I bring out my coffee and my dogs. Set up in a different spot most days, and we…talk."

"You have online friends," she teased.

"A lot of ‘em." He chuckled. "I have in-person friends too."

"Mm." Charlotte wanted to ask if she was one of them, but she wanted to be more than friends too. "Beau?"

"Yep."

"Let's go have breakfast."

"Yes, ma'am." He gathered his tripod and his dog toys quickly, and they made the walk back to the cabin they shared. She pulled out a package of bacon and started laying strips in the hot pan while he gave his dogs fresh water and their breakfast.

She sliced tomatoes and tore lettuce, turned the bacon and set bread in the toaster. Beau sat at the counter and typed on his phone, finally setting it aside as the first slices of toast popped up.

"BLTs?" he asked.

"Yes." She cut him a look and got the mayo out of the fridge.

"For breakfast?"

"Don't you eat sandwiches for breakfast? I swear I've seen you make sausage and egg sandwiches for breakfast. Just last week, in fact."

"Yeah, but?—"

She waited, but he didn't continue. "But what? This is a bacon sandwich."

"No eggs." He wore a flirty smile, and oh, Charlotte could fall into that easily.

"Do you want me to scramble you some eggs?"

"No, ma'am."

"Good." She spread mayo on the toast and plucked a handful of strips of bacon from the pan. She assembled his sandwich quickly and slid the plate toward him. She still had to make her toast, and the bacon was in very real danger of getting burnt.

She took care of that, and then set her bread to toast. Beau waited for her to finish her sandwich and sit beside her, and then he looked her straight in the eye and said, "I'd like to go out with you. What do you think of me and you goin' to dinner one day this week?"

He swallowed, and it felt like someone had turned the lights up in the cabin. All the way to bright white. She blinked, and the cabin settled back into normal hues.

"Oh, boy." He chuckled. "Are you going to pass out? Did I startle you too much?"

She picked up the knife she'd used for the mayo and cut her sandwich in half. "A little is all."

"A little?" he teased. "Don't tell me you haven't felt this fizzing thing between us."

She looked over to him, and he sobered. "I mean that. If you haven't felt it, don't tell me. Just say no to dinner, and we'll eat, and everything will be fine."

Charlotte liked the way he drawled out fine , and she couldn't keep up the stoic act. She smiled too and said, "I've felt it."

Relief sagged through him. "Praise the heavens." He picked up his whole sandwich. "I'm free any night this week."

"As am I."

"Then tomorrow," he said.

"Tomorrow is fine," she said, trying to mimic his cowboy accent. She didn't quite make it, and he laughed and nudged her with his elbow.

"Don't tease me," he said.

"Oh, like you don't tease me."

"Well, I can't have you fainting when I knock on your bedroom door to take you out," he said. "Or have you going limp in my arms when I'm about to kiss you…." He raised his eyebrows, his smile glorious and filling the kitchen with light.

Charlotte's cells vibrated with desire—and a little bit of fear. It had been so long since she'd kissed a man, and surely someone like Beau had had a lot of girlfriends.

He chuckled and said, "Okay, I won't tease you about it."

"How long have you been live-streaming?"

"Oh, gosh." He exhaled and looked up and to the right. "Three years now, I think."

"I see."

"You could come out with me if you want," he said.

Charlotte smiled at him. "I don't want to step on your feet."

"I just invited you."

"Okay," she said.

"Okay." He finished his sandwich, and then looked at her. "Tell me something I don't know about you."

"Can we trade back and forth?"

"Sure."

Which meant he had more secrets. Charlotte had plenty of her own, so she finished her bite of bacon, lettuce, and tomato, and said, "I like to sing to the horses."

Beau grinned and added, "And in the shower."

Charlotte looked at him with surprise running through her. It didn't make her heart rate crash or her blood sugar drop. "You've heard me?"

"Sweetheart, the walls aren't that thick here." He grinned at her. "You have a great voice."

"Do I?"

"Sure," he said. "If you like to sing, I know a pastor who does a big Christmas concert. She's always looking for singers."

Charlotte wanted to do that, and she said, "I could be persuaded to audition for that."

"Great," Beau said. "We can go to church on the south side of town. She preaches down there with her brother."

"I'd like that," Charlotte murmured. "Is that where you normally go to church?"

"No," he said. "But it doesn't matter. It's just more time to drive through town. I'll go anywhere you want."

"Your turn," she said. "Something I don't know about you."

"I like to play online video games," he said. "Remember I told you about going to Shiloh Ridge last week?"

"Oh, sure."

"I do it at home mostly," he said. "Keeps me busy in a different way than ranch work, and it's fun."

"Do you know everyone you play with?"

"For the most part," he said. "Yeah."

Charlotte finished her sandwich and got up to put the plates in the sink and clean up the leftover leaves of lettuce and the butt end of the tomato. "I'll eat that," he said as she picked it up.

"This?" She handed him the tomato. "Just…one bite?"

"Well, probably three." He took the first one, and Charlotte couldn't help smiling.

"Gross," she said.

"You just ate it on a sandwich."

"That's not the same as biting into a tomato like it's an apple." She turned and put the cutting board in the sink. "Where will we go to dinner tomorrow?"

"I don't know," he said. "What do you like?"

Charlotte faced him again. "You know what sounds amazing?"

"Do tell."

"A loaded baked potato," she said. "One of those big ones that they rub salt all over the peel, and that's almost as good as the buttery, creamy inside, with cheese and bacon and green onions. Oh, and ranch dressing. Lots of ranch dressing."

Beau laughed, the sound full and throaty, and Charlotte sure did like it. It seemed to fill a hole inside her she hadn't realized was quite so empty—and that only he could fill.

"I know just the place for that, little bird." He gave her a grin and then got to his feet. "I have to get over to the admin building. New assignments being made today." He went to the row of pegs running toward the kitchen from the front door, picked up a hat, and settled it on his head.

He turned back and saluted while Pepper and Ruby waited for him to open the door, everything about him magnetic and drawing her closer. "You're working that new horse this afternoon?"

"Yes."

"If I have time, I'll come over." Then he left the cabin with his dogs, and Charlotte fell back against the sink behind her. Her heart pounded, but she didn't feel faint. Everything felt more alive than it ever had, which was the opposite of how she usually felt when she was about to pass out.

A slow smile curved her mouth, and she spun to look out the window to the view she'd grown quite fond of in the past couple of weeks. "Thank you," she whispered. "For bringing me to this ranch. For making it so I could meet Beau, for the horses here."

So much gratitude and joy filled her that tears flooded Charlotte's eyes. Her future had never seemed so wide open, and she never even dreamed she'd have an experience like the past two weeks.

She'd been taught that God had a plan for her life, and He'd never lead her astray. She'd felt so caged inside her existence for the past few years, but now she wondered if the Lord had just been holding her for a bit, until both she and Beau were ready for her to arrive on this ranch.

"I believe in Thy plans," she whispered. And she did. Her faith had been restored in a loving, kind God who only wanted the best for her.

Now, she just had to figure out if Beau Peterson fit into that plan.