A huge blessing, she thought, assigning the right term to what her life was. The preacher had talked about identifying and acknowledging the blessings in life, and Beth rarely did that. She’d spent so much of the last three years trying to fix what was wrong that she didn’t even see what was right.
“I hope you’re right,” she said to Walter. “Come on. You’re coming back to the house for lunch, aren’t you?”
“If these cows will stop going into labor.”
“Trey’s ordered enough food to feed the whole county,” Beth said with a smile. “You better come, and you should go get your family too.”
“Jen’s on her way with the kids.” Walter smiled as he removed his gloves. “I’ll go see where she is.” He left the shed while Beth walked over to the sink in the birthing shed and washed her hands up to her elbows.
She pulled her sleeves down so she wouldn’t freeze when she went outside, and she looked around the shed to make sure she didn’t have anything else to do before she went up to the farmhouse.
The birthing shed sat on the far east end of the main part of the ranch, the farthest building from the farmhouse. Beth didn’t mind the walk back, especially when she could take it by herself.
She couldn’t help but notice how quiet her mind was these days. Her thoughts didn’t run in fifteen different directions, and she wasn’t five seconds away from a complete panic attack. The ranch still didn’t have enough profit, but with Trey funding the salaries of the cowboys working with her and buying groceries and food—and anything else he thought the three of them needed or wanted—Beth didn’t find herself worrying about money.
She hadn’t asked her father for money since the wedding, and he hadn’t brought it up either.
Happiness accompanied her every step, and she paused when she heard the joyful clucking of the chickens. “Thank you, Lord,” she said, tipping her head back as she looked up into the sky. The sun had disappeared sometime during church, and a storm had covered the blue face of the sky.
It hadn’t rained yet, but the growl of thunder rolled through the sky, and yet Beth stayed by the warbling of her chickens. She loved the silly birds and the sounds they made, and she wanted another perfect memory for today, and she wanted to acknowledge the blessings in her life.
Her chickens were a huge blessing, and she took a moment to enjoy them.
Too long of a moment, because the sky opened before she could reach the house, and the rains came pouring down. She shrieked and started running, though no one could outrun a winter rainstorm in Kentucky.
By the time she reached the back porch, where the roof protected her from the falling rain, her hair was drenched, as were her jeans and boots. “Great,” she said, though laughter bubbled through her.
She stepped over to the patio table and bent to take off her boots and jacket. If she texted Trey, he’d bring her a towel, and she could at least dry off a little before tracking mud and who knows what else through the house.
Voices filtered out to her ears through the open window, and Beth paid them no mind—at least until she heard Trey’s voice say, “That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Clyde.”
“It can’t be fake,” her father said. “It just can’t be. How can a marriage be fake?”
“It just is,” Trey said. “How else could she enter Somebody’s Lady in the Sweetheart Classic?”
She shot straight up, her heart pounding.
It just is, he’d said.
It just is, rang through her head.
It just is?
Did he really think that? She’d been sharing her bed with him for almost a month—that was real. She’d walked him into church today—that was real. He’d become a father to TJ—that was most certainly real.
“I mean, it’s going well,” Trey said. “Really, it is. She’s great, and—” His voice got covered by a child’s scream, and Sally’s voice entered the fray, as did Kait’s. Her father said something; everyone was saying something.
Beth felt like she was being whipped around and around. Up and down. All of the talking just became noise, but it couldn’t erase the sound of Trey’s voice saying their marriage was fake.
She wasn’t exactly sure when it had stopped being fake for her, because she hadn’t pinpointed the moment she’d fallen in love with him. She thought their marriage was going well too. They talked about meaningful things.
He did things like let her sleep late on the weekends, though there were chores to do. She brought him food at the training track, and she always had lunch when he came in off the ranch. He picked up TJ from school. They served one another, and Beth had really liked how their foundation was shaping up.
What had she missed?
Why didn’t he feel that way too?
“You sit right there,” Kait said, her voice sharp. She plunked Lucas on the porch, and he wailed as he looked up at her. “You can’t hit your cousins.”