Rustic Hearts

Sophie

 

I open my eyes as the door to my room cracks open, and light pours in from the hallway.

“You alive in there?” I hear Dallas’s voice before my eyes can adjust, and I see her curls peek through the crack in the door.

I reach over and grab my phone on the nightstand. I look at the time. Eight a.m.

“Ugh, it’s still early,” I whine.

I stayed up late, reading, last night because I was having a hard time falling asleep without the sounds of the city. It’s too quiet here.

“Early? Girl, it’s practically the middle of the day. Get your lazy bones up and get dressed. We are going to town.”

“For what?” I ask on a yawn.

“Lunch.”

“Come back in four hours.” I roll onto my stomach and cover my head with my pillow.

She grabs it and yanks. Then, she parks her ass on the bed beside me. “I’ll starve to death by then. Now, get up. I want to introduce you to Beau.”

“Fine, but only because you bribed me with the kid,” I groan and sit up in a huff.

“You’re cranky in the morning.”

“And you’re way too chipper. Now, go away, and I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

“All right, but you’d better not go back to sleep, or I’ll return with a bucket of ice water,” she says as she narrows her eyes and points her finger into my chest.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, I’d dare,” she threatens as she backs out of the door.

I scowl at her as I toss the pillow in her direction. I hear her laugh as she makes her way downstairs.

Twenty minutes later, I walk into the kitchen to find Dallas and Aunt Doreen chatting over a glass of orange juice.

“Good morning, Sophie. How did you sleep?” Aunt Doreen leans over and kisses my cheek.

“Good—once I was able to fall asleep. I don’t know how you guys do it without a symphony of music blaring, sirens screaming, and horns honking.”

“What’s that?” Aunt Doreen asks.

“I’m used to the sounds of Manhattan traffic lulling me to sleep at night. Tree frogs and crickets aren’t quite the same.”

“Just leave the TV on an episode of Cops next time. That should do the trick,” Dallas suggests.

“I’m sorry you missed breakfast. We didn’t want to disturb you. There is bacon left in the oven, and I can scramble you some eggs if you’d like.”

“That’s okay. I’m stealing her for a while. We’re going to Faye’s,” Dallas answers for me.

“How nice. Tell Faye I said hello.” She turns to look me over. “Do you want to borrow a coat?”

I look down at the peacoat I’m wearing over my one-piece jumpsuit. “I have a coat on.”

“It looks like snow today. You’re probably going to need something a bit warmer.”

“Snow?” I squeak.

Yesterday, it was warm and su

“Welcome to October in Colorado. Sunshine one day and a blizzard the next,” Dallas muses from the table.

I look outside at the overcast sky. “Should we be driving around in the snow?”

“Sure. We do it all the time. I have four-wheel drive. Besides, it’s only calling for a light dusting this afternoon. We’ll be fine.”

After Aunt Doreen raids Madeline’s closet to outfit me with a warmer coat and more appropriate footwear, I’m in the passenger’s seat of Dallas’s truck, and we’re headed into town.

“Mom is meeting us at the diner with Beau. He was on the John Deere, helping Dad cut the grass when I left, and I couldn’t bribe him off that thing. I swear, it’s like it’s a ride at Disney World or something. I hope he’s as enthusiastic about the mower when he’s a teenager.”

I remember riding in front of Daddy on our mower when I was little. It was one of my favorite things.

“So, how did things go after I left yesterday?”

I shrug. “Okay, I guess.”

“That good, huh?”

“It’s just strange. I don’t know any of the new ranch hands or new family members. My aunts are trying really hard to make me feel welcome, but Jefferson doesn’t seem to want me here. He has said less than ten words to me, and all of them have been to let me know how rude he thinks I am.”

“That’s just Jefferson being Jefferson. Can’t fault him for his personality.”

“That’s not how I remember him.”

She glances at me as she turns into the parking lot of Faye’s Diner. “He changed after you left. Turned into an old Grumpy Gus.”

She parks in a spot up front marked Employee of the Month.

“You work here?”

“Yep. Don’t be too impressed; there are only four of us. Faye, me, and Kim—the other waitress—and Andy, who cooks. So, I’m the Employee of the Month every third month.”

We get out and head inside, and a little boy with blond hair, round-framed glasses, and a chocolate milk ring around his mouth shouts to us, “Over here, Mommy.”

He’s standing up in a booth, waving a green crayon in the air, and Dallas rushes over. She scoops him in her arms and starts smattering his face with kisses as he squirms in protest through his peals of laughter.

She sets him down, and he walks himself across the bench to make room.

“Beau, this is Mommy’s friend, Miss Sophie.”

He curiously eyes me as Mrs. Henderson slides over to make room for me next to her, across from Dallas and Beau.

“Hi, Miss Sophie,” he greets me.

“Hi, Mr. Beau. It’s sure nice to meet you.”

He grins a snaggle-toothed grin at me and adjusts his glasses back into place. “I’m not a mister. I’m a little boy,” he corrects me.

“Oh, pardon me. You look so grown up that I couldn’t tell.”

That wins me a huge smile.

We order food, and before it even arrives, Beau has wiggled his way under the booth and between me and Mrs. Henderson. He scoots up close to me, and we color together as he regales me with made-up stories about the pirates we are coloring on the diner’s paper placemat, designed to entertain kids for a few minutes while their parents eat.

After we have finished eating, Mrs. Henderson wrangles him into his coat and mittens to take him to a birthday party.

I wave to him out the window in front of our booth. He keeps waving as he is buckled in.

“Thank goodness it’s a party for one of Mom’s friend’s granddaughters, so I don’t have to go. I swear, that kid has a better social life than I do. It’s a party or playdate or both every weekend,” Dallas tells me as she blows kisses to him before they pull out of sight.

“He’s adorable, Dallas.”

“Thanks. He’s the best thing I’ve ever done; that’s for sure.”

We pay our bill, and Kim brings us to-go cups of coffee.

“So, now what?”

“Now, we head to the shops in town, so I can buy a dress to wear to Gram’s service tomorrow, and you can buy some real clothes.”

“I have real clothes.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Girl, you have city clothes. You need jeans and sweaters and boots and coveralls.”

“I’m not going to be here that long, Dal. I don’t need to buy a bunch of clothes that I’ll have to drag back to New York with me.”

“Dad says that De