When she dared a glance up at him, walking beside her, his eyes were sincere. Emotion swelled inside of her chest, and her throat went tight. “Thanks for saying that.”
Josiah hopped on his four-wheeler he’d parked at the edge of the field and pulled it toward the first row of hay Mr. Fairway was already mowing down. Josiah turned on his seat and jerked his head in invitation. With a laugh, Elyse scrambled up onto the small trailer he was hauling and bumped and bounced along behind him as her brother managed to hit every danged pothole in the field to reach his destination.
She waved to Joanna Fairway as Josiah pulled to a stop and chatted with the neighbor until Joanna’s husband was far enough ahead with the mower for her to start the baler on the line of cut hay. Elyse always paid them with a cow for their troubles, especially since Ricky had a gimp leg from getting kicked by a horse a few years back and had trouble hunting for them. Still, Elyse was extremely grateful they had been friends of her uncle’s and offered to help bale the hay when she needed it.
The morning passed quickly as Josiah drove slowly beside the new, square bales Joana left behind her baler. She and Ian hauled them up into the back, stacking them high until her arms fatigued and she switched Josiah spots driving the four-wheeler. And when they had as much as the trailer could carry, she drove it slowly back toward the empty cattle pen. The storage building for the hay was dilapidated and half the wood rotten. She jogged inside the cabin and threw together a quick lunch for everyone while Ian and Josiah unloaded the bales from the trailer.
And when she came outside with a basket full of food, she smiled when she overheard Josiah and Ian’s conversation. They were talking about fixing up the hay storage before Josiah headed back for his cabin.
They didn’t know it yet, and she’d never admit it to them out loud, but they’d just given her a moment she never thought she would have. Cole and Josiah had fought like wolverines, and the tension had always added stress, but seeing her brother and her fiancé talking cordially about how to improve and expand the wooden hay shelter had her feeling incredibly relieved. She could imagine holidays together…
Wait. Elyse frowned and gripped on tighter to the handle of the food basket, causing the wicker to creak. Ian would be in hibernation and would only be awake an hour to celebrate the holidays. And how would she explain that to Josiah? Maybe one year she could convince her brother Ian was sick, but Josiah was sharp as a tack and wouldn’t fall for that two years in a row.
A problem for another day because right now, she had a hungry bear-shifter to feed, hay to haul, and shit to do. And a puppy to wrangle because Miki was eating something unsavory again.
But when she pulled the puppy away from the horse-crap snack he was partaking in, she really looked at the homestead around her, and it became impossible to rush away from such a profound moment. Her brother and fiancé were talking low, the homestead was clean, the garden tidy and producing, and the hay was building up by the trailer-load. The woodpile was stacked high all along the side of the cabin and, in the distant barn, Momma Goat screamed her contentment. Sure, Miki’s breath smelled like the south end of a northbound horse, but he wasn’t nipping her anymore, and he stuck like glue to her and Ian wherever they went. And off in the field behind the cabin, she had kind neighbors who were helping out.
Elyse smiled at how far her life had come in such a short amount of time. It was because of Ian that she wasn’t struggling and panicking right now, a mere month before the first snowfall would blanket this place in white.
Ian smiled at her as if he could tell she was thinking mushy thoughts about him, and she melted under his appreciative gaze.
Not even the chill or the threat of winter could dampen a moment like this.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, she was bone-deep, canyon-wide, ardently, and utterly happy.
Chapter Sixteen
Elyse gave Joanna a tight hug and waved to her husband as he drove the tractor back toward their own property.
“I’ll bring the cow next week if that’s all right.”
Joanna smiled kindly and dipped her head. “That would be much appreciated. You have a good night now.”
Elyse grinned up at Joanna as she climbed into the tractor with the baler on the back. “I think I’m going to sleep like a log tonight.”
“It was a long day, but a good day. You keep those boys in line.”
With a snort, she waved Joanna off. Elyse had as much a chance of keeping a grizzly-shifter and her half-wild brother in line as she did of controlling the Alaskan weather.
Her muscles had cooled as she’d said her farewells to the Fairways, so she zipped her jacket up to her chin and strode toward where Josiah and Ian were loading the last few bales into the trailer. “I will shamelessly bribe you to fix my hay storage,” she said through a grin.
Ian gave her a grin and asked, “Bribe how?”