That’s not to say the prophecy doesn’t cause me the same frustrations as if I’m the one going through it. As they say, the path to true love is never easy.
Case in point, my younger brother Toby has been unbearable this week. And with his One—even though she doesn’t know it yet—visiting her family back in Montana, it not only means we’re down a ranch hand, it means Toby is sulking.
To explain why, you need to know why the mountain spirit does what she does. Thankfully, through the writings of romance author Aster Hollingsworth and the guidance of a gifted few who communicate with the mountain in different ways, we know how the Call works.
It started years ago when an ancient prophecy was reactivated on Moose Mountain. Once all the members of the Cooper familyat Moose and in the town of Woodward Valley had fallen in love with their soulmates, the prophecy moved along the mountain range to Bear, then Eagle–where our only sister, Tess, lives. When one of our ranch co-owners, Colt, came to live at Bull Mountain, the mountain spirit awakened and it was my family’s turn to be rewarded for protecting the spirit’s lands.
Colt was first when he reconnected with his teenage sweetheart, Leah Barnes, from Eagle Mountain Ranch. When Lee started having dreams about strangers she had not met yet, we realized that the mountain spirit was telling her who would be next. That's when Cora, our new neighbor at Sunshine Farm and now wife of my eldest brother, came to town.
Next was my other brother Landry and his now wife, Starchild, and now it’s Toby’s turn.
Months ago he went with the head of our ranch, Red, Landry, and Starchild to meet a prospective ranch hand at the rodeo. Instead, he not only met her, he offered her a job at first sight because she turned out to be his One—Dee, or Skippy as he calls her.
Toby has always been about seizing the day. The kind of man who says 'why wait for tomorrow when you can do it today?' He believed that when his time came to hear the mountain’s call, he would skip the whole ‘falling in love’ part and just marry her. As he said, ‘why waste time when you know where the story goes.’
Here's the thing. It's not always that easy. I know that from experience.
I thought I knew who I was going to spend the rest of my life with when I was eighteen years old. That was the day CharlieGallagher, a junior, walked into my senior class. One look in her pretty blue eyes and Iknewshe was it for me.
The problem was that while I was happy to stay in Spring Haven, settle down, and end my days here, Charlie was destined for more. She was too smart for this town. Hell, she was too smart for me too.
We became best friends and to this day, my biggest regret is not telling her she was the only girl I’d ever want–everwouldwant. All of this was before I even knew the prophecy existed, let alone the fact our ranch family would be rewarded for protecting and caring for the land.
I haven't seen her since she stopped coming back from college when I was twenty-two and she was twenty. Yet despite the fifteen years that have passed since then, my feelings for her have not changed. I still think she is the best girl, woman, and human I’ve ever known, and not one single person I’ve met since then has even come close to the memories I have of her.
That’s why I figure the prophecy is not and never will be for me–I already met my soulmate and I let her slip through my fingers.
The downside of everyone around me meeting their Ones and being all loved up is that it’s reminded me of Char, which means I’ve been looking back at my life and asking ‘what if?’
Over the years she's never been far from my mind. I’m always thinking about what she might be up to and where she might be, whether she's happy, and if she’s met some lucky-as-hell man who worships her in the way she deserves.
Most of all though, I wonder if she fulfilled all those big dreams she had, the ones she shared when we were alone. Whether we were down by the lake in the Summer or sneaking intothe treehouse in the backyard of her mom’s house, staring up through the hole in the old wooden roof and watching the Northern Lights.
Back then it was so easy. We spent every spare moment together but try as I might, I never got the courage to tell her how Ireallyfelt about her. I wasn’t going to be that person that asked her to stay when Iknewshe was destined for bigger and brighter things outside of our small mountain town.
But the biggest what if of all–I’ll never know if she felt the same way.
Over the years, I've held back from asking Mags for updates about her daughter. That’s not to say I haven't heard any. Mags would also talk about Charlie and what she’s doing and all the places she’s been.
That’s how I know Charlie graduated college and went straight to medical school, and how she interned in Boston, completed her residency in Florida, and then got a fellowship somewhere else. With every update, you could tell how proud Mags and her ex-husband Greg were of their girl.And how proud I was hearing about it.
Strangely, Mags has always talked aboutwhenCharlie would home, notif. I had to force myself not to dwell on that because I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
If–or when–that day comes, then I’ll have to face what could’ve been and accept what could’ve been mine if I’d only been brave enough to tell her I loved her.
Now it’s all of these ‘what if’ questions that are keeping me up at night, not a good thing when you own and run a huge ranch and bull stud.
That’s why I’m ignoring my own problems and helping Toby sort his love life out so that at leasthecan get his happy ever after.
“Please tell me you’re goin’ to do somethin' about that mood of his,” my oldest brother Rhett says, coming to a stop next to me. I’m standing outside the barn and watching Tobes talk to himself while moving bales of hay from the barn to a trailer.
“Offered to help him and he waved me off,” I explain. “Said he needed the distraction and wanted to wear himself out.”
“There’s distractin’ yourself and then there’s doin'toomuch. He's no use to us if he’s exhausted. More of a liability.”
I snort and glance over at Rhett. “When is henota liability?”
“When he was workin' hard tryin' to impress Dee.” His grin falls. “Believe me, I know it’s hard goin' through the Call, and not knowin’ if your One is feelin’ what you are, let alone navigatin’ your way around buildin’ a long-lastin’ connection. It’s no walk in the park, but he’s just makin’ it harder on himself by not tellin’ her. How can Dee know what she’s feelin’ is real and not one-sided if she doesn’t know the reason why she’s drawn to Tobes in the first place.”
