Willow’s mouth fell open. “What? Why? What were you two fighting about?”
Her brother shrugged. Like…actuallyshrugged. “Whatever it was doesn’t seem so important now.”
“You forgot to clean the coop when I was gone all day picking up Biscuit with Delaney, drank too much at the bonfire, and then I had to do it at midnight after I got home!” Jenna called up to them.
Willow snorted. “Seems like it was alittleimportant,” she told him. “Also, who’s Biscuit?”
“A hedgehog Delaney took in at the animal rescue.” Colt sighed. “Love you, Babe!” He called back to Jenna.
“Love you too!” she singsonged in response.
Colt cleared his throat. “The point is, we’re not perfect.I’mnot perfect. We just tend to keep the not-so-good days behind closed doors. On the couch. Until she misses me enough to forgive me. I guess living life behind closed doors is a luxury you don’t always have these days, huh?”
Willow shook her head. “I mean, I’ve been really good at keeping a low profile since…you know. But it’s not that…” She let her voice trail off, thinking again. “When I first started this, like, before I got signed, I was making music on my own timeline, on my own terms.” She laughed. “’Course, I wasn’t getting paid a living wage, but the band and I almost always broke even after we had a gig and moved on to the next one. It was hard and simple at the same time. Does that make sense?”
Her brother glanced her way and nodded, then turned back to the trail. “Sorry, Wills,” he told her, pushing through a small thicket of bushes. “Can we pick the chat up again once we get everyone situated?”
“I’m fine,” she told him, which was mostly the truth. Nothing was actuallywrong. She simply feltoff.
They broke into a clearing containing a few picnic tables and a bonfire circle framed by thick logs that Willow assumed doubled as benches when everyone huddled around the fire. Tonight, however, there would be no fire other than in the sky.
“Welcome, everyone. Grab as comfortable a spot as you can find.” Colt called out to the fifteen or so guests who signed up for the late-night pilgrimage to catch a meteor shower where there promised to be zero light pollution getting in the way of their view.
The men, women, and even a few school-aged kids spread out on the logs and at the picnic tables, one by one powering down their flashlights.
Colt shook out a big flannel blanket for Jenna, Willow, and himself, and Willow couldn’t stop herself from smiling. It had only been a day since she and Ash had returned from the campsite, yet little things kept triggering memories of a day and night that still didn’t feel real.
“You know what?” she told her brother and sister-in-law. “I think I’m going to grab a spot on that log over there.” She nodded toward the bonfire circle and a still-unoccupied tree log that served as a bench. “I feel like this is something you two should do alone.”
Jenna thrust her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. “Darlin’, we get plenty of time with just the two of us. Tonight is for family.” She held her arms out to include all the ranch guestswho were apparently extended family for the night. “And I will not havefamilylying around on a fallen tree all by herself watching the sky produce the kind of magic that’s meant to be shared.”
Willow’s cheeks warmed, and she was grateful for the dark.
Colt leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. “She’s pretty smart. I’d listen to her.”
Willow sighed. “Okay, but the second I feel like a third wheel, I’m taking up residence on the first empty log I find.” She winced. “I didn’t hear how that sounded until it came out of my mouth, and I’d like to strike ‘take up residence on a log’ from the record for the rest of time.”
Jenna dropped down onto one side of the blanket and patted the spot beside her. “Not a chance, honey. Now park your log-loving ass next to your sister so we can catch some shooting stars.”
Willow did as she was told, and after Colt took a survey of the small clearing to make sure the guests were situated and ready for the event, he stretched out on his sister’s other side.
“What if we don’t see anything,” Willow whispered.
Jenna nudged her with her shoulder and pointed up toward the sky. “Open your eyes and look,” she whispered.
Willow stared up at the vastness above, at the pinprick speckle of the 100 billion stars in the galaxy, beautiful and ordinary all at the same time.
“If you keep waiting for the good part,” Jenna continued, “you’ll miss what’s right in front of you, which is pretty great too.”
Willow sighed. Was that what she’d been doing for the better part of her adult life, still waiting around for it to start?
Colt threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed. “See?” he told her. “Smart.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Willow admitted. “I guess what’s going on up there is pretty damned spectacular all on its—” She gasped, and seeing as she wasn’t alone with countless others doing the same, she already knew the answer to her question. “Did you see that?”
Jenna grabbed Willow’s other hand and held tight as the late night/early morning sky went from pretty damned spectacular to complete and utter magic in seconds flat as streaks of light rained across the sky.
Willow had missed years with her brother. She’d experienced so many firsts without him. First days of middle and later high school. First time she sang for an audience. First crush and later her first heartbreak. So many took family for granted, assuming the ones they loved would always be there simply because that was how it had always been. But Willow knew better, and because of that, she knew how special this moment was, even if all she was doing was lying on the ground staring up at the sky.
