“I’m sorry,” Dalton said, the kindness in his bright blue eyes so genuine, she had to look away. “You know he talked about you a lot.”
“He did?” she asked.
“He thought you were so brave,” Dalton said, nodding. “He had nothing but respect for how you took care of your husband and raised your little girl. He didn’t hold a thing against you, as far as I could tell. He probably wanted to see you because he loved you, not to make you prove anything. And he would have hated the idea of you feeling guilty about not making the trip.”
Ella nodded and felt a tiny weight lift from her shoulders as she let her eyes scan the horizon of the farm where she and her brother had worked and played together.
When she looked back to Dalton, he had stopped working for once. The expression on his face was one of real loss.
“He loved you too,” she told him. “He always talked about you in his letters.”
“Really?” Dalton asked.
“Oh yeah. We heard about everything the two of you did, and how excited he was about the training you were doing,” she said. “I’m so glad he had you there.”
“Me too,” Dalton said, nodding.
He wasn’t smiling, but the empty look was gone from his face, and as she watched, he went back to brushing off the walls of the barn.
Too soon, her alarm went off, reminding her to take Dove to school.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she told him. “Should I pick up the paint while I’m in town?”
“Nah,” Dalton said. “We’ll go together later. I need to grab something in town anyway.”
“Okay,” she said, smiling at the idea of doing something so simple as running errands together.
We’re friends,she reminded her suddenly pounding heart.Just friends.
And that might be true. But it kept feeling like something more.
When she got to the house, her mom was chatting with Dove as she shoved her library book into her schoolbag.
“Thanks for helping her get ready, Mom,” Ella said.
“It was a real pleasure,” her mother said with a smile. “And we packed a nice lunch too, didn’t we?”
“Leftovers,” Dove sang out. “And a muffin.”
“That’s great,” Ella said, smiling as she remembered her mom packing her the best leftover lunches when she was Dove’s age. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Dove said. “Will I be there early enough to play on the playground?”
“Absolutely,” Ella told her. “A little earlier than usual since you’re already good to go.”
“Yes,”Dove said, sprinting for the front door.
“Did you have a good start to your morning?” Mom asked Ella quietly before she could set out after Dove.
“Yes,” Ella said. “It’s been… nice.”
“I like hearing that,” Mom said, giving her a pat on the shoulder.
“Mama, let’s go,”Dove called out excitedly from the front door.
“Okay, here I come,” Ella told her, giving her own mom a quick smile before jogging down the hallway.
“Does the air taste like snow?” Dove asked as they headed down the porch steps together.
