Page 20 of The Rancher's Wedding

She was just so interesting to him. He wanted to know everything about her. How did she manage to become the person she was without a mother or father? How young was she when she lost them? Michael had lost both his parents, too, though it was when he was already an adult—but maybe that was a way to form a connection with her.

And there he went again, distracted by Estelle when he was trying to think about his brother. His only brother. His only true family.

He reached the top of the walkway and knocked on the door.

“Jacob?”

There was no response, though Michael thought he heard the creaking of somebody moving around.

“Jacob, Estelle and I were going to have some tea and look at the stars, if you’d like to join us.”

Still no response.

He knocked one more time, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense as he knew Jacob was in there and had obviously heard him.

“Tell you what,” Michael said, “we’re going to be down by the house and you’re welcome to join us. I’m sure Estelle made more than enough tea for the both of us. We’ll be out there a little while and it’d be wonderful to have you there.”

It really would be, too.As much as Michael wanted time alone with his new wife, he couldn’t help but think of the idea of the three of them as one unit, everybody getting along with everybody else and no more of the distancing that Jacob had been doing for so long.

But so long as Michael had a night alone with Estelle, he planned on taking full advantage of it.

He walked down the path, carefully as it was getting dark and easy to misplace his steps, and saw that Estelle was still in the kitchen, steeping the tea.

“He didn’t respond,” Michael said.

“Why not?”

“He generally doesn’t for me. He’ll stay inside and pretend he doesn’t exist. When he went with you the other day, to pick up clothes, was he quiet like this?”

Estelle shook her head. “He was definitely withdrawn, but he wasn’t silent.”

Michael figured as such.“He seemed to get along with your friend.”

Estelle smiled. “He certainly did. And she with him.”

“You think he would talk to her?”

“Absolutely.”She handed a cup of tea to Michael.“Shall we go outside?” she asked.

“Please.” Michael opened the door for her and followed her out, pointing her to the four chairs on the deck.

She sat down and he sat in the one beside her.

“It’s so wonderful being able to see the sky like this,” Estelle said. “In the city, it’s all buildings and gas lights, not to mention the noise. It’s beautiful out here.”

Michael sighed. “I guess I’ve gotten used to it, but it’s pretty remarkable, isn’t it?”

Estelle pointed toward the horizon, where the last bit of light from the sun had finally left the sky. “See that over there?”

She was pointing to a particularly bright star, unblinking in the sky.

“Yeah. It’s a real pretty star.”

“That’s because it’s not a star at all. That’s Venus. It’s a planet. The Romans saw it up there, all bright like that, and said it must be the goddess of love.”

Michael looked at it. It didn’t look like much other than a bright light. He looked back over at Estelle.

Now there was something that looked like a love goddess.