Read Online Dreaming With My Eyes Wide Open (Hollywood Legends #2) by Mary J. Williams - Free Book Online Page B

when she could easily have handed the job over to one of their day
    laborers.
    It was love. Love for the land and every building on it.
    From the sheds to the main house. Paige grew up here. She crawled on the grass
    in the front yard. Toddled by her mother’s side as she gathered the morning
    eggs. Learned to ride like the wind, her sturdy pre-teen legs gripping the
    sides of her horse — no saddle needed.
    This was Paige’s home.
    If sometimes she yearned to know what was beyond the gently
    rolling fields, Paige shrugged off those feelings. In college, she had a small
    taste of something different. It was heady. Exciting. A world of endless
    possibilities.
    If her mother hadn’t gotten sick, who knew? Part of her
    always assumed she would end up back here.
    After .
    A few years of adventure before she had any serious
    obligations to anchor her in one place. Unknown places. Exotic. Heady. New. She
    had wanted to see them as only a young woman could. Unfettered by anything but
    the desire to taste a culture far different from her own.
    That changed the day her father called with the news that
    her mother wouldn’t see another year. In that instant, Paige left behind the
    girlish dreams and took on the mantle of an adult. It wasn’t just her mother
    who needed her to be strong. Her father was lost without his Erin. Forgoing a
    few years of travel was a small price to pay.
    There was still time for that. Nowhere was it written that
    she couldn’t take time away from the ranch to see those far off places that
    littered her dreams.
    Someday , she promised herself.
    They walked in silence. It wasn’t awkward. Neither felt the
    need to reach for unnecessary words. Nate was content to take it all in. Paige
    enjoyed the company. Which surprised her. One of the best things about her life
    was the time she had to simply think.
    They were grand thoughts or troubling ones. Usually, she
    went over the endless list of things that needed doing. Fix the fence in the
    south pasture. Order feed. Replace the valves in her old truck.
    What she did every day didn’t shake the world. But it did
    keep her firmly on its axis.
    “Do you love it here?”
    An interesting question. But then, Nate was turning out to
    be an interesting man.
    “When I went away to college, my new friends would ask how I
    could stand growing up in the middle of nowhere?”
    “What was your answer?”
    “I usually smiled and didn’t say much. How can you explain
    Montana to someone who has never been here?”
    Nate understood what she meant. Traveling extensively had
    taught him many things. One of the most important was that no two places were
    alike. A person growing up in a rural environment might think the city was the
    city. They would be wrong.
    New York was no more like Paris than Montana was like
    Nebraska. Make a list. The differences would soon start to outweigh the
    similarities. Bright lights and traffic. A blanket of stars and uninterrupted
    fields. It was what the eye didn’t see. The people. How they spoke. Thought.
    Lived their daily lives.
    Until you walked on Montana soil, you could never
    understand.
    Mountains to one side of the Double C and wide-open rolling
    fields on the other. The main house was painted a welcoming blue and white.
    Three stories. Not a box, though close, the sloping roof prevented it from
    resembling a large Christmas present without the bow.
    It was large and welcoming with room for a family to grow.
    Paige was an only child. Nate wondered if that was by design or because Chuck
    and his wife weren’t blessed with other children.
    A ranch this size. Two people with plenty of love to share.
    When he factored all that in, Nate had his answer.
    “I can’t imagine growing up without my brothers. An only
    child. Way out here. It must have been lonely.”
    “I had Lottie. Though there were weeks during the winter
    when we only spoke on the phone.” Paige stopped by the main corral. Two horses
    came over to nudge at her