legitimacy to the whole affair.”
“It does not need an air of legitimacy. It is a lover’s pact,” Florence replied, rolling her eyes. “You are the youngest of us and it is showing, sister.”
Rose narrowed her eyes. “No one likes a know-it-all, Flo,” she replied, and in quick order, the two sisters descended into bickering that only siblings were capable of. Seylah let out a breath of relief when the two women’s focus was pulled off of her, and in their lapse of attention, Seylah turned to make for the door, but was stopped in her tracks when Delilah stepped in front of her.
“It’s normal to be scared,” Delilah said.
“I don’t want anything to change,” Seylah admitted, giving her a rueful smile.
“I know, but it must. You aren’t children anymore,” she paused and glanced at their still arguing sisters, “even if we forget from time-to-time. Things have to change eventually, but we can all embrace the change together if we keep an open mind.”
Seylah turned over her sister’s words, words that were an echo of August’s words to her, and she looked away. “What am I supposed to do? I tried to write down what I wanted.”
Delilah held up the paper. “Your list.”
“Crude as it may be?”
Her sister stepped closer and pressed the paper into Seylah’s hand. “Take the list. It’s a good list.”
Seylah took the piece of paper and frowned. “It’s a short list. I thought things would be grander if this were to ever happen.”
“I think so long as you have August you will be happy. You’ve always been your happiest when you were with him. You both are. Anyone can see it even if you’ve both been trying to close your eyes to it for years.”
Delilah’s words struck her wordless for a moment, and not for the first time, did Seylah wish to be anywhere but in the room, but now it was a different purpose. It was not to escape embarrassment and meddling by her sisters, but because Delilah had spoken so plainly about the entire matter between herself and August.
For years, she said. Years.
How much longer would she go on denying what was between them, what apparently was no secret at all despite Seylah’s best efforts. Working to keep needless distance between them would only frustrate the pair of them, and that was no way to begin a courtship. No way at all.
“I think you’re right.” Seylah looked down at the paper and ran her fingers along the lines of pencil. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I have someone to find.”
Her sister hummed, but said nothing else, already turning towards where Rose was now exerting her strength on Florence, who was, for all intents and purposes, putting up quite a fight when confronted by such a test of endurance. The last she saw of them they were naught but a heap of skirts on the floor with Delilah standing by as if to referee.
No one could ever accuse the women in her family of being dainty or unlively.
She left the room, her feet carrying her away from the bickering of her sisters and towards the makeshift shooting range her fathers had created for their leisure. Of course, Seylah was the only one of the girls to make use of it. Save for her and her fathers, August was the only other person to visit it. She had an inkling she would find him there, which suited her perfectly. There was no need to wait for the next day, not when she had the clarity that only words from a sibling could bring.
Delilah was right in her estimation of Seylah’s happiness. August had always been instrumental to Seylah’s joy. Since they were children, and now again as adults, their lives were ever changing. But that did not mean they could not repurpose change to create something anew, weave it into their every day until the pair of them had become different.
Her feet hit the wood of the back porch and she paused in the late afternoon light. Fall was here, her favorite season, and the crisp air made her palms tingle. The season never failed to make her feel like she was waking up, even as it put the Montana scenery around her to sleep, these few precious weeks heralding the coming cold and bitter snowstorms.
She crossed the yard and made for the barn in the distance; the shooting range was just beyond it. All around her, the vibrant golds of fall were flashing in the