full skirts brushing against Dawna as she did. She took her into a hug at the same time Ida did, and Dawna clung to them as she wept.
They were such good girls, and she only wanted the very best life had to give them. She knew there would be hard times. Ups and downs. Happiness and heartache. It was the way of the world. It was how the Lord taught His children the good from the bad.
“I love you girls,” she said, opening her arms wider to include all of her daughters who had joined the family. Holly Ann, Oakley, and Dot joined the hug, and they clung to one another the way Dawna hoped they always would.
“You ladies rely on one another,” Dawna said. “It’s important that you stay close. It’s hard to be a cowboy’s wife or a police officer’s wife, and you’ll need each other.” She hoped this would be the most emotional she got, and as the group broke up, she brushed at her tears.
Etta turned back to the mirror, and Dawna finished the last three buttons. One for Priscilla and Ranza Glover, who’d welcomed her so completely into the Glover family. One for her dear brother-in-law Stone, who’d loved his nieces and nephews the way Etta loved hers.
And one for Bull, Etta’s father and the love of Dawna’s life. Oh, how I wish you could be here, she thought. I miss you so very much.
Then his presence filled the room, and Dawna knew he was there, if only in spirit.
What felt like a blink later, Dawna stood at the altar, her arm once again laced through Lois’s. Etta and August were walking down the aisle together, with Hailey, and they’d wanted the whole family to parade down the aisle too.
The evening air held a crispness to it, just the way Dawna had prayed it would. The sun had started to set, but plenty of airy, golden light shone on the huge barn that acted as the backdrop for the wedding.
A huge American flag had been painted on the side of it, and rows and rows of chairs had been set up in front of it. The first four on each side were currently empty, and the Glovers would fill them after they’d come down the aisle.
The Walkers sat in the next few rows, and then a whole row of police officers and their families had come too. Every chair had an ivory covering concealing the back of the chair, and raffia had been tied around the chairs near the seat to make them look fallish and festive.
Street lamps edged the rows, with bright yellow, red, orange, purple, and blue flowers peeking through all the greenery. Etta hadn’t wanted anything “too October” like pumpkins or straw bales, and Dawna thought she’d found the perfect balance between farm, fall, and October without going to Halloween.
“Here we go,” Lois said, and her arm tightened in Dawna’s. The crowd rose to their feet, and everyone turned to face the same direction which Dawna and Lois did.
Ranger appeared first, and Dawna’s eyes teared up again. She blinked them back, because sometimes her mind wasn’t as clear as she would like it to be. She wanted to see her children and family clearly today, and that meant the tears couldn’t make everything blurry.
Her oldest son grinned down the aisle to his mother and lifted his fist to his heart. Then he looked right at his wife as she approached, and they linked arms. She shooed Wilder, their oldest, and Fawn, their youngest, in front of them, and together, the four of them walked down the aisle.
It took a few extra seconds with the toddlers, because they toddled so well but so slowly. Wilder ran the last few feet to Dawna, and she managed to bend enough to pick him up and give him a kiss.
“Gramma,” he said, and she pressed her cheek to his.
“Go sit with your daddy,” she whispered, passing the boy to Ranger. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before he left, and Dawna was reminded so much of Bull when she looked at him.
Her husband’s real presence and looks had been given to Ward, and he came next down the aisle, his darling baby girl in his arms. Glory Rose was almost a year old now, but she couldn’t walk—and she didn’t need to when she had such a powerful, handsome father to carry her.
Dot rested her hand in the crook of Ward’s elbow, and