Robbie has been walking after him, and is close enough that Lance’s hand, and the handkerchief, are only inches from his chest. His eyes slowly lower, and he blinks several times in surprise.

When he looks up, Lance flinches. But there’s only surprise on Robbie’s face, and no ire—at least, not so far.

“I took it,” Lance blurts. “The day I left.”

He falls silent, unable to say more, as Robbie lifts a shaking hand and takes the dangling corner of the handkerchief between his thumb and forefinger. Then, unable to stand another second of silence, Lance babbles some more.

“It was something I always thought of as being with you. Like, this—this part of you, that I could have. It was so wrong, I already knew that, even before I knew it was your dad’s. And now that I know that, I—”

Unfathomably, Robbie is smiling. He tugs the handkerchief out of Lance’s weak grasp and steps forward, so that Lance’s arm folds between them, trapped, and he can only clutch at Robbie’s neck with his other hand, knees unsteady.

But Robbie’s there, big hands a firm cradle on Lance’s hip and thigh. He kisses him.

“My little magpie,” he says, so very fondly. Lance stares up at him, dumbfounded. Robbie puts the cloth around Lance’s neck and knots it. “My dad used to say wearing this scarf made me look like a real Chase.” His smile turns softer, and so does his voice. “I like the look of it on you.”

Lance can’t speak, but when Robbie looks into his eyes, wide and stinging with tears, he seems to see in them what Lance can’t bring himself to say.

“Will you stay here with me, at least for a while?” His forefinger is hooked between the silk scarf and Lance’s neck.

Suddenly, Lance finds that words come easily. Or, one word does.

“Yes.”

Thank you for reading Long Winter. If you’re not ready to leave Robbie and Lance just yet, you can find the rest of their story in Signs of Spring.

Author’s Note

This story includes details about the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM. Some of those details are accurate, and some of them are skewed for the purposes of this story. It’s true that private ranches across the United States are in business with the federal government to provide long-term care for wild horses born on and gathered from public lands throughout the west. The horses remain the property of the government throughout their lives, and the ranchers who house and manage them are paid a daily fee for their care.

Most of the ranches working with the BLM are much larger than Riverside, the Chases’ ranch in this book. In 2020, the public solicitations for new ranches to participate in the program that I could find expected applicants to request at least two hundred horses.

About the Author

Rachel Ember is a lover of the outdoors, animals, families both biological and found, and, of course, love stories. She lives in the midwest United States with her family, which includes two kids and several horses, most of them in varying stages of retirement.