Mayfly Melodies

Forty-Three

Noah

Don't be afraid to go after what you want to do and what you want to be. But don't be afraid to be willing to pay the price—Lane Frost

The air was brisk, cold enough that a fine layer of frost was in danger of setting atop the grass throughout the night.  There was a chill in the air, cold to the point where if he didn't know any better, Noah might have assumed that it was November, not September.  Still, the sky was clear as night fell and he finished his chores for the evening. 

Noah was hunched over inside of the barn, scrubbing at Rafiki's saddle with a sponge.  He'd been neglecting some of his general housekeeping chores over the past few weeks.  He'd had to drive his cattle from one paddock to the other which had cut an entire day from his weekly schedule.  That, combined with the time he now lost from working at the rodeo school meant that his time to do things like clean saddles and tack had decreased substantially.

He'd been working steadily for the past few hours.  Caroline had helped for awhile, brushing down both Rafiki and Gypsy and giving them their nightly feed before she'd vanished inside.  When he'd walked past the house some forty minutes later to water the plants in the vegetable garden, he'd heard the soft strumming of her guitar echoing throughout the main foyer.

Even to his untrained ears, Noah had been able to tell that she was playing well.  Her strum patterns were not uncertain or hesitant but rather strong and confident, as if she'd been playing years instead of months.  She transitioned not-quite flawlessly between chords but it was smoother than it had been the first time he'd heard her play and on very rare occasions Noah heard her sing.  Often it was only small fragments, a lyric here or there, but it was improvement and he always felt a rush of pride and affection when he thought of the progress she'd made.

But as they always did whenever Noah listened to Caroline play her guitar, Noah's thoughts drifted to Bailey and what she might be doing in that very instant.  He supposed she'd probably already gone and signed her new record deal—there wasn't a doubt in his mind that she wouldn't be offered one—and was out celebrating. 

Her meeting with the record label had been the day before.  He hadn't heard anything from her about how it had gone but he knew her well enough to know that her lively personality would have been enough to charm the pants off the label owners.  That, coupled with her incredible voice and songwriting prowess, was sure to secure her a spot with the label. 

Still, the knowledge that Bailey was likely heading back to Nashville to pursue a music career didn't make his stomach churn as it had a couple weeks earlier.  His brief conversation with her on the day she'd left for the city had given him a spot of light to look forward to.  At the very least, Noah was confident that he would have the opportunity to see her once more.  If Bailey felt as strongly about him as he felt about her, then he was sure that he would see her more than that.

He wasn't quite sure how to make such a strange relationship function properly but he was willing to try and work it out with her if that's what she wanted.  A few nights earlier he'd even received a text from her containing the knowledge that the media had linked them together.  She didn't know who had leaked it but the suspicion had been so high that she'd been asked about it at an awards show.

In town the day after, Noah had been told at Annie's that a guy had been asking about him.  Annie's niece, Beth, had given the man faulty directions to Noah's ranch but it was still alarming.  Noah figured that he may have to get some sort of security system installed at the ranch if things between him and Bailey progressed but he wasn't so put off by the notion that he was considering cutting all ties with her.