Yellowstone

Chapter 16 - With Tomorrow

"Where's Elisabeth at?" Rip asked, looking over at Ryan.

"Um... I don't know. I'll go look for her. She's around here somewhere, don't worry." He replied, slipping his arms through the sleeves of his work shirt.

He had lied to Rip. He knew exactly where his cousin was. She had spent the night in the barn, sleeping in Lady's stall next to the mare.

She had decided to sleep in the barn because, in her own words, "I don't think I can bear to wake up and see that he's not next to me."

Not long after Walker's departure, Ryan had come out of the shower to see his cousin sobbing into her shirt to muffle the noise.

He knew better than to try and get her to talk, so he remained silent and simply knelt in front of her, letting her cry into his shoulder while he held her.

Ryan left the bunkhouse with his hat in hand and a container in the other, heading off towards the barn to wake his cousin.

He gently knocked on Lady's stall door, hearing the mare nicker a little. He peaked in, seeing Elisabeth cozied up next to the lying horse, already awake.

"Hey... can I come in?" Ryan asked gently.

"Yeah... c'mon." She croaked, yawning a little.

He let himself in, shutting the stall door behind him. He sat down in front of her to see her face, disregarding the shavings that were now collecting on his clothes.

Her eyes were red and slightly swollen, indicating that she'd had a long night of crying. "Did you sleep at all?"

She nodded. "Not much though. My mind kept me up for a while."

Ryan nodded, setting the container in between them for her to see. "Gator was lookin' for you earlier. So was Rip."

Elisabeth only arched an eyebrow to acknowledge his statement. "What's in there?"

"Gator saved you a few biscuits. He knew that no one at the house was going to eat them so he figured he'd give 'em to you. Told me they were the fluffiest ones in the batch."

The corner of her mouth twitched in a half smile that disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. "I'll go see him later."

Ryan pressed his lips into a line. "Do you wanna talk about... last night?"

"Ain't much to really talk about." Elisabeth said. "He told me Rip was taking him to the Train Station... and now he's... y'know."

"There's something else, isn't there?" He tried. "Do you want to get it off your mind or would you prefer not to say?"

She gulped, adjusting her head against Lady's shoulder. "He told me he loved me before he left." She seemed to relive the moment as she spoke, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.

Ryan's chest ached at her words.

"And I didn't get to say it back... and now he's gone." She struggled to get the words out.

He gently wiped her tears and sighed. "It'll get better, sugar-bee. I promise."

Ryan huffed frustratedly as he heard Rip yelling for him . "I gotta get to work before I get my ass jumped... don't stay missing for too long, ok?"

"Ok..." Her elder cousin stood and opened the stall door.

"Hey." Her small voice made him look back.

"Thanks for checkin' on me, Stuart Little." He chuckled at their inside joke about his middle name.

"Anytime." He closed the stall door and left the barn, his blue eyes glistening with emotion.

Elisabeth sat up and ate a biscuit before dusting herself off and heading into the tack room where she'd left her clothes.