Part 1

Here is chapter 1 of the book. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 1

She wasn't sure what to do anymore, he had left her world only a month and a half ago, and it was barely the middle of January now. What could she do? What would she do? She was lost, confused, upset, and torn. Angel never dreamed in her wildest dreams that her cowboy would die before they ever got the chance to start their dream ranch ~ "The Lucky Dream Ranch."

She spent hours and hours crying; how could that floor in the barn have given way so easily? Hadn't her cowboy boyfriend checked the floors before he loaded all the hay up there? She thought he had, but it must have been a soft spot that never showed up. It was Friday evening, Angel's cell phone rang with "I'm Already There" ring tone by Lonestar. She looked at the name and number, why did the name read Miles' name and his number if he was already dead from the accident. Angel thought for a moment, and then realized that his brother Rylee must have inherited the cell since Miles was no longer alive.

"Hello" answered Angel.

"Angel?" questioned Rylee on the other end.

"Yea, is this Rylee?"

"Yes ma'am it is" said Rylee in his husky Oklahoma accent. "I found an envelope tucked next to Miles' computer in his room while I was cleaning and sorting through his things. The envelope has your name on it."

"Oh?" said Angel in a surprised and confused voice. She wasn't sure quite how to take this. Why was there an envelope at her boyfriend's ranch, let alone his room, with his name on it? "What's in the evnelope Rylee?"

"I didn't open the envelope miss" Rylee replied quickly.

"Why not?" Angel sounded confused anad unsure of what was going on.

"Angel, on the back of the envelope, written in his handwriting it says 'To be opened only by Angel Watson'." Rylee paused for a moment as there was a silence on the other end of the linen. "You know I can't go against my brother's wishes Angel."

"I know..." Angel thought for a moment, not saying anything as she heard the wind howling on the other end of the line. She thought Rylee must be out in the pasture with Darby and the other horses he and his brother trained and worked with since they took part in the rodeo business - bull riding, bronc riding, calf roping, and their mowst cherished event: team roping.

"Angel, you know Miles would want you to open this envelop up." Rylee kept urging his brother's wonderful girlfriend to try and not loose all sense of reality. He knew she was taking his death extremely hard, but he knew that by her just sitting alone all day, she was on the road for severe depression and other horrendous things that he didn't even want to think about. "Why else do you think he would put that message on the back?"

"Ry, why don't you and Stephanie come up here to my place for a few days and bring the envelope and whatever else is mine that I might have left down at your place" offered Angel. She was thinking it would be good to have some sort of diversion. She and Stephanie had become almost like sisters, especially since Rylee and Stephanie had just gotten engaged in the past 2 weeks.

"Alright girl, what day were you thinking?"

"What about tomorrow?"

"That will work for us." Rylee knew Angel would come to her senses but he wasn't sure what the evnelope, that his brother had written, entailed. Rylee thought to himself 'it must be something important or something that is a surprise, because why else would he have it in here all sealed up?'

"See you tomorrow Ry, drive carefully please" Angel said as her traditional goodbye when she was talking to Rylee and his brother as well.

"We will, don't worry, you take care of yourself" replied Rylee. With those few words he closed his brother's cell phone and saw on the display screen on the front a picture of Miles and Angel and Angel was holding the brand new cold from Misty, which was now 7 months ago. "I miss you bro and so does your girl, she misses you so much" he said to himself even though he made it sound like he was talking with Miles right there in the pasture. Tears welled up in Rylee's eyes as he realized that he would never see that couple together ever again, he would never hear them laugh and tease, see them chase each other through the barn and fall into the huge watering tank in the heat of steamy Oklahoma summer. Sure his brother acted like a young colt chasing a young filly and wanting to just play forever but that picture on the front of the cell phone reminded him how mature, full of love, and proud his brother really was.

Rylee climbed up on the wooden fence that surrounded the cold and filly pasture next to the barn. He let the heels of his boots rest on one of the lower plants and propped his elbows up on his knees as he watched Misty's colt, George - a beatiful red quarter horse with a perfect white heart on his forehead and 2 white socks on his back legs, run around and chase the little filly around the pasture. The 2 baby horses reminded him instantly of his brother and Angel - carefree and full of life.

His head went into his handsj and he let a few tears come as he sat on the fence confused and upset that his brother was no longer going to be able to help him with the Lazy J Ranch down in the heart of Oklahoma. The warm sunshine helped relax Rylee a little bit, but it just wasn't the same as if his brother was there. He though about the afternoons they spent out on that very fence talking about rodeo, different horse breaking methods, the weather, Stephanie and Angel and everything that came along with having serious girlfriends, and many times they just sat in silence and watched the horses run.

Stephanie walked into the pusture and climbed up on the fence and sat next to Rylee.

"Is everything alright hun?" asked Stephanie as she turned and looked at her boyfriend and saw the remains of tears.

Rylee looked down at his hands that still held the cell phone. "I just got off the phone with Angel."

"You did" Stephanie sounded somewhat excited to hear that he still wasn't afraid to talk to his brother's girlfriend. "What did she say? How is she doing?" Stephanie couldn't get the words out fast enough and anytime someone talked to her the time was priceless.

Rylee looked over at Stephanie and put his arms around her and pulled her close. "She wants us to come up and stay with her for a few days. Plus, I foundn an evenlope in Miles' room today that had her name on it and Miles left a message on the front saying that only Angel is suppose to open it."

"Rylee, that is wonderful, I'd love to see her again!" Stephanie was so excited, but Rylee knew that it would be great to see Angel, but he also knew it would be extremely hard on all 3 of them because miles would be absent. "How long are we staying up there hunny?" Stephanie questioned as she searched Rylee's eyes which seemed to be full of emotion.

"Probably only a few days darlin', I don't want to overwhelm her." Rylee kissed Stephanie on the forehead and held her close wishing that ll the pain in his heart would go away. "Let's go get our clothes and get the truck, it's going to be a long trip." He hopped off the fence and turned to face Stephanie and held his arms out to catch her as she jumped down.

Inside the house, Rylee and Stephanie packed clothes for 3 days. Stephanie went out to put her things out in the truck as Rylee made one last trip to Miles' room. He found the envelope just where he had set it down on the top of the dresser and on the front it had his brother's handwriting on the front which spelled out his girlfriend's name:

~Angel Mae Watson~

The lettering was perfect, just like he remembered. His brother always took time with everything. Everything from writing a letter, to breaking a horse, to setting up the perfect date with his girlfriend. Rylee looked around the room for anything else that he might need to take. The picture on the wall. It was Miles and Angel's 1 year anniversary picture and they were seated on Misty, bareback, out by the creek. Miles had his usual Stetson on and Angel had her hair curled, both were dressed in their blue rodeo shirts that complimented each other, deep blue colored Wrangler jeans, and who could miss their boots. Rylee took the picture down and debated about taking it, he thought maybe he would ask Stephanie when she came back in what she thought would be best. He set the picture down on the bed, and realized that the quilt on the bed was one that Angel had made the summer when she and Miles were first dating, it had little horses, horseshoes, cowboy hats, boots, and spurs scattered creatively across it. He nonticed near the edge there was a rope that looped in lazy circles all the way around and in the bottom corner in one of the loops it said "Miles Justin Keith". He turned the quilt over and saw the worn jean material and realized that they were all the jeans Miles had destroyed in the rodeos form that summer, some of the jean spots had the pockets with the classic "W", and some had the "Wrangler" patch. Rylee looked around the room, the room was filled with stuff that Miles shared with Angel. "Miles, dude, how the hell am I suppose to know what to do with all of this?" He grumbled in frustration to himself in the overwhelming task that would lay ahead of him.

Just then Stephanie walked in. "Did you find everything to take to Angel's?" Stephanie saw the picture of Miles, Angel and Misty lying on the bed. She picked it up. "I always thought this was the most beautiful picture of both of them." A tear fell from Stephanie's eyes. "They were so happy and you can't fake that happiness" as Stephanie ran her fingers over the picture in the frame that was themed with Miles' cowboy room. "Let's take this with us when we go see Angel, I thinkn she will like to see this."

Rylee pulled Stephanie close and kissed the top of her head. "Alright, that sounds like a good idea. Here, put this with it" as he handed her the letter for Angel. "Let's get going, we have a long drive, I'll drive for a while."

Hope you enjoyed the story so far =) I have more written but I would really appreciate some feed back on what you think.

~Rachel