This is it - the final chapter in the love story of Alex and Wes. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! As usual, I fall in love with the characters I write, and I will think about Alex and Wes long after this last chapter is published.
Thanks to all who have followed this story from the very beginning. I've appreciated your comments and have been thoroughly blessed by your votes!
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The sun was sitting just above the horizon as it made its evening trek downward, and a late spring gentle breeze created the setting for a very comfortable evening on the back deck of the ranch-style home. Alex was there, sitting in a glider chair, drinking a tall glass of iced tea while waiting for her family to get home. Things were starting to pick up around the farm. The guys were trying to get the fall crops in the ground before the summer harvest season began. It meant long days and late nights, but Alex knew they wouldn't have it any other way.
She began to hear the rumble of an approaching tractor down the gravel road that led to the farmstead. She glanced to her right and saw Wes maneuver the big green monster into the driveway, stopping in front of the fuel tanks. She smiled as she saw him climb down the ladder, still in as great of shape as the day when she first met him. He turned to walk to the back of the house and smiled when he saw her sitting there.
He came up the steps to the deck, and spying the iced tea in her hands, said, "Got more of that for
me?"
She smiled and replied, "Pitcher is in the fridge. Get a glass and come back out and sit with me for a while."
Before he walked into the house, he stopped and bent over to kiss Alex on the lips. She smiled and uttered, "You handsome devil, you!" Wes chuckled and went inside, returning in a couple of minutes with a matching glass of tea for himself.
He sat down on the glider next to his wife. After taking a drink, he looked over at her, and noticed she was smiling. "Give it up, Alex - what's going on in that beautiful mind of yours?"
She looked over at him and smiled. Holding out her hand, she simply said, "This..."
"This....what?"
"Life. This life. Perfect, isn't it?"
Wes took another drink. "I agree, but what got you thinking about that right now?"
She blushed and replied, "Oh, you know...watching you walk up to the house from the tractor and seeing the dirt all over your clothes and face. It's a lot different to when I first met you. I can't believe you gave up your engineering career to come work on daddy's farm."
Wes paused for a few seconds. "You know, sometimes life deals you cards that make you change the way you play the game. Your father's death shook us all. But meeting him and spending time with him before he died convinced me that the passion he had for this farm could be transferred to me, and I was right. Now it's just like I was born to do this. He gave me that gift, and I'll spend the rest of my life honoring his hard work in preparing for us to take his pride and joy over for him."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, and Wes looked over and saw a tear streaking down his wife's face. He wanted to brush it off, but with his dirty hands, he would have left a mark on her face. "Now what, Alex?"
She looked down at the deck floor. "I wish he could be here to see all of this, and what we have created in his legacy. I think he would be pleased that we built our house just across the drive from their house, and that he would have seven grandchildren to play with and show the farm to. I really miss him, but being here on his land is always cathartic to me, because there are so many good memories here - both old and new."
The birds were singing in the trees as the sun dipped lower, with the bottom edge now touching the horizon. Alex took another drink of her tea, and then realized that Wes had come home alone.
"Where's Wesley? Wasn't he working with you today?"
"He was, and he's still out there. It's much quicker to get the ground ready than it is to actually plant. You know Wesley - demanding precision work from himself. I don't know how he manages, but he plants the straightest rows of anybody I've ever seen. The GPS on the tractor helps, but you can see the extra he puts into it by the results of his careful planning."
As if on cue, the sound of a second tractor approached the farmstead. Coming from the same direction as before, Wes and Alex watched as Wesley's tractor appeared from behind the house. He carefully steered it into the yard, pulling up behind his dad's tractor so it could also be fueled first thing in the morning. They watched as Wesley climbed down from the cab - built much like his father, but a couple of inches taller. He had just turned 24, but he still had a youthful grin, which was on display now as he walked up to his father and stepmother.
