#Underneath the Same Moon|Kayce and Beth

[brooklynislandgirl]

romantic candidate : Kayce Dutton

Adventures in Matchmaking || Accepting

"Close your mouth, you're gonna catch flies or drown on your own drool." It's Beth on Beth violence, with Dutton drawing first and last blood and getting a scoffing shake of his head by Rip Wheeler. He's a smart man and he can tell the redhead is really only stirring the pot, maybe the only one who recognises what's going on here, and so he lets it go and lets them figure it out. Beth Riley, the younger of the two women, can only manage to turn away from the Prodigal Son in question. His sister isn't wrong though, is she? Beth has followed after him since they were kids. Their ranches shared borders. Their fathers did business together, trading working and show horses for cattle, playing to each one's strengths. And maybe it was telling that Kayce is as good with horses as Beth is in completely different but complementary ways. In all the years he's been gone, Kayce hasn't changed. He's still tall and handsome but not unlike Andy he looks like there's holes in places no one can patch up. She's still trying to find just the right words to say, the right way to greet him ~this is his homecoming party after all~ when it happens. From the porch comes Monica. Kayce's wife. The mother of his child. She throws her arms around him and he tightens his grip, swings her around and buries his face in her neck. Her stomach sinks like a stone into the bottom of a creek. Beth Dutton laughs. "Better luck next time." And she? She smiles brightly because who can stand in the way of something that beautiful, no matter how long you've yearned to have it for yourself? It's neither right nor to be done, not as his family starts crowding in around him. For a moment, they're eyes lock across the forever distance between them. Beth nods and offers him a smile then slowly drifts off toward the barn with the other hired hands.

[brooklynislandgirl]

Advent Calendar: Day 24 @onlydevilsleft​

It wasn’t like she didn’t know the blizzard was coming. Of course she did. So did everyone who’s ever been bucked off a horse, been kicked by one, got a bit of age on them, or been shot or otherwise injured. Which is pretty much every single soul over the age of ten between the Yellowstone and the Five Oaks. The storm has been heralded for a week by plunging temperatures, that bitter cold that bites deep and doesn’t let go. That’s why she’d done her best to prepare. In the backseat of the cab she’s got thick, insulating blankets, heat packs, gallons of water, a dry change of cold, a first aid kit, and high protein snacks. A lighter, matches, couple of high end flashlights, road flares. Everything she could possibly need. Except for chains, and jumper cables. A fully charged phone. Beth’s ignorance of auto mechanics rivals her knowledge about horses. She stands there, face reddening by the minute, fingers stiffening in her gloves as she lets out a strangled, scarf muffled scream as she kicks the tire once, twice. This does not convince her engine to turn over, and if anything, the truck sinks sullenly into the first five inches of snow. She has two choices then. Be stuck on the road out while the temperatures dip down her age or more below zero…or she swallows her pride and makes the two mile hike back up to the Duttons’ door.

~*~ She doesn’t feel her hands as she rings the doorbell. When Kayce opens the door, there are snowflakes pale like reverse-freckles against the strands of her peeking out from her knit cap with its bright colours and soggy bobble. Her lashes are just about iced, and her panting breaths create fog in front of her near-blue lips. All of her aches, and she’s almost too tired to shiver. Still, she tries to smile. “S-s-sorry t’ int-intru-intrude on Christmas Eve and all…but t-t-truck broke dow-” She doesn’t get any further than that before he’s ushering her in. It all happens so quickly she barely has time to register that the whole house looks like the North Pole. Jamie’s slumped by the fire that John’s just adding another log to. She doesn’t see the other Beth, but a hint of cigarette smoke says she’s been here recently. Arm wrapped around her waist and muttering things she can’t quite hear because she’s not really able to watch his mouth, Kayce doesn’t exactly smuggle her to his room so much as he guides her. And once there, with the door closed? “Take off your clothes.” “...’scuse me?” She’s absolutely certain he could incinerate her with the gaze he shoots at her and she laughs even if it hurts her chest to do so. She manages to get her gloves off, then her coat and regrets doing it. “You’re hypothermic,” he tells her, though there’s a huskier edge to his tone. “Need to get into some dry clothes, and come sit by the fire, getcha warmed up. He’s grabbed one of his flannels and she’s sure she’s plenty warmed up when he lays it on the bed and starts unbuttoning her shirt.

[brooklynislandgirl]

💋 - from Kayce

Berries for a Kiss || -

Beth draws the blanket up over Tate’s shoulder and brushes his hair out of his face. Even though the boy isn’t her own and despite how anyone else might see him as a constant reminder that his father had loved another woman enough to marry her and father a child, Beth doesn’t treat him any differently than if he were her own. It isn’t just his father that lost a wife when Monica died, Tate had lost his mother and with her some of his peace and innocence, things he would never get back. She knows what that feels like. Her own had taken some of that from Beth when she’d walked off the Five Oaks and disappeared into the land. The Admiral had never let her forget that she’d been that much of a disappointment that even her dirt-worshipper of a mother couldn’t be bothered to care about her, that it was a good thing she’d had him and her siblings elsewise she’d be nothing but another unwanted rez rat. Every day, she renewed her silent promise not to let the boy feel that way. When she turns and sees Kayce leaning in the doorway, she gives a start, hand coming up to her chest to rest where her heart was pounding. His face is soft even when he lifts his finger to his lips when he hears her gasp. She nods and follows him out of the room, stopping outside the door only long enough to pick up her boots and pad in sock-feet behind him. And maybe she ought to know better than to follow him right into his room. When his family is nestled in through the house. With her heart on her sleeves and shining in her eyes where he can see it, reach out and touch it. Despite closing the door behind her, she keeps her voice low. “Only came by t’ drop off some presents,” she murmurs. “I didn’t mean to intru-” “Beth.” “I should go.” “Beth….wait.” She looks up at him, head tilting to one side. They both know she shouldn’t be here, how it would look. And somehow, he doesn’t seem to care, at least it sure looks and feels like he doesn’t. Kayce runs his hand through his hair. “C’mon. Look outside. Snow’s coming down pretty good, road’s gonna be a mess. No one’d blame you if you stuck it out here at least until the plows come out in the morning. If it’d make you feel better, you can take the guest room.” He closes the space between them, and reaches out. Takes hold of her chin, and stares into her face too long to be really comfortable for either one of them. “Okay,” she says. That earns her one of his smiles, and it’s the moment that she knows he’s gotten the better of her, like he rarely ever had when they were kids. “Oh hey, what’s this?” He rummages in his pocket, and pulls out the saddest, most raggedy bunch of mistletoe she’s ever seen. The leaves are crumpled and threatening to bleed. The berries are squished and she knows better than anyone he’s going to have to thoroughly wash his hands and those jeans before letting anyone or anything near them. The berries are poisonous, but the tradition? The meaning? Not lost on her. He dangles it over her head. She gives a breathless little laugh and leans up to kiss him.