The trading post remained silent.<\/p>\n
The silver coins rested beneath the young woman’s hand.<\/p>\n
Neither of them moved.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
the front door burst open.<\/p>\n
A blast of cold wind swept through the room.<\/p>\n
A tall cowboy stepped inside.<\/p>\n
Snow dusted his hat.<\/p>\n
A worn rifle rested across his shoulder.<\/p>\n
His eyes moved from the frightened shopkeeper\u2014<\/p>\n
to the coins\u2014<\/p>\n
to the grizzled man.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s going on here?\u201d<\/p>\n
The grizzled man laughed once.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe thinks that cabin belongs to her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cowboy looked at the young woman.<\/p>\n
She stood firm.<\/p>\n
Fear hidden behind determination.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father paid for it before he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never got the deed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cowboy’s expression hardened.<\/p>\n
He slowly reached into his coat.<\/p>\n
The grizzled man smirked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother buyer?\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead\u2014<\/p>\n
the cowboy laid a folded document on the counter.<\/p>\n
Yellowed with age.<\/p>\n
Sealed with an official stamp.<\/p>\n
The young woman stared at it.<\/p>\n
Hands trembling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The cowboy gently slid it toward her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father’s deed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been looking for you ever since he asked me to deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence filled the trading post.<\/p>\n
The young woman’s eyes flooded with tears.<\/p>\n
The grizzled man’s smile vanished.<\/p>\n
The cowboy looked at him one final time.<\/p>\n
His voice calm.<\/p>\n
Final.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cabin was never for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always hers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The trading post remained silent. The silver coins rested beneath the young woman’s hand. Neither of them moved. Then\u2014 the front door burst open. A blast of cold wind swept through the room. A tall cowboy stepped inside. Snow dusted his hat. A worn rifle rested across his shoulder. His eyes moved from the frightened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}