The town hadn't changed much. Weather buildings, stray dogs, and men who drank from morning till dusk. When Elias dismounted outside the general store, he felt the familiar weight of eyes on him. It wasn't him they were looking at. It was Naira.
She followed him quietly, her blanket wrapped around her shoulders, head held high. The storekeeper paused when they entered, his eyes narrowing. Elias met his look headon. "Supplies," he said. "Coffee, flour, beans, nails. " The man nodded stiffly, filling the order without a word.
When he handed over the goods, he risked one more glance at Naira. She didn't flinch, didn't look away. There was pride in the way she stood. Something Elias hadn't noticed before. On the ride back, he said, "You didn't seem bothered.
I've been looked at worse," she said. "But it helps that you stood beside me. " He didn't answer, but she saw the faintest curve of a smile under his beard. By the time they returned home, dusk had fallen. Elias lit the lantern while she put the supplies away. The simple act of her moving around the cabin, knowing where everything went, made him realize how much she had become part of this place.
It no longer looked like his alone. After supper, she sat near the fire, sewing a tear in his shirt. "You keep your sorrow locked up," she said quietly. "Why? " He didn't pretend not to understand. "Because once you open it, it never closes again. " She nodded, still sewing.
"Maybe it's not meant to close. Maybe it's meant to be shared. He looked at her, the needle glinting in her fingers, the light catching the turquoise at her throat. And you? He asked.
What do you share with me that you don't say? She set the shirt down and met his gaze. That I stopped running the night you opened the door. The silence that followed wasn't awkward. It was full, steady, alive.
Elias reached across the small table, his hand covering hers. She didn't pull away. They sat like that for a long time, saying nothing. The fire light reflecting in both their eyes. Outside, the desert was quiet, and the wind that used to sound like loneliness now carried something else.
Belonging. When she finally spoke again, her voice was soft but sure. "You asked what I wanted," she said. "I want this to last. However long the land allows it," Elias didn't answer.