Kathy Heare Watts's Reviews > Dreaming of Her Cowboy's Kiss

WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

The story is the first in the series of a clean, faith-based tale with a sweet romance. Things don’t always just fall in place and happen; it is all in God’s perfect timing. The story revolves around family and faith and has the good, bad, and ugly people. It is a reminder that people are failable, life isn’t always fair, and dreams are reachable. While the story has several key people, like Race and Penny Steiner, it will mainly focus on two people, Ethan Shuff and Ruby Barclay.

Ruby is getting married to fellow surgeon Wesley Landry, her fiancé, for the last five years. She will go to the room used by the florist and walk in on Wesley and the young floral assistant undressed from the waist down in each other arms. She doesn’t rant, scream, or make a scene; she leaves, and while trying to exit the building, runs into Ethan, who offers to take her away, calling Race and Penny afterward.

“She and Wesley were not a romantic love match, but they were a match that made sense, and that’s what she wanted. She hadn’t been in love with Wesley. But she’d thought of love as more of an action.”

Ruby: “Please. Take me away. Somewhere. Anywhere. I don’t care, just get me out of here.”
Ethan: “Come on. I’ll take you somewhere you can think, and then you can decide what you’re gonna do.”

“She couldn’t stop thinking that Ethan had always been there for her. Not in a loud or bold way. Just, when she needed it, he slipped into her life. Cheered her up, took her out, made her sleep, fed her, whatever she needed, and then slipped back out. He’d just always been there. Stalwart and faithful, quiet, ready to drift back into the shadows once he wasn’t needed anymore.”

The story’s plot will have an exit before a wedding happened, coming to terms with a relationship that was never love and how her future would be changing. It will have Ruby learning more about herself, as a person, not just as a surgeon. She will grow just by being with Ethan and the underprivileged kids who attend his summer camp. The time with Ethan is healing, and giving of herself for others in a different way rewarding. Right now, her future is uncertain, she knows she will need to find a new surgical position, but that will happen soon enough—now is time for healing and friendship.

Ethan: “You’ve been impressing me all week with your grit and your willingness to learn new things you have no idea about. This isn’t the first time. It’s just the first time I got a chance to tell you.”
Ruby: “I’m still a failure as a camp teacher or counselor or whatever you want to call me, but today, I finally got it going. I’m pretty excited about next week, because I have a couple ideas for that too.”
Ethan: “Should I be scared?”
Ruby: “Nope. You don’t need to worry about a thing. Everything is gonna be peachy keen jellybean.”

Ruby: “You know, maybe it was some of the things that Dad has said at night with his devotions. I know they are geared to the kids, but they applied to me too. God has a plan for my life. This wasn’t an accident. What are the odds that I would have walked in on Wesley and the florist’s assistant? I shouldn’t have been there. I shouldn’t have seen it.”
Ethan: “You can’t think of not being a surgeon. You’ve spent the last fourteen years learning. You can’t just quit.”
Ruby: “No. Never. Being a surgeon is what God made me for. But maybe it’s not going to look the way I thought it was going to look.”
Ethan: “That’s wise. So you’re just going to relax and see what door the Lord opens? It wasn’t just your marriage that blew up, it was your life and career as well.”
Ruby: “That’s what I’ve always liked about you. You get it.”

While what happened to Ruby should have never happened, she knew that Wesley wasn’t a man she loved, just someone she was comfortable with. Better before she married him than after. While Ethan has always been there for her, she never really thought about the depth of their friendship, that maybe it was more—but can it be more? With her exorbitant student loan bills, Ruby needs a position that will help her pay off her debts. But, with faith and prayer, maybe God has great things in store for both Ruby and Ethan. All in his perfect timing.

“It was hard to believe that something so good could come out of a situation that had been so bad.”