Crossroads

Even Indya’s father could sense that she was nervous as she thought about the possibility of asking West if she should stay in Montana with him. Indya’s father’s cancer was still at the forefront of their lives, and West was one of the few things that distracted Indya from it. Indya had never met Courtney before, but Courtney came to the cabin to drop off a gift basket and mentioned being with West. Hearing this tore Indya apart, but she managed to be polite and introduce herself in return.

Standing outside the cabin with Courtney and Indya is awkward, but West manages to make it clear that he has no interest in seeing Courtney or working things out with her. He looks back on their relationship as rocky and, in some ways, an act: He fooled himself into loving her, and she eventually cheated on him. After West walks away from Courtney and into the cabin, he finds Indya filled with questions. She asks if the horse painting in the office belonged to Courtney, and West reveals that it belongs to him; it is a painting of Chief, whom Indya did not recognize.

Indya and West both want to say that they always thought about being together in a more permanent way, but neither can find the right words. Both wonder what they’re doing together and what their future holds, but rather than find out tonight, they go to sleep knowing that they both have the same wish.

One year, Indya brought her then husband (now ex), Blaine, to the ranch. She did it for the sake of her father, who was growing more ill, even though Blaine hated the wilderness. Blaine complained often, and their relationship was strained by daily arguments and emotional distance. Blaine also treated Indya as lesser, often talking down to her or attempting to control her. When West pulled up in his truck, Indya felt every possible emotion upon seeing him again. When she had a moment to speak to him and found out that he wasn’t married or even seeing anyone, she was suddenly filled with regret. West picked a flower and gave it to Indya for her bouquet, and Indya later brought the bouquet to West’s fort and left it there.

West walks into the lodge to see it filled with happy guests. He watches Indya interact with them and smile and thinks about how much he loves her. Afterward, West picks Indya up and carries her back to the cabin, where they have passionate sex. Their romantic moment is interrupted when Indya’s ex-husband suddenly knocks on the door.

Blaine insists on going to the office and getting Indya to sign the papers, and West still has no idea what’s going on. Indya is angry with Blaine for not trusting her, but she goes with him anyway and signs the deal, which gives him full control of her father’s company. In doing so, Indya earns enough money to keep the ranch going for years but loses that connection to her father. She steps outside and falls to her knees, sobbing as she grieves the loss, even though she knows it is what her father would have wanted. She calls her father’s voicemail and finds that, for the first time, it’s no longer active. Indya calls her mother to find out why, and her mother apologizes but says that it didn’t make sense to keep it going years later. Indya goes to the meadow that was her father’s favorite place on the ranch and cries as West holds her.

Shortly after Indya’s father’s death, she and her mother returned to the ranch to release his ashes in the meadow he loved. They cried together and held hands as they began to let go of the person they most loved. The trip felt wrong somehow without her father there, and Indya decided that she would probably not be coming back. West found Indya and, sensing her despair, spent the night holding her as she cried. The next morning, Indya called her father’s voicemail and promised to call it every day after.

West and Indya leave the meadow, and Indya starts to feel calm again. She’s glad that she can finally cry and release her grief, and she finds the courage to tell West the real reason why she bought the ranch. She admits that Blaine had been circling around Curtis for years, waiting for him to become desperate enough to sell. She knew that Blaine would turn the ranch into a superficial resort and ruin it, and she couldn’t let that happen. Indya agreed to sell Blaine her father’s company and used the money to buy the ranch. She always intended to sell it back to Curtis, and Curtis knew this, but they kept it a secret from West because Indya thought he would resist. Indya thus ultimately bought the ranch for West, wanting to preserve and improve it for his sake and for the memory of her father. Hearing this, West is angry at first because he doesn’t understand why Indya had to keep it a secret. Still, he sees the intention behind the act and tells Indya how much he loves her. Indya decides that she wants to stay in Montana forever and be there to help run the ranch with West.

Seven years later, West and Indya are running the ranch successfully. Improvements have been made across all fronts, and the staff are mostly happy. Indya and West have five-year-old twin sons who are rambunctious and full of energy, and a daughter is on the way. West admires his wife’s hard work and ambition and feels like the luckiest man alive. He and Indya live in a house on the same meadow that her father loved, and both feel like they got exactly what they always wanted.