“Sarah said that Jack was really looking forward to spending some time with you. You wouldn’t want to let him down, would you?” he asked as he parked the car in front of Sarah’s house.
“No,” Davey said with an impudence that he had never heard from his son.
“Davey, if you can’t be polite we’ll go home,” said David. Turning around he saw the tears and Davey’s quivering chin. He should have cancelled.
“I’m sorry. I’ll be good. I promise,” Davey said.
To David’s relief, his son was back in his normal high spirits by the time he got him settled with Jack and Sarah had brought the horses up to the house.
“I packed some food. There’s a nice spot just off the trail that’s perfect for watching the sunset,” Sarah said as she threw some type of bag across the back of her horse.
Why hadn’t he thought of bringing some food? When he’d overheard one of the nurses talking about a sunset trail ride she’d taken with her family on the ranch, he’d thought that it would be a great idea. When he’d asked Sarah about taking the trail ride with him she’d made him clarify that he was asking her as a date, not as her student, which made him wonder what she had planned for the night.
He eyed Fancy, who was pretending to ignore him until he started to climb onto her back. From the haughty look she gave him, he knew that she was no more impressed by his mounting form now than she had been the first time he’d climbed on her.
“Ready?” Sarah asked him as she turned Sugar toward the end of the road that led past the house.
They took the orange clay dirt road for a few minutes then Sarah took a trail that led into a thick covering of trees.
“I don’t know that I could have found that trail if you hadn’t shown it to me,” he said as they wound themselves through the thick woods.
“It’s one of the more hidden trails,” she said as she stopped at a spot where two trails shot off from the one they had taken. “We’ll take this one on the left and it will take us back down the one on the right.”
They rode silently, neither wanting to talk. The only sound was the horses’ hooves on the trail. Sarah pointed occasionally to a squirrel in the underbrush searching for a nut that had survived the winter. The woods demanded a reverence that David would have compared to that of an old library. They saw several birds, cardinals and gray doves that were getting ready to roost in the trees and he knew that at some point he would have to bring Davey on the trail. The thought of his son had him worrying if he had done the right thing leaving him with Jack. He hoped that he was behaving for Sarah’s father-in-law.
The path took a turn and he started to notice the trees thinning out. A few minutes later they stopped atop a hill overlooking a bright green valley of new grass. With the covering of trees he’d not been able to see the sky at all except for small patches where the tree tops had thinned out, but from this spot they had a clear view of the sun as it started its path below the skyline. Pinks and oranges blended with blues and violets.
“This is amazing,” David said as he dismounted from Fancy. Sarah took the reins from him and walked back into the trees where he watched her tie the reins to a low hanging limb.
“Come on,” she said, as she led him farther up the hill, stopping where the view was even better.
“Let me help,” he said as she started to unpack the bag she had brought with her. He took the small blanket and laid it out, and then took a couple bottles of water from her. Sitting down on the blanket, he exchanged a bottle of water for the sandwich she handed him. They ate in silence as the sun slowly sank and the colors of the sky darkened.
“Look over there,” Sarah said as she pointed to the dark sky behind her where the stars were starting to come out and a big full moon had begun to rise.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, then turned to her. “Almost as beautiful as you.”
When Sarah turned back to him there was laughter in her eyes and he had no doubt that she wasn’t taking his compliment seriously. He watched as she lay back on the blanket and looked at the sky.
Lying beside her, David reached for Sarah’s hand as they stared at the darkening sky. He had never been to a more peaceful place. The falling night had brought a cool breeze that brushed over the two of them.
Letting go of Sarah’s hand he rolled toward her. He fingered a lock of dark brown hair that had fanned out from Sarah’s head, then bent to touch his lips to hers with the same reverence he had felt for the woods they’d traveled through. “Thank you for sharing this with me,” he said.
Sarah looked up into David’s face and tried to will him to kiss her again. He’d made her feel as precious and fragile as a newborn foal, but she wanted more. She released the breath she hadn’t known she was holding then sucked in another one with a gasp as David’s lips grazed her cheek then traveled behind her ear
