The Ride of Our Life
#1: Terrace
The hospital terrace becomes their refuge: a quiet escape from the questioning eyes of the other staff members where they can stow away for a few minutes to talk, to kiss, to just be.
#2: Everything
No one ever sets out to have an affair. Carrie had certainly never wanted to hurt anyone, but somewhere between the long hours they spent holed up in his office, and the sharing of confidences over steaming cups of coffee, Mike Horton had become her everything.
#3: Raindrops
She can still taste his kiss on her lips and feel the wetness of the raindrops pouring down on them as they melded to each other that night - holding each other close; afraid of what they were feeling, but even more afraid to let go.
#4: Car
The first time his car runs out of gasoline on a deserted stretch of highway with her riding shotgun in the passenger seat, it's a fluke. Every other time thereafter, it's purposeful: their chance to steal away a few precious moments to be together.
#5: Song
She fits perfectly in his arms, tucked carefully beneath his chin, as they move about his living room in bare feet, slow dancing to a Leann Rimes song that has somehow become their own anthem.
#6: Home
It's such a silly sentiment, Carrie muses, to think that one can find their home in another, but that's exactly how she feels when she gazes into the deep blue of Mike's eyes.
#7: Peas
Carrie holds a package of freezer-burnt peas to Mike's purpled cheek as he sits on the sofa, his steady doctor's fingers knotted around hers. Austin had walked in on them in bed together and the fall-out was anything but pleasant.
#8: Pretend
Carrie tells herself that working on her marriage, broken as it may be, is the right thing to do, but seeing the way that busty new student nurse circles Mike, she doesn't know how much longer she can pretend Austin is still the one in her heart.
#9: Decision
When she makes the decision to finally, officially, end her marriage, she tearfully runs into Mike's arms and presses desperate, needy kisses to his throat and face.
#10: Horse
As they quite literally ride off into the sunset together on the broad back of a Clydesdale horse, she knows they truly are meant to be. They will go the distance.
- And oh how I wish they had been endgame! *cries*