Crystal was patting her horse's white coat as she admired the view: pine trees, water, the windmill blowing in the distance. She wouldn't want to live anywhere else on earth.

She smiled when she saw Thaddeus out riding his black horse. She watched as he drew nearer. There was just something about the sight of a man on a horse that could set a woman's pulse to racing.

"Looks like we had the same idea," he said when he was close enough to be heard. "It is a beautiful day for a ride, ain't it?"

"Just beautiful," she agreed. She pulled her beige cowboy hat lower to help protect her eyes as the bright sun was blinding her vision. "Hey, you wouldn't feel like dinner, would you?"

"You read my mind. I'll race you back to the barn."

She was about to ask if they weren't getting too old for that, but he'd already spurred his horse on ahead. She wasn't about to let him beat her. She kicked her own horse in the flanks, urging him into a gallop.

He'd had too much of a head start. There was only one way she was going to win. She had Homer jump the low fence to take the shortcut.

Jumping had never really been Thaddeus' forte. He had to go around.

"That's cheating," he called out playfully.

When he caught up, she was walking her horse, letting him cool down before she rewarded him with water and oats.

"That wasn't fair," he told her with a grin.

"Who said life was fair?" she said with a grin of her own.

"You got room in your barn for Jethro?"

"Of course. I reckon horses like to visit other horses once in a while."

They'd bought their horses a few years at the same horse auction and had purposefully named them together after their favorite country duo.

A dusty ray of light shot into the barn and Thaddeus quickly located its source. "You got a hole in your roof. Did you know that?"

"Yeah. I'll get it fixed before the hay harvest. Old Homer here don't mind a few rain drops."

"I'll patch it up for you tomorrow."

"Thanks. I'd really appreciate it."

He suddenly grabbed her hand and led her into the kitchen where there was a cake that was too nice to be one he made, but he had worked a sloppy, long message onto it with gel icing. It read 'Happy Birthday, Princess With all my love, Thaddeus'. There were a few balloons and streamers too.

"Happy birthday, baby," he said out loud, giving her a tender kiss.

He wouldn't be winning any decorator awards, she thought with a laugh, but it was such a sweet gesture. "Oh, Thaddeus."

"You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?"

She had to admit she had.

After they washed their hands and cut the cake, she dipped her finger into the white icing and tasted. "Buttercream, my favorite."

He sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and pulled her onto his lap. She dipped her finger in again and this time let him take a taste.

"You want to know something crazy that I was thinking just this morning? I've been with you now longer than I have with my uncle and parents combined."

"That's a scary thought." She teased, but there was an element of seriousness there too.

He batted at her long braid affectionately; her now elbow-length hair had become one of his favorite playthings. "You know what else? You're as beautiful now as you were when you were 16. Maybe more so."

She laughed. This was her 40th birthday. "You're either nuts or blind or both."

"Well, actually I did have to get me some reading glasses, but that ain't got nothing to do with it."

Her interest perked. "Really? Do you have them on you?"

"Yeah." He pulled out the black frames from his front shirt pocket.

She took them from him and hooked them on behind his ears. She cocked her head as she studied him. "I think they look sexy."

He smiled and then acted as if he were examining her closely. "Yep, definitely prettier than ever."

"You're a liar," she said fondly as she combed his hair with her fingers. She didn't miss the silver hair mixed in with his black. It saddened her a little because like the glasses it was just one more sign that time was getting away from them. "But I love you."

Those 3 little words still made him warm and tingly after all this time. He thought he knew in that moment why some men got married. There was just something so nice about someone who knew you so completely and loved you anyway, faults and all, especially when you felt the same way. And there was a bond that formed with years that couldn't just be suddenly erased, at least he hoped not. They'd been through a lot together. Sometimes at the most random times he longed for her company, longed to tell her about something as simple as something he'd seen on the news or he just wanted to show her something. "Do you ever think of marrying anymore?"

"No." She laid her cheek against his head, not realizing he wasn't speaking in generalities. "I'm used to the way things are."

He still found it hard to put into words the way he felt about her in his mind and with his mouth, but he wanted her to know that he would give her anything she desired. "You know what I'd like to get you for your birthday? A palace with servants falling at your feet. The sun and the moon and the stars."

"What if I just want you?"

He swallowed hard, running the back of his hand down the side of her face. "You have me."

She just shook her head in amused exasperation, knowing she didn't really or at least not in the way she wanted.

He'd danced close to a proposal for the 2nd time in his life, but he knew the kind of man he was. That ship had sailed, too many years and things had passed between them, but if any woman could make him want to try being a husband anyway, it was her. It was time for presents before he said something he couldn't take back.

He reached over and took the wrapped gift from the table and put it in her hands, the wrinkled paper and uneven corners telling her he'd wrapped it himself.

It was a star necklace on a silver chain studded with diamonds.

"It belonged to my mother. It's as close to a real star as I could get, but you deserve so much more."

She held the box against her chest. He was telling her by giving it to her that no other woman came close to that tender memory. That she was more to him than just another girlfriend or access to free love. It meant as much as if he'd gotten her an engagement ring. Almost. "I'll treasure it always."