CHAPTER 50
Amy could see lights in the living room from the rear seat of the 8S Ranch truck as it pulled to a stop in front of her home. As expected, her grandfather, Lisa, Lou, and Georgie were still waiting up and she could see them hurrying to peek through the kitchen window as she walked across the yard toward the front porch steps. Turning to give a quick wave of thanks to Clint and Charlie for the ride home, a dreadful chill crept through her as she watched them turn up the hill toward the entrance gate. The shiver consumed her, imagining herself in the dying woman's place and knowing she would soon be forced to leave unfinished all the good things in life that she had been working so hard to build just when they were all finally beginning to come together as she had always hoped they would.
Charlie's illness, inescapable and cruel in its nature, had imposed a sobering fate upon such a nice family, 'How does she do it?' she thought. 'How can she keep making plans when she knows she may never see them come true?' Amy also knew their fate was soon to include the only man that had ever shown feelings of real love for her, at least the kind of love that only Ty could make her feel, and couldn't help but question one more time why a young man just starting out in his professional career would willingly put himself in the position of being caretaker to a family he had known such a short time and assume the daunting responsibility of raising a small child like Sammy on his own?
Ty's oldest friend knew why. Amy and her psychological counsellor had discussed it during her past sessions in Calgary when, teetering against the boundaries of doctor-patient privilege, Bar had explained to her that Ty's need to be loved and share those feelings was driven by the lack of nurturing from his parents while he was a small child and, as an adult, was his way of fighting back at those rooted resentments, to put himself in their place and do a better job than they had done for him.
There was a lot to work out in her head and the existing situation kept getting more complicated by the hour. Shaking herself out of the saddening reflections, she turned to face the loved ones now impatiently waiting on the front porch, accepted comforting hugs from them all before walking through the door, and kicked off her boots.
"How is he?" asked Georgie, and without leaving enough space for the downtrodden aunt to answer her niece, Jack stepped in, "Keepin' him overnight, I hear?"
"Yeah, he's banged up pretty bad so it didn't surprise me that the doctor wanted to keep him until morning. I'm just glad it he isn't hurt any worse than he is."
Enquiring about the news Lou had relayed from Amy when she called to tell them that she had found a ride home, Lisa asked, "What's this about going ahead with the wedding tomorrow? Is Charlie really going to push for that after all that has happened?"
"Actually, I am the one who suggested for them to try and go ahead with the wedding tomorrow." Amy removed her jacket and hung it on a wooden peg on the wall in the mud room, "Before you say anything about me minding my own business, I think you should know what I learned tonight…, about Charlie and how she is doing," Amy told them, preparing for the questions she had counted on.
Lou wrinkled a brow and asked, "What's that supposed to mean? You sound kind of worried."
"I am," quick to head off any further negativity before motioning to the others, "Follow me into the living room and we can talk about it after we sit down. I'm so tired I can't stand up another minute."
When she had gotten comfortable on the sofa, "Look, I wouldn't have said anything, it's obviously none of my business, but if you could have seen Charlie tonight you might not be so quick to judge me."
Jack drew upon his grandfatherly patience in trying not to be too hasty in his assessment of the situation, "We are not judging you, Amy, it's just that it doesn't make sense that they could even think of following through with the wedding tomorrow if Ty is all torn up from that crash like I would expect he is. I haven't forgotten what it is like to take a beating from one of those broncs and try to get out of bed the next day. I expect Ty will be stiff as a poker from head to toe by morning, not to mention looking like the tail end of hard times with all those cuts and bruises he is bound to have."
"Maybe he could wear a hat," Georgie suggested, evidently content that she was the one who had the answer to her friend's problem.
Lou laughed at the practical reasoning of her oldest daughter, "Georgie, you need to go on to bed. It's late."
Amy accepted a goodnight hug from her niece, "Thanks for waiting up so long for me to get home."
"Well, I had to see how Ty was before I could sleep. I'm glad he is going to be OK."
"Me too," Amy said as she watched her make her way up the stairs to her bedroom, and then turned around to explain to the others, "My suggestion was only to wait until morning to see how he is doing before making a final decision and if the doctor lets him go home they could talk about it then. If he can still get around OK, I honestly believe it would be best for them to go ahead with the wedding as soon as they can." She could see the shock in all their faces, understanding how odd it must seem to the family to hear her promoting Ty to be married to someone else when they understood she clearly had not gotten over losing her ex.
Still not buying into the push to go ahead with such an important ceremony under less than ideal circumstances, Lou asked, "What are you trying to say? Surely it would be better to take a week or two to get reorganized and let Ty recover a bit more before going through with the ceremony so soon after the accident."
"Lou, Charlie is fading really fast now. You should have seen her. She was so weak tonight that both Clint and I had to help her more than once to keep steady. It was shocking to see her that way, especially since it hadn't been all that long since I had last seen her. She seemed to be much better then. I thought she was OK for now, but I was wrong. I'm afraid if they don't have their wedding soon, and I mean real soon, they may not be able to have it at all."
"I'm sure am sorry to hear that," said the older man as he slumped back into his chair. Having seen his own loved ones suffer through a similar fate, he continued, "I hadn't thought about her condition deteriorating so fast, and if that is the case, it has to be affecting Ty too."
Amy agreed. "I was so upset at seeing her like that that I felt like I should at least suggest for them to consider trying to have the ceremony tomorrow. Charlie told me on the way home tonight that her doctors have explained how much farther her cancer has spread through her body. She is determined to make it to Christmas, no matter what they say, and that is her hope now. Grandpa, I'm not sure she could wait another couple of weeks. I hate to say it, but I don't know how much longer she can hold out. I know they wanted to start proceedings for Ty to adopt Sammy after they are married, but the way it looks to me, they don't have any time to spare if they want to get it done while Charlie is still able to be a part of the process."
"Oh, Amy, I am so sorry," said Lou, putting a cheek against her dispirited younger sister as she gathered her into her arms. "I'm proud of you, though. That had to be hard for you to support them at such an awful time and I know how hard it must have been to get past your history with Ty to do that for them."
"It's not like I can take a magic wand and make everything that has happened between us just go away, but I feel like I owe it to Ty to try and support him if he wants to move on and bring Charlie and Sammy into his life. After the way things went for us, I am surprised that he will even speak to me again. It's the least I could do for him, and if this is the only way I can prove how much he means to me, then this is what I have to do. I have to let him go."
Jack interjected, "I gotta admit that you two have had about the most complicated courtship that I have ever seen. You are both a bit too stubborn for your own good, sometimes, but I know Ty loved you, Amy, and I think he still cares about you, to be honest. It's too bad it all had to come to this but he is doing what he feels like he needs to do, for Sammy as well as for Charlie."
A few seconds passed as fatigue from the long night collectively sapped the energy from the room, then Lisa thought to ask, "Did you talk to that Mountie about what you saw, that vehicle on the road by the accident?"
"Yes, I told him everything I saw, and everything I am worried about."
Everyone was puzzled at the comment, "Worried? What's worrying you, other than the obvious?" her grandfather asked.
While confessing her suspicions about the cause of the accident, Jack, Lisa, and Lou sat up on the edge of their seats as Amy told them what she feared to be a new threat from her former boss. Lou reacted like she always did about any news concerning a man for whom she made no bones about hiding any contempt, "I knew that asshole wouldn't let it go! He's come back here to get even with you for screwing up his chance to be king and now he's hurt Ty because it!"
"We're not even sure about him being involved, not yet," the embarrassed former employee of Prince Ahmed al Saeed cautioned. "This is only a feeling I've had about being watched lately and I just think we all need to be more careful for a while, in case I'm right."
"I'm sorry Amy, Lou apologized. You know how I feel about that man and the thought of Ty or anyone else being harmed because of him makes my blood boil."
Clinging on to hope that it could not be Ahmed going ahead with a vendetta to get even with her, "It's my fault, if Ahmed had anything to do with this."
Clinching a determined jaw, the old cowboy tensed, leaned forward, squinting an eye, and then said in no uncertain terms, "If that prince fella comes around here lookin' for trouble, he may be surprised at how easy it is to find."
With exhaustion setting in and no desire to elaborate any further, Amy looked at her folded hands curled together in her lap, "I just wanted to let you all know what I think might have happened and to be aware of everything going on around you for a while. I am going to go to bed now. It's been a very long day and if things go like I think they will, tomorrow will be even longer."
Amy lay in her bed thinking about all she had been through in the past twenty-four hours, depleted of energy and wishing away the discomfort of burning muscles in need of rest. Her mind rambled through unsettling realizations she was now faced with and refused to calm enough to let sleep overtake her.
One of the methods of relaxation Dr. Bilson had been trying to inspire upon her to practice was thinking about their sessions, the questions and answers that had been brought up, and expand them into a realistic plan for moving forward in a positive way. Amy knew Bar had chosen to share sensitive and otherwise off limits topics involving another patient because the catastrophic losses to her confidence and self-worth during the past year had left her at rock bottom and falling. Guilt over the pain she had caused Ty and everyone she loved would eat her alive if she failed to get her own recovery from the breakup in check.
The untraditional counselling style of Bar Bilson was something Amy had learned to trust and supposed Ty felt the same way about the approach of Lisa's old friend in reaching into a patient's heart and mind to understand from where their issues originate and offer realistic solutions which seemed to be working. In the doctor's view, the two patients were indelibly connected to each other and Amy's understanding of her part in Ty's unusually sweeping decisions was an important piece of the process in rebuilding faith that everything would eventually work out for the best.
As their sessions went on, the patient had little doubt that her counselor had likewise shared things about her case to Ty as well, but it caused no ill will toward Bar's alternative methods. In fact, it made her feel better because, if anything, it was as if Bar was mediating a healing process specifically between she and Ty and her hope was that he would now have a way to understand the reasons she did what she did, that her feelings for him were real, that her feelings of regret from their separation were honest, and that she felt just as much love for him now as she ever had. It was simply unacceptable to have him think she would ever feel any other way than to want to be a part of his life, even if it was only to be as a friend.
At 9 am the phone in Lou's pocket vibrated and she stopped her work in the laundry to reach for it. "Hello?"
"Hey, Lou."
Recognizing the quizzical voice, Lou perked up, "Ty? How are you feeling? Did they let you out of the hospital yet? You're not planning on going ahead with the wedding today, are you?"
"Hold on, Lou! I'm fine, but I need a favor."
"C'mon, Ty, you can't be fine. Where are you? Ummm, favor? Of course, what do you need?"
"I'm still at the hospital. I'm getting dressed so I can leave right away because the doctor just now said I can go home. I need for you to look at my new suit, the one I had with me in the truck, and see if it is damaged. I need to see if it would be OK to wear today, if it needs to be mended or cleaned."
"Actually, I have it here with me now in the washroom. I don't see any damage at all, in fact, other than being wrinkled a bit, it should be fine. I will have it ready as soon as you need it."
"That's awesome, Lou! I owe you big time!"
"Don't mention it. Hey, how are you really feeling?"
"My body is very angry with me right now. I'm hoping as soon as I can move around a bit that my muscles will loosen up but I won't be running any marathons for a while."
"So, I take this to mean that you have decided to go ahead with the wedding, then?"
"Lou, I think we have to do it now. Charlie is…,"
"Ty, I know. Amy told me what you talked about last night and about how she could tell Charlie isn't doing well. We are all sorry to hear that."
"Yeah, well, she is hanging in there but I know we don't have a lot of time to spare. Listen, I hear them coming down the hall to get me, so I need to finish getting ready. Thank you, Lou. This means a lot to me."
"I got it handled, don't worry. What else would a 'big sister' do for her 'little brother'? Take care of yourself and get some rest. We can talk as soon as you get settled and figure out how to get your suit to you." Lou needed to take him in her arms and give him a hug right then, but since she couldn't, "We love you, Ty. See you soon. Wait! Is the wedding still at two?"
"Sorry, I forgot to mention that. We are moving the ceremony to 4 o'clock. We all needed the extra time to get things back under control. Since you have my suit ordeal handled, now all I have to worry about now is how to cover up these knots on my head so the pictures won't look like it was a shotgun wedding and the family kicked my ass to make me show up like I'm supposed to."
Amy had gotten very little sleep for having been so exhausted the night before and decided she wanted to take up Georgie's suggestion and see if she could make Ty's old cowboy hat presentable if she cleaned it and stretched the brim to accommodate the new bumps on his head.
Every ranch had the materials on hand to take care of all the hats in the household and after scrounging them into her room and two hours of the wee morning scrubbing, shaping, brushing, and drying the renewed black hat, Amy was finally able to rest.
Wanting to be alone as long as possible before facing everyone getting ready for the big wedding day, Amy lay in her bed looking at the hat still stretched over the mannequin's head that her mother had bought just to reshape the ranch's headgear when she finally had to wash them, and released a small chuckle at the blank stare as it did its work. She knew this was not going to be the customary blissful, happy ceremony, but their families would still make it Charlie's special day even if it killed the rest of the ones trying to put it together so quickly.
Amy rolled over to look at her alarm clock sitting on the nightstand beside her bed. Eleven o'clock. Enough time to take a shower and get dressed before lunch. She needed to look her best today to help overcome the anxiety that threatened to keep her from doing her part to support Ty on such an important day. She couldn't let him down, no matter if she knew she would be dying a little inside while watching someone else in the place she should have been standing on his wedding day.
Jack waited beside the door, then sat quietly on the rocking chair on the front porch. Lisa had rushed the unrushable old cowboy until he needed some space and he decided to go outside and wait for the others. Lou had hurried everyone along this morning as well, making sure the chores were tended to and everyone would be finished with lunch in time so as not to be too late in getting a house full of people through the one bathroom they all had to share in getting dressed.
"Has anyone seen Amy?" the concerned older sister asked.
"She's still in her room," Georgie spoke up. "She was the last one in the shower so she should be finished pretty soon. I doubt she is in any hurry. Would you?"
Lou knew that Georgie still held a bit of a grudge over the breakup between the heroine she used to look up to and the man she should have been marrying. Even though the strong-minded girl had softened her harsh view of her aunt because of her mother explaining that part of the reason for her disappointing decisions was due to the head trauma and effects it had on Amy's ability to think clearly, the disillusioned teenager held on to the belief that Amy had betrayed Ty because of the prince and it was because of her that they had almost lost him the day before.
Leaning in to her oldest daughter, Lou whispered, "Would you give Amy a break, please? How was she? Did she look like she was managing OK?"
"She's kinda sad, I think," the fifteen-year-old answered softly, starting to feel a twinge of guilt for being so short over the woman who had always been the first to listen when she needed someone to talk to, at least that was the case before she took off and went to France with that creep, Ahmed.
"Yeah, I can't blame her. We need to remember to try our best to make her feel better, so do whatever you can, OK?"
"I will."
"That's my girl."
A bedroom door squeaked open and everyone held their breath in hopes that Amy had not fallen apart like they half expected her to. The displaced fiancée held her head high in defiance of her perceived defeat and disliked the pressure that all those worried eyes brought to every step she took into the living room.
"Sorry to keep everyone waiting," she apologized, "I just couldn't seem to get my makeup right today for some reason."
Lisa moved in and gave her a grandmotherly hug, "You can sit next to me. We will get through this together."
Amy's eyes darted quickly to her always supportive step-grandmother as the older woman returned a reassuring smile, "Thanks, Lisa. I may need a little help getting through this."
"What are you doing with that old hat?" Lou asked.
"I thought about what Georgie said last night and figured I might be able to help out with making Ty more presentable today, if I can get him to put it on. I modified it a bit by putting some wet cloth in the places Ty's bumps and bruises would be uncomfortable and stretched the brim enough so that he can wear it without it hurting too much."
Lisa took the hat out of Amy's hands and held it up so she and Jack could inspect her work. "You know, I think this could work!" she said, flipping the well-travelled prize to see the inside.
Avoiding sympathetic mutual friends as much as possible, Amy and Lou found Clint and asked about Charlie, Margie, and Ty. "How is everyone holding up?"
"Margie is barking orders, as usual, Charlie is a nervous wreck, and poor Ty is trying to find a way to comb his hair to cover up the knots on his noggin. Other than that, I'm pretty good, I guess."
"We have Ty's suit," Lou offered, "good as new, and I think Amy has found a way to fix Ty's other problem. Can we see him, please?"
"Sure, girls. He is down the hall, last door on the right. Tell him we start this thing in thirty minutes."
"I will. Thanks." Amy flashed the sympathetic older man a nervous smile and followed the hallway with her sister by her side to the door of the farthest room on the right.
A light tap on the door was answered sooner than she expected, "Hey!" Ty responded in surprise.
"Can we come in for a minute? Lou has your suit, and I think I have a way to fix your head."
"My head?'"
"Sorry! Just…," shooing him back into the room with a flutter if her hand, Lou held up the wrap and unzipped it to present the perfectly pressed suit, "This should be as good as new."
"Thanks, Lou, I don't know what I would do without you."
"Well, I just wish everyone else around here was as appreciative as you!" she smiled, and then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "See you in a bit. I should go and see that the girls are still with Grandpa and Lisa.
After Lou had closed the door behind her, Amy presented the newly cleaned and shaped black cowboy hat and said, "Try this on."
"Amy, thanks, but I don't think I can make a hat work with these damn bumps all over my head. It hurt when I tried one on earlier."
"Just try this one," the determined purveyor of peace insisted.
Knowing the wrinkle of her brow meant it would be easier to simply agree to cooperate, Ty took the hat and positioned it carefully over his crown of swollen knots and pulled it to a slight tilt to the rear. 'That's not half bad! How'd you do that?"
"I remembered where your bumps were and I couldn't sleep last night, so I took grandpa's old hat and stretched it so they would have room under the brim and not push against you so much."
"You stretched Jack's hat? Shit! Amy! Does he know you did that to what I am sure is now the most valuable hat anywhere in Alberta?"
Amy didn't say a word, but the sparkle in the deep sky blue of her eyes reminded him of all the times she had skirted around the rules of Jack Bartlett and gotten away with whatever she had done, many times for his benefit, and felt a spark of his own when a sly smile curled the corners of her lips.
"The last time you gave me one of his old hats, it cost me fifty bucks," trying to decide if it would be inappropriate to laugh out loud.
"It did not! He gave that hat to you after you fell off your horse into that ravine because he thought you did a pretty good job on that cattle drive."
"I'd just as soon have given him the fifty bucks. I cracked two ribs that day."
Ty took the hat off and looked at the crown, pinch, and the crease, "Hey, I think I know this hat," smiling as he realized how much effort Amy must have put into modifying the old heirloom to fit his latest need. "It's more comfortable now, but it sits a little low, though."
It seemed like so long ago that Ty had surprised her with the idea of using the scarf she wore to cover the loss of hair from the operation she underwent in Europe with a more familiar hat, using it to bridge the bond that had slipped away between she and Spartan. Feeling the warmth of such personal memories, they each stood smiling into others eyes before a knock interrupted the moment.
"Hey, Ty, it's about time. You'd better get out here," Clint reminded his soon to be grandson in law.
Before Ty could reach for the door, "Remember what you did to make my hat fit that day in the barn, when I said I couldn't wear it anymore?"
"I took your scarf and used it under you hat to make it fit better so Spartan would know you again."
Amy unfastened a pin from the scarf around her slim waist and said, "This one?"
To his amazement, she took the hat from him and set it upside down on the bed, folded the scarf neatly, and slid the pin through the crease to keep it in place, "Try this," and handed it back to the surprised groom.
When he put her invention back on, the hat sat above his brow just like it should and he smiled, "You are still amazing, you know that?"
"Yeah, well, just get out there, and don't screw up," wishing she could kiss him like a thousand times before, instead turning toward the door.
Ty stepped in front of her and cracked the door telling the anxious man who, in the next few minutes, would give away the bride in a ceremony that he could barely believe was about to happen, "I will be right out. We just need one more minute," and closed it again before turning back to the girl who had held his heart from the day they first met, saying, "Amy, I know this is going to be a weird day for you, but I want you to know how much I appreciate the way you have treated Charlie and Sammy. They both really do like you and Charlie has told me she understands how we felt about each other, and why. I hope you two can talk, you know, after the wedding. She could really use a friend right now."
"Sure. I like her too, and I promise I will make time for her if she needs some girl talk. I'm so sorry she is having to cope with everything life has given her to deal with, but I know she is in good hands and you will do your best to make her life as happy and comfortable as possible."
Wanting to say so many things, Ty settled on placing his hands at Amy's upper arms and giving them a heartfelt squeeze, "Thank you, for everything," and then opened the door to let Amy find her seat before hurrying into his fresh suit and making the walk down the aisle to take his place at the altar.
Amy sat quietly looking down at her interlaced fingers, unable to make conversation with Lisa who tried her best to say anything she could think of to make her step-granddaughter feel a bit less dejected for the circumstances of this celebration. Minutes dragged on until the hushed conversation of the gathering was silenced by the piano striking up the first chords of the "Wedding March." Try as she may, Amy's heart began to sink with the finality of her situation, knowing that her own day was now a fantasy never to be realized. Curiosity, more than anything else, made her look toward the end of the aisle to see the shockingly gorgeous chestnut hair flowing shoulder length from under a full veil which complemented the most beautiful white gown she had ever seen.
Charlene McCrary had done it again, rebounding from the weakened shadow of a woman Amy had seen with her own eyes less than twenty-four hours ago and transformed into a stunning vision as breathtaking as the woman she had first met. It now seemed so long ago, that first impression of Ty's new lover, and she could not help but admire the bride, sweeping between the admirers on either side of the aisle who were in apparent awe of her beauty, rock steady as she walked toward the man she would soon call her husband.
The ceremony was over before Amy had reconciled that it had actually occurred and before she knew it the piano had begun the ceremonial first march as the couple kissed and turned to the audience as man and wife, Ty offering a firm grip on Charlie's waist for making sure she remained steady as they made their way to the rear of the church.
Lisa reminded the beleaguered younger woman that her family understood her situation by slipping a hand around Amy's waist and drawing her into a consoling hug. "You Okay?" she asked.
"Yes, I am fine, but if you don't mind, I think I am going to go home now. I don't feel well and I need to be alone."
"I understand, Honey, but promise me that you are really okay. Maybe a good cry will help, but if you are in trouble, please tell me. I want very much to be there for you, Amy. It will be a little better tomorrow, and a little more the day after. Remember, I am always here when you need me."
"I know you will, Lisa. Thank you. I'm going to be OK, I promise, just not today."
Lisa reached into her handbag and pulled out her keyring, "Here are the keys to my Porsche. Jack and I can ride back to the ranch with Lou and the girls. We will see you when we get home. Call if you need me for anything, you understand me?"
Amy took the keys and hugged the woman who had first defended her when she was fifteen and trying to make her way as a young professional in the wake of her mother's death. A heckling Val Stanton had accused the teenaged trainer of drugging a horse at a clinic Heartland Ranch had held to showcase the up and coming equestrienne's talents only to have Lisa, one of Amy's first paying customers, put the jealous competitor in her place in front of a snickering crowd. Amy had always looked up to the well-known breeder of some of the finest horses in the world as a role model and now considered Lisa as family, always watching, always offering more love than the ever-independent young woman quite knew how to accept.
Parking Lisa's SUV in its spot in Heartland's driveway with no one else around the ranch, Amy went inside to change into her usual shirt and jeans and sat down in the chair in front of her dresser, hardly able to share a reflective gaze with the sad looking woman looking back at her. A minute crept by before she startled herself back to reality and without even thinking about it she pushed the chair away from the mirror. Grabbing her hat off the bedpost on the way out the door, she started toward the barn seeking the old friend who still lived in his usual stall.
It was late enough that long shadows lay across the paths cutting a diagonal trail between the cemetery where she had taken time to have a talk with her mother and Caleb's old trailer. For some reason, she felt the need to go past it before returning home in hopes that no one would be there. She figured Caleb would still be at the wedding reception taking advantage of the open bar and Cass having to try her best to keep him out of trouble. 'Good luck with that,' she chuckled to herself.
Approaching from the valley below, Amy let Spartan take his time passing the corral where Shorty, Caleb's horse, was standing near the fence wanting to greet his buddy. She wondered what horses said to each other when they hadn't seen each other in a while and enjoyed the conversation they seemed to be having.
It had been three months since Caleb moved back into the little trailer. Ty had long gone to 8S Ranch to be with Charlie so the place had been sitting empty for most of the summer. She turned in the saddle to see the front porch where Ty left her in one of her lowest moments, the night he crushed any remaining hope that he would forgive her and try to make things between them work again. Thinking Spartan would rather spend some more time catching up with his old friend, the rider dismounted and draped his reins over a rail while she walked toward the humble dwelling, looking worse for wear with apparently no one keeping up with normal maintenance most homeowners practiced.
She wanted to remember the better times though, and as she looked around the front yard one of the first things to come to mind was a hot summer evening not long after she had accepted his ring. He had dared her to take a walk in the full moon down to the river in the valley below, a half mile of mostly exposed trail, completely naked, and skinny-dip in the moonlight. There were so many times he had done something to try and push her out of her comfort zone, trying to show her how to be more spontaneous and free. Those dares were almost too embarrassing to try at first, but proved to be exhilarating in the end, and if it had not been for the smart-ass boy who used to live in the loft over her barn, she couldn't imagine ever learning to have the courage to take a chance, a leap of faith, and experience so many of the simpler things life had to offer.
The sun was getting low and she did not want to take any chances of running her horse through a patch of prairie dog holes too difficult to see with no light on the trail, so she mounted the large black gelding and pulled his reigns toward home. Quiet rides with Spartan, her first success at healing a seriously injured horse, had always been one of the most treasured things in her life. She used her time with him to gather her thoughts and regretted thinking what would have happened to the bond between she and the animal if she had stayed in Europe.
What would her life have been like if she had chosen to live in Spain and accept the offer to manage Ahmed's villa like he had proposed. It was nothing like she had expected, but maybe it would not have been so bad, all things considered, to live in such a beautiful place alone, only having to entertain what would have been the king of a rich Persian country on the rare occasion he had the time to escape his duties as the most important man to his people. At least there could have been a chance that she would continue to build up her career as a top-notch trainer with an eye on making a move to better things someday.
More likely, reconsidering the odds, she would have ended up dead, buried in some desert with no one ever knowing where she had ended up. It couldn't have been much worse than living through seeing the man she loved taken away from her. She deserved it, she reasoned, the choice between living as a kept woman or a broken-hearted ex fiancée, neither of which she could have foreseen only a year ago.
A shadow crossed Amy's path and her heart leapt into her throat as Spartan pulled up in a start. A brilliant evening sun backlit the silhouette of a man standing on a hill to her right and she tried to shield her eyes enough to make out who it could be.
"Amy! What a pleasure it is to finally see you again!"
To be continued
