Page 33 of When I Forgot Us (Blue River #1)
Chapter Seventeen
Spending time with Michelle at dinner on Sunday and throughout the morning on Monday drove a single point home. He wanted to be in her life forever. They’d always been meant for each other, and he had a chance to show her how much he loved her.
She hadn’t gone riding since the day she found the old heart he’d carved in the pine tree, so after they finished their work for the day, he saddled up two horses and led them to the house.
Michelle stepped out onto the porch, two dessert plates in her hands. “What are you doing? I thought we were having dessert.” She lifted the plates up for emphasis.
“Want to take a ride with me first?” He held out the reins to a strawberry roan. “This is Bella.”
She looked the mare over, and a grin popped out. “Looks like she has a bit more spunk than my last horse.”
“You mentioned last night you’d remembered how to ride. She’ll still take good care of you, and she’s not one to spook.” He jiggled the reins. “And she’s an excellent sprinter.”
“You remember.” She turned and set the plates down inside the house.
Mom followed her out, laughter dancing across her face.
He’d stopped trying to keep distance between him and Michelle. She tore down all his barriers and worked her way right into his heart. Where she belonged. He’d never been more sure of that than last night when she made him promise that God belonged in their relationship.
Michelle jumped back into the house, emerging seconds later with a brand-new Stetson perched on her head. She tugged the brim down in the front, then the back, smirking at him from the shade it cast over her face. “Finally stopped and bought a hat.”
“Did you pocket any corn while you were there?” He referred to her proclivity to deep dive her arms into buckets of corn.
Her laugh rolled out. “I managed to stop myself. Mainly because I have my own barrel here.”
“Yeah, I caught you digging into it this morning.” He’d stood back and watched, enraptured by the joy on her face over such a simple thing.
She clambered down the steps and took the reins from him, swinging into the saddle like she’d been born in it.
He supposed she had, in a way. She’d just needed to remember, but she’d always had an instinctual presence with the horses. Even when she didn’t remember how to ride, she balanced there like it was second nature. “Where to?”
“It’s a surprise.” He winked and bounced into his gelding’s saddle.
“Let’s see how long it takes me to figure out where you’re going.” She made a kissing noise while turning the mare’s head. “Pretty sure I know every spot on this ranch.”
“Oh, you definitely know this one.” They’d spent hours there throughout the years. He’d not been back since the day she left. It held no joy without her by his side. Today he’d take back that little slice of heaven.
Her eyes narrowed, focused solely on him as she rode alongside. “You’re planning something.”
“Yep.” No sense denying it.
That same delighted laugh winked into existence. “I like this version of you. Calm, serious Chase has been taken over by unpredictable, chaotic Chase.”
They walked their horses down the narrow path that passed the barn and rounded the pond. The trees waved overhead, their limbs loose and easy in the summer breeze.
Cows circled in the next pasture as they prepared to bed down for the night.
He counted them automatically, tallying them up against the ledger in his office and grinning at Michelle. “Not all unpredictable.”
“Maybe not.” She reined her mare closer when the trail closed in tighter. Their boots tapped together, then their knees.
In any other situation, he’d demand they ride single file. Riding this close posed risks if one of their horses spooked and their stirrups tangled. He accepted that the risk was worth the reward of riding beside her.
The path widened, and they pulled far enough apart to let him breathe easier. He couldn’t help that part of him that always assessed risk and reward. It came with running the ranch.
Michelle stood in her stirrups. “Wait. Are we going to the edge of the property?”
“You figured that out quick.” His gelding dropped his head to smell the ground, and Chase relaxed his grip on the reins to give him more head room.
Bella inched to the edge of the trail and tried to snatch a mouthful of grass. Michelle corrected her with light pressure from her leg. “The only time you ever took this trail was when we stopped there. It’s like your holy grail.”
That was one way of putting it. “Some of my favorite memories are there.”
“Mine too.” A winsome smile dimpled her cheek. “Remember the time we tried to drive your truck there?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “That was the night I said, ‘I love you’ for the first time.”
He’d agonized over that memory for years after she left, wondering if it had all been make believe.
They reached the end of the trail, and the pasture opened up before them.
A long stretch of flat landscape that ended with a ramshackle wooden fence.
They grew hay here in the summer and left it barren in the winter.
The tall grass waved in welcome, and both horses pranced forward.
“Race you to the fence.” He leaned over his horse’s neck.
Michelle matched his position, the anticipation of a good run thrumming between them. “On three.”
He counted them down, almost too fast but too anxious to be slower. “One. Two. Three.”
They launched on three, their horses straining forward in leaping bounds. Michelle’s mare edged ahead first, her neck stretched, and ears pinned.
Michelle let out a whooping laugh that roared through him and spurred him into a low crouch.
Wind tore through his hair, almost ripping his hat from his head. He didn’t bother trying to keep it in place but tucked his chin and rode along with his horse’s thundering stride. Every hoofbeat jolted through him but nothing affected him as much as the joy in Michelle’s face and stance.
Her mare picked up speed until she loped a full length ahead.
Chase let them go as his own mount flagged, lagging behind but still enjoying the thrill of the chase.
Michelle reached the fence and wheeled her horse to run alongside the ramshackle structure. Her laughter expanded to a full bellow, and she ripped her hat off, waving it overhead. The mare turned away from the fence and circled back to Chase.
His horse snorted when Michelle rode past but kept going until they reached the gate.
It had fallen years ago, leaving broken boards scattered in the deep grass.
He’d thought about fixing it, but the symbol of things circling around back to where they’d begun dug deep and he’d ended up leaving it to rot back into the dirt after removing all the nails.
Michelle trotted around him, her circles growing smaller until she came back to ride at his side.
“It’s amazing how much I missed this. Like part of me knew I was missing something, mainly memories, but also sensations.
” Her wind-blown hair framed her pinked cheeks.
She pushed the hat into place and relaxed into the saddle.
“I feel like I have years of missing out to catch up on.”
“And you’re ready to do that?” Their talk yesterday cleared up a lot for him. He’d ended the night outside her car with a kiss goodnight and a promise to continue the conversation soon. Soon came today. Now. He’d waited years for her. He’d have waited the rest of his life if that’s what it took.
Her nod unlocked the final chain wrapped around his heart, but hearing her voice the confirmation completely did him in. “I’m not leaving Blue River. My boss is ready to hire my replacement, and I’m planning to talk to Penny at the library next week to see what my options are.”
His mind flashed back to the day she left and how much regret he’d allowed to sit between them. “I don’t ever want you to be unhappy here.”
“I won’t be.” She held out her hand to him. “I needed those years in the city to show me that it’s not where I belong. I was just too stubborn to come home sooner.”
He stopped his gelding when they reached the last fence post where the wood crumbled and another stretch of woods began. “Being away from you is one of the hardest things I’ve ever endured.”
She nodded and dismounted. Her mare dropped her head to the grass and chomped. Michelle looped the reins around the post and waited for him, her head raised to watch him from beneath her hat.
The love in that look was all he needed to dismount and take her hands in his. “We fell in love with each other years ago. It was so easy that I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with you.”
He led her to the spot where they’d sat as teenagers and talked about everything and nothing. Years of memories he’d hid from but were never wasted. “I thought it would take me longer to make this decision.”
“Which one?” She nudged a rotted board with her boot. “Finally going to fix this fence?”
“Nah.” He waved that off with a brush of his hand. They stood shoulder to shoulder, their arms around each other’s backs. It was a comfortable, familiar stance. Love for her and this place made it hard to speak, to breathe. “I love you more with every day that passes.”
Her hat dropped over the fence post, and her head tucked into his shoulder. “I may never get the rest of my memories back, but with or without them, I couldn’t love you more.”
A breeze ruffled her hair, lifting soft strands to tickle his chin. The horses chewed their way through a clump of grass and moved to snatch mouthfuls from a second patch. He monitored their progress even as he rested his cheek on top of Michelle’s head.
Forever passed in a moment, and he saw their future, the future he’d thought long gone. “I want you to get the rest of your memories back, but even if you don’t, I’m ready to build a future with you. No matter what, I’m here for you.”