Ranger
SO THE DATE hadn’t gone as planned – not even close. If I was asked to explain where it all went wrong, I would say from the moment she got into the truck.
She was still the girl who had once held my heart. We had shared so many things. The least we could do was hold a conversation for more than five minutes without having a darn argument.
Apparently not.
I didn’t know how to act around her. My hand kept wanting to slide across the table and take hers, but that wasn’t allowed anymore. My eyes kept admiring the way she’d changed over the years and the ways she hadn’t.
She twirled the fork over and over in her nervousness.
That much I knew.
The next morning, I really wanted to talk to Jacob and get some information about Hero. Something inside me wanted to have those things verified in person, by him and by her. I don’t know why I wanted to punish myself, but I did. I wanted every detail he knew.
Except this morning, I didn’t have time to find out.
I had to talk to her, even if I had to talk to her back.
There was no time for me to get coffee or anything else to sweeten the conversation we were about to have.
“Good morning. Planning on coming in or are you just going to write a note and throw it over the gate?”
I adjusted my hat for no other reason than to give myself time not to punch Hero’s brother in the teeth.
“Wallace, what’s gotten you twisted up this morning?” If I was honest, Wallace used to be one of my friends too. It was inevitable since Hero and I was always together and he played football with me in high school. But hating Jacob ran in the family and so any time we had hung out it had been minus my other friend.
“Did your time traveling around waste away your manners? Even Idiot Ian walked her up to the door like a gentleman. He certainly didn’t drop her and run like a coward. What the hell is wrong with you? What happened? You used to be the only guy I could ever see my sister settling down with and now I’m wishing you would piss me off a little more so I could cold-cock you right here.”
Wallace never cold-cocked a man in his life.
“Wallace, as soon as I got here, she ran for the hills. There was nothing I could do. One minute she was in the cab of the truck and the next minute I was watching the door slam. You know her. Once she gets ticked off about something, there’s no talking to her. I had to let her cool down.”
After a few minutes of trying to keep a straight face, he crumbled. “Well, whatever you did, she’s still pissed this morning, and it looks like you forgot the sugar.”
I hadn’t brought anything to get her talking to me again. On second thought, I didn’t have to. She was the one who ran off without even telling me why.
“Yeah, well, I’ll just have to rely on my good looks.”
Wallace opened the gate and waved me in. “Like I said, you should’ve brought sugar or at least coffee. Good luck.”
I walked through and he locked the gate behind him, obviously done with whatever chores for the day.
“She’s back by the pond with Donut.”
“Okay.” I made my way to the barn to get one of the other horses.
“You’re pushing your luck getting a horse without permission.” Grammy’s voice scared the pants off me.
“I’ve been riding this horse since I was a kid.”
“But that’s when you were family. Not family anymore. Sure as heck don’t act like anyone we know.”
I should’ve known that Grammy knew all about the night before.
“Mind shedding some light on what I did last night? I’ve been over it but I’m no closer.”
She cackled and the horses made noises, almost laughing along with her.
“Best to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”
That’s exactly what I intended to do.
The pond was about a fifteen minute ride. By the time I got to her, she would either be more pissed off than ever or soothed by the rhythm of the ride.
“You like beating a dead horse, don’t you?”
That was her greeting to me. I wasn’t sure how she knew it was me. Probably knew from the gait and steps of the horse. I didn’t think her brothers rode this one.
“We have to find a way to get through this pain and at least be able to have those last two dates. We made a promise.”
She cleared her throat. “Promises don’t mean anything to you, Ranger. I’ve seen the way you stick to promises.”
“I could say the same for you. How long did you hold out, Hero? A year? Six months?”
She said nothing which explained everything to me.
“I didn’t come to talk about all of this. The past is gone and buried with my brother.”
“A lot of things got buried with your brother.”
“Like your heart?”
The words had barely left my mouth when she dismounted the horse and marched toward me, fists balled at her sides. “You listen and you listen good, Ranger. You have no clue what happened while you were gone. You’ve been getting your news from a sleazy snake in town. The thing about you is you still haven’t looked me in the eyes and asked me what really happened. The person who was your best friend and your...for so long. I was once the one you trusted most in the world. Then you go off to who knows where and decide all of a sudden that I’m the liar.”
Now I was pissed beyond reason. I got down and tied up the horse, afraid it would run off from the yelling and commotion because in about two seconds there was going to be some serious yelling.
“You know good and well where I was, Hero. It’s not like I was in New York City eating pizza and going clubbing. I was in the desert, fighting for my country and fighting to keep my life at home stable at the same time. So don’t act like you didn’t know where I was or what I was doing.”
Her face drained of all color like water drains from a sink.
“What?”
Her stink eye told me volumes. “You’re still a liar. I wrote you every week and never got a letter back. What happened to you, Ranger? You swore you would write and you would come back and now I swear that I will never let you wriggle your way back into my life again. Two more dates and then I never want to see you again.”
I grabbed onto her biceps strong but not enough to hurt her. I never wanted to hurt her again or see the pain and tears in those beautiful eyes.
“I wrote you, Hero. I wrote you back every time you wrote me. I swear it upon Grammy’s grave.”
Grammy didn’t have a grave yet, but this way she knew I was serious.
“Well, the post office must have a personal vendetta against you because I didn’t receive but more than a few. And don’t you ever swear on my grandmother’s grave. She will come back to haunt you.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I did write you.”
“I believe you but that doesn’t solve anything. Letters are just words. You never came home. We needed you. Garrison needed you. I needed you.”
There was nothing I could do about what came next. My lips crashed down on hers – ten years of built-up frustration and love and hate and longing for something that wasn’t mine. For a moment, Hero didn’t return the gesture. She stood, still as a statue…until I began to pull away.
Before my lips fully left hers, she grabbed me by the waist and kissed me as if we’d been chaperoned for one too many nights and she had finally gotten me all to herself. Like we’d been good all night at prom and were now alone. Like we’d been waiting ten years to kiss each other again.
And then just as it began, it ended.
The sting from her slap snapped me out of the fog and back to reality.
“I’m not sure you get the meaning of all this, Ranger. I’m pissed off. I’m angry. At one point, when you showed up at the farm, I wanted to blow your parts off. This was not the time to kiss me.”
Which meant there was a time to kiss her.
And her blush, the one that started at her cheeks and sprawled down to her chest told me she didn’t hate me at all.
“Fine. I won’t kiss you again. But I can guarantee you’ll kiss me again.”
“Rules, Ranger. Rules. I know how to follow them.”
“You’re talking to a soldier, Hero. If there’s anything I know about, it’s how to follow a set of rules.”
“Apparently not.” She took the dually signed piece of paper from the attorney’s office and waved it in my face. “Rule. Breaker.”
I didn’t even justify her with an answer. I got onto the horse and began to ride back to the stables.
All with a gigantic smile on my face.