Elizabeth moved on, finding Granny, offering to buy her a hot dog from the Fry Hut’s truck. She’d just lathered onions and mustard on her hot dog when Ryder came up behind her.
“Care to get out of here?”
Elizabeth set down the mustard bottle. “Lead the way.”
They sat on the steps of the fire tower, surveying the burnt region and how the sunset trimmed the black horizon with gold.
“It’s so stark yet so beautiful,” Elizabeth said. “Is it wrong to say that?”
“No. Fires are damaging and horrendous, yet the regrowth can be so powerful.”
As he spoke, a gentle summer rain began to fall from the singular cloud passing over them.
Ryder glanced at Elizabeth, ready to make a run for it, but she didn’t move except to lift her face to the rain, eyes closed, the napkin from her hot dog wadded in her hand.
“Pops would say God was refreshing us and the land,” she said quietly.
Ryder almost felt like an eavesdropper on a private conversation. Yet a peace that only comes with the rain of heaven settled over him.
As the soft drops soaked in, his skin cooled, and his heart warmed with love for this woman. If he kissed her, he’d sink all the way in. So in many ways, having the kissing question off the table was a relief.
“Granny says I haven’t given love or Hearts Bend a chance.” She rested against the side of the tower, where a post held the rickety steps against the fire tower cabin. “That my ambition is in my head, but not my heart.”
“Granny D. never struggled to speak her mind. All that matters is what you think. What you want.”
“I know. I mean, I’ve been taught to consider all sides. To hear the other argument, learn what I don’t know.” She shifted her gaze to him. “I’ve decided to go to Wharton next week.”
“You were accepted? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“No, I’m still wait-listed.” By her sigh and shift in her posture, she was weary of it all. “I’m going to see if I can’t charm them into letting me in.”
“What do your Granny and Pops say?”
“I’ve not told anyone but you. Too embarrassed. For all my big talk, I’m not even in the fall class.”
“Doesn’t mean you won’t get in. There’s always next year.” He shifted a little closer to her, mopping up the water on the thirsty tower steps with his jeans.
“I don’t want to wait another year.”
“Is there any truth to what your granny said?”
“I don’t know.” She looked away. “But I have to try.”
If she was determined to go, let her go. Saying his heart thumped whenever she was around or that he still wanted to kiss her so badly his lips buzzed sounded desperate, like a badly penned poem.
“Enzo texted he still wants me in Colorado.” He wasn’t sure why he brought it up. Maybe so he didn’t look like the “stuck” hometown guy next to her ambition.
Another cloud passed over them, and for a solid thirty seconds, the rain fell in buckets, soaking them to the bone. As suddenly as it appeared, the cloud drew up its shower curtain and slowly drifted toward the horizon, allowing the sunset to rim the evening with gold.
“I guess that cloud told us.” Elizabeth swiped watery streaks of black mascara from her cheeks. When she turned to Ryder, they laughed in harmony. “Do I look like Frankenstein’s wife?”
“Hardly.” He let his gaze linger on her face, with her sapphire eyes sitting in pools of black. “You look beautiful.”
She looked away. “Liar.”
“It’s true.” He reached for her hand and tugged her against him, wrapping his arm around her.
After a moment, she whispered, “Are you really falling in love with me?”
