Page 31 of Loving Decker

“I don’t know. Maybe just start from here and not worry about the past. We had a good time, didn’t we?”

“The best.”

“Well, then.” Her smile grew. “There’s only one thing to do.”

“What’s—”

She took off on her horse, tearing across the pasture.

“Oh no you don’t!” He shouted after her, but her laugh just floated past on the wind. She was going to cream him in this impromptu race, and there was nothing he could do about it.

The sky was bright blue. The clouds sparse. One rested up on the horizon, a long stretch of feathery white. He rode across the pasture towards it, but it only grew smaller in his sights. They seemed so close, but the truth of their great distance became more real the longer he rode. But it stayed in sight. And that was kind of important, he thought. Faith rode up and over the next rounded horizon. He was bound and determined that he and Thunder were going to give Electric and Faith at least a good showing.

They tore out across the pastures, and his heart ached with the joy of so much beauty all around them. People just did not understand. When your family was the original settler of a place, when you had owned and cultivated a land for generations, so that it was a part of your identity, the land stirred emotion. It was a part of you. It felt like a connection to those who had passed. It was a connection to his dad.

Every step across the hills in front of him, the Dawson land that stretched almost to the feathery cloud, or at least appeared to, was his father’s place. His feet had walked those hills, his hands worked those crops. His animals, his horses traveled over the whole of it. If they were to give away the land, they’d be losing some of Dad.

He blinked back sudden tears.

And then to watch it be destroyed with bulldozers to be subdivided and filled with people who would have no appreciation for the man who had originally owned it. He sat up in his saddle, letting the wind rush all around him. He had to let this go. They would likely have to sell. Faithy had to sell. The Waltons had to sell. They would all sell.

Faith beat him to the fence that divided their properties, but instead of stopping, she sailed over it as if she were flying, and he followed right after.

She raced along the top of their land up toward the ridge. And he shouted in joy. There was nothing better than following a beautiful woman across the pasture.

And she looked dang good on a horse.

They tore up the side of the hill, leapt over logs, and eventually rode up over the top of the ridge. And there she stopped.

He joined her, out of breath. They sat on their horses facing the property all around them. Everywhere they looked was either Dawson or Haws land. And he loved every bit of it.

Then she surprised him. With tear-filled eyes, she turned and said, “They want me to turn off the machines for Grandpa.”

His heart shuttered and then raced, then stuttered again. No. Not Grandpa. “Wait, what! You can’t do that!” The words came out just like his reaction to her selling the land. He hung his head, shaking it. “I’m sorry. Of course you are going to have to make some tough decisions there. It seems soon though, right?”

“One month. They said that this is the time when they start preparing family members. The hospital said the likelihood of people recovering goes down after this week. They said all kinds of things about statistics, and all I wanted to say was that Grandpa was not a number.” She choked on that last bit and looked away. “When I look at all this, do you know what I think?”

Dawson shook his head. She obviously had very different thoughts about all of this than he did.

“I think he will probably never see it again.”

“I know what he’d say if he were to see it again.”

She sniffed.

“He’d look in that direction and he’d say, ‘That land needs to be rotated. Why are you still planting alfalfa on the high ground hills?’ ” Decker laughed.

“True. And then he’d point down by my cows and say, ‘Those animals need to be up higher. This time of year they’ll get fattest with that grass up top.’ ” She smiled. “I can hear him in my mind.”

“Me too.” Decker reached over and squeezed her hand for a moment. “He stepped in to help Maverick when father died. He kept the Dawson ranch afloat while we worked out all sorts of difficulties. Every one of us is gonna miss him.”

She nodded. “Do you…Do you think he’ll wake up?”

Decker’s heart clenched, and he wanted more than anything to not have to answer that question, but Faith was desperate for something, anything, to cling to. He didn’t know what to say. “Oh wow, Faith. I just don’t know. I don’t think that’s an answer we can get by ourselves.” Then his scripture study came to mind. “But I do know that the Lord is always reaching out to us. He is there, helping, holding. No matter what, He is there.”

“His hand is stretched out still.” She nodded. “But how? Where is He? I don’t have the answers I need right now.”

Decker studied her a moment more. “Well, He brought us together.”

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