Page 60 of Everything We Give

“Stop!” Reese playfully slaps my forearm, then jerks her hand away. She folds her arm over her pack and fiddles with the zipper tab, keeping her hand occupied. Her face sobers.

I grip the steering wheel at ten and two, not at all comfortable with how easy it is to banter with Reese. She can still be as fun as she is aggravating.

Forking my hand through my hair, I keep my gaze forward. I tell myself it’s because I don’t want to miss our turnoff.

“What’s Simon got to do with you and the Rapa?” I ask.

“He’s on staff at the magazine. He mentioned to Jane I attended and she reached out to me.”

A thought occurs to me and it doesn’t sit well. “Did you know I’d been assigned to this story?”

The air changes in the car and Reese shifts in her seat. My stomach rolls, sloshing the pot-size amount of coffee I ingested this morning.

“I’m moving back to the States. Michael’s British. Now that we’re divorced, there’s no reason for me to stay.”

“Reese,” I push. “Did you know?”

“Not at first, no,” she says, irritated. She pushes the pack off her thighs. It slides to the floor. She folds her arms over her chest. “I initially declined the assignment.”

“But you agreed when you found out you’d be working with me.”

“Yes, all right?” she says, angling her face toward me without looking at me. “I wanted to see you.”

She’s got to be kidding me. I jam the gearshift hard into fourth. “I’m married, Reese. Happily.”

Her mouth falls open. She gapes at me. I meet her with a steely gaze. She slams her mouth closed and her face hardens. “You are so full of yourself.”

I’m about to lay into her because what else am I supposed to think, but a sign blows by outside.SABUCEDO. I quickly downshift and turn, barely making our exit.

I coast along the narrow street.

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“Yes.” I think. I glance around. There are two main trailheads that could lead us to the herds. The question is which one is the better option.

“Stop the car. Pull over. Let’s ask him.” She points at a man resting on a bench outside the village’s lone café. I recognize him as an aloitador from my photos.

“Good idea.”

After a round of introductions, Manuel directs us to a trailhead on the opposite side of the village. The herds have been grazing those hills for the past week and we should come upon them just over an hour into our hike. Reese exchanges phone numbers with Manuel and they agree to meet at the café later in the afternoon. She wants to interview him about his experience with the Rapa.

“Thanks,” I say when we get back into the car.

“For what?”

“For wanting to talk with him. He’s one of the guys I photographed that I was telling you about earlier.”

Reese nods once and checks the time on her phone. “Let’s hurry. I have to be back here by four.”

Five minutes later we are parked at the trailhead. Reese adjusts her pack on her back. “What’s the plan, Collins?”

I squint at the overcast sky. The air is ripe with precipitation and the sharp scent of eucalyptus and damp dirt. “Find the horses before we get rained on. I also want to get some panoramic shots of the area.”

We hit the trail, falling into step. We hike in relative silence for the next twenty minutes, following the well-worn path uphill. My thoughts drift to the years Reese and I were together and how things ended abruptly between us, like a favorite television show that’s canceled between seasons. You’re left with nothing but a cliff-hanger of an ending. Your brain works out various scenarios, but none of the conclusions are as satisfying as you imagine the real deal would have been had you just been allowed to watch the first episode of the next season.

I always wondered if Reese and I would have stayed together. It wasn’t until I met Aimee at Wendy’s gallery that I finally had my answer. Reese and I would have never worked out because I was meant to be with Aimee.

I always believed things happen for a reason. They can’t always be explained, like Reese leaving me, or my life intersecting with Aimee’s through Lacy. But the answers eventually reveal themselves, sometime in the strangest of ways. Some are obvious and others you have to look for.

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