Page 279 of Conveniently Wed
She dared look at him again. The scenery faded to pale shades while his eyes caught the color of the sky and the hues of the distant mountains and shone them back at her. Promising her things she wanted without knowing names for them. Time ceased. Only her heart functioned, beating rapidly.
A crow flew overhead, its wings batting at the air. It cawed.
Stella jerked away from staring at Bruce. She gathered up the remnants of their lunch and went to her horse.
“I guess we should move on, unless you want to go home,” Bruce said.
She kept her face toward the saddle, a pleased smile on her lips at the sound of reluctance in his voice. “I have a surprise too,” she said. They mounted and headed west.
“What?”
She tipped her nose and gave him a dismissive shrug. “You’ll have to wait and see.”
He chuckled. “Guess I deserve that.”
“Yup.” The ground rose gently, deceptively, to a high vantage point. She reined in. “This is it. In my opinion, the best view of the mountains.” She drank in the scene.
He sighed. “A man could look at that every day of his life and not grow weary of it.”
“I know. Let’s get down. I have something else to show you.”
He dropped to the ground and reached up to assist her.
She took his hand. It seemed normal to do so. The hill ended in a cliff, and she pulled him to the edge. “Here it is.” A wide valley lay a hundred feet below them, the river a thread of blue bordered on each side by trees. Beyond that, the hills climbed into the rocky, rugged mountains that went on in layers of blue, each layer paler than the one before it.
He gasped. “What a fantastic view.”
“It’s my favorite place. I discovered it when we first moved here. I haven’t been back in over a year.” She dropped his hand and went to a boulder she had found gave the best view. It was about four feet high and ten feet across, but she had discovered places to put her hands and feet so she could get to the top. She climbed up and stood looking out at the vast domain. The ground fell away at her feet, giving her a feeling of standing in midair. She breathed deeply, feeling uplifted and comforted at the same time.
The rock shifted. She almost fell but managed to right herself. But the rock shifted again. She turned to look at Bruce. “What’s going on?”
Bruce opened his mouth but no words came out. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
She looked at the ground. A three-inch-wide fissure opened up in front of the rock. As she stood there, it widened and spread to her right and left like a black river. The rock tipped toward the valley below. Her heart clamped to her ribs and refused to beat.
Bruce held out his arms. “Stella, jump. I’ll catch you.” The words were gravely as if his throat had constricted.
“I’m afraid.”
“Trust me.”
14
Bruce didn’t realize his ribs could threaten to crush his heart. But to see Stella balanced on that teetering rock, to see the ground slowly giving away, threatening to drop her to the valley below, made it impossible to breathe. He held out arms that felt like wooden fence posts they were so stiff and heavy.
“Stella. Jump. I’ll catch you.” It was her only chance.
She didn’t move.
“Trust me.”Please, God, let her trust me. Let her see that I can help her.
But Stella stared, frozen with fear.
“Stella.” He packed authority and urgency into her name. “Jump.”
She nodded. Swallowed loudly. She nodded again.
Jump. Jump. He silently encouraged her.
