Page 61 of One Golden Ring
“Yes,” I tell him. “This is really special.”
He gives me a smile and a wink, and I turn forward again, feeling as warm as hot cocoa inside.
The ride is wonderful and before long we reach the peak.
J.B. and Nutmeg canter out toward the edge. The horse snorts and dances again when J.B. pulls her up to admire the view. She settles as soon as Mistletoe joins her, and the two nuzzle each other for a moment, making J.B. smile.
“Best friends, huh?” I ask Mistletoe, reaching forward to scratch behind his ear.
Derek rides Frankincense up to J.B.’s other side, and the three of us look out over the snowy vista together.
I know that we’re not so far from the gleaming skyscrapers of Philadelphia or New York, but gazing out over the wooded hills, you could believe you had gone back in time. Unspoiled forest rolls out on all sides under a blanket of snow. It’s incredible.
We stay there for a long time, just breathing in the beauty and peace of the scene laid out before us.
After a bit, Mistletoe stomps his foot, and I guide him to take a little walk back closer to the path again. The view is incredible, but just being up here on horseback is good enough for me. I don’t mind him foraging a little in the undergrowth for an uncovered shoot of winter-browned grass.
We’re still ambling along a few minutes later, and I’m just thinking that we’ve been up here an awfully long time when Derek clears his throat.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks J.B.
At first there’s only the sound of the horses huffing and the birdsong.
“I don’t want to tell you,” she answers after a moment.
“You know you can tell me anything,” he says gently.
I look around but there’s no place I can go up here that won’t be in earshot. This is just a small clearing.
“I don’t want to disappoint you,” J.B. tells him.
“You could never disappoint me,” he says firmly. “Let’s hear it.”
She sighs, but he just waits.
“I… don’t really like school all that much,” she says at last.
“Oh,” he says, sounding genuinely surprised.
In some ways, I am too. J.B. was over the moon about getting in.
“I’m lonely,” she says.
“I miss you too,” he tells her right away. “I know it’s hard?—”
“And it’s going to be so much more fun at home now with Darcy around,” she says without waiting for him to finish. “We’re going to be a family of three. Or maybe more than three?”
Her eyes flick to mine and they’re filled with so much hope.
I feel my heart twist in my chest like it wants to break free and fly to her.
How can this not be real?
And how are we supposed to tell her when the time comes that the new family she’s dreaming of will never exist?
“We’ll talk about this later,” Derek growls, wheeling Frankincense around and heading across the peak and down the looping trail back toward the lodge.
J.B. stays frozen right where she is.
