Page 46 of Fight

“Is that why you moved here from Colorado?” she asked, not looking up from her drawing. “So you could do those things? Hiking, skiing, and all that?”

He shrugged, reluctantly looking away from her and back out at the view. “Kind of. That was definitely a draw, but I think it was mainly an opportunity that became available when I needed one. I didn’t want to go back to my hometown after I graduated college and I needed to go somewhere.”

She put her pencil down and looked at him fully.“Why didn’t you want to go back to your hometown?”

“Well, my family owns a ranch; and it’s a big one.My parents only ever had me, there were no other kids, so I had a lot of pressure on me growing up to be tough and learn what was necessary to run a ranch—you know, the whole rough and rowdy cowboy persona. When I was a kid, the expectation was that I would grow up and take over running the ranch for my dad… and until then I would basically have to live under his thumb.”

Jake couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice as he shook his head, remembering the last conversation he’d had with his father. He’d never planned on staying away for good, but his father let him know in so many words that if he left for any amount of time, it might as well be for good.

“After I went to college and saw more of the world—granted it was a very narrow scope of the world, but more nonetheless—I realized that I didn't have to live under my dad and his expectations for me.”

“How did your dad react when you told him you wouldn’t be moving to the ranch after college?”

“He took it badly. I haven’t spoken to him since, and that was five years ago. It was never my intention to be gone for good, though. I just wanted to do something on my own for a while, but the longer I’m away, and the longer he and I don’t talk…it’s more unlikely that I’ll go back.”

“Where does your mom fit into all this?” Lena asked, her face scrunched up inquisitively.

“She just wants to sweep it under the rug. I actually owe her a phone call. She wants me to come home for the Fourth of July in a few weeks—there’s always a big festival at the ranch. I don’t know if I’ve got it in me, though,” he admitted contritely.

“We’ve all got to face our demons at some point, Jake,” Lena said quietly. “I’m sure your parents love you. Maybe you have to be the bigger person and make the first move with your dad. Like you did with me.” She smiled up at him, squinting her eyes in the sunlight.

“That’s right,” he said thoughtfully.“Iwasthe bigger person there, wasn’t I?” He strummed his fingers together as if in contemplation.

“As much as I hate to admit it, yes. I’d probably still hate you if you hadn’t forced me to talk to you, or if you hadn’t bought me that bottle of wine.”She laughed as she flipped the top of her drawing pad over, setting it aside.

“You sure you don’t hate me anymore?”He asked in a quiet voice, looking over at her searchingly.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she laughed.“But it’s really interesting to hear about your daddy issues.They actually explain a lot,” she teased, poking him in the side with her pencil and drawing a loud chuckle out of him.

“What are you going to do with all these drawings anyway? May I?” he asked.Lena gave him a nod of approval as he picked up her drawing pad and started flipping through it to view her work.

“I’m entering a contest for the mural off the square that the Conrad Civic Association is holding,” Lena explained.“The proposals are due in a week, and I should have a lot to work with after yesterday and today.”

“Oh yeah, I heard you mention that.Kyle Bear runs the Conrad Civic Association. He’s a man of many hats, that Kyle—he’s also a philanthropist and a total hard ass. He makes my dad look like Mary Poppins.”

Lena chuckled and looked over at him with a bright smile lightening her features. “Oh, no. That doesn't bode well for my chances. I tend to be very whimsical in my art,” she admitted gravely.

He continued to flip through her pictures before he looked over at her thoughtfully. “When you finish up here, let’s walk down a different path. There’s something I want to show you.”

When he saw the Weeping Blue Atlas hanging over the narrow pathway, Jake knew he’d found the spot. He stopped to wait for Lena as she cautiously skidded down the rocky path behind him, kicking down rocks and dirt as her sneakers slid down a couple of inches of dirt.Grabbing her hand to balance her, he guided her down the final few feet of the path.Once she reached the hanging cedar tree, he led her into a thicket of towering pine trees that loomed behind it.

“Over here,” he said. Bounding ahead as the ground flattened, he motioned her forward and noticed that she was a few yards behind him again.

He smiled at her patiently and stopped to wait for her and she looked back at him with a wide smile on her face. He held aside low hanging branches and bushes, sporadically looking back at her as she slowly followed him. She looked around the forested area, the smile lingering on her face and the curiosity evident in her blue eyes. Pine needles and small rocks crunched beneath their feet and Jake could hear the dull sound of rushing water become louder as they moved further into the trees.

Finally, he pulled aside one last branch to reveal a clearing canopied by tall aspen, pine, and cedar trees. The sandy ground of the small clearing was littered with rocks, small boulders, pine needles, and various branches. It wasn’t the clearing that Jake had hoped would impress Lena, though, it was the family of large boulders draped in sunlight just past the clearing and what they overlooked.

Jake watched Lena as she wandered out of the clearing and deeper into the juts and rounded tops of the boulders. She stared at the opposite side of the sun-filled space in front of them with wide eyes and an open mouth. About fifty yards across a large sunny circle, overlooked by the boulders, was a waterfall rushing into a giant blue pool of water.

“Wow,” she said in an awestruck voice. “Look at that waterfall.”

Jake followed her as she wandered closer to the edge of the boulders. The pool was framed to varying degrees by tall, stone cliffs molded with moss and lichen and wide, flat boulders leading up to wide swaths of gently-sloped earth. Jake pointed out a ravine just below and to the left of where they stood that ran off the extra water from the falls.

The air smelled heavy with minerals and dirt, and as they walked closer to the edge, they became more and more covered with the fine mist that escaped the powerful fall on the opposite side of the pool.

“It’s called Sapphire Falls,” he explained as he watched Lena gaze down at the blue waters of the pool below from a few feet behind her. “It’s always pretty strong after a storm like we had yesterday, and especially in early spring when the snow on the mountain top starts melting.”

“How far down is it?” she asked, shielding her eyes from the sun as she looked down into the pool below them.

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