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I was nearing the place where the dirt road meets the black top, and knew frodown the ho up in alarht into the rear-end of Don Yates’ chestnut mare, Charlotte

Charlotte did a skittish two-step, and I slid right by her prancing feet, belly down, hands sliding through the gathering puddles I processed a few things as I slid - Charlotte didn’t have a rider, and I wondered if she’d ju I’d found her inher horsy lips around my carrots But I had distinctly heard a male voice say Whoa! and knew Charlotte had been apprehended before I al to a coed, I pushedbut otherwise unscathed My lifelong klutziness had taught

"Josie?" There was astonish ar e hand smoothed my wet hair off of my face and out ofshorts The rain was starting to abate, and I tipped ize to Don for my clumsiness I found myself face to face with Samuel Yates

I hadn’t seen him in almost seven years Stunned, I drank in his familiar face, so dear and yet so different My old friend on the cusp of rown man, confidence in the set of his reater resemblance to his father’s fauise it anymore He was still lean, but definitely brawnier, his neck thicker, his shoulders wider The long black hair that had once been a symbol of his individuality was short now, almost hidden under his cowboy hat His hat kept the wet fro into his face, but I had no cover, and the water kept running intohe was there, standing right in front of h his black eyebroere drawn together in question "Are you okay?"

I realized I’d been staring at hi "Sareat pleasure, and I felt a sweet nostalgia floodhis eyes crease at the corners, and I saw that he shared my emotions

I became aware all at once of my very wet behind and the hair that had fallen fro down the sides of my face I was co shorts were plastered to ing cotton His eyes widened slightly as he took inwet" He pulled off his sweatshirt and handed it toI turned slightly from him and pulled the sweatshirt overdown past the bottom of my shorts It was deliciously warm from his skin It smelled like aftershave and rain, the scent very male and, to me, wonderful It smelled like safety and soap andho so powerful, a yearning to intense, that I gasped out loud and felt my eyes sith tears

"Josie? Are you hurt?" Sacracked around hunder my feet on a frozen lake My breath burned in my chest like I’d run 10 miles in subzero temperatures The icy control I had demanded of myself since Kasey’s death slipped, wobbled, and then lost its hold on ht, I stepped towards Saainst his broad chest, ers fisting handfuls of his t-shirt I breathed hio of his shirt and wrappedto him like my life depended on it Maybe it did I hadn’t seen him for so many years, and so much had happened in my life since I had last seen his face, but at that ain Someone I had loved had returned, someone lost had come back tohiine he was shocked at my behavior I hadn’t even spoken to him, other than to breathe his name, and I was suddenly wrapped around him in a rainstor ar me I was enveloped in warmth The pleasure of the embrace was so intense I shuddered with it I felt his hand innoises I realized I was crying We stood in the rain, and he heldme hold him in return No coled me, slipped a loose lead rope over Charlotte’s head, and with one arratefully walked beside him, ridiculously relieved that in this moment I was not alone

He stopped outside et out of the storm His arm fell fro with rain