by Kristie Cook
“He looks like a god,” Carol said. “How old is he?”
Therese shivered at her aunt’s choice of words, pushing down the memories of her dreams. “Eighteen, I think. I’m not sure.”
Carol looked as though she was about to say more, but she took another bite of her salad instead.
Therese went out the back kitchen door and onto the deck to meet him. “So you can hear me all the way at the Melner cabin? That’s embarrassing. I thought having the window closed would keep the sound from carrying.”
Clifford put his paws up on Than’s shins.
“Hi, Clifford,” Than said, patting the dog. Then he answered Therese. “I was actually closer to your place than mine. I don’t really know if you can hear it all the way at the cabin. But I hope so. I haven’t heard music like that in a long, long time, which is crazy because both of my parents are big fans of music.” Then he asked, “Will you play some more for me?”
Now she was shaking. She had planned to show off, but now that it came down to it, she didn’t know if she could control the movements of her fingers. They shook much more than they had at the UIL contest last spring. “Um, I don’t know.”
“Please?”
His crystal blue eyes were just too persuasive for her to say no, so she led him to the side of the house to the wooden table and offered him a chair. She sat across from him, with her back to the side of the house, took a deep breath, and played. Everything came out all wrong. Then she took a deep breath, tried to forget his presence, turned to face the reservoir, and played again. Automatically, her mind picked up the words where she had left off: They are with me, in my heart and soul. They are part of me forever.
When she had finished the complete sonata without having made a single error, she looked up at him and smiled.
He clapped his hands. “I loved it. You put so much of yourself into the music. It’s almost like you’re voice is singing in place of the flute, or as if the flute were an extension of yourself.”
“Thanks.” She didn’t know what else to say. She was much too nervous to think beyond playing for him. A chipmunk ran up onto the deck and saved her from an awkward silence. “SShh,” she whispered, and pointed to the little furry animal just behind one of the other four chairs at the table.
Than’s smile at the sight of the animal took her breath away. What a gorgeous smile.
Therese scooped a few sunflower seeds from the clay pot on the table and dropped them on the deck. The chipmunk froze for a few seconds, and then he went for the seeds. Therese looked up at Than and watched him while he watched the chipmunk. His smile could kill.
She shuddered at her own choice of words.
Clifford came bounding onto the deck from the forest and scared the chipmunk away.
“Bad boy!” Therese scolded. “Time for you to go inside.”
“No, let him stay. It’s not his fault. He’s just following his natural instincts, doing his job.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” To Clifford she said, “I’m sorry boy. You can stay outside.” Then she said, “Actually, we could all go inside. I could introduce you to my aunt. Do you want anything to eat or drink?”
“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to bother you. I just wanted to hear you play.”
“It’s no bother. Really.” She mentally crossed her fingers for luck. She wanted him to stay. Stay, she willed. Stay.
“Well, if you’re sure.”
She smiled. “Come in. My aunt’s just inside having lunch.” Therese led Than to the front of the house, through the screened front porch, and inside the living room.
Carol seemed pleased Therese brought Than in to meet her, and she immediately offered to make him a salad just like hers. Therese insisted her aunt sit down. “I know how to make salad,” she said. So Therese chopped up some spinach, green leaf lettuce, bok choy, white cabbage, green onion, and a few radishes. Then she sprinkled on some toasted sesame seeds, Chinese noodles, and Ginger dressing. She divided it up into two bowls and gave one to Than where he sat beside her aunt at the countertop. Therese stood up and ate at the bar across from them.
She enjoyed watching his face after he took his first bite. She could tell he liked it.
“I’ve never tasted anything like this salad before,” he said. “It’s delicious.”
Therese watched him take great pleasure in every bite. “It’s so easy,” she said. “It’s not like I made you a five course meal.”
“Oh, offer him a drink, sweetheart,” Carol said.
“Sorry.” Therese opened a cabinet behind her and took out two glasses. “What do we have?”
“There’s iced tea in the fridge. Than, do you like iced tea?”
“I’ve never tried it, but I’d love to have some.”
Therese knew they had iced tea in Texas. What was with this guy? Did his parents keep him in a cave or something? The memory of her dream popped into her head, so she pushed it back out with a shudder. Silly, silly dream.
Carol and Therese both chuckled as they watched Than try the tea.
He frowned and licked his lips.
“You don’t like it?” Therese asked.
“It’s bitter.”
Carol crossed the room. “Try some sugar.” She brought the sugar canister over and put a couple of teaspoons in his glass, mixed it, brought the spoon out. “Try it now.”
Therese put her hand over her mouth to hide the huge grin she couldn’t stop from forming on her face. He obviously liked tea with sugar. He drank down half the glass in one gulp.
“I think I like sugar,” he said. Then he gulped down the rest of the glass.
Chapter Fourteen: Therese’s Prayers
Than realized as he put down the glass of tea on the kitchen bar that Therese was praying to him again. Sometimes it was difficult for him to discern whether she was praying or speaking out loud, for when he was this close to her, as he was now, with her face less than two feet away, he could hear the voice and the prayers with the same pitch, clarity, and volume; whereas, from a far distance the prayers were clearer to him than speech. He also knew that she wasn’t aware that her prayers to him were heard, for she hadn’t yet accepted the fact of who he was. The human mind interested him in this way, in its ability to play tricks on its owner. As far as Than knew, gods were unable to achieve such feats of self deceit as humans.
Her prayers to him this afternoon, so different from earlier, went something like this, “You are such a breath of fresh air to me after all that’s happened. I hope you stay around a while. I hope I get to know you. You are so cute, Than. So cute and so sweet. What crystal blue eyes you have. What muscles. And the way you fill out your jeans, oh! Never mind! Stop it, Therese! Oh, don’t look at me like that.”
Than had to work hard not to react to the words she did not say out loud, but just now he found himself blushing and wanting badly to press his lips to hers like she had done to him that night they met.
He didn’t want to leave, especially with her silent pleading, but he had to give a few hours to helping his sisters track down the killer—after all, that was his selling point to his father in getting permission to come down here. He couldn’t neglect that duty.
“Thanks for the lunch,” he said. “It was delicious.”
“You’re welcome any time,” Carol said.
Than stood up from the bar stool as Therese took his empty bowl and glass and put them in the sink behind her.
Therese said, “I’m going for a walk with Clifford. If you’re not doing anything, you could come along.” Then she prayed, “Please say yes.”
Than stepped around the bar and looked through the window to follow Therese’s gaze. Her back was to him as she stood at the sink. He wondered what she was looking at. Then he heard her pray, “Save that tree. Don’t let it die.” He saw she was looking at an Elm, one of two that towered behind the house.
“Is that tree special to you?” he asked, again forgetting that she had made her request silently.
She turned to look at him in surprise. “What? Oh, yes. It’s got the Dutch Elm disease. My parents were going to try to save it. I guess I’d hate to see it die … too.”
Than awkwardly patted her shoulder where he had touched countless souls before on their journey down the river, but her warm skin and the tension between them made him uneasy. He looked out the window at the tree. He said, “I wish I could join you for your walk, but I have to go help my sisters with something. I’ll see you this evening, though, okay?”
“Darn,” she prayed in her head. “But I like that you help your family.”
He almost made the mistake of responding to this silent statement. “Thanks … again for the lunch, and for playing your flute for me,” he corrected himself. “I’ll see you later.”
Her hair smelled so fresh and her body felt so warm beside him, that he had a hard time pulling himself away from her company to the dreaded deed of hunting with the Furies.
Chapter Fifteen: Another Tragedy
She pulled on her oldest pair of Justin Ropers, glossed her lips, and headed down the stairs, her hair loose and flying behind her. The smell of her peach shampoo made her feel fresh. She ran her fingers through her curls. Her dad used to say how he loved her hair and that it was the perfect combination of Therese’s mother’s red hair and his own mother’s curly hair.
“Sorry, Clifford,” she said to him at the front door. “You have to stay this time. You’re not allowed on the pasture.”
Carol was typing furiously on her laptop while she sat on the living room sofa. “I’ll drive you,” Carol said, jumping up. “I’m not ready for you to walk alone yet, especially if Clifford’s not going.”
Than appeared at the door to the screened porch. “Hi there. I was wondering if you want to walk up to the Holts’ together.”
Therese turned back to her aunt. “That okay?”
Carol hesitated, then smiled. “I guess so. Just call me when you get there.”
The sun had fallen behind a thin layer of clouds. It usually rained for a few minutes every afternoon, often with thunder and lightning, and Therese wondered now as she and Than turned onto the dirt road from her gravel driveway if it would today. She hoped not. She was nervous enough about riding without adding rain into the mix.
Than hadn’t changed from his tight white t-shirt and jeans, but he looked refreshed and clean and, even under the cloud cover, brilliant.
“Thanks again for the salad and the recipe,” he said. “I told my sister Tizzie about it. She might go into Durango tomorrow for the ingredients and try to make it herself.”
“Be sure to tell her to buy you some tea bags and sugar,” Therese said. “You seemed to like that a lot, too.”
“Yes. Especially the sugar.”
He asked why Clifford wasn’t with her, and she explained that he’d want to follow them into the pasture and how that was dangerous for the horses. “Small dogs tend to spook horses. They can handle the big dogs, but because horses have a lot of blind spots, the littler animals tend to freak them out.”
“I see,” he said, apparently attempting a pun.
Therese shook her head and chuckled. “That was really bad.”
“You’re right. It was.” He chuckled too.
Although she had initially thought him to be arrogant and selfish, she found him easy to talk to as they made their way down the road. He asked her about her hobbies and she talked a bit about swim team and band and the times she liked to spend in the forest with the animals. When she asked about him, he shrugged.
“I’ve realized these past few days how little I know myself,” he said cryptically.
When they reached the ranch, Mrs. Holt, Bobby, and Jen were already in the pen saddling up five of the horses.
“Hey, guys,” Bobby greeted them. “Think it’s gonna pour?”
“I hope not.” Therese put on her long-sleeved shirt.
“Don’t worry,” Jen said. “The horses love the rain. It won’t bother them or anything.”
“It’ll just make them stinky,” Mrs. Holt said. “Somethin’ we have to look forward to come mornin’.”
“Oh, I’m supposed to call my aunt.” Therese turned toward the house.
“Use the phone in the barn,” Mrs. Holt said.
Therese found the dusty, old-fashioned dial phone mounted to the wall and called her aunt to let her know she had made it safely. Then she returned to the pen with the others.
They led their horses from the gate on the pasture side of the pen, on the opposite side from the barn and the house, and Bobby closed and secured the gate. Hershey and Ace put their heads over the fence and brayed their objections. They wanted to come, too.
Than turned and said something to the two horses that Therese could not hear. She inwardly laughed. He liked talking to them as much as she did. Despite his inability to describe himself, she was learning a lot about him. He loved the outdoors, especially the water, and he loved animals. She looked forward to learning a few more things.
Therese approached Dumbo, and he nuzzled against her. She put her hand out for him to sniff. He caressed her hand with his mouth and then nuzzled her palm. She stroked his face, whispering, “Thanks. I needed that.”
As soon as Therese mounted Dumbo, the nervous anxiety made her chest feel tight. Jen must have noticed, because she came up beside her and said, “Just follow me. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Jen started at a walk, and without Therese having to say “Go,” or squeeze Dumbo’s sides, the horse followed. Therese relaxed. Maybe this would be easier than she had thought.
“You’re doing good, boy,” Therese said as she stroked Dumbo’s neck. She watched Jen moving gracefully ahead of her on Sassy, as though she and her horse were one fluid organism. Jen made it look so easy.
Than came up beside her on Midnight. “You okay?”
“So far so good.” She gave him a brave smile. She could do this.
Bobby and Mrs. Holt had already gone on ahead across the stream where it narrowed and up where the pasture began on an incline up the mountain. Jen now took Sassy up to a trot, and, without warning, Dumbo followed suit. Therese held on to the saddle horn and hugged Dumbo with her thighs. She managed not to shriek, but her heart was beating a million miles an hour as the adrenaline pumped through her. Than and Midnight were soon beside her again.
“This is fun, don’t you think?” he asked.
Therese was bouncing hard on Dumbo, so she stiffened her legs against the stirrups and pulled her bottom up, practically in a standing position. “As long as Dumbo follows Sassy, I’m alright.” She didn’t admit it was like riding a scary rollercoaster.
Drops of rain began to fall and a sudden streak of light illuminated the clouds above them.
Great, Therese thought. Just what I need.
A moment later, the roar of thunder followed.
Jen and Sassy approached the stream, so Jen slowed down to a walk. Dumbo slowed, and Midnight beside him. They took turns jumping across the narrowest part and then joined Bobby and Mrs. Holt in the trees on the other side. They kept the horses at a walk as they followed the trail through the trees near the fence line. The trees offered some protection from the rain, but not much. Another streak of light shot across the sky, and the thunder followed. Therese wondered how the horses would react if the thunder got loud and if they were safer in the trees or if they should head back across the stream to the open part of the pasture, but she didn’t say anything, sure Mrs. Holt would know best. She couldn’t help but feel even more nervous, though.
They walked the horses through the trees, weaving up and down, occasionally having to jump across a low dip or fallen log. Therese focused on talking with Dumbo, to ease her nerves and to let Dumbo get to know her.
“You’re doing great, Dumbo. You’re such a good boy.” Therese stroked his mane, which was now clean of all sticker burs and weeds thanks to her hard work this morning. “Wait.” She said to him when Jen paused u
p ahead. “Wait.” She gently pulled the reins and released, and Dumbo obeyed.
They jumped over a steep incline, one at a time, and then weaved back down through the trees back in the direction of the stream. Here again Therese asked Dumbo to wait his turn to cross the stream, and he did. Then Mrs. Holt took Rambo back up to a trot. Bobby and the General were fast behind. Jen followed with Sassy, then Therese on Dumbo, and Than and Midnight brought up the rear. From the trot, the horses in front moved to a canter. When Dumbo took off to catch up with the others, Therese felt the adrenaline surge through her. This was the scariest part. They galloped at high speed across the open pasture with the rain hitting her in the face. Lightening continued to streak the sky and the thunder to crash. Therese wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, but she was too afraid that Dumbo would scrape her leg along the fence or take her beneath tree branches that would whack her in the face. She heard Than say something to her, but she couldn’t speak; she had to concentrate on holding onto the saddle horn, her legs rigid against the stirrups.
Mrs. Holt reached the fence line and turned Rambo south and followed the fence toward the dirt road in front of the house. They all followed Rambo and turned with the fence line, now parallel to the dirt road, still at a full canter. As they reached the pen where they had started, Mrs. Holt took Rambo down to a trot, but kept going, back up toward the stream. The rest of them followed. When she reached the stream, Mrs. Holt slowed Rambo down to a walk and led him along the stream to where it grew about six feet wide. She stopped him and told him to drink. Bobby brought the General beside her and did the same. Dumbo followed Sassy to the other side of Rambo from the General. Midnight came up beside Therese, and all the horses had their fill of water.
The stream in front of them danced with each raindrop. Therese saw several trout diving under rocks in the shallow water away from the muzzles of the horses. Clifford would have a field day here. She was glad for this chance to catch her breath. She looked up at Than and was surprised to see his face turned up to the rain, his eyes closed, and a smile lingering on his lips. His dark, wavy hair blew in the wind and caressed his strong jaw line. She longed to reach out and touch him.