excerpt
He was afraid. He was afraid of hearing “no,” and that
answer rupturing the wonderful relationship and the good thing
that they have going. Yet, he felt that he needed more. More of
Cindy. He couldn’t get this wonderful woman out of his mind.
Anticipating some of the barriers, Joel already knew that getting
Lila to school would be a problem. Living in town, the elementary
school was only a short ten-minute walk from her
home. Out here, the bus ride would take nearly an hour each way
to get to the closest school at Fort Hope. And what about Cindy’s
job at the auction mart? With Great Falls being hours away it just
didn’t make sense for her to travel to work from the ranch. And
what about the loneliness? Sure, there was a few other ranch
families scattered through the hills, but there wasn’t anywhere
near the kind of active social life here that one would have in the
city. He only could think of the barriers, and for that reason, he
decided not to jeopardize the relationship by asking her to join
him on the ranch. But he also was afraid that if he didn’t step
their relationship up to the next level that sooner or later some
city guy would discover the leggy, attractive, and intelligent
blonde. And then who knew what might happen. It was in this
state of confusion that Joel lay there in his bed as Cindy dressed
for the drive home at the end of the day.
Slipping into his jeans once Cindy was ready to leave, he
walked her out to her truck and stood there in his Wranglers,
watching the taillights of her vehicle disappear into the hills
heading back to Great Falls.
Manolis Aligizakis 