Page 36 of Below the Far Horizon
She’d never been very big on exercising, but the older she got, the more she knew if she wanted to stay active and healthy, she needed to take care of herself, and exercising was a part of that.
Regardless, there were about sixty different things jumbled up in her head that she was trying to figure out and think about, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of them, and so she finally gave up altogether and lifted her face to the lake breeze. It was a beautiful spring day, and the waves were coming in with regularity. She loved the sound, soothing and eternal, and the sparkling blue under the warming sun reminded her of every single spring of her youth.
She hadn’t walked far when she saw two horses being ridden her way.
They were beautiful, large Clydesdales, the kind that a person typically saw hooked to a cart or wagon, but these were being ridden.
She knew immediately that it was Becky and Rodney exercising their horses. Her mama talked a good bit about what Rodney and Becky were doing in Raspberry Ridge and about what a beautiful love story they had.
The thought of their sweet, second chance romance warmed Grace, but it also made her slightly bittersweet. Her own love story, which had begun in high school, had taken a turn for the worse, when she had left the one she should have stayed with and married the wrong man for all the wrong reasons. Her ex was the kind of man who was charismatic and successful and attractive, and she got sucked into believing his lies.Some he outright told, but more that he insinuated. That he was rich and successful and that she would be rich and successful by going along with him.
For some reason, that had been so important to her ten years ago. Why? Why did that matter so much?
She couldn’t figure her younger self out. Hadn’t she realized how important it was to find people who had integrity and character and to develop relationships with them? How could she have thought that things like that were so unimportant, when they were the most important things of all?
“Beautiful day,” Becky said as she reined her horse in. It stomped on the ground and tossed its head and was so huge that if Becky hadn’t controlled it so expertly, Grace would have been scared.
Rodney stopped beside her, and his horse was slightly bigger, although equally as regal and beautiful.
“It sure is. And seeing your horses makes it even better,” Grace said.
“Come over sometime, and we’ll take a ride together,” Becky offered.
“I’d love to, but you have to start out with lessons, because as much as I’ve always admired horses, I’ve never gotten to ride.”
A love for horses was something that was very common for girls as she was growing up. But living by the lake as they did, there wasn’t much opportunity to ride and even less to own one. Although she knew there were several stables down the beach now. If there were horses there when she was growing up, she hadn’t known about them. And considering that her dad had been a hand on a fishing boat, and her mom had been a stay-at-home mom other than her crafts which she sold in magazines and newspapers and in festivals during the summer, they hadn’t had much money.
“I’m more than happy to give you lessons anytime. Just stop in. You can call first if you want to, but we’re not doing anything so pressing that I wouldn’t have ten or fifteen minutes to do a lesson as long as we can find someone to watch the twins for us.”
“I appreciate it. I’d really love to ride. Could I bring someone with me so I’m not alone?” She knew that sounded kind of cowardly, and Becky was a sweetheart. It wasn’t like she was scary to be around, butGrace didn’t want to be the only incompetent person. And Becky seemed to understand. She smiled anyway and nodded her head.
“Of course. Bring a friend. We’ve got multiple horses, and you’re welcome to use any that you’d like.”
“Thank you so much. I’ll keep that in mind.”
She wondered if all four of them could go, her mom and Don and Trevor. That would be another thing they could do as a date.
She thought about asking but just lifted her hand in a wave and smiled instead as Becky and Rodney looked at each other, a look of love and understanding and of total oneness passing between them.
It was the kind of look that made her a little jealous. After all, she could have had that with Trevor, she was sure of it. But she’d been dumb and childish and immature in her youth.
They rode off, and Grace continued down the beach. As she thought about Becky and Rodney and mistakes she made in her past, she realized that she was spending an inordinate amount of time regretting her mistakes rather than learning from them. At that point, she decided that instead of just thinking about calling her friends, when she got home, she was going to look up their numbers and actually do it. She might not have made the best decisions when she was younger, but she could correct that now by trying to place the importance on other people that they deserved in her life.
That included Trevor, too, although she wasn’t exactly sure what that looked like, since she didn’t have to call him. She’d already spoken with him. But… Did that mean developing a relationship with him? Or keeping the relationship that they had platonic, so she didn’t make any major mistakes?
She wasn’t exactly sure, but one thing she was absolutely certain about, it was long past time for her to get over the past and to reach out to the people that she’d been avoiding.
Eighteen
“Did you talk to Gita since she had her physical therapy?” Trevor asked as he carefully glued another piece of wood onto the music box he was making.
“I did. She’s been cleared to go to kayaking. They still want her to take it easy, but they said the more she exercises, the better. They want her to stay active, and she told me that she thought that they were pretty excited that she was planning something as adventurous as a kayak trip.”
“Good. So we’re on for Friday then?”
“Sure.”
It was only two days away but felt like forever. It had been last Wednesday when they had last eaten at Gita and Grace’s house. He knew that it was going to be this week until he saw Grace again, unless he specifically asked her to do something else, but that seemed to go against what they had agreed on, which was to do the kayak trip next.
