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“Well, I’m glad to be of service even if I felt like I didn’t do anything.”
She laughs. “I hope to see you around more.”
“Thanks. Take care of yourself too.”
I head out, and look around to see if I just spot Jack nearby. No such luck. I head toward the stables, where he was last. He’s not there, either, so I decide to take out Misty, one of the calmer-tempered mares. The ranch is pretty big, so if I had decided to look for Jack on foot, I’d be out until midnight.
The sun is setting, and I enjoy it even as I ride through the fields. I finally spot another horse. Jack is up on the bluff of his ranch, the one that overlooks the town below. I head over and hop off Misty.
“Catching the view before calling it a night?”
“Yeah.” He’s sitting down and leaning against a nearby large rock. “Remember to come enjoy this sometimes. It’s a reminder of what I have here and how it should be treasured.”
I take a seat beside him. “It is really nice.”
He looks at me. “What are you doing up here?”
“Just wanted to check in with you before I called it a night.”
“I told you that you could call it when you were finished with Sarah.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know. I just wanted to check in with you again.”
He chuckles. “Worried about me? On my own ranch?”
“I don’t know. I just... I just wanted to see you again? I’m sorry,” I say, pushing myself up. “That’s too familiar. I’ll head back.”
He grabs my hand. “You don’t have to.”
“You sure?”
“If you want to appreciate the sunset, I’d be happy to have someone to enjoy it with.”
I sit back down. “Then why not ask your fiancée?”
He goes silent for a moment. “Never thought about doing that.”
I laugh. “Really selling me on how deeply in love you are with one another.”
Jack sighs. “Sarah’s and my relationship is one of practicality. People don’t usually marry for political reasons anymore, but if some people back in the thirteen hundreds could suffer through it for their country's sake, why can’t we?”
“Suffer? Keep going. Tell me how much you love her.”
He shakes his head. “‘Suffer’ is too strong a word, yes, but that’s not the point. You’re a little shit sometimes, you know that?” He’s smiling as he says it.
“I can’t help it. Your whole engagement seems absurd.”
“It is. Through the eyes of a twenty-first-century person, marrying the daughter of your long-standing local nemesis feels horribly out of date. But it’s what needs to be done.”
The sun makes its final descent behind a mountain far in the distance. “So you’re just giving up on love? Just like that?”
“I thought maybe we’d work for it. Sarah and I like one another well enough. Sure, the passion is nonexistent, but you hear stories of the past. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. That’s an arranged marriage, but people ended up romanticizing it as some wonderful love story. Maybe we’ll end up the same way.”
“Just seems like a stretch to me.” I sigh, focusing on the sun instead of him in hopes it’ll keep dark ideas out of my mind.
“Plus, I’m old enough to look past just falling in love as all that matters,” he says, more wistful than before.
“You’re not that old, you know.”
