Page 130 of Blue Jean Summer

He chuckled. “Sweetheart, I wasn’t going to leave you to clean up everything. Besides, the faster we clean up, the faster we can get out of here.”

I let out a tired laugh. “No arguments here.”

The two of us worked in tandem, cleaning up the cottage while Hallie, Mason, Levi, and Zach tackled the outdoor stations.

It didn’t take long for us all to be done, but my feet were already aching. By the time we turned off the lights and locked up, I just wanted to crawl into bed.

Blanche and Dorothy were curled up together, snoozing in their shelter. But what surprised me most was Maisey and Elvis standing just outside the cottage door, outfitted to ride.

“Looks like we need to take a trip to the stables,” I said as I smoothed my hand up and down Maisey’s neck.

“Actually, I asked Mason to leave them up here so we could go on a ride.”

I turned around and found Hayes behind me. “I thought you’d want some peace and quiet.”

He chuckled. “I do. But there’s nothing that says I have to enjoy that peace and quiet alone.”

Since there was no mounting block out here, Hayes kept a steady hand on my back as I shoved my foot into the stirrup and swung my leg over Elvis’s back. There was a benefit to being tall, but I liked that he stayed close, just in case.

“You know, one of these days we’re going to have to take a ride during the day,” I said when Hayes had hopped onto Maisey’s back. We took off, heading across the valley.

He chuckled. “Maybe. But I like riding at night the best.”

“Why’s that?”

“The world is quiet. Everyone is settled. There’s nothing else that needs to be done. Nothing to distract me from appreciating the land and the stars. I love the stars.”

We rounded the outside corner of the rodeo practice ring and eased between it and the hunter-jumper arena. The racetrack was dark as we headed toward the east side of the estate, taking the long way around the property.

A hazy gold was cast across the valley as Hayes and I rode along the foothills, listening to the crickets and cicadas perform an evening symphony. The gentle breathing from the horses and the press of their hooves into the grass was the percussion.

“Summer’s halfway over,” Hayes said out of the blue as we neared Levi’s house. The lights were on, which meant he had probably gone home. “Time flew by.”

I melted into the slow side-to-side rock of the saddle. “I didn’t know what would happen this summer, but I definitely didn’t expect any of this.”

“You mean to tell me you didn’t plan on getting married this year?” he teased.

The two of us shared sheepish smiles. “Can’t say I did.”

“So, what’s next for the cottage?” he asked.

I loosened my grip on the reins. “I’ll be spending the next month working out the kinks in the program before the school year starts. I have a meeting next week with the instructors to build a monthly curriculum. That way we aren’t totally winging it. I mean, we’ll probably still be winging it for the first year, but this way there’s a method to the madness that we can tweak as we go and build on for next year.”

“And then what?” he pressed.

I released a breath. The sharp exhale floated into the universe, carrying my wishes. “And then I step back and trust the teachers to teach. I start looking at what works and keep raising funds to replicate what we did here in other districts.”

And I start a new job. But I didn’t say that part out loud. It was one of the two unspoken things that neither of us had the courage to bring up. My job, and the end of our marriage.

Maisey edged in front of Elvis. I hung back, watching the rock of Hayes’s hips as he rode comfortably. There was an ease about him that hadn’t been here at the beginning of the summer.

Maybe it was because he had worked through the early stages of grieving his granddad. Maybe it was because he had settled after the upheaval of leaving his home in Maryland.

But I wanted to believe it was because of something else.

“Do you think you’ll ever move back to Bethesda?” I asked.

“No.” His answer was quick and decisive. “This is where I’m supposed to be.”