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“Oh my. Look at their cute little feathered butts. I love how they walk. And their feet!” she squeals. “Can I pet them?”
“If they let you. They usually aren’t mean.”
Her smile gets big, and she turns to the ducks, walking over slowly. She kneels and puts her hand out. One of the brown ones waddles over to her, puts the tip of his beak on her fingers, then comes close enough that if she wanted to, she could hug it. She runs her hand down the duck’s neck and back and looks at me. That same smile that was there when she fed the pelicans is back, and I drink it in.
Her happiness is all I want.
I open the cooler and take out the little bag of duck pellets.
“Here. Now they will really come to you.”
Her eyes light up as she takes the bag. Once she pulls out a handful, she’s surrounded. She sits and sprinkles the food around her. She laughs and laughs as the ducks quack and eat.
I never want to forget the way she laughs.
Once the pellets are gone, and the ducks realize it, they leave. She stands and hands me the plastic bag.
“That was so cool. Now, I seriously can’t wait to have ducks someday.”
“You are going to make a great duck mom.”
We take our seats at the table, and I pull out the pot roast my mom made.
“That smells so good. It’s going to be nice to have a home cooked meal after so long of eating nothing but take-out,” she says.
“I agree.” I scoop some onto our plates.
“We have soda or wine as an option for drinks.”
“I’ll take wine.”
I pull out the smallest bottles of wine I think I have ever seen and take the cork out for her. It reminds me of drinking out of a glass coke bottle.
We eat, and Sarah mostly watches the ducks while I watch her. I want to burn everything about her into my brain.
“It looks like they are over us being in their area,” she says. The ducks have all gathered in the corner.
“Yeah, they are probably ready to roam free again.” I start packing everything back into the cooler.
“Let’s let them out,” I say.
She follows me to where the ducks are, and I lift the corner of the fencing and lay it flat. They waddle out quickly.
“Bye duckies.” She waves to them, and we walk back to the truck. I go to open her door and she turns to me.
“I don’t know what I did to get such amazing treatment, but I don’t think I can thank you enough.”
“You deserve it. That’s all,” I say and pull her into me. She steps on the tops of my boots and lifts onto her toes to kiss me.
Chapter 26
Sarah
Thehikeintotheforest wasn’t bad at all. Mostly flat, it just took a while to get to where we wanted to be, and it was so worth it. The view of the river is amazing. The way the sun shines off the water is mesmerizing.
I pull my binoculars up to my face to look along the cliff side. Chris told me there are Swallows along there. I try my best to see them, but they move so fast and when they stop, they go into a small hole in the cliff’s side. I take a step to get closer, not that it really makes a difference, and my foot slips from its place on a rock. My foot turns one way and I fall the other. My butt lands hard on the sharp rocks.
People around me gasp and ask if I am okay. I reach and grab my ankle because I notice now that it is throbbing. Chris kneels at my side.
