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She grinned at him, danced ahead of him, and turned around. “All right. I’m gonna go check the cupboards for some of those gross granola bars. You find us a shady spot to sit, and I’ll come find you.” They’d done this before, because Gerty could open cabinets and sneak through a house without leaving any evidence that she’d been there.
Gerty hurried off to do that while Mike laughed at her, and as she entered the cabin which had sat dormant for the winter and spring, she couldn’t help feeling like a new door had just opened in her life. Sure, maybe she was like this cabin. Maybe she needed some TLC after a long season of darkness. Maybe she needed to be aired out and cleaned up. Maybe she needed to get a coat of fresh paint and some new curtains.
Maybe then, she’d be all fixed up to fall in love again.
As she searched through the empty cupboards, she wondered how many other women Mike had kissed. She wondered if he’d ever been in love. She wondered if God had really brought them back to this farm, at this time, so they could have their second chance.
Empty-handed, she left the cabin and started looking for Mike. There was only one thing to do—well, two really.
Heal. Gerty needed to heal first.
Then, she’d find out if she and Mike could take the fire between them and hold it in their hands without getting burned.
3
Mike managed to get to the ground, the long grass softening the blow to his knees when he dropped. Thankfully, Gerty wasn’t here to see that. Quick humiliation ran through him as he rolled onto his hips and scooted backward until he could lean against the truck of the thick cottonwood tree.
In only a few months, the leaves would turn the hills where the farm sat a vibrant rainbow of gold, orange, pink, red, and everything in between. His favorite trees were aspens; he loved the white-barked trunks and their leaves couldn’t be beat in the autumn.
A sigh slipped out of his mouth. How he’d missed the mountains and the trees. They settled something in his soul and spoke to him in a way a cot and a tent and a helicopter couldn’t. He’d felt at-home in the cockpit too, whether he was pilot or co-pilot. This was just…different.
Slower. Calmer. More peaceful.
“Nothing,” Gerty said, and Michael opened his eyes to see her walking through the grass toward him. It seemed to part for her as if she were Moses himself, leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea to save them from certain death.
He smiled up at her, wondering if she could rescue him the way Moses had rescued his people. “Whatcha got in your hands then?”
Her sigh wasn’t as peaceful and slow as his as she got to the ground and folded her long legs under her crosswise. “I always have a snack in my saddlebag.” She looked at the wrapped items in her bag. “I think these are actually from a flight I took at some point.”
She looked up, and Mike wanted to push pause on his life and live inside this moment for a very long time. Gerty wore an expression of vulnerability, and he didn’t get to see that very often. She was somewhat of a hothead, and she’d always been crystal clear on what she wanted from him and what she expected from him, even as a teenager.
He couldn’t pause life, so her face changed in the next moment, and he took the bar from her. “Pumpkin seeds and sea salt chocolate?” He frowned. “This sounds like a punishment, not a snack.”
She started to laugh, the sound light and airy at first, then gaining strength as it morphed from giggling to laughter. Still, she ripped open her package and took a bite. “I like them.”
He watched her take a bite, and she didn’t grimace or wrap up the bar again. Instead, Gerty gave him that smile that reminded him of when he was a teen, working this farm and missing his parents and siblings so very much.
He suddenly felt lighter than he had in a decade, and he relaxed back into the tree. She slid closer to him and said nothing as her leg touched his. He gripped the bar in his right hand and ripped it open with his left. Gerty didn’t watch or offer to help him, the way his momma would’ve.
She simply sat with him, and she only turned toward him when he said, “Okay, here I go.”
That beautiful smile returned, giving him courage to take that bite. The chocolate and salt hit his tongue first, and the seeds actually had a really nice, creamy texture against the oats and granola, which was packed together tightly so it didn’t crumble the way some other bars did.
He nodded as he chewed, pleasantly surprised. “This is great.”
“See?” Gerty took another bite of her bar. “I think I got them when I flew home from Calgary. Or to Montana.” Her face fell. “When I flew from Calgary to Montana.”
Mike’s heartbeat skipped and stuttered. He didn’t like seeing her unhappy, and he couldn’t do what felt natural: reach over and hold her hand. She sat on his left, so he could definitely touch her easily—if he didn’t have the granola bar in his hand.
He quickly stuffed the rest of it into his mouth and lifted his arm around her shoulders. Gerty melted into his side as easily as she always had, and they took a deep breath together.
She’d said things were so loud inside her head, and Mike didn’t want to add to the noise there. Her momma and daddy probably had a lot of questions for her, the same way he did. He figured he had all summer to get the answers, and probably longer.
He finally finished chewing the granola bar, and he pressed his shoulders as far back as he could get them. Gerty shifted, but he said, “Don’t go.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Not really,” he said. “I just don’t like hunching forward over it.” He looked down at her to find her gazing up at him. He’d kissed her under this tree before, from this exact position, and he wondered if she was thinking about that.
