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He got up and put away the fishing gear, not wanting to push his luck. Later, on the ride home, with Bridget and Molly dozing together in the back seat, Jonas felt a little lonely. He glanced in the rearview mirror at mother and daughter, swaddled in towels, with faintly pink noses and damp hair. The car smelled fishy, although he hadn’t caught anything. Must be the river water they’d mopped off their tired bodies at the end of the long day. The tubes bounced in the back, getting in the way of his view of the traffic behind them.
There were lots of other vehicles on the road, from new SUVs with expensive mountain bikes on roof racks, to ancient station wagons filled with happy kids and disreputable mutts who also looked happy, and every other kind of car imaginable. The drivers looked like dads for the most part, nominally in charge behind the wheel. Some families were just tooling along, some were singing or squabbling, but they all had the same look: like the people in them were connected to each other.
Something he wanted very much to happen for him and Bridget and Molly.
In the west, the setting sun was splintering pink and gold rays over the green mountains. A serene hush had settled over the valley. The air was still, the temperature cooling. Bridget felt the quiet peace close around her, but it brought no comfort to her troubled mind.
As much as she had tried to keep Jonas at a distance she thought was healthy for her and for Molly, he was always in her thoughts. She hadn’t been able to say no to his occasional invitations for family outings—they’d been on several. He’d kept things between them low-key and a lot less intense, for which she was grateful. But even so …
Bridget wandered to the pasture fence. In the stable, she could hear the rustle of the horses moving around in their stalls, the scent of hay drifting faintly in the air. Black-and-white Holsteins were grazing in the pasture meadow.
Her gaze swung to the hill rising on the far side of the pasture, Jonas’s land. For an instant Bridget thought she saw a flicker of movement near the top. Her heart did a crazy leap as she stared intently, but she could make out nothing. A sigh quivered through her.
Bridget hugged her arms around her middle to contain the lonely ache she felt inside. “Why did I have to fall in love with you again, Jonas?” She sighed.
