Riding the River (16 page)

Matt turned on his side to gaze directly into
Sarah’s questioning eyes. His own eyes softened as he drank her in
and he knew… He just knew…

“Everything…” he whispered back at her. Then
he closed his eyes.

Sarah knew it too. She smiled at him, reached
out to touch his face and then burrowed down into her sleeping bag.
She fell asleep quickly. Matt touched his own face where her soft
hand had been. He fell asleep smiling and dreamed of horses, green
meadows and a pretty girl with a horseshoe.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

When Sarah awoke the next morning, there were
wildflowers in a pretty bouquet by her bedroll. She yawned,
stretched and took a deep breath of fresh air before she noticed
them. Picking them up, it made her smile and blush that he would do
such a sweet thing.

Matt’s bedroll was empty, so he was up
already and doing whatever cowboys did first thing in the morning.
She was hoping she could get a fresh shirt from the tent before
going in to start breakfast. A quick glance at the closed tent told
her she’d better wait a while, until the occupants were up and out
of there.

She went into their makeshift kitchen area,
which was severely depleted now that Dale was gone. Coffee would be
campfire coffee and that was fine… Sarah got to work putting
together what breakfast she could. She’d grabbed a few boxes of
cereal when they were hurriedly picking things to stay behind when
Dale left. There was milk and fruit. Nothing was left from last
night’s excellent fish dinner, so breakfast would be sparse. By the
time other guests had roused and were moving around, Sarah had the
coffee hot and breakfast was assembled on a picnic table. They
could come get what they wanted.

“Hey, Sarah,” Richie called out to her while
crossing the campsite.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I need to get
a clean shirt and my hairbrush, Richie.”

He had the good grace to blush, before giving
her a big grin.

“Thanks for last night.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Your night out in the open couldn’t have
been too bad, however.” He smiled at her. “Didn’t I see you and
Matt getting cozy over by the stream?”

It was Sarah’s turn to blush.

“Breakfast is on the table.” She laughed and
started for the tent and her clean shirt.

By the time she got there, Tess was moving
around and changing clothes. Sarah opened the flap and peered
in.

“Have a good night?”

“Yes… Thanks to you. There’s definitely
something sexy about cowboys,” Tess purred.

“Could it be the sex?”

“… Can’t be beat, Sarah.”

Sarah laughed while changing into her clean
shirt. “Come on. You need to help me make the lunch sandwiches.”
She found her hairbrush and got her hair smoothed back into a
ponytail.

“What’ll we do about dinner tonight?”

“I’m hoping like crazy that we’ll make it
back to the ranch tonight. Otherwise, it’s fish and wild
berries.”

“There’s nothing left?”

“Not lots, but I suppose we could make the
fruit and bread stretch. It’s hard to be creative with food when
you don’t have much to work with.”

“You’ll make it work, I’m sure.”

They went off together to get sandwiches made
for lunch. All the foodstuffs left now had to be packed in
saddlebags on their horses. It was going to severely limit their
dining experience for the evening.

It was the third day of the horse drive and
everyone was getting sore and tired. It was hard riding fifteen to
twenty miles a day in the saddle. They didn’t have to chase the
strays any longer or keep the herd moving, but somehow they didn’t
seem to go much faster than they had with the herd.

The terrain could be difficult. Climbing up
the side of one small mountain, there was another hill to go over
before the rolling valley finally came into view. People had
definitely grouped by now… The cowboys generally hung out together,
the teenage girls were a group, several of the other guests stayed
together and Cooper was by himself. Richie, Tess, Matt and Sarah
made up the last group. They rode together for most of the day back
to the ranch.

Before the break for lunch, Sarah and Matt
were riding off by themselves. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to
him alone today.

“Hey…”

“Hey yourself…”

“Thanks for the flowers. They were lovely…and
my first.” Sarah tipped her cowboy hat at him, which made him
laugh.

“… Oh, come on, cowgirl. A man’s never given
you flowers before?”

“No…”

“Really?”

She shook her head. “Honestly…”

“Look, Sarah, I really don’t mean to pry,
but…”

“… But what?”

“I thought you had a boyfriend in
Baltimore.”

“Well, yes, I
had
one, but I broke up
with him before the trip.”

“Wait a minute… First, I want to know why he
never gave you flowers.”

“Ben’s not a romantic guy. He’s a lawyer and
a numbers person– political. Grandfather loves him.”

“Okay, now the next part. Why did you break
up with him?”

“…Apparently, you haven’t been listening.
He’s an unromantic lawyer who would never have left me a pretty
bouquet of wildflowers…”

“Did you love him?”

She thought about that for a minute.

“I might have thought so early on, but I
called him my absentee boyfriend for a reason. I never saw him… It
was a strange relationship.”

Matt shook his head. “I’d think so, if you
never saw him. What a waste…”

She knit her brows. “What was a waste?”

Matt gave her a leisurely look from her feet
to the top of her head. By the time he reached her face, she had
blushed scarlet.

“To have you and not want to spend any time
with you. The guy was seriously nuts…”

“I like to think so.”

The lunch break came and went, and with it
went many good moods. A quick look at the sky told everyone the
same story – a storm was coming and fast… Cooper rode up to speak
with Matt and Richie.

“We’ve got the river coming up and we’d
better make it across, if we want to get home tonight. What do you
think?”

Richie looked up at the darkening sky as Matt
shook his head.

“…Dunno, Cooper. It doesn’t look good. Maybe
we should camp on this side for the night and wait the storm out.
That river could get fast in a hurry.”

Cooper took off his hat and ran a hand
through his graying hair.

“I don’t like the looks of the weather, but
we’re almost out of food too. I’m thinking we should make a run for
it…”

“Our guests would probably prefer to starve
than drown,” added Richie. Cooper gave him a sour look.

“We’re going to go for it,” he decided. “Get
your group ready to make a fast crossing. I’ll tell the
others…”

Cooper turned his horse away from them and
rode quickly over to the rest of the guests and cowboys. Sarah and
Tess had questioning looks for Matt and Richie who rode back to
them wearing very serious looks.

“What’s up?” asked Sarah.

“The river’s ahead and Cooper wants to cross
it tonight,” said Richie.

“But the problem is that the river could get
nasty pretty fast with this storm about to hit,” added Matt.

As soon as he said that, lightning streaked
across the sky. A few minutes later, the sound of thunder boomed
overhead, spooking horses and riders.

Matt reached into his saddlebag. “Everyone
get on your ponchos. The rain will be coming pretty quickly now.”
As soon as they all got on their rain ponchos, the rain started
falling fast and hard.

“Yow,” grimaced Tess. “I didn’t know that
rain could hurt.”

“Pull up your hoods,” yelled Matt. He reached
over to pull Sarah’s up for her. “Let’s go…”

Everyone started riding towards the river.
The wind was blowing trees around and bushes back. A huge darkness
came over them as the sky took on a menacing look. With the
constant rain, the ground beneath the horses became slick and
slippery. The horses were struggling to go forward.

Suddenly lightning struck a tree close by
Sarah, splitting it in half. Sparks flew… Part of the tree starting
falling her way – Her frightened horse snorted and whinnied, but
moved quickly out of the way. It happened so fast that all Matt
could do was watch as Sarah’s horse pulled her to safety. They
looked at each other in fear…

Cooper’s group was in the river now, about
halfway across. The water was moving faster with the wind blowing
it and rising fast with all the rain coming down. Matt rode down
the bank first to make sure it was still all right to travel. He
motioned for Richie, Tess and Sarah to follow. They went down the
bank single file, while Matt’s horse cautiously stepped into the
water.

As they moved in deeper, the horses continued
to struggle with the water rising on them. Everyone was in the
river now and their legs dangled in the water. The horses kept
moving…

Cooper’s group had made it to the other side
of the river, when all of a sudden, Tess slipped out of her saddle.
Sarah saw her begin to slide and reached over to grab her. Both
Tess and Sarah fell into the river… Their horses struggled forward
without them.

Matt had seen them both fall out of their
saddles and had grabbed his rope. He started swinging it overhead
and lassoed both Tess and Sarah on his first try. Then he tied the
rope to the pommel of his saddle. Richie saw the whole thing as
well and trudged back to Matt’s horse to steady him. Matt plunged
into the water to grab both girls and hold them, as Richie walked
Matt’s horse back to shore, the way they came…

It was slow going with the rising river and
its quickening pace. Tess and Sarah’s heads dipped in and out of
the water time and again, scaring Matt. The freezing cold river
with its loud roar showed no mercy as they all struggled in their
long journey.

Finally, Matt dragged them both onto the
shore. Everyone was soaking wet, freezing and looked half drowned.
Tess and Sarah were coughing and spitting out water and looking
pretty bedraggled – Matt and Richie looked relieved. Richie waved
at Cooper on the other side to let him know they’d made it to the
bank. Cooper waved back…

“Okay, Richie. Get that tent out,” yelled
Matt as he tied up his horse. Richie nodded and soon they had the
tent put together. Luckily, it had a floor to it and the inside was
still dry. Matt and Richie got the girls into the tent and Matt
yelled for them to strip out of their wet clothes.

“Get your second set of clothes, Richie.”
Both Richie and Matt grabbed their dry shirts and jeans out of
their saddlebags and threw them inside the tent for Tess and Sarah
to wear. They unhooked their bedrolls and threw them inside the
tent as well. Then they waited in the pouring rain while the girls
changed and dried off a bit.

Tess was still crying and Sarah was patting
her on the back when the guys opened the tent flap and came in.
They dropped their soaking ponchos outside. Matt looked at Sarah
wearing his clothes and grinned. She gave him a stern look.

“What’s so funny? We nearly drowned.”

“Yes, but you didn’t, and you look cute in my
jeans and shirt.”

“… You’re soaked too,” said Sarah.

“Yeah, but I’ll just take off my jeans when
we go to bed.”

Richie went over to comfort Tess who was
hiccupping now, more than crying. Matt went to Sarah and spread out
the bedroll by her feet.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded. “Yes, thanks to you… That was
easily the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.” He saw the
uncertainty in her eyes.

Matt sat on the bedroll and pulled Sarah down
by him.

“Get comfortable. That storm isn’t going to
let up for a while.” He glanced over at Richie. “Let’s get some
sleep, if we can.”

Richie nodded and got Tess comfortable in his
bedroll on the other side of the tent. Soon they had snuggled up
together and were whispering.

Matt and Sarah looked at one another and
started to smile.

“Let me get in first. I need to get rid of
these wet jeans.” So he got in the bedroll and did just that. He
threw them in a corner. “Get in, Sarah.”

She didn’t hesitate a second. Sarah crawled
in the bedroll with Matt and they stretched out together. Matt
pulled her close.

“Lay back against my chest – I’ll keep you
warm.”

“I was so afraid, Matt,” she whispered.

“… Shh, honey. You’re okay now. Just relax
against me -- I’ve got you.”

“… Thank God for that…”

With his arms wrapped around her, Sarah’s
eyes finally began to droop and her body relaxed. Matt kissed her
hair and shoulders.

“You called me Matt,” he whispered,
smiling.

“Yes,” she said as she drifted sleepily.
“That’s your name, right?”

Soon all four of them fell asleep with the
steady staccato of the rain beating down on the tent.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Next morning, Tess and Richie woke up first
and got out of their bedroll. They glanced over at Matt and Sarah
cuddled up together, Sarah wrapped in Matt’s arms, both of them
sound asleep.

“About damn time…” whispered Tess. Richie
grinned at her.

They tiptoed out of the tent leaving Matt and
Sarah alone. About ten minutes later, Matt woke up thrilled to find
Sarah still in his arms. Neither of them had moved all night.

He kissed her ear. “Sleepyhead, wake up…”

Sarah woke and stretched deliciously. She
turned around in his arms so they were face-to-face, inches
apart.

“That’s hands down the best night’s sleep
I’ve ever had.” She smiled at him.

“With the rain beating a drum on the
tent?”

“Yes…”