Chapter 14 #3
He’d owe the foreman some free labor for this, but Malcolm didn’t mind trading work around the ranch for free horse rental.
Ever since their encounter with the mechanical bull, Malcolm had been more than ready to face this fear and ride again. With his boyfriend and lover by his side.
Iggy needed a bit of help getting into his horse’s saddle and comfortable with the stirrups, which Malcolm adjusted.
Then it was time to mount his own ride. The horse stood there, looking bored with the entire production, and it hit Malcolm: what was he so scared of?
The accident had been his own damned fault, strutting around, instead of respecting the animal he was riding.
Taking reckless chances with his body, because his heart was still broken wide open, so why not break his neck, too?
But Malcolm wasn’t a young, angry fool anymore. He was a mature adult, ready to live a happy and safe life with Iggy and the rest of their combined families. Starting with a long evening trail ride.
He adjusted the gym bag strap so it didn’t impede him, and then Malcolm mounted his horse with more ease than he expected.
Iggy grinned at him, looking a touch silly with that floppy hat, but Malcolm had asked him to wear one without explaining why.
Not for fashion but to keep the light out of his eyes whenever the trail dipped west, toward the setting sun.
“We’ll be back before dark,” Malcolm promised Jake.
They crossed the creek heading east, past the line of visitor cabins. The Red Mountains were north, and their path took them northeast. Past vast swaths of rolling hills dotted with trees and rocky outcroppings. Redstone Ridge shone briefly in the distance, but they weren’t going that way.
Jake had told him about this spot, that it gave a spectacular sunset view, which was half the point of this adventure.
Not only to get them on their first horse ride together, something they’d wanted to do since they’d met, but also the sunset.
They’d observed dozens of them on their past camping trips, at all different times of the year.
Usually seen from near the creek. Those sunsets were familiar, if slightly clouded by the distance of time.
This would be a brand-new memory to share. A new thing to kick off the start of their new relationship. More daring than sitting on a mechanical bull that wasn’t even moving.
He clocked the large rock shaped like a horse’s head.
The spot should be around the next westward bend in the trail.
He glanced over to Iggy, who rode slightly behind Malcolm, allowing him to lead the way.
Neither of them had spoken much since beginning their journey.
There wasn’t a need. They didn’t have to fill the silences with small talk.
Existing together was the point.
The sun was dipping toward the rolling horizon, and when Malcolm followed the bend in the trail, he understood.
Iggy came up beside him, and he released a loud gasp.
A deep valley spread out below them, green and alive, with the narrowest blue thread of a random tributary cutting through on its journey southeast to join the rest of Snow Creek.
The golden sphere of the sun hovered above, and layers of the sky changed from pale blue to darker blue, and those gave way to deeper shades of red.
“Oh, wow,” Iggy said. “I never realized the ranch land was so beautiful. The closest to the wilderness I ever got was our camping spot by the creek.”
“It is beautiful.” Malcolm reached out, happy when Iggy immediately clasped his hand. Their horses stood quietly, waiting. “When I was young, this is the kind of land I used to dream of owning. A nice spread I could enjoy and work on, somehow make a living from. I lost that dream for a long time.”
“That’s the great thing about dreams, Monte. Even when we think we’ve lost them, we haven’t. Maybe they hide for a while, maybe we forgot about them under the burdens of adulthood. But they come back when we want them badly enough.”
Iggy held his gaze, affection blazing in his eyes and smile, both ignited further by the rays of the setting sun.
Malcolm could fall into their depths and never rise again, and he’d be all the happier for it.
Because those depths held the start of a brand-new dream, one that included Iggy by his side.
They’d both dreamed and lost, and dreamed again, only to lose again.
But Malcolm was determined to see this newest dream through to the end.
Nothing was perfect between them. They still had a lot of work to do, getting reacquainted, figuring out how their lives fit together now.
Their future might not be in Chance long-term.
But it was here for now, with their families, and their small circle of friends.
Malcolm wanted to meet Abigail, and he wanted Iggy to get to know Jake and Melissa, for their worlds to co-exist. And on this gorgeous, golden piece of land in the middle of the Colorado plains, the promise of that dream was more than enough.