Page 75 of Worth the Fall
I twist my head back to face her, and she’s resting her cheek against Maple with her hand still on the saddle horn. “Thinking about how much I love you.”
“Seems like you’re always thinking that,” she says, a teasing glint to her eye.
I move a step toward her, and another, and let my hands fall to her hips. “Busted.” I drop a slow kiss to her lips, and when she whimpers, rising on her toes to deepenthe kiss, I tighten my grip on her hips and lift. She squeals, hands flying out to grip my biceps as I lift her up and sling her leg over the saddle.
She lands on the saddle with a slight oof, and then she freezes, hands locked on the reins waiting to see if Maple freaks.
But my other girl simply twists her head, waiting to see what the next move is, and when Holly realizes that she can handle it, she laughs, her head falling back and face tilted to the early summer sky.
She reaches down, stealing the cowboy hat off my head and places it on her own. With a soft click of her tongue, Maple starts walking, and Holly’s body slowly begins to relax. Her hips move fluidly in the saddle, like she’s been doing this her entire life.
I watch in admiration as she takes a few solo laps around the yard, one hand holding my hat in place while the other leads Maple with a tug on the reins.
If you would’ve told me a year ago that on one of my more frustrating days, in one of the harder seasons of my life, I’d be lost on the city streets of Des Moines in the dead of winter and crash into the love of my life, I wouldn’t have believed you.
But just like the seeds we plant every spring, they only thrive once they’ve cracked under the pressure of the dirt.With their shell splintered and broken, they fight for their way toward the light to be born again, this time a little stronger. Right in front of our eyes they transform into something better, more beautiful, and as I watch Holly turn Maple so they can head back to me, I’m thankful for that damage, for the initial fall that led her to breaking. Because the version that’s on her way to me is the version she was always meant to be.