"I been thinkin about you."

His voice was like a warm blanket to my wet, ragged soul that day. I sank into the seat of the truck, listening more to the sound of his voice than his actual words. To say it was a one sided conversation was an understatement, but at the moment I didn't care. He was the bright spot in a dismal day, the light breaking through the clouds. I felt tears sliding down my cheeks as he told me about his day, that he'd spent the day in the rain doctoring sick steers, trying to get his young horses rode and not get his head stuck in the mud. The tears didn't come from anything in particular, I suppose they came from relief at not being asked about my own day. I knew I'd break down if he did ask how things had gone for me that day, and he was the last person that I wanted to let in on the gloom and doom cloud that hovered around me when he wasn't around. His words were still warming me from head to toe, telling me how much he was looking forward to the next time he saw me, how he was excited for this weekend. That snapped me out of my temporary lull, I couldn't remember what this weekend was! I heard him chuckle as he asked if I forgot our first date already, which sent me into a panic.
"No I didn't forget, uhm, I was just testing you," I tried to cover the mental slip as best I could, but it was a wasted effort. His laugh rolled through my ears, it was infectious. I caught myself giggling right along with him, smiling for the first time in what seemed like days. Well, since the last time I'd seen him anyway.

"I'm up in the slack at Hawthorne, your dad said he'd bring you along with him so we could have supper that night," his words were precise, he'd had it planned out for awhile it seemed. It annoyed me slightly that my father had so much of a hand in planning our first date, but on the other hand I was glad for his approval. I knew how hard life would become if Dad decided he didn't like this guy, and I couldn't admit to myself that I didn't want to stop talking to him or seeing, and that scared me a little.

Within the scope of a sentence, my entire week changed. The next morning was an amazing, beautiful experience. I didn't sleep well most nights, but for some reason I'd been able to rest enough that I wasn't so exhausted I couldn't function that morning. The rain had given everything a refresher-the grass was a dazzling emerald, the air had a tangible tang of freshness to it. The sky was touched with tinges of red shot through with a brilliant orange that stretched from on endlessly, erasing any memory of yesterday and the monotonous downpour. A brisk breeze gently rocked my mother's baskets of purple and white petunias on along their perches on our porch, swaying them this way and that with the wind. There were more birds out this morning than I could remember there being in the last few weeks, it was just one of those mornings that was almost surreal. The breeze was so brisk it almost put a chill in the air, and that added to the miraculous freshness of it all. On top of it all, I had something to look forward to. A guy that openly told me how excited he was to spend time with me, that told me how much he liked spending time with me...that my dad approved of. My day was night and day different from the one before.

Where time had rolled as fast as molasses from a cold mason jar the day before, today they flowed as easily as the warm rays of sun that lit my day. My horses caught my mood that day, they were an extension of my excitement. Responsive to the slightest touch, they reacted to my slightest cue before I could finish asking them. Life just seemed right that day, like everything was falling into a place that was more natural than not. Things had been so dark lately with all of the mess over losing Jace and fighting over Juice that I had let myself fall into a rhythm of disappointment and darkness. My knight on the gray horse had truly turned my life around in a span of less than a week, with no more than his sweet words and promises of better days.