The Longest Ride

her later that night. “You don’t have to stay on the ranch. I’ll buy you a penthouse in Manhattan if you want one.”
    “Why would I want to live in Manhattan?” she asked, making a face.
    “It doesn’t have to be Manhattan. It could be anywhere.”
    She stared out the window, at the ranch where she’d been raised.
    “There’s no place I’d rather live,” she said.
    “Then how about you let me get things fixed up around here. Not piecemeal, but all at once.”
    She smiled. “Now that,” she said, “sounds like a first-rate idea.”
     

     
    “So, are you ready?” Sophia asked him.
    “For what?”
    After graduation, Sophia had gone back home to stay with her parents for a week before returning to North Carolina.
    “To tell me what happened in South Carolina,” she said, fixing him with a determined expression as they walked into the pasture in search of Mudbath. “Did you ride Big Ugly Critter? Or walk away?”
    At her words, Luke felt himself flashing back to that wintry day, one of the bleakest points in his life. He remembered walking toward the chute and staring at the bull through the slats; he recalled the current of fear surging through him and the taut bowstrings of his nerves. And yet, somehow, he forced himself to do what he’d come to do. He mounted Big Ugly Critter and adjusted his wrap, trying to ignore the pounding in his chest. It’s just a bull , he told himself, a bull like any other . It wasn’t and he knew it, but when the chute gate swung open and the bull exploded out of the gate, Luke stayed centered.
    The bull was as violent as ever, bucking and twisting like something possessed, yet Luke felt strangely in control, as if he were observing himself from some distant remove. The world seemed to move in slow motion, making it feel like the longest ride of his life, but he stayed low and balanced, his free arm moving across his body to maintain control. When the horn finally sounded, the crowd surged to its feet, roaring its approval.
    He quickly undid the wrap and jumped off, landing on his feet. In a replay of their prior encounter, the bull stopped and turned, nostrils flaring, his chest heaving. Luke knew that Big Ugly Critter was about to charge.
    And yet, he didn’t. Instead, they simply stared at each other until, incredibly, the bull turned away.
    “You’re smiling,” Sophia said, interrupting his thoughts.
    “I guess I am.”
    “Which means… what?”
    “I rode him,” Luke said. “And after that, I knew I was ready to walk away.”
    Sophia nudged his shoulder. “That was dumb.”
    “Probably,” Luke said. “But I won myself a new truck.”
    “I never saw a new truck,” she said, frowning.
    “I didn’t take it. I took the cash instead.”
    “For the ranch?”
    “No,” he said. “For this.”
    From his pocket he removed a small box, and dropping to one knee, he presented it to Sophia.
    He heard her sharp intake of breath. “Is this what I think it is?”
    “Open it,” he said.
    She did, slowly opening the lid and focusing on the ring.
    “I’d like to marry you, if you think that would be okay.”
    She looked down at him, eyes shining. “Yeah,” she said, “I think that would be okay.”
     

     
    “Where do you want to live?” she asked him later, after they’d told his mom. “Here on the ranch?”
    “In the long run? I don’t know. But for now, I like it here. The question is, do you?”
    “Do you mean, do I want to live here forever?”
    “Not necessarily,” Luke said. “I was just thinking we might stay until things get settled. But after that? The way I figure it, we could live just about anywhere we want. And I’m thinking now – with a major bequest or gift, let’s say – you could probably get a job in the museum of your choice.”
    “Like in Denver?”
    “I’ve heard there’s a lot of ranch land out that way. There’s even ranching in New Jersey. I checked.”
    She cast her gaze upward before coming back to him. “How about we just see where life takes us for a while?”
     

     
    That night, as Sophia lay sleeping, Luke left the bedroom and wandered out to the porch, relishing the lingering warmth from the day. Above him, half the moon was visible, the stars spreading across the sky. A light wind was blowing, carrying with it the sound of crickets calling from the pastures.
    He looked upward, staring into the dark reaches of the heavens, thinking about his mom and the ranch. He still had trouble fathoming