The Longest Ride

“Since it’s my first time meeting her. I want her to like me.”

He turned and, surprising her, she felt him take her hand in his. “She’ll like you.”
     

     
    Before they’d even had time to close the kitchen door, Linda Collins turned off the mixer and looked first to Luke, then scrutinized Sophia before turning back to Luke again. She set the mixer on the counter, the blades coated with mashed potatoes, and wiped her hands on her apron. As Luke had predicted, she was dressed in jeans and a short-sleeved shirt, though the boots had been replaced with walking shoes. Her graying hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail.

“So this is the young woman you’ve been hiding, huh?”

She opened her arms, offering Sophia a quick hug. “It’s nice to meet you. Call me Linda.”

Her face showed the effects of years spent working in the sun, though her skin was less weather-beaten than Sophia had expected. There was an underlying strength to her embrace, the kind of muscle tone that came from hard work.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Sophia.”

Linda smiled. “I’m glad Luke finally decided to bring you over to say hello. For a while there, I couldn’t help but think he was embarrassed about his old mom.”

“You know that’s not true,” Luke said, and his mom winked before moving to hug him as well.

“Why don’t you get the steaks going? They’re marinating in the fridge, and it’ll give Sophia and me a chance to get to know each other.”

“All right. But remember that you promised to go easy on her.”

Linda couldn’t hide the mirth in her expression. “I honestly don’t know why he’d say such a thing. I’m a nice person. Can I get you something to drink? I made some sun tea this afternoon.”

“That would be great,” Sophia said. “Thanks.”

Luke flashed her a good luck expression before retreating to the porch, while Linda poured a glass of tea and handed it to Sophia. Her own glass was on the counter, and she moved back to the stove, where she twisted open a jar of green beans that Sophia guessed had come from the garden.

Linda put them in the pan with salt and pepper, along with butter. “Luke said that you go to Wake Forest?”

“I’m a senior there.”

“Where are you from?” she asked, turning the burner on low. “I take it you’re not from around here.”

She’d asked in exactly the same way Luke had on the night they’d met – curious, but not judgmental. Sophia responded by filling Linda in on the whos, whats, wheres, and whens in her life, though only in broad strokes. At the same time, Linda shared some details about life on the ranch, and the conversation flowed as easily as it had with Luke. From what Linda described, it was clear that she and Luke were interchangeable when it came to chores – both could do it all, although Linda mostly handled the bookkeeping and cooking while Luke did a bit more of the outdoor work and mechanical repairs, more out of preference than anything else.

By the time she’d finished cooking, Linda motioned toward the table just as Luke returned. He poured himself a glass of tea and went back outside to finish the steaks.

“There’ve been times when I wished I had gone to college,” Linda went on. “Or, if not that, at least had taken some classes.”

“What would you have studied?”

“Accounting. Maybe some classes in agriculture or cattle management. I had to teach myself, and I made a lot of mistakes.”

“You seem to be doing okay,” Sophia observed.

Linda said nothing, merely reached for her glass and took another drink.

“You said you had younger sisters?”

“Three,” Sophia said.

“How old are they?”

“Nineteen and seventeen.”

“Twins?”

“My mother tells me that she was happy with two, but my dad really wanted a boy so they tried one more time. She swears she almost had a heart attack in the doctor’s office when she heard the news.”

Linda reached for her tea. “I’ll bet it was fun growing up with so many of you in the house.”

“Actually, it was an apartment. Still is. But it was fun, even if it was a little cramped at times. I miss sharing a room with my sister Alexandra. We slept in the same room until I went off to college.”

“So you’re close.”

“We are,” Sophia admitted.

Linda studied her in the acute way that Luke often did. “But?”

“But… it’s different now. They’re still my family and we’ll always be close, but things changed when I left