"Harry, please slow down before you kill us." Anna says, grabbing at the handle above the window. I laugh at her reaction to riding in my old truck. She said it had been years since she rode in a car and that she could assure me that I was the worst driver she had ever ridden with. Of course, I just laugh and tell her she is crazy, I am a perfect driver... Okay, maybe not perfect, but still a decent driver.
"Oh, so now you're afraid of death." I tease, knowing she has a reason to fear for her life. If I was dead for as many years as her and I was given a second chance, I would protect myself from anything life threatening as well. Anna lightly punches my shoulder and turns away from me to look back out the window. I haven't yet decided where I am going to take her; it has to be special, something she would never expect.
"Are you ever going to tell me where we are going? Or am I going to have to continue my guessing game?" She looks back over at me, raising her brows. I take my hand and place my fingers over her mouth, whispering a 'shh'. Before I can retract my digits, she softly bites down on them. I yank my hand back and act as if I am badly hurt. She laughs, covering her cheeks so I don't see the tint of red they have become.
"Only been alive for a day and already inflicting pain." I act hurt at her, when I am obviously not. I find Anna's actions cute in a weird way. I guess it's such a nice and refreshing change to see her truly happy and so alive. I can't wait to spend more and more time with this amazing women.
About thirty minutes pass before I start to turn down a long gravel driveway. Anna raises her eyebrows and seems very suspicious and wary of where I am taking her. I place my hand on her thigh in a reassuring way, hoping she understands I would never mean to put her into harm's way.
"Please, just tell me where we are going." She whines, turning to face me with a pouty look.
"It's a surprise. I promise you'll like it," I try to sooth her wandering thoughts. I hope Anna will like where I am taking her, God, I hope she's not allergic or anything. Maybe this wasn't the best idea after all. The more I get to thinking about my choice of events for today, the more I seem to regret and fear them.
"A horse farm?" Anna asks, reading the sign and noticing the animals galloping through the field. I watch her reaction and just hope she likes what I had picked for the day. I really wanted to take her horseback riding, something I have wanted to do for years now, but never found the place or had the time to do so.
"It's been years since I've been on a horse. I've dreamed of riding again for oh so very long." I watch as her face lightens up and her smile stretches from one ear to the other. It seems I have picked the right place. I park the truck and we both get out, heading towards the area that has people companying it. I intertwine Anna's fingers with mine, bringing her close to me. After I pay and get saddled up, the instructor teaches us how to properly get on and off the horse and some basic knowledge and techniques.
"Alright, if you two will follow me, we'll get started on this trail ride!" Our male 'cowboy', as he insisted us to refer to him as, says. I laugh and try my best to lead the horse his way. Anna seems to be doing perfectly fine, and as with me, my horse, Samson, seems to have a mind of his own and doesn't want to play follow the leader. I continue to struggle for quite a while, but after a little while of riding he finally stops being so stubborn.
"This was such a wonderful idea, Harry." Anna leads her horse to ride side by side to mine. I smile over at her,
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." I truly am glad she is having a good time. I still can't believe she is alive. It's so strange and hard to believe, I mean I'm not complaining I'm just curious.
"You enjoying yourself there, Buddy?" Rick smiles, as he watches me begin to struggle again with Samson. I just laugh and flip him the bird when Anna isn't watching.
"Now, less than a quarter of a mile up here on your right will be a little campsite that we always take breaks at. There's a swimming hole, picnic tables, a fire pit and more." Our instructor announces, looking over his shoulder to glance at us. We both nod our heads and continue riding in that direction. After several minutes of bouncing around on Samson, we finally arrive at the campground. I get off, struggling and almost losing my balance, but thankfully I manage not to embarrass myself too much.
"This is where I'll be leaving you, but don't worry I'll be back in an hour or so." Rick says, leading his horse away from the campsite. I'm actually glad he is gone, now this way I can spend some quality time with Anna. We tie our horses to the nearby post, making sure to secure the rope.
"Isn't this place just lovely?" Anna looks about the open farm land, admiring the beauty of nature. I must admit the rolling fields and swimming hole looks so nice. I am so very lucky that I get to spend my day with such an amazing woman.
"It is. Would you like to go for a dip?" She quickly nods, saying,
"I'll race you!" Before I even have time to comprehend her words, she has already taken off like a bolt of lightning. I laugh and start to run after her, watching as her pale legs carry her body closer and closer to her destination.
"I won!" She announces proudly, stopping before getting in. I have to catch my breath before getting in. I will have to admit, Anna is a very fast runner and that, I guess, is a good thing. I actually thought I would beat her here, but she certainly proved me wrong.
"Yes, you won." I say, sliding myself into the cool water after ridding my body of the extra clothes. I watch as Anna pulls off my T-shirt and jeans, leaving her in some of her under garments. She dips her foot in, testing the water, before slowly emerging herself the rest of the way in. As soon as she is completely in, I pull her body close to mine, my lips meeting hers and everything else seems to fade away. When I am with her, my life feels complete and just whole, I wouldn't know what to do without her.
"It feels good to be alive, again." She smiles, pecking my lips before resting her head on my chest. I keep my arms wrapped around her body, keeping us both afloat. I wish I could stay like this forever, and since Anna has joined the mortal life again, maybe we could spend the rest of our lives together.
"I love you, Harry." She whispers, squeezing me. I hug her back and reply back with,
"I love you too, Anna." It seems like we stay this way for hours, but in reality we only spent an hour. Rick has finally came back and is urging us to get dressed and saddled up. Even though I dread it, I know we need to get home. The sun is beginning to set and the temperature is slowly dropping. we both get out and dry off the best we can, before putting our clothes back on. I take Anna's hand and lead her back to the horses. Once on the animals, we ride back the way we came.
"I'm so glad you brought me here, Harry." She thanks me, smiling while doing so. I am, too, glad I decided on coming here, because it turned out to be a pretty damn good day. After a while of riding, we finally make it back to the stables. We get off of the horses and thank Rick for being our instructor. I take Anna's hand in mine again and lead us back to my truck.
"I had so much fun today," she says, opening her door just as I'm getting in. I agree with her and shut my door. I grab my phone out of the console to find six missed calls from my mother. My eyebrows crease and I know something is wrong. Yes, my mother can be very overprotective and annoying at times, but she normally doesn't call so many times without a good reason.
"Is there something wrong?" Anna ask, looking concerned from the passenger side. I nod my head and say,
"Maybe... I'm not for sure. My mom called six times and she never really does that unless something is up." I explain, dialing my mother back. It rings twice before she answers.
"Thank God you called me back. Where have you been? And why didn't you answer me?" She immediately starts asking questions.
"It's a long story, just tell me what's going on." I decide it will be easy to tell her later of my events for today.
"It's your father, Harry..." She trails off and I want to hang up the phone so bad. She knows how much I hate my father and I have even wished him dead before. "I know you dislike him-" I cut her off,
"I don't dislike him. I hate him. He treated both of us so poorly and I will never forgive him of the things he has done." I can hear my mother sigh on the other end, but she needs to hear the truth. She already knew I hated his guts, but I guess she needed to be reminded.
"Well, I called to tell you he is dying. I am with him at the hospital, he really wants to see you and apologize while he still can." I cannot believe this! My mother, of all people is with that disgusting piece of a man? And she actually thinks that I give a shit that he is dying? I have wished him dead for years and I guess my wish is finally coming true.
"Why would you go see him after everything he has done to us?" She has no reason to be there. Yes, I know it's none of my business what my mother does, but she is crazy to be there.
"Harry, we must learn to forgive. I could never have moved on without seeing him again. He apologized for everything he had done to both of us and even as hard as it is for me to forgive this man, I knew I had to and I encourage you to do the same." I roll my eyes at her words and say,
"Have you been going to church again?" I am not against church or God, but it seems every time she attends the building she feels the need to constantly do the right thing, which isn't really a bad thing, but still, I will never be able to forgive my poor excuse of a father.
"Yes, but that has nothing to do with this." She raises her voice, obviously getting irritated with me. I glance over at Anna, noticing an odd look cast upon her face.
"I need to go." With that I hang up and turn to face her. "Is something wrong?" I ask, wondering why she looks so upset.
"Harry, go see your dying father." She speaks, with such a gentle and sweet voice, much more convincing than my mother's, but I still can't seem to have the ability to say 'yes' and go see him.
"I don't know." Is all I can seem to say.
| Authors Note |
I cannot believe there is only 3 more chapters left. I've been writing this story for so long and I've become attached to my own characters lol
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