Page 65 of The Lost Book of First Loves
He expected they would have rain by the afternoon. Why did soup taste so much better on a rainy day?
“I also have some homemade wheat bread from Jo, the housekeeper at the ranch. She is kind enough to make an extra loaf for me every week, since bread making is still outside my skill set.”
“I feel guilty having you serve me. You’ve been working all morning while I’ve been sitting on my butt. I can certainly heat up a bowl of soup.”
“I’ve got this,” he assured her. “You’re my guest.”
“A self-invited one,” she pointed out. “At least I invited myself over to watch you work.”
“And I invited you to have lunch. Relax.”
She looked reluctant, but took a seat at the table, watching as he pulled out a couple of large bowls from his cupboard and ladled soup into them.
“When I was in school, I used to make a big pot of vegetable soup every few weeks and freeze it in portion sizes,” she said. “I wouldn’t have survived without a microwave. It saved me from having to eat in the cafeteria every day for lunch when I was usually busy with homework.”
“Did you say you went to Cal Poly?”
“Yes. Track scholarship.”
“What event did you run?”
“A few different things. Mostly the four-hundred-meter and the eight-hundred-meter relay.”
“Impressive. You must be fast.”
She shrugged. “I used to be. Now I mostly run for my own enjoyment.”
“Sorry, but I can’t quite put the wordsrunningandenjoymenttogether. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?”
She smiled, though he thought it sagged at the edges. “I’ve always loved running, but I’m not sure how much I’ll be doing in the future.”
“Have your doctors said as much?”
“I haven’t talked to them about it yet.”
“Who knows? I wouldn’t be surprised if running is still okay, eventually.”
She sighed. “That possibility seems a long way off right now. I mean, at this point, I’m afraid to even go hiking on my own. I’m living in a gorgeous place with mountain trails constantly beckoning me and I’m too scared to venture farther than five minutes from the house.”
He looked up from ladling soup into a bowl for her. “Afraid of what?”
“Dying on the trail somewhere by myself, I suppose. And then being eaten by bears.”
He couldn’t imagine feeling that constant apprehension at the edge of his subconscious.
“First of all, the likelihood of you being eaten by bears is pretty remote up here. Coyotes, maybe. And the occasional turkey vulture.”
“Oh, well, that makes me feel better.”
He smiled as he set the soup bowl in the microwave to heat. “Second of all, why do you have to go by yourself? Ali would probably love to take you.”
“We did go for a drive in Carson’s Jeep yesterday. She showed me a series of waterfalls.”
“I know right where that is. Deer Creek. It’s a lovely place.”
“I was glad she showed it to me. But I can’t expect her to entertain me all the time. She’s supposed to be studying for the bar and she’s also working for her grandmother at the bookstore. I can’t rely on her for everything.”
He pulled out her soup bowl and set it down in front of her, along with a piece of bread he had cut from the loaf Jo had brought him.
