Memory, Love, and Sunshine

  The first day I saw him he was lifting hay bales onto a flatbed on a truck. I was out for my afternoon run on the dirt road East of my house. He had his shirt off and his muscles bulged out like they were begging me to stare at them. His face was a mess and his jeans were torn. He was breathing hard as if with every step his body would want to quit. But the thing I won’t ever forget is his eyes. I had stopped to stare at him and then our eyes met. They were glowing in the sunlight and when he smiled his eyes were breathtaking. A part of me wanted to go over to him and tell him how hot and gorgeous he looked but I knew that it was a chance I wasn’t going to take. So instead I kept running, all the while wishing I’d talked to him.

 

Later on that week I was outside feeding my horses in the barn when I heard a car come up the driveway. I came out of the barn and saw him standing there about to knock on my door. I quickly looked at myself and realized that I didn’t look the best but he was right there and I had nothing to loose. So I went over to him and asked him, “Are you looking for anyone special?” He turned to look at me and again, I realized how breathtaking he was. “Um, is Danny Bishop home?” he said. “He’s my dad. And he’s out getting some feed for the horses.” I said staring bluntly at him. He sighed and I said, “Is there anything I can help you with?” He looked around a little bit and finally said, “I’m looking for some work to do this summer and I’d heard that maybe he’d be willing to hire me.” 

 

“He might but you’ll have to wait until he comes back to ask him. You can come inside and wait or you can come look at the horses if you want.” I said pointing at the barn as my thoughts wandered. “Well, it is pretty hot out so we can go inside if that’s alright.” he said. “Yeah, sure.” I said walking toward him. I opened the door and he followed me into our house. “So what’s your name?” he said to me. I walked into the kitchen to get some gatorade and answered him, “It’s Desiree, you want a gatorade?” He looked at me with a smile and said, “That’s cute, and yeah I’ll take a blue one. I’m Jack by the way.” I smiled too and handed him the gatorade. “Blue’s my favorite too.” Jack kept his smile as I pulled up the stool and sat near the island. He did the same as he said, “How old are you?” “Just turned Eighteen not too long ago, how about you?” “Twenty. Just graduated from the University of Iowa but I haven’t been able to find work for Electricians yet so I’m just looking for work on farms until I can land a job.” Jack said staring at my hands. “Oh, cool. I’m going to Kirkwood this fall.” “Nice. What for?” he asked just as dad walked into the kitchen. “Hey dad, this is Jack.” I said before I could answer him. Dad gave me a weird look and I realized that he maybe thought that I just brought a guy home for him to meet, which was kinda weird cuz he knew I was with Eric. “He has something to ask you.” I said more assuring but I guess that didn’t help his thinking either cuz he just looked at me with even bigger eyes.

 

I left the house letting them settle this and I went to the barn to finish my chores with the horses. I then remembered I was already finished so I decided to go for a ride. I went over to Reese’s stall and got her riding things. I saddled her up and let her out of her stall. I got up on her and headed for the pasture behind the house. I let her run and I just let my hair fly with the wind. I slowed her down and walked slow so I could think. I felt foolish for fawning over Jack when I had Eric. Eric and I had been together since we were sophomores...why would I want to throw that away? But, Eric was acting weird lately. He seemed to almost never want to talk to me lately and when I tried to kiss him after school he pulled away. I felt sick to my stomach thinking about him breaking up with me. He was the love of my life for sure, and I don’t know what I’d do without him. 

 

I rode back to the house to see what dad had said to Jack. Just as I rode up my phone buzzed in my pocket. I got off Reese and checked my phone, text message. I put it back in my pocket and led Reese to the barn. I took off her saddle and stuff. I let her in her stall and kissed her forehead. I petted her main softly and closed the stall door. I then checked my message on my phone. It was from Eric, it said: Meet me at the cafe in an hour. Have something important to talk about. And that was it. No smiley, no love you, no miss you or anything like usual. I got a sick feeling in my stomach and just shook it off because I knew it was just probably because he was so stressed. His parents were getting a divorce and the whole college thing with him wasn’t going so well.