Clarke knew she had a lot to learn when she agreed to work on Woods Ranch. What she didn't know was that, in addition to horseback riding and cattle corralling, she'd be learning about love.
Lexa had zero tolerance for her new, inexperienced ranch h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Even though Clarke had grown up in a city, she found that city life didn't agree with her as much as it used to. There was traffic no matter the time of day. Honking cars and rushing busses replaced the sound of chirping insects and gusting wind. Everyone passed each other in the street and in the store without even a friendly nod.
It took all of two seconds for Clarke to miss Polis, with its main street and small shops where everybody seemed to know everybody else. Despite not even wanting to meet new people or make friends, Clarke had been won over by the locals' easy smiles and curiosity about what had brought her all the way out there.
As autumn came over Fort Collins, Clarke reminisced about how fresh the air on the ranch had been, how it had filled her lungs with a marvelous crispness as the few trees on the ranch dropped their leaves. She remembered the awe she felt when she could turn in every direction and see only hills of grass and a never-ending, open sky. She couldn't smell sage anymore without being transported back to the ranch, how the entire world seemed to come alive with it when the sagebrush bounced back after the long winter. Even the smell of fertilizer reminded Clarke of the ranch, as if she hadn't already seen and smelled enough cow manure to last her a lifetime.
Clarke was trying her best to settle back into a normal life. She threw herself into her classes and part time research job but was still surprised at how much she had forgotten in just a year away from school. Luckily, it meant that she only had to work harder and study longer than her classmates, which helped keep her mind off of--
Lexa.
Even just thinking about her sent a twinge of longing through Clarke. No matter how hard she studied, Clarke's mind was never that far from Lexa. It didn't matter that she could be reading about ruminant digestion or pulmonary ventilation, Clarke would be struck with random thoughts about her. Memories of them riding out to the cattle. Daydreams about how Lexa would come up behind her while Clarke was cooking and wrap her arms around her middle, resting her chin on Clarke's shoulder. Longing for Lexa's lips, her tongue, her touch, that would come over her at the most inconvenient times.
It didn't help that they were both insanely busy. Lexa was somehow managing the entire ranch on her own, and Clarke had to rush to class and work and wasn't free until late at night. She wished that Lexa had a cell phone so she could just text her whenever she had a free moment. It would make things so much easier, having that constant line of communication, so that every time Clarke thought of her, she could let her know. Clarke had taken to sending Lexa short emails instead, and while it worked for Clarke to let Lexa know she was thinking about her, there was no way for Lexa to reciprocate. She had no cell service at all, and no internet until she finally returned to the cabin after a long day's work. Clarke didn't want to complain, since there was no way for Lexa to be able to communicate with her more often throughout the day, but it was hard for Clarke not to hear from her at all until evening.
But they were making it work as best they could. They emailed every day, called if they each had an extra few minutes, and Sundays were their day to really catch up. And as promised, Lexa had managed to install a webcam onto her computer, even if it had taken her a solid twenty minutes to get the microphone to work. Clarke could only laugh as she watched a silent Lexa becoming more and more frustrated at her computer. After that, they tried to Skype once a week, but it only made Clarke feel more dissatisfied. Being able to see Lexa and hear her voice but not being able to touch her was torture.
