Golden rays of sunlight were spilling almost horizontally through the not-quite-closed velvet draperies when he lifted her and tucked her close beside him. He lay there in satisfied exhaustion. "Cal?"
"Hmmm?"
"I never forgot you. Only who you were."
"Oh?"
"Every single day, sometimes many times a day, I saw you. Eyes as green as spring grass, hair like a storm cloud at night. I didn't know who you were, but I knew you were the only woman I could ever love. Folks told me I should marry, start a family, but I just couldn't. Not until I found you."
He heard her breath catch, knew why.
"I love you, Cal. I probably always have, but didn't have the sense to admit it."
She turned to face him. "I wanted to hear those words once, but a long time ago I realized something." Rising onto her elbow, she leaned to kiss him softly. "The words aren't important. What you did--marry me, when what you really wanted was to go questing for adventure--that was love."
THE END
About the Author
Among her varied careers are a couple Judith B. Glad actually chose, rather than falling into. With her children in school, she decided it was time for her to follow her own dreams, so she went back to school and studied botany. After completing her M.S., she became a botanical consultant, and spent the next twenty-odd years picking flowers for a living. Well, it was a little more complicated than that, but she picked enough flowers to keep her happy.
Consulting is not always steady work, so one slow winter Judith decided to spend a little time at her second career choice. Now she'd done a lot of writing as a consultant, but somehow describing proposed mine sites and interpreting statistical data wasn't the kind of writing she wanted to do. So she wrote a book. And another, and... Before she knew it, she was spending more time writing than picking flowers.
Judith lives in Portland, Oregon, where her garden blooms all year 'round and the long, rainy winters give her lots of time for writing. Visit her website (www.judithbglad.com) for samples of her stories.
* * * *
Uncial Press brings you extraordinary fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Put a world of reading in your pocket.
www.uncialpress.com
Squire's Quest Page 34
