“I’ll make anything you want. As long as it’s burgers, steaks, or pork chops.”
She leaned closer. “So what’s next? Would you like to risk our luck and go to a frat party? I’m sure they’re getting going about now.”
“What about Brian?”
“We’ll go to a party at a different house. One he never goes to. And we wouldn’t have to stay long. You might have to ditch the hat, though.”
“If you’d like to, I’m game.”
“I can go anytime. I was asking for you.”
“What are they like?” he asked. “Music, a bunch of drinking college kids, that kind of stuff?”
“Pretty much.”
He thought about it for a second before shaking his head. “It’s not really my thing,” he admitted.
“I didn’t think so. We could always do a tour of the campus if you’d like.”
“I think I’d rather save that for another time. So you have to go out with me again.”
She traced her finger around the rim of her water glass. “Then what do you want to do?”
He didn’t answer right away, and for the first time, he wondered how different things might be had he not made the decision to ride again. His mom wasn’t happy, and frankly, even he wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but somehow it had led to a date with a girl he already knew he’d never forget.
“Are you up for a little drive? I know a place where I can promise you won’t see anyone you know. It’s quiet, but it’s really pretty at night.”
Back at the ranch, the moon lent a silver wash to the world as they stepped out of the truck. Dog, a blur in the darkness, came racing out from beneath the porch, stopping at Sophia’s side almost as though he’d been expecting them.
“I hope this is okay,” he said. “I wasn’t sure where else to go.”
“I knew you were bringing me here,” Sophia said, reaching down to pet Dog. “If it bothered me, I would have said something.”
He motioned toward his house. “We could sit on the porch, or there’s a great spot down by the lake.”
“Not the river?”
“You’ve already been to the river.”
She took in the surroundings, then turned to him again. “Are we going to sit in chairs in the back of the truck again?”
“Of course,” he said. “Trust me, you wouldn’t want to sit on the ground. It’s a pasture.”
He watched as Dog began to circle her legs. “Can we bring Dog?” she asked.
“Dog will follow whether I want him to come or not.”
“Then the lake it is,” she said.
“Let me just get some things from the house, okay?”
He left her, returning with a small cooler and some blankets beneath his arm, which he loaded into the back of the truck. They got in, the engine coming to life with a roar.
“Your truck sounds like a tank,” she shouted over the noise. “I don’t know if you’re aware of that.”
“Do you like it? I had to modify the exhaust system to make it sound the way it does. I added a second muffler and everything.”
“You did not. No one does that.”
“I did,” he offered. “Lots of people do.”
“People who live on ranches, maybe.”
“Not just us. People who hunt and fish do it, too.”
“Basically anyone with a gun and a passion for the outdoors, in other words.”
“You mean there are other kinds of people in the world?”
She smiled as he backed out, turning onto the drive before heading past the farmhouse. There were lights blazing from inside the living room, and he wondered what his mom was doing. He thought then about what he’d said to Sophia and what he hadn’t.
Trying to clear his thoughts, he rolled down the window, resting his elbow on the ledge. The truck bumped along, and from the corner of his eye, he could see Sophia’s wheat-colored hair fanning out in the breeze. She was staring out the passenger window as they rode past the barn in comfortable silence.
At the pasture, he hopped out and opened a gate before nosing the truck through and closing the gate behind him. Turning the beams on high, he drove slowly to avoid damaging the grass. Near the lake, he stopped and turned the truck around, just as he had at the rodeo, and shut down the engine.
“Watch where you step,” he warned. “Like I said, this is part of the pasture.”
He opened her window and turned on the radio, then went around to the back of the truck. He helped Sophia climb up before setting up the chairs. And then, just as they had less than a week earlier, they sat in the bed of the truck, this time with a blanket draped over Sophia’s lap. He reached for the cooler and pulled out two bottles of beer. He opened both, handing one to Sophia, watching as she took a sip.