From This Moment (6 page)

“Yes, that’s right.  Honey Bee is our gentlest horse and loves nothing better than to follow my lead.”

“Okay,” sm
iling, “A female I take it.... it looks a long way up there,” I say in a shaky voice.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be safe on Honey and I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

Moving in closer to me, he puts his arm around me and rubs his hand up and down my back in a show of comfort.  Moving away slightly, he helps me mount the horse.

Cade’s horse is a huge beast of an animal called King and he's black as the night.

After Cade has given me a brief lesson in how to hold the reinst cld the we head out along the trail to the side of the house.

We must have been riding for about thirty minutes when we come out of the forest of snow covered trees to a river.

Cade rides along side me, “Do you want to stop here for a short while?”

“Oh, that would be great,” thinking my butt could do with a rest.

Cade climbs off his horse, takes the reins from me and leads our horses over to a tree and tethers them to it.

Helping me down from the horse, “Are you okay to walk?”

“Yes, I think so.”
 I feel his hands tighten briefly on me before letting me go.

Stepping away, he takes my hand and leads me to a fallen tree close to the river.
  Taking a seat with his back against another tree, he pulls me down between his legs and puts his arms around me.  I snuggle into him on a sigh.

He always smells so good and having his arms around me has my heart pounding.
  I’ve become so attached to him since meeting him just over twenty-four hours ago.  Being in his arms feels like home, a feeling I haven’t had since my grandmother died.

~~ Cade ~~

Sitting here at my favorite place on my property with Rona in my arms feels like heaven.... and hell.  She’s snuggled into me with her face turned sideways against my chest.  As I place a kiss on top of her head I can smell the apple shampoo she obviously used this morning.

Lifting her head, she lifts her gloved hand and caresses down one side of my face, “I could stay like this forever.”
 

I place a kiss on her lips, “I don’t ever remember feeling as content as I do right now with you in my arms.”
 

Tightening my arms around her we continue watching the river.
  I notice two deer appear on the opposite side.

“Hey Rona, look over there.”
  I point towards the deer.

“Wow!
  A mommy with her baby.”

Trying to get a rise out of her, “They usually taste pretty good.”

Rona elbows me in the stomach, “No way are you going to kill Bambi.”

Laughing now, “I was only joking and I don’t allow hunting on my l>
  I briefly pull her tighter into me, and then start moving away.  “Come on, we better head back before we freeze our butts off.”

“C
an we do this again sometime?  Just the two of us?”

“Yes, I think that can be arranged.”

Unhooking the horses we head back to the stables having really enjoyed my time with this amazing woman.

~~ Rona ~~

Back in my room to shower before I head downstairs to help Cade with dinner, I decide it’s time to switch my phone back on.  I regret doing so; I’ve over twenty voicemails.

Lying on my bed, I start to sort through the messages and they are mostly hang ups or from Nick, which I delete without even listening to them.

After my shower, I decide to put one of my dresses on.  It isn’t really posh or special, but it’s comfortable and I want Cade to see me in something other than jeans.  The dress is lilac and made of a soft knit fabric which falls perfectly against my skin.  It has a sweetheart neck line with cap sleeves and I can’t wait to see Cade’s face when he sees me in it.

Not bothering with shoes, I glance one last time in the mirror and head downstairs.

I can see Cade in the kitchen and it looks like he’s made more of an effort as well.  He’s obviously shaved again and is dressed in dark blue slacks and a pale blue shirt; he’s one sexy guy, my heart’s pounding.  I walk towards him waiting for the moment when he sees me.

~~ Cade ~~

Turning around to grab the wine off the worktop, I stop dead.  Rona is walking towards me in a dress which highlights all her curves and doesn’t really leave anything to the imagination.  She takes my breath away.

Looking into her eyes, I can’t look away.
  As she walks around the breakfast bar towards me, I find my legs moving towards her, reaching out with my hands, I take hold of her arms in a caress.

“Wow, you look.... wow.”
  I’m acting like an idiot, but she really does leave me speechless.

Moving my hands slowly up her arms over her shoulders, smoothing my thumbs along her collarbone, I can feel her pulse throbbing, which probably matches the rhythm of mine.
 

Finally resting my hands lightly against her neck, I bring her into me for the sweetest of kisses.
  This isn’t about sex.  It’s a tender moment with whom I’m falling in love.

~~ Rona ~~

Cade’s kiss is so tender.  I realize I’m really falling in love with him.  He makes me feel as though I’m the only woman in the world; not even Nick made me feel like that.

Ending the kiss, we smile at each other, taking a step back and start to finish the meal.

“So Rona, if you don’t mind me asking, why did you pick Jackson Hole for your.... vacation?  I would have thought somewhere with plenty of sun, sea and sand?”

“I actually wanted to go to the Maldives, but Nick said there was no way he wanted to lounge around on a beach and that he couldn’t think of anything more boring!
  I guess I should have realized what a mistake I was making then and there, but I didn’t. I thought he was really selfish, he wouldn’t even compromise.”

“If it was me, I would take you to the ends of the earth if you asked.”
  Cade walks closer and smoothes his hand down the side of my face.

Leaning into him, I place a kiss in his palm and move away to pour a glass of deep red burgundy.

Tonight’s meal of Beef Casserole with rice is delicious.  We’ve just finished when Jake arrives back, having been in Jackson all day helping his friends move house.

“I hope you saved me some of whatever that was.”
 Jake rubs his stomach.

“Of course, you have a plate in the microwave.”

“Great, I’ll eat it now while you two have your coffee.  I need to shower and change; I’m heading back to Chris and Jo’s place for the house warming.  Hey, Rona, do you want to go with me?”

As Jake asks me this I can see Cade’s hand tighten around his cup of coffee.

“To be honest I’m still really tired.  My body’s still getting used to the difference in the time between Ireland and here.  If you don’t mind I think I need to pass and have another early night.”

“
Don’t worry, but I will see you around eleven tomorrow to take you into Jackson.” He continues shoveling food into his mouth.

“That would be great.”

~~ Rona ~~

After breakfast Jake was waiting earnestly to start our trip.  So after wrapping up warm and saying goodbye to Cade, who didn’t seem at all happy about me going out, we Ronhead into Jackson.

“So Rona, how do you feel about cable cars?”

Hearing Jake mention cable cars has my stomach rolling.  Although the views are usually worth it, I actually hate the thought of dangling above ground in a compartment being held up by a piece of cable.

“Err.
  You serious?”

Glancing at me then back to the road, “Yes, they have one in Jackson called ‘Big Red’.
  It’s actually an aerial tram and you’ll love it.  It holds a lot of people and takes about fifteen minutes to get to the top of Rendezvous Mountain and then you can experience the best waffles you will ever taste at Corbet’s Cabin.  Not to mention, you can see all the way down to Jackson Hole, Snake Valley River and Grand Teton National Park.  Absolutely amazing.”

I can’t help but laugh, “You sound like an advertisement!”

He grins at me, “Sorry, a friend of mine used to work in the office and he was always using the tourist spiel trying to get the girls to go up with him.”

I smile at him, “Did you?”

“Maybe,” he laughs.

“I think I need to warn you that the last time I went up in a cable car I was terrified.
  It was really windy and the car was swaying a lot.  Horrid experience.”  I shudder.

“Not to worry, I’ll take care of you.”

“I guess I can give it a try,” I say, with trepidation.

Arriving at the base of ‘Big Red’, Jake leaves me to purchase the tickets while I use the restroom.

On approach, I have butterflies in my stomach thinking this is a really bad idea.  Jake not realizing just how nervous I am, grabs my hand pulling me inside.

There are already about ten people on board.
  As the doors shut, I start taking deep breaths to try and calm down. 

All of a sudden, Jake is there, pulling me into his arms, “Hey,
it’s okay, everything will be alright.  Just keep taking deep breaths and I promise I won’t let go until we get to the top.”

Burrowing into his coat, I hang on for dear life as we start up the mountain.

After the longest fifteen minutes of my life, Jake leads me out of the tram on wobbly legs.

“Can we go and sit down for a minute?”

“Yeah, sure, come on, we’ll go to the waffle place.  You can have a coffee to bring some life back into you.  You look a bit pale.”

Once inside Corbin’s I feel much better, so sitting down with Jake, I have some waffles with syrup and a coffee.

“You are right these waffles are great!  I just hope they stay in my stomach on the way back down!”

Seeing the panic on Jake’s face, I start laughing, “Just kidding.”

“So tell me, why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

He throws a hot look in my direction, which no doubt usually gets him what or who he wants, “I’m trying to remedy that.”

I try not to laugh, “No seriously, is there no one around here?  You’re a nice, friendly, good looking guy; I can’t believe you don’t have a girlfriend.”

Looking away from me for a short while, “Yes, I did have a girlfriend.
  Elise.  I went to Texas for six months to help a friend out with some horses.  She didn’t want me to go, so broke up with me.  When I got back she was engaged to someone else.”