Olive Branch - Part Three

She felt a nudge, then a push and before realizing what happened, she was in his arms.  Pulling away back on her feet, she put some distance between them and turned around.  She stared into the big brown eyes of a chestnut thoroughbred as he nuzzled his nose close to her face.  She smiled and patted him gently, momentarily forgetting the man behind him, so when he spoke, not far from her ear in a deep voice, she jumped, almost falling back in his arms.

As they patted the beautiful gelding on either side of his neck, Roma learned that the mystery man owned a fleet of horses and ran a business giving trail rides to tourists.  His chestnut was named Aldo, after his father who started the business years ago, but didn’t survive to see it flourish.  His ranch was less than a mile away from her relative’s cottage and he knew them well.
As they walked together with his horse trotting obediently beside him, Roma had the urge to go on a trail ride.  They walked back to his ranch and he saddled up a black Pinto for her.  She leaned on his shoulder as he helped her climb up onto the filly and she tightly held on to the reins.  As she tried to direct her ride towards the trail, Lia bent down and began to graze instead.  Roma kicked, nudged, pulled on the reins to pull its head up, made clicking sounds, but nothing worked.  Her new friend, mounted on his gelding now rode up next to her and gave a gentle smack to her hungry horse on its hind and it obeyed.  They rode side by side as the trails were wide heading towards an open field that smiled with brilliant colors.

Roma spotted purple, yellow, and red wild flowers carpeting the open scape and wanted to roll in the midst of such beauty.  The air carried its perfumes to her nostrils mingled with earthy aroma of her companion.  They rode in silence listening to the buzz of nature around them, the soft padding of their horses’ steps, the sound of their breath, and rustle of the discarded foliage beneath them on their trail, which led them out of the open field into the woods lush with greenery.

The trees around them grew upward and sideway and diagonally with many climbing branches.  Tempted, she pulled on her reins and before her filly halted completely, Roma swung her leg over and jumped down with a thud.  She heard her friend jump off his horse behind her as she made her way towards a particularly intricately branched tree and proceeded to get to the top, one branch at a time.

He followed close behind and soon they found each other sitting side by side on a branch, their feet swinging high above the ground.  He reached out towards a bunch of leaves on the edge of the branch and plucked a green fruit to offer her.  She rubbed it on her sleeve and bit a big meaty chunk off, relishing in the sweet, tropical flavor, and chomping into the tiny seeds.  Her companion plucked one for himself as well and began to sink his teeth into the fruit in his hand.  They both sat together enjoying the sweetness and serenity, as their legs dangled 15 feet above the ground.

to be continued.....