Having a Think
 

Toni rode out with Travis to the high ridge he was going to work helping to move a herd from the pasture below them. She wanted to watch him.

Travis had become her everything and she loved him with her whole being. She’d been with him long enough now to recognize his faults, he was stubborn, spoiled sometimes unpredictable. But he was also very loving and generous of himself with her. He gave her what she needed.

She opened the bottle of water she’d brought and watched him ride cutting his horse in and then racing across the field after a stray. Sometimes it was hard to believe she was here and he was hers but he was, totally hers. She would never have to worry about him straying like she had with Richie. She would never be lost somewhere down on the totem pole, she was first with Travis and he made sure she knew that.

Tomorrow they would be flying to Sydney for a few days, Travis had business to attend to and she was going shopping with him. She smiled and dislodged a small stone with her toe, he wanted to buy her things, things she probably didn’t need but he wanted her to have. He also told her he was going to buy her a ring. She looked down at her bare left hand and thought that was something she would like to have.

She looked up to see him riding up the hillside.

“You looked awfully lonely up here by yourself,” he turned his horse and held him still.

“I was having a good think,” she looked up at him and smiled.

“Am I in trouble?” he asked tilting his head.

“No…you are loved.”

Travis dismounted, “come ride with me?”

“Okay,” she got up and dusted off her behind. Travis held her horse while she mounted up. She followed him down the hill side to the stream and rode beside him, “Where are we going anyplace special?”

“You’ll see,” he grinned.

Toni thought she knew where they were going and smiled. That secluded little place he’d taken her once before on his bike. That seemed a lifetime ago so much had happened since then. She’d been foolish enough to think Richie would change that something could be fixed between them. That was when she loved the idea of Richie but the reality was something else, something she couldn’t live with.

She glanced over at Travis he ducked his head under a leafy branch and she followed down by the stream to an overflow and the clearing. He dismounted and tied his horse and came around to help her with hers.

He led her over to a tree trunk and sat down. “We’ve not actually talked about this Toni but it’s on my mind a lot. When this year is over honey I want to marry you but I haven’t asked you so I’m doing that now. When we’re both free, will you marry me?”

Toni smiled, “Yes, I will, I kind of thought that was understood between us.”

“I think it was but I wanted to get it out here in the open, say the words. I told you I was going to buy you a ring, it’s not going to be just a ring it’s my commitment to you and when you accept it it’s yours to me.”

“I couldn’t be more committed to you right now if we were married. I love you Travis McGee.”

Travis took a breath, “I love you too but a year is a long time. I guess I’m the kinda bloke that likes things all tied up you know, contracts signed, bargains reached I don’t like things hanging out there subject to other influences.”

“Travis, you don’t have to worry about me. When I accept a ring from you I know what I’m doing. You are my heart there is nothing in this world I love more than you.”

Travis folded her into his arms and kissed her, somehow sending them off the log onto the ground.

“You know the last time I had you out here, I wanted to do this so bad but you weren’t mine. I feel like you are now.”

“I am completely yours and you Travis are mine.”

“That’s the way it has to be,” he kissed her deeply and loved her on the mossy creek bank.