Julianne hadn’t been to Alec’s place in years.

She made a wrong turn off McKelvey Road twice before she finally got it right, and a cloud of dirt rose in her wake as she made it to the property and headed toward the stables.

She saw Alec as she climbed out of her car, and the long-ago scent of horses and stables tackled her before she reached him.

“Julianne?” he called out with a laugh, and he jogged toward her. “I haven’t seen you in ages! You look great.”

“Good to see you, Alec,” she said, and they exchanged a hug.

“You looking for Will?”

“Is he still here?”

“Yeah,” he said with a sideways nod. “Riding up on the ridge.”

“Ohh. Any idea how long he’s—” Julianne tripped all over her words when she noticed the woman heading toward them. “Is th—that … Alison?”

“Hi, Julianne,” she said. “Great to see you again. You must be looking for Will.”

“O-oh, so I guess you’re here … with … him.”

“Oh!” The light dawned quickly and Alison grinned at her. “No! I’m not here with Will. I’m here … with Alec.”

Julianne’s thoughts muddled again, and her legs felt like mush.

“Alison and I are … friends,” Alec explained.

“You are? Does Will know?”

“Of course. Here, let me saddle a horse for you,” Alec offered. “You can ride up to the ridge and talk to him.”

“Oh! Oh, no! No!” Julianne began wringing her hands, and her feet unexpectedly transported her two steps backward. “I don’t ride horses. I don’t … No!”

Alison moved next to her and placed an arm around her shoulder. “Will told me you’re like the Animal Whisperer. You can certainly master a horse.”

“No!” And she flew back another couple of steps.

“Why don’t you put a saddle on Eeyore,” she suggested to Alec. Turning back to Julianne, she explained, “Eeyore is a very slow-moving, older horse. You’ll do fine.”

“No! No. Please.”

Alec jogged off toward the stable, and Alison faced Julianne with a serious expression.

“Will told us that the two of you had a falling-out, and I think he’s pretty torn up about it. You came over here to go after him, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then climb up on that horse and follow the trail to the top of the ridge. That’s where you’ll find him.” When Julianne just stood there, shell-shocked, Alison shook her gently. “You can do this.”

Alec led a saddled gray horse toward her and plopped a step stool to the ground. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll help you up.”

Julianne gazed into the distance, searching, searching for some sign of Will. “It’s okay. I’ll just wait here. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

“Julianne!” Alison reassured her. “You can do this. Come on. Take my hand.”

She absently allowed Alison to lead her by the wrist toward the horse while Alec steadied the step stool with his foot.

“Left foot in the stirrup,” Alison told her evenly. “Then lift your right leg over the saddle.”

She started to follow the directions, and then she paused and smiled at Alison. “I see why you’re so good with children.”

Alison chuckled. “Here. Hold the reins like this.”

It took three tries before Julianne plopped into the saddle and squealed, and she held the reins so tightly that her hands ached.

“Hi, horse. How are you? I’m Julianne. Please don’t hurt me.”

Eeyore whinnied, and Julianne screamed like a swimmer in the sights of a twelve-foot gator.

Will’s eyes had been closed for a long time up there on the ridge. On his knees under his favorite elm tree, he asked the Lord to give him wisdom and guidance, and most of all grace. He didn’t know how the situation with Julianne could possibly be resolved, but God knew. And he wanted more than anything to trust Him with it, so he laid it all at the foot of the throne and worshiped the God who turns very crooked roads like this one into straight and smooth boulevards. He gave his love for Julianne over to the Lord of the universe. Then he shifted to sit on the grass, his back pressed against the tree, and his head tilted up toward the very blue Ohio sky.

Yeah, his eyes had been clamped shut for a very long time. So when he saw … what he thought he saw … out there in the distance, he had to blink several times. Very hard. And he blinked again, shaking his head like a wet dog.

When the sound of Julianne’s screech reached him, it acted like a pinprick that catapulted Will to his feet. What on earth was she doing … on a horse?

“Will, help me!” she cried when she saw him, her face contorted and her mouth wide open. She held Eeyore’s reins in the air with both hands, her arms stiff as rigor mortis. “He’s not listening to me. I think he’s trying to throw me off! Help me!”

Will clicked his tongue a couple of times, and Eeyore headed straight for him. He tried to take the reins, but Julianne had them in a death grip and couldn’t seem to let go.

“Jules, what are you doing?”

“I’m … riding a horse, Will.”

“I can see that. Why?”

“Because,” she said, prying her fingers from the reins, “I needed to talk to you, and Alison didn’t think it would be romantic if I drove up the trail in my PT Cruiser. Personally, I think it would have been fine.”

Will’s heart leapt inside his chest, leaving a hollow sort of ache where it had been.

“This is you being romantic?”

“Well. It’s me trying. How do I get down?”

“Oh, you don’t,” he teased. “I just need to take this in.”

“Will!”

With a laugh, he opened his arms to her and she slid straight into them and allowed him to pull her out of the saddle. It didn’t go as smoothly as he’d imagined, and she kicked Eeyore in the belly on her way. The horse whinnied, Julianne screeched, and the two of them tumbled to the ground as Eeyore galloped away.

“He’s getting away!” she whimpered as they lay there on the ground.

“He knows his way back,” he reassured her, and Julianne began to giggle.

“Can you imagine Alison and Alec’s faces when my horse returns without me?”

Will smoothed her honey-blonde hair and gazed into her glistening sky-blue eyes.

“What are you doing here, Julianne?”

“Oh,” she said, pushing herself upright. “Well, I thought you were making fun of me last night, and then I talked to your dad this morning—”

“Oh … no.”

“—and he told me that you were serious, that you were just telling me what you’d wanted to tell me since before I shaved my legs for the first time.”

“He said that?”

“No. Maybe it was my mom who said that.”

“Your mom was there?”

“Yeah. And remind me later to tell you about how your dad and my mom have finally admitted out loud that they have feelings for each other!”

His thoughts twisted into a slight spin. “What?”

“Anyway, for right now, let’s get back to the other feelings on the table, please.” She shifted to face him, and Will bent his knees and leaned slightly into them. “Is that true? About your feelings? For me?”

Too late to turn back now.

“Yeah, it’s true.”

“You weren’t mocking me?”

“No, not mocking.”

“So you’ve always felt like this?”

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love you, Jules.”

His pulse began to pound, and the scenery began to gyrate a little. Too many years of suppression, he supposed. Now that the words had finally escaped and the sentiment had tumbled out to the grass between them, instead of the relief he’d always imagined, Will felt nothing but terror.

“So … when I was dating that drummer …”

“Then.” He nodded.

“And Billy Rampart?”

“The whole summer. Torture.”

“And in law school—”

“Are we going to relive every horrible moment?” he cut in.

“No,” she replied with a smile. “I’m sorry.”

And then it happened. The thing Will had imagined and dreaded for more than twenty years. Julianne fell silent.

“Please say something,” he finally urged.

She sighed, and a couple of eternities passed before she finally spoke. “Remember when we had that first date in high school?”

Remember? It’s been my constant companion ever since. He shrugged one shoulder and nodded. “Of course.”

“I doodled your name in my diary that night.”

“You keep a diary?”

“Well, I did then. Anyway, I wrote that you were the Prince Charming I’d always dreamt about. I wrote something like, ‘Mark this date! It’s the date I’ll look back on and know that my whole life changed.’”

“So what happened?”

“You were different. You started acting all ooey-gooey, and you wrote me that love poem.”

Will tossed back his head and laughed. “You’re the silver light of the moon, the fireflies in June; you’re the one and only—”

“Song that I croon,” she finished for him on a string of giggles. “Very bad poetry, Will. And I didn’t want us to boil down to ooey-gooey and bad poetry. So I tucked those feelings away, and I moved you from the Prince Charming shelf to the Forever Friend shelf.”

He swallowed around the lump in his throat and asked, “Can’t I be on both shelves?”

“I didn’t think so then.”

“And now?”

“The princess never ends up with her best friend, Will. She doesn’t find him on a ten-speed bicycle right there in the cul-de-sac.”

“Jules,” he said, leaning forward and looking squarely into her eyes. “I know this has always been a tough concept for you to grasp, but you’re not a princess.”

She smacked his arm with a gasp. “What a horrible thing to say,” she said with a chuckle.

“And I’m no Prince Charming, I can promise you that.”

Julianne narrowed her eyes, and her full red lips shifted into a pout. “You’re pretty close though. You know, when you met Holly and asked her to marry you, I felt like I might die.”

“You did?”

“Yes. I didn’t really understand why. I just knew I could die at any moment. Just the thought of losing you to someone else …”

As her words trailed off into silence, Will stared into her eyes, and he thought that they looked like the ocean on a stormy day. Blue falling into blue. He wanted to dive in and swim around for a while. Instead, he stroked her cheek with his thumb.

“The thing is, Jules … I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“No,” he corrected, and he pushed upward and knelt over her. “I mean, I really love you.”

“I really love—”

“Jules,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and holding her firm. “I … love … you.”

“I get it, Will. You love me.” After a long and silent moment, she tilted her head slightly. “Are you going to kiss me now? Because this is where Prince Charming would kiss her.”

“Do you want me to kiss you?”

Melting under his touch, she proclaimed, “So much.”

And Will Hanes took Julianne Bartlett into his arms and kissed her. Twenty years’ worth.