Summary: In his thirteenth summer, Joe meets a girl for all seasons.

Rating: K   Word Count: 783

 

ALWAYS MADDIE

 

It was the height of summer, Joe Cartwright’s thirteenth year, when Maddie Montgomery gave him his first kiss.

She had shed her shoes and stockings and bounded into the creek ahead of him, laughing, and he had followed. In the beginning he’d been the one to lead, but things had lately gotten turned around. Not that he minded. Though wary when Pa first asked him to ‘show her around the ranch and make her feel at home’, they had become fast friends since she arrived two weeks before with her aunt and uncle. She was half a year younger though a good two inches taller, and as far as Joe could tell, fearless. Anything she couldn’t do she would at least try, and didn’t seem embarrassed if she failed. She wasn’t afraid to let people see her as she really was. There might have been prettier girls in town, but none with Maddie’s sense of fun.

They were perched on the creek bank afterward, shoulders touching, Maddie’s long legs dangling over the edge, her feet swirling circles in the water. She had her eyes closed, with her face tipped toward the sky and didn’t notice he was staring; Joe looked away before she could catch him.

She stretched her arms high above her head, then leaned back on her elbows to grin at him, pink-cheeked, her blue eyes squinting against the sun. “Your hair is wet.”

“Yeah, and whose fault is that?” He ran his fingers through the length in the back, squeezing out enough water to fling at her, making her giggle. “It’s about time for Pa to make me get it cut.”

“That’s too bad. I like it.” She sat up and pulled her feet from the creek, wiggling her pretty toes in front of her to dry.

“You do?”

“Yes.” Maddie reached over and twirled one of his locks around her finger, let it go and smiled. Then she surprised him by kissing him squarely on the mouth.

Joe’s ears felt like they were on fire. “What did you do that for?”

“Because I never kissed anyone before, and I wondered if I would like it.”

“Well, did you?”

She bit her lip, taking a moment to answer. “No. Did you?”

“Heck, no.”

“Good. I was afraid there was something wrong with me.”

They were laughing again as they made their way back home. The strange magic of those moments had dissolved into the air of a lazy August afternoon, leaving no discernible trace between them. In another week she would be gone, and the memories of her visit would grow sweeter over time. During the summer of his first kiss, Joe grew wise in ways he couldn’t see until the boy became a man. Years later, he would tell Maddie it was the only time he had ever lied to her.

~*~

It was springtime when Maddie came back.

Fifteen summers had passed since that first one; fifteen autumns, winters, and springs until the day she returned, and the calendar of Joe’s life started anew.

The heir apparent of the Ponderosa had a shrewd head for business, and also a reputation as a womanizer who enjoyed cards and whiskey a little too much. But the word on the street is often exaggerated, and the heart of the matter was his own sense of lonely even in the middle of a crowd. With all that he had and appeared to be, there was still a piece missing from his life until Maddie swept back into it like a breath-stealing wind.

She was everything Joe remembered, and so much more. If there were prettier girls he didn’t know it, because he only had eyes for this one. Every day with Maddie was a holiday that no gray sky could dampen. She filled the dark corners of his life with sunshine and laughter, driving the shadows of the past into near oblivion, rekindling the hopes and dreams of unencumbered youth.

They had just finished a picnic on the bank of the creek where they shared their first kiss all those years ago. Lying next to her on the blanket, Joe twirled a dandelion against her cheek and watched a smile play on her lips, her eyes closed against the sunlight splashed across her face.

 “You’re not asleep.”

“No, just dreaming.”

“Of me, I hope.”

  Her eyelids fluttered open; she turned toward him. “Always.”

  He kissed her hand and slipped the ring on her finger. “Always.”

Other summers would follow, the wheel of years turning in the inevitable circle of life, seasons of celebration and joy, heartache and loss. And Joe would face them all, with Maddie always by his side.

 

END